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Explain It Like I’m Smart

32 episodes

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All Episodes (32)

a man sitting in a box with a plant in it.

The friendship recession

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8 min

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Harvard professor explains Bayes’ rule

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5 min

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Master divergent and convergent thinking

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5 min

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The physics of time, entropy, and death

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5 min

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Sabine Hossenfelder

The neuroscience of loving music

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8 min

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Michael Spitzer

The mind-bending physics of time

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8 min

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Only high performers pass this kind of job interview

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4 min

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Sun Tzu: 4 battle principles for business leaders

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8 min

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How dirty debaters win against better opponents

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5 min

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The 3 dimensions of secrets: What are you hiding and why?

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7 min

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Michael Slepian

Why your brain thinks you’re Matt Damon

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4 min

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How psychedelics work

Why psychedelics change your reality

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6 min

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with

Matthew W. Johnson

war technology

Google’s secret “Project Maven”: Evil—or moral?

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Metaverse games

Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite: The world’s future superpowers?

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Are drugs really frying your brain?

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5 min

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Umwelt: The hidden sensory world of animals

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Our ancient ancestors weren’t jacked. They were energy savers.

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4 min

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with

Daniel Lieberman

exercise myths

Harvard professor debunks the biggest exercise myths

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Daniel Lieberman

toxic work culture

Toxic work culture: Are you in one?

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3 min

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Mind hack: Revive your focus with this 12-minute exercise

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7 min

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How Earth’s 23.4° tilt makes life beautiful

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4 min

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flow state

How ‘flow state’ can treat anxiety and depression

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4 min

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Finding happiness in life

“How I reversed my unhappiness”

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3 min

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digital amnesia

Is technology melting your memory? Or helping it?

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3 min

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encoding memory

Our best guesses at the mystery of memory

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Social media addiction

Social media addiction – how it changes your brain

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5 min

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Mimetic desires

How to know what you really want

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5 min

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propaganda

What is propaganda?

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4 min

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neural feedback

How to rewire your brain after trauma

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4 min

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with

Bessel van der Kolk

big bang theory

What happened before the Big Bang? A NASA astrophysicist explains

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with

Michelle Thaller

Related

a picture of the earth with the words 8 billion on it.

Humans & planet Earth: Do we really know our place?

What beavers and earthworms can teach us about working with, not against, Mother Nature.

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6 min

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with

Agustín Fuentes

a man sitting in a box with a plant in it.

The friendship recession

Americans without friends have increased 250% in recent years. Here’s why.

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8 min

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a pile of money with the words 7 ways to make more money.

7 steps to profit hypergrowth

How to make money in business, with $100-million Salesforce pioneer Aaron Ross.

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6 min

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a picture of a person's head with a light coming out of it.

Finding the world’s next “hidden genius”

What makes some scientists culturally significant, while others remain in obscurity? Well, there’s a science to it.

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9 min

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with

Albert-László Barabási

a pink brain with the words extend your mind.

The critical productivity skill nobody teaches you

No one is teaching us how to be online. That’s a problem.

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4 min

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