EconTalk

Steven Pinker on Common Knowledge


Listen Later

Why are Super Bowl ads so good for launching certain kinds of new products? Why do we all drive on the same side of the road? And why, despite laughing and crying together, do we often misread what others think? According to bestselling author and Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, it all comes down to common knowledge, or the phenomenon that happens when everyone knows that everyone else knows something. Hear Pinker and EconTalk's Russ Roberts explore the necessary conditions for that knowledge, and how it can be both vital and dangerous to societies, depending on how it's used. They discuss, among other things, game-theory puzzles, how laughter spreads, how totalitarian regimes exploit uncertainty about who knows what (even when they don't), and why we often don't say explicitly what we really mean to say.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

EconTalkBy Russ Roberts

  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7

4.7

4,187 ratings


More shows like EconTalk

View all
Odd Lots by Bloomberg

Odd Lots

1,856 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,429 Listeners

The Glenn Show by Glenn Loury

The Glenn Show

2,282 Listeners

The Reason Roundtable by The Reason Roundtable

The Reason Roundtable

1,505 Listeners

Hoover Institution: Strategika by Hoover Institution

Hoover Institution: Strategika

77 Listeners

The Libertarian by The Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin

The Libertarian

989 Listeners

Matters of Policy & Politics by Hoover Institution

Matters of Policy & Politics

480 Listeners

Hoover Institution: Security by the Book by Hoover Institution

Hoover Institution: Security by the Book

22 Listeners

The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg by The Dispatch

The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg

6,553 Listeners

Capitalisn't by University of Chicago Podcast Network

Capitalisn't

540 Listeners

Reasonable Disagreements by Hoover Institution

Reasonable Disagreements

130 Listeners

Uncommon Knowledge by Hoover Institution

Uncommon Knowledge

2,027 Listeners

The Education Exchange by Paul E. Peterson

The Education Exchange

31 Listeners

The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie by The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

729 Listeners

GoodFellows: Conversations from the Hoover Institution by Hoover Institution

GoodFellows: Conversations from the Hoover Institution

695 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

484 Listeners

Honestly with Bari Weiss by The Free Press

Honestly with Bari Weiss

8,835 Listeners

"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg by Turpentine

"Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

151 Listeners

Just Asking Questions by Reason

Just Asking Questions

97 Listeners

The Marginal Revolution Podcast by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

The Marginal Revolution Podcast

92 Listeners