Best Gordon Maples Podcasts (2025)

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AI: Autonomous or controllable? Pick one (with Anthony Aguirre) 1:31:28

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12h ago1:31:28

1:31:28

Read the full transcript here. Is AI that's both superintelligent and aligned even possible? Does increased intelligence necessarily entail decreased controllability? What's the difference between "safe" and "under control"? There seems to be a fundamental tension between autonomy and control, so is it conceivable that we could create superintellig…

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How much does global population decline matter? (with Dean Spears) 1:07:33

8d ago1:07:33

1:07:33

Read the full transcript here. What is the current global birth rate? What factors have contributed, or are currently contributing, to this rate? What outcomes will we experience as a result, and when? How accurate are demographers' projections on this topic? How much of a problem is local over-population? Could a low global birth rate eventually b…

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Is AI going to ruin everything? (with Gabriel Alfour) 1:19:00

15d ago1:19:00

1:19:00

Read the full transcript here. Is AI going to ruin everything? What kind of AI-related dangers should we be most worried about? What do good institutions look like? Should designing better institutions be a major priority for modern civilizations? What are the various ways institutions decay? How much should we blame social media for the current st…

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What listeners think Spencer's wrong about: steel-manning critiques 1:25:49

21d ago1:25:49

1:25:49

Read the full transcript here. What defines a cult? Is there such a thing as a good cult? Do Clearer Thinking's tools actually help people? Why does Clearer Thinking share its tools for free for everyone to use? How legitimate is the research Clearer Thinking does to create its tools? Is that research too reliant on self-report? Do Clearer Thinking…

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What do we know about psychology that matters? (with Paul Bloom) 1:21:09

28d ago1:21:09

1:21:09

Read the full transcript here. NOTE: The video version of this conversation is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hWNknrc23Fo In light of the replication crisis, should social scientists try to replicate every major finding in the field's history? Why is human memory so faulty? And since human memory is so faulty, why do we take eyewitness test…

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Bringing your "A-game" to your relationships (with Annie Lalla) 1:19:58

1M ago1:19:58

1:19:58

Read the full transcript here. What does it mean to bring your "A-game" to relationships? What is emotional "fitness"? What forces do relationships need to balance to remain stable and healthy? Are we attracted to a particular brand of heartbreak? What are "original attachment wounds"? Can Dark Triad traits be tamed? What emergent properties do rel…

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The rival philosophies to Stoicism that you've never heard about (with Greg Lopez) 1:08:46

1M ago1:08:46

1:08:46

Read the full transcript here. Do we still have a lot to learn from ancient Greco-Roman philosophies? What is telos? What is ataraxia? What is "dark" Stoicism? What is the "resilient asshole" problem? What is (or what has) value according to Stoicism? What are the similarities and differences between Stoicism and Buddhism? Why might someone prefer …

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What can we all agree on? (with Bradley Tusk) 1:04:38

2M ago1:04:38

1:04:38

Read the full transcript here. In times of such extreme political polarization, where can we find common ground? Should we require disclosure of AI authorship? Should AI companies be required to provide fingerprinting tools that can identify when something has been generated by one of their models? Should movie theaters be required to report when m…

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Shamanism, witchcraft, and the power of narrative (with Manvir Singh) 1:32:43

2M ago1:32:43

1:32:43

Read the full transcript here. What do westerners misunderstand about "tribal" cultures? How does justice in very small communities differ from justice in large nation-states? Why do some cultures have bride prices (i.e., groom's family pays bride's family) and others have dowries (i.e., bride's family pays groom's family)? How do cultures differ w…

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Which Spencer is real? Spencer vs. his AI clone 39:56

2M ago39:56

39:56

Read the full transcript here. Can you tell which is the real Spencer and which is his AI clone? How irrational are people really? What do most people misunderstand about psychology? What are the best tools to use to accomplish various societal goals? How good are we at predicting the future? Why do we have such a hard time overcoming our tribal in…

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Too many mental health challenges and not enough psychiatrists (with Jacob Appel) 1:18:35

2M ago1:18:35

1:18:35

Read the full transcript here. How big is the current mental health crisis? What's causing it? What do we know about the age distribution of people suffering from mental health issues right now? Is the crisis just that more people are suffering from anxiety and depression, or is there an increase in other disorders as well? Why are psychiatrists se…

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Misinformation from all sides (with Brian Dunning) 1:16:19

3M ago1:16:19

1:16:19

Read the full transcript here. Why is misinformation a never-ending problem? What fraction of misinformation is intentionally manipulative? What's the difference between bullshit and other kinds of misinformation? What are the various kinds of beliefs we hold? How do the political left and right (at least in the US) differ in their production and c…

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A conversation with a rigid perfectionist who has OCPD (with Darryl Rossignol) 1:15:15

