Thinking Critically

In this episode, Jonathan is speaking with Arjun Moorthy about facts, not fear.

They discuss:

•Why he decided to found The Factual and its mission.

•How context is important when presenting facts and the concept of framing.

•The importance of looking at credible news sources that are from across the political spectrum.

•How The Factual's algorithm rates news articles for bias.

•The barrage of information that people are exposed to on a daily basis and how, due to lack of time, it overwhelms the average person to the point where they are unable to discern good from bad information.

•American's growing distrust in traditional media sources.

•The current state of polarization in the U.S.

•And other topics.

Arjun Moorthy is the Ceo and Founder of The Factual - a company that finds and delivers the most credible stories on the most important news topics using a transparent, unbiased machine-learning engine. The Factual aims to address the increasing polarization of society, driven in large part by social media, by surfacing the most credible stories across the political spectrum and delivering them via a daily email newsletter, app, and website.

Prior to founding The Factual, Arjun was Vice President of Business Development at HubSpot, the industry leader in inbound marketing. Arjun