After studying neurobiology in college, Daniel Roy became a professional sleight-of-hand artist slash YouTube magician. He joined us to explore how illusionists exploit our innate psychological and social tendencies in order to make us unwillingly suspend our disbelief. In this in-person conversation, we dive into the topics of misdirection, deception, and illusion — and the ways they resonate with politics, tech, and media today. But it wasn’t all intellectual debate: Daniel also graced us with some real life magic, which you can visually enjoy on our YouTube page.

Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podcast Addict, and Stitcher. Check out our Patreon for behind-the-pod updates. Follow @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.

On the agenda:

-Getting seriously into magic [5:20-14:12]

-Inattentional blindness and the illusion of impossibility [14:13- 27:21]

-The magician as social manipulator [27:22-40:56]

-When mistakes (and hecklers) happen [40:57-47:10]

-The conflict of psychological surrender [47:11-54:44]

-Attention capture and the media parallel [54:45-1:05:38]

-Magic in the YouTube era [1:05:39-1:24:01]

-The mental and ethical challenges of magic [1:24:02-1:53:33]

-An audio magic trick! [1:55:29-2:15:31]

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com.

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