3M ago1:15:15

1:15:15

Read the full transcript here. What is obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), and how does it compare to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)? Why is it relatively prevalent and yet also relatively unheard-of? What can people with OCPD do well? What does OCPD feel like from the inside? Which fictional characters might have OCPD? How do pe…

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Simple and effective methods for helping people that nonprofits often ignore (with Kanika Bahl) 1:07:23

3M ago1:07:23

1:07:23

Read the full transcript here. Why do nonprofits often ignore the simplest, most obvious solutions for helping the world? Why do some problems get a lot of attention while others — often of equal or greater importance — go completely unaddressed? Why is behavior change so hard? When should or shouldn't NGOs collaborate with governments? Why are dew…

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How to unleash student potential in education (with Jack Despain Zhou) 1:18:52

3M ago1:18:52

1:18:52

Read the full transcript here. How bad are things in US education? Why does it seem that educational progress has stagnated? What parts of the US education system should be reformed? Is it better to group students by skill level or by age? How useful are standardized tests? Why is there so commonly a disconnect between what cognitive science tells …

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How f***ed is psychology? (with Adam Mastroianni) 1:43:03

3M ago1:43:03

1:43:03

Read the full transcript here. Is the bar for what counts as new knowledge higher in psychology than in other scientific fields? Why did the field of psychology formally start centuries later than other scientific fields? Why is it so hard to make progress in psychology? How useful are social science "mega-studies"? What actually helps people stick…

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A conversation with a multiple-time survivor of sexual abuse 1:06:16

4M ago1:06:16

1:06:16

Read the full transcript here. Why might being the victim of sexual abuse increase the likelihood of being re-victimized? What warning signs, if any, might an abuser exhibit before becoming abusive? How might trauma differ when caused by someone the victim knows versus by someone who is a stranger to them? Why might victims choose to continue inter…

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A story can change the world (with Elizabeth Cox) 1:10:46

4M ago1:10:46

1:10:46

Read the full transcript here. How important is story-telling for changing the world? What counts as a story? How closely should persuasive stories conform to the formula of "the hero's journey"? How much time do we spend on average thinking about stories? How can raw data be shaped into a story that's both true and compelling? What are some good e…

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The heavy price you'll have to pay to have a healthy relationship (with David Burns) 1:37:28

4M ago1:37:28

1:37:28

Read the full transcript here. What are the main causes of problems in romantic relationships? What are the behaviors and patterns that lead to healthy relationships? What is the price of a good relationship? Are dark triad traits (i.e., psychopathy / sociopathy, Narcissism, and Machiavellianism) treatable? What is outcome resistance? What is proce…

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The skills every adult human should have (with Raffi Grinberg) 1:22:04

4M ago1:22:04

1:22:04

Read the full transcript here. What life skills do most people fail to learn before adulthood? Why does this failure occur? What should constructive disagreement look like? When might it be impossible to overcome a disagreement? How can you appease your (or someone else's) "elephant"? What do many people get wrong about dating? How much exploration…

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Rethinking our assumptions about happiness (with Stephanie Harrison) 1:07:24

5M ago1:07:24

1:07:24

Read the full transcript here. What do most people get wrong about happiness? Why doesn't the happiness resulting from success last longer? Is it easier to "get ahead" today than it was 100 years ago? How are we trapped by our ideas of happiness? Does individualism help or hurt happiness? Where do hyper-individualistic messages come from (especiall…

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Evidence-Based Medicine and its discontents (with Gordon Guyatt) 1:15:12

5M ago1:15:12

1:15:12

Read the full transcript here. How were decisions made about which treatments to trust before the advent of "evidence-based" medicine? How strong are biological arguments for or against various treatments? When did the Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) movement begin? How did the EBM movement overcome initial resistance among medical professionals? Wha…

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AI, US-China relations, and lessons from the OpenAI board (with Helen Toner) 1:21:57

5M ago1:21:57

1:21:57

Read the full transcript here. Is it useful to vote against a majority when you might lose political or social capital for doing so? What are the various perspectives on the US / China AI race? How close is the competition? How has AI been used in Ukraine? Should we work towards a global ban of autonomous weapons? And if so, how should we define "a…

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Getting a handle on your goals and big life changes (with Tee Barnett) 1:23:29

5M ago1:23:29

1:23:29

Read the full transcript here. What are the best things to do to help someone achieve their goals? What kind of person should see a personal coach? And when should they do so? What makes for a good personal coach? How do you know which coaches are legit given that they aren't certified like counselors? Can everyone benefit from meeting with a coach…

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Avoiding major investment mistakes (with Jim O'Shaughnessy) 1:19:25

