And what are the ramifications of rubbing a beard with an infected chicken before conducting lab work? Tune in to the latest episode of You Are Not So Smart to find out!

You are Not So Smart is hosted by David McRaney, a journalist and self-described psychology nerd. In each episode, David explores cognitive biases and delusions, and is often joined by a guest expert.

I recently collaborated with Joe Hanson of the YouTube channel It’s Okay to be Smart and helped him write an episode about pattern recognition.

The video is all about how our hyperactive order-generating brains can lead to us to incorrect assumptions, and how those assumptions can lead to widespread, social phenomena causing millions of people to do completely ridiculous and futile things, sometimes for generations. In our video, Joe talks about blowing in Nintendo cartridges to get them to work (totally pointless, and damaging), but you can substitute that behavior with a lot of other silly things that we did until science came along and tested to see if we were wrong.

I thought it would be great to bring him on the show and interview him in an episode all about the new science communicators, the people who grew up with Carl Sagan and Bill Nye, who are now watched by millions of people online as they explain everything from why some sounds are scary to whether or not Spanish delivers more information per minute than does English. Most of those YouTube channels get more viewers per episode than any FOX News program. Many YouTube science shows, numbers-wise, are far more popular than Game of Thrones.

In this episode, we sit down with Joe Hanson, a biologist turned YouTube star, who runs the fantastic blog and channel, It’s Okay to be Smart. We learn what it is like to be part of the new wave of science communication, talk about science literacy, and discuss the ramifications of rubbing a beard with an infected chicken before conducting lab work.

After the interview, I discuss a study about the difference between dogma and belief superiority, and how it helps explain why some politicians will never compromise.

YANSS: RSS | iTunes | Download this episode | Stitcher | Cookie Recipes | Show Notes

The Creative Architect – An iconic '50s creativity study finally comes to light in book form

See sample pages from this book at Wink. In 1958 and ’59, an unprecedented study was conducted by the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research at the University of California, Berkeley. The idea was to apply the latest psychological tests on the world’s most famous and accomplished architects to try and determine what makes them […]

READ THE REST

Scientist uses magic (and psychology) to implant thoughts and read minds

In a new scientific study, McGill University researcher Jay Olson combined stage magic with psychology to make people think that an fMRI machine (actually a fake) could read their minds and implant thoughts in their heads. Essentially, Olson and his colleagues used “mentalist” gimmicks to do the ESP and “thought insertion” but convinced the subjects […]

READ THE REST

In Japan, you can rent your friends

For around US$115 for two hours, you can rent a friend via Tokyo company Client Partners. (No, this isn’t code for prostitution.) From Chris Colin’s article in The Week: As we nibble at pork with ginger, (rent-a-friend) Yumi cheerfully tells me about the gigs she has had since joining Client Partners. (The six-year-old agency is […]

READ THE REST

Mastering AWS and Salesforce could make you extremely valuable

Earlier this spring, Salesforce announced that Amazon Web Services (AWS) would be its preferred public cloud infrastructure provider. Salesforce developers and AWS developers are already in-demand and paid very well for their expertise, but this partnership opens up the opportunity to become an extremely valuable asset by mastering both. Below are two in-depth courses to help you start or progress […]

READ THE REST

WordPress Wizard Bundle: Maybe the first step toward being your own boss, just $49

Whether you’re trying to start a quirky news blog, open a local Irish pub, or sell handmade furniture out of your garage, one thing’s for sure: your business is not going to succeed if you don’t build it a professional-looking website. That’s why we’re excited to share the WordPress Wizard Bundle.This is a bundle that includes 12 courses about […]

READ THE REST

Eliminate your ancient USB flash drive with drag and drop file sharing

If you’ve ever tried to quickly share a file with someone, you know there’s nothing actually quick about it. Between permissions, log-in credentials, size limitations, and download issues, it’s a miracle if you’re ever able to share the document at all. That’s why we think Droplr Pro is so essential.Droplr Pro lets you quickly, easily, and […]

READ THE REST