Thinking Clearly

With simple explanations and a dash of humor, John Allen Paulos, Mathematics Professor from Temple University, unpacks some topics from statistics that are essential for critical thinkers in navigating the complex terrain of our modern world. Professor Paulos has authored nine books including "Innumeracy", the classic book on statistics and critical thinking.

This episode with guest Benjamin Shaffer, Professor of Philosophy from Humboldt State University, features a discussion of how critical thinkers can best identify, understand, and reason through values-based/moral/ethical arguments.

Richard Parker, Professor Emeritus of philosophy at California State University, Chico and co-author of the textbook: "Critical Thinking", joins hosts Bob and Julia to discuss the challenges of teaching critical thinking, difficulties learners have mastering the subject, and why critical thinking skills matter. Resources for learning critical thinking are also discussed.

This New Year edition of "Thinking Clearly" taps into the humor, good nature, and deep thinking of musician, song writer, podcaster, skeptic and advocate for science and critical thinking, George Hrab.

In this episode, Bob and Julia review issues related to current increases in Tribalism and Polarization in American culture & politics, introduce the related concept of Cultural Cognition, and conclude with a discussion of some of the topics and guests that will be coming up in future shows.

The vulnerabilities in our quick, intuitive judgments, including the many biases that may mislead us, have been extensively discussed on Thinking Clearly, but this episode celebrates the positive side of intuition with one of its primary researchers, Dr. Gary Klein

This show focuses on how being open to new learning relates to critical thinking, as hosts Bob and Julia discuss insights they've had as a result of hosting the show and how some of what they've learned has affected them.

In his new book "Think Again-How to Reason and Argue", Duke University Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong says: "The level of discourse and communication in politics and also in personal life has reached new lows." In this edition of Thinking Clearly, Bob, Julia, and their guest explore the importance of understanding and promoting good arguments and other solutions to raising the present level of discourse.

Critical thinkers are often faced with trying to evaluate arguments regarding political policies or various technologies. Whereas experts have developed rigorous, quantitative methods of risk-benefit assessment, most of us simply use our intuitive and emotional processing to create a feeling about the issue at hand as being either good or bad. Hosts Bob and Julia examine risk-benefit assessment as a tool for critical thinking in a discussion with Professor Daniel Cole from Indiana University.

Bob and Julia go deeper into the topic of tribalism and polarization, using audio clips from several different sources to prompt their lively back and forth discussion.