6M ago1:19:25

1:19:25

Read the full transcript here. What are the biggest mistakes people make when investing? What's the best thing to do with extra savings? How can we overcome emotional biases that might negatively impact our investment strategies? What is "hyperbolic discounting"? How can you know when to pull your money out of an investment? How can journaling help…

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Creating a new city from scratch (with Erick Brimen) 1:23:07

6M ago1:23:07

1:23:07

Read the full transcript here. What does it take to start a new city, especially one designed to be a special economic zone (SEZ)? What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a private company as manager of a city? Should governments be profit-maximizing? Can people choose to live in one of the Zonas de Empleo y Desarrollo Económico (ZEDE) …

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What's the most effective type of therapy? (with Matthew Smout) 1:32:06

6M ago1:32:06

1:32:06

Read the full transcript here. What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)? What are the "cognitive" and "behavioral" parts of CBT? What are some of its most common techniques? What are "negative core beliefs"? What does CBT have to say about situations in which problems come from a person's environment rather than from within the person's mind? Wha…

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A conversation about Borderline Personality Disorder (with Kayla Spicer) 1:36:44

6M ago1:36:44

1:36:44

Read the full transcript here. What is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)? Why is it so stigmatized relative to other mental health issues? What does it mean to be the "favorite person" of someone with BPD? Can people with BPD have multiple favorite persons, or no favorite person at all? What is "splitting"? Why are people with BPD more prone to…

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Could the placebo effect be bullshit? (with Literal Banana) 1:27:15

7M ago1:27:15

1:27:15

Read the full transcript here. Is the placebo effect bullshit? Are "open-label" placebos just as effective as "closed-label" placebos? How do placebos differ from dummies? Is the placebo effect just a kind of scientific-sounding "woo"? How does social priming differ from word priming? Why is it important in research to have both placebo and no-trea…

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Making better decisions by thinking like an artist (with Elspeth Kirkman) 1:07:27

7M ago1:07:27

1:07:27

Read the full transcript here. What kinds of things really distort our ability to think clearly when making decisions? What is "psychological distance"? What is construal level theory? How can we intentionally increase or decrease psychological distance for ourselves or others who are making decisions? What are "decisionscapes"? When giving toddler…

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Are the culture wars harming science? (with Cremieux) 1:28:13

7M ago1:28:13

1:28:13

Read the full transcript here. Which of the world's hardest problems can be solved merely by gathering more data? Why are social problems harder to solve than biological problems? How should power between business owners and unions be balanced? Why do people so often misinterpret research results — sometimes even to the point of concluding exactly …

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How can you learn more efficiently? (with Scott Young) 1:18:33

7M ago1:18:33

1:18:33

Read the full transcript here. What do schools do well and not so well? In what contexts is memorization most effective? What's the value in teaching something that will probably be forgotten by most students after graduation? How should educators balance time spent on building skills versus acquiring knowledge? Why do students so often fail to app…

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A conversation with a narcissist (with Jacob Skidmore) 1:31:11

7M ago1:31:11

1:31:11

Read the full transcript here. Are narcissists born with narcissism? What are the core components of narcissism? To what extent do narcissists have their own personality that isn't shaped by what others think of them? Are narcissists overly confident or overly insecure? How are grandiosity and vulnerability related? Why might narcissists be offende…

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What effects does guaranteed income have on U.S. citizens? (with Eva Vivalt) 1:11:40

8M ago1:11:40

1:11:40

Read the full transcript here. What have we learned about UBI from recent, large-scale studies? What factors contribute to differential attrition in (especially long-term) studies? How much does it cost to run large UBI studies? Where else in the world have major UBI studies been run? What's the difference between "guaranteed income" and UBI? How d…

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Human evolution and AI evolution (with Dwarkesh Patel) 1:04:08

8M ago1:04:08

1:04:08

Read the full transcript here. What interesting things can we learn by studying pre-humans? How many different species of pre-humans were there? Why is there only a single species of human now? If pre-human species wiped each other out for various reasons, why might the ancestors of chimps and bonobos (who are very closely related to humans) have b…

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Should sex work be a crime? (with Kaytlin Bailey) 1:20:50

8M ago1:20:50

1:20:50

Read the full transcript here. Why are sex workers treated so badly in the US? What effects do licensing requirements have on sex workers and their customers? How do sex worker rights connect with privacy rights more broadly? In what philosophical principles ought sex worker rights (and their customers' rights) to be grounded? How do sex work laws …

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When does productivity become toxic? (with Israa Nasir) 1:00:21

8M ago1:00:21

1:00:21

Read the full transcript here. When does productivity become toxic? To which part(s) of ourselves or our lives should we anchor our self-worth? How can we connect our productivity to our values? How does self-esteem intersect with productivity? When should we listen to our bodies and intuitions, and when should we ignore them and perhaps even do th…

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A conversation with a sociopath (with M.E. Thomas) 2:05:44

