Best Bob Froehlich Retired Chemist Podcasts (2025)

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#110-The Role of Emotions in Thinking and Learning-with guest Mary Helen Immordino-Yang 59:06

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1M ago59:06

59:06

Emotions are often viewed as interfering with clear, objective, evidence-based reasoning; in fact, "appeal to emotion" is considered to be a logical fallacy. However, our guest, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang—professor of education, psychology, and neuroscience at the University of Southern California and author of: "Emotions, Learning, and the Brain"—a…

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#109-The Moves that Matter in Crafting Persuasive Arguments and Communicating them Effectively-with guests Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein-Graff 59:10

2M ago59:10

59:10

Coauthors of the widely acclaimed book, They Say/I Say-The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, explore how to craft persuasive arguments and communicate them effectively. Topics discussed include: the connection between thinking and writing; the nature of academic writing; the concept of "entering the conversation"; specific templates to improve…

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#108-Teaching Critical Thinking to Kids-with guest Stephanie Simoes 58:46

3M ago58:46

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With a Bachelor's Degree in Biology, a Master's Degree in Philosophy, and experience as a teacher, our guest for this episode, Stephanie Simoes, developed Critikid, a website for kids, teens, teachers and others. Critikid offers instruction in: emotional intelligence (Learning to recognize, understand, and manage your emotions), safe and effective …

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#107-How Institutionalizing Deliberative Political Processes Can Lead to Deliberative Democracy and Reduce Polarization-with guest Jim Fishkin 58:54

4M ago58:54

58:54

James Fishkin, Stanford University Professor (and Director of the Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab) discusses his extensive research and development focused on the process of "Deliberative Polling" and clarifies its relationship to Deliberative Democracy—a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. Professor Fishkin s…

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#106- The Role of Logic in Acquiring Knowledge and Forming Beliefs-with guest Patrick Hurley 59:16

5M ago59:16

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Patrick Hurley, Philosophy Professor Emeritus at University of San Diego and author of the widely acclaimed textbook: A Concise Introduction to Logic, joins us to discuss: the role of logic in acquiring knowledge and forming beliefs; the most important aspects of logic for critical thinkers to master; what can be done to encourage better practices …

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#105-The Epidemic of Political Lying and the Importance of Fact-checking-with guest Bill Adair 58:42

6M ago58:42

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Early in his career our guest, Bill Adair, worked as a journalist, author, and later founded the fact-checking organization Politifact. And in 2013 he accepted a position at Duke University as the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy, where he now teaches journalism in the Sanford School of Public Policy and directs the …

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#104-The Importance of Trust in Information and Institutions-revisited 59:15

7M ago59:15

59:15

Untrue information is called misinformation, and intentionally spread misinformation is known as disinformation. When one uses disinformation to further one's own agenda, especially in the political realm, then the information has been weaponized. And the continued acceleration of weaponized information further erodes our trust in experts, media, a…

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#103-Worldview-The Elephant in the Room of Critical Thinking-updated for 2025 58:44

8M ago58:44

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This episode looks back to the previous episode: # 22- Worldview-The Elephant in the Room of Critical Thinking, and updates it from the perspective of 2025.By Bob Froehlich-Retired Chemist, Counselor, Psychology Professor and Julia Minton-Technology Consultant

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#102-Worldviews and How they Guide our Beliefs-with guest Annick de Witt 59:12

9M ago59:12

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This episode takes a deep dive into the concept of "worldview", based on the research and work done by Annick de Witt: researcher, writer, teacher, and founder of the organization Worldview Journeys. Topics discussed include: conceptualizing the idea of worldview; how our worldview might affect our beliefs and behaviors; examples of types of worldv…

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#101-The Virtues of Evidence-Based Policy Making-with guest Robert MacCoun 59:06

10M ago59:06

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Even though they affect all of our lives, most of us know almost nothing about how policies are made, especially policy made by our state and federal governments. So, Julia and Bob learned a lot from this conversation with guest: Robert MacCoun, Law Professor at Stanford University. With a Bachelor's, Master's and PhD degree in Psychology, professo…

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#100-Foundations and Future of Critical Thinking-with guest Kevin deLaplante 59:03

11M ago59:03

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This discussion with philosopher, former tenured professor at Iowa State University, and now independent critical thinking educator and consultant, Kevin deLaplante, revisits the importance and benefits of critical thinking in today's post-truth world, reviews the basic skills involved with critical thinking and understanding of human cognitive vul…

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#99-How internet influencers, algorithms and crowds are altering our politics, our society and our very relationship to reality-with guest Renée DiResta.mp3 59:07

1y ago59:07

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Researcher, author and former Research Manager of the Stanford Internet Observatory, Renée DiResta, discusses how numerous internet-savvy individuals (influencers) are causing a profound shift in power and influence over our politics, beliefs and behavior, as outlined in her recent book: Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality. She …

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#98-The Nature of Curiosity and it's implications for Critical Thinking-with guest Jacqueline Gottlieb 59:13

1y ago59:13

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Professor Jacqueline Gottlieb, Principal Investigator at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute and former head of the Research Cluster on Curiosity at Columbia University's Center for Science and Society, brings her research experience and deep thinking about the human brain's higher cognitive functions—including decision making, memory, and at…

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#97-How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation-with guest Tania Israel 59:15

1y ago59:15

59:15

Second time Thinking Clearly guest, Tania Israel, Professor of Counseling Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, guides us through how to overcome the toxic effects of consuming politicized news and social media in this current, highly polarized American environment and discusses how to more effectively communicate with people holding opposing views to ou…

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#96-Using practices and tools from science while also learning how to weave together facts and values to rebuild trust and cooperation-with guest Robert MacCoun 58:54

1+ y ago58:54

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Calling on his experience in evidence-based policy making, teaching a course at UC Berkeley called Sense and Sensibility and Science, and coauthoring the book Third Millennium Thinking-Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense, social scientist and law Professor at Stanford University, Robert MacCoun, discusses: how to avoid failure modes when making d…

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#95-Critical Thinking and the Nature of Human Consciousness-with guest Anil Seth 59:20

1+ y ago59:20

59:20

Research and current theories about the nature of human consciousness are explored with guest Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. Topics include: how human consciousness can be thought of as controlled hallucination, the relationship of human consciousness to critical thinking, how thinking …

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#94-The Essence of Critical Thinking and Demonstrations of How to Have Civil Dialogues 56:57

1+ y ago56:57

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Thinking Clearly hosts Bob and Julia review their definition of critical thinking, discuss how doing a show about critical thinking has changed them, and do several demonstrations of best practices (using the LAP-EFI method) for having productive, civil dialogues with people who have different views than yours.…

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#93-Critical Thinking Fundamentals and how to find truth in all the noise-with guest Dr. Seema Yasmin 59:18

1+ y ago59:18

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Dr. Seema Yasmin, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, discusses: information disorder and its treatment, common techniques used for pushing lies, the use of narrative in communicating, the history and current state of journalism in America, how to best consume the news and mitigate the …

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#92-Election 2024 Preparation 4-Teaching Critical Thinking to American Military Future Leaders-with Guest Stephen Gerras 59:01

1+ y ago59:01

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In this fourth in a series of Thinking Clearly episodes—offered in the hope of fostering critical thinking and civil dialogue as we approach our 2024 Presidential Election in America—we are replaying core episodes with those themes. In this edition, you'll hear a previous episode that we recorded with Colonel (retired) Steve Gerras, who teaches cri…

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#91-How artificial intelligence can help us understand human cognition-with guest Leslie Valiant 58:50

1+ y ago58:50

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The development of artificial intelligence naturally leads us to deeply explore what intelligence, reasoning and knowledge are; the processes required to achieve them; and the implications that has for human thought, belief and decision making—all topics that have been deeply thought about by our guest, Leslie Valiant, Harvard University Professor …

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#90-Election 2024 Preparation 3-Hidden Tribes and the Perception Gap-with guest Stephen Hawkins 59:18

2y ago59:18

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In this third in a series of Thinking Clearly episodes—offered in the hope of fostering critical thinking and civil dialogue as we approach our 2024 presidential election in America—we are replaying core episodes with those themes. In this edition, you'll hear an episode that we recorded with Stephen Hawkins, director of research at More in Common—…

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#89-Election 2024 Preparation 2-Political Depolarization and the Work of Braver Angels-with guest Ciaran O'Connor 58:51

2y ago58:51

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As we head into the US 2024 Presidential Election with the knowledge that America is now as polarized as it has been since the civil war and that this amount of polarization drastically impairs our democratic process, we revisit the organization Braver Angels, which was founded "to bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strength…

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#88-What's new in teaching critical thinking and advances in the mental immunity approach for combating misinformation with guest Melanie Trecek-King 58:50

2y ago58:50

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Second time guest, Professor Melanie Trecek-King, updates us on what's new in teaching critical thinking and new on her website resources at: Thinking Is Power. She also discusses Inoculation Theory as a foundation for recent work being done to combat mis- and disinformation by the Mental Immunity Project…

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#87-Election 2024 Preparation—The Importance of Critical Thinking to Democracy, with guest Timothy Redmond 59:23

2y ago59:23

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In the spirit of promoting citizenship in our democracy, during this time as the 2024 presidential election begins to ramp up, every once in a while Julia and I will replay one of our previous episodes—an episode that reminds us of how important critical thinking is to our democracy. So, here's the first of those: Thinking Clearly episode #79: How …

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#86-Disinformation-its creators, amplifiers and believers-and how to fight for truth and protect democracy with guest Lee McIntyre 59:10

2y ago59:10

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Disinformation and its danger to our social fabric and democracy are the focus of this discussion with philosopher, educator and author, Lee McIntyre. Lee holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and is currently a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. His latest book: Disinformation-How to fight for Truth and…