9M ago2:05:44

2:05:44

Read the full transcript here. Are the terms "psychopath" and "sociopath" interchangeable? Are people suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) naturally violent? Are people usually born with these psychopathy, sociopathy, ASPD, or other similar personality disorders; or are they caused by environmental factors? To what extent do sociop…

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Highs and lows on the road out of the replication crisis (with Brian Nosek) 1:38:18

9M ago1:38:18

1:38:18

Read the full transcript here. How much more robust have the social sciences become since the beginnings of the replication crisis? What fraction of replication failures indicate that the original result was a false positive? What do we know with relative certainty about human nature? How much of a difference is there between how people behave in a…

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Suffering and the self (with Jay Garfield) 1:10:44

9M ago1:10:44

1:10:44

Read the full transcript here. Why do we suffer? Would we still suffer if we got rid of all craving and aversion? Is pain the same thing as suffering? How is suffering connected to the concept of self? Should people in horrible situations attempt to remove themselves from those environments or try to improve their plights in any way; or should they…

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Choosing your strategy (with Seth Godin) 55:20

9M ago55:20

55:20

Read the full transcript here. What are the differences between tactics and strategies? Is the speed of growth of a company the main thing business school graduates should consider when trying to figure out where to launch their careers? How much optimism or pessimism should strategies include? How can we gain footholds for change in systems that a…

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How to be productive without burning out (with Anne-Laure Le Cunff) 1:17:09

10M ago1:17:09

1:17:09

Read the full transcript here. What is "mindful" productivity? Is impostor syndrome linked to main character syndrome? Must increased productivity always come with an increased risk of burn-out? What mistakes do people most commonly make when trying to improve their productivity? Is the best productivity system also the most minimal? What is "plus-…

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Does simply giving people money truly enable them to escape poverty? (with Miriam Laker) 59:49

10M ago59:49

59:49

Read the full transcript here. Should we give cash directly to people living in poverty? Why do most nonprofits prefer to give services rather than cash? What should be done if the things that a person really needs aren't purchasable near them? (For example, what if a person needs a vaccine that isn't available in their country?) Can most people be…

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Who really controls US elections? (with Bradley Tusk) 1:16:39

10M ago1:16:39

1:16:39

Read the full transcript here. What's the reality of how politicians get elected in the US? How much of a role does gerrymandering play? Are Democrats and Republicans equally guilty of gerrymandering? Do the parties secretly collaborate on gerrymandering? Is gerrymandering legal? What determines who wins a primary election? What percent of all gove…

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Communities of belief vs. communities of chemistry (with Tyler Alterman) 1:34:35

10M ago1:34:35

1:34:35

Read the full transcript here. Do people need more community in their lives? What makes for a good community? Can you really belong to a community if you don't share its core values? Is social chemistry transitive? Do "communities of belief" form and build trust more quickly than "communities of chemistry"? Do rationalists avoid taking "vibes", int…

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Everyone — including you! — should host more events (with Nick Gray) 1:21:09

11M ago1:21:09

1:21:09

Read the full transcript here. Why should people host more events than they do right now? Under what conditions shouldn't a person host more events? Do these suggestions apply to introverts? What's the best RSVP tool? What is "double opt-in"? What's the ideal length of time for a social event? What kinds of ice-breaker activities, if any, should ho…

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What do we know for sure about human psychology? (with Simine Vazire) 1:21:10

11M ago1:21:10

1:21:10

Read the full transcript here. How much progress has psychology made on the things that matter most to us? What are some psychological findings we feel pretty confident are true? How much consensus is there about the Big 5 personality traits? What are the points of disagreement about the Big 5? Are traits the best way of thinking about personality?…

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Pattern-breaking ideas, and startups that change the world (with Mike Maples) 1:18:03

11M ago1:18:03

1:18:03

Read the full transcript here. What mistakes do investors make when trying to predict which startups will succeed? Which matters more: a startup's team or its central idea? How do startup founders differ from other capitalists? What makes something a "pattern-breaking" idea or behavior? Are startup founders less sensitive to negative feedback than …

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George Springer Interview + HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT 34:00

11M ago34:00

34:00

In what is a major milestone for the Down By Two crew, Josh and Jesse announce the launch of Down By Two Media! In doing so, comes the end of an era as we approach the final episodes of the Down By Two Podcast. They discuss the future of the network, new shows coming out under the Down By Two brand and plans for a final episode. The boys release th…

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Decision-making and play-testing (with Dan Epstein) 1:09:56

11M ago1:09:56

1:09:56

Read the full transcript here. What sorts of decisions are we making without even realizing we're making them? Are people aware of their own values? Do they know how those values rank relative to each other? What are all the various parties, interests, and values that have to be addressed and balanced when making decisions in a healthcare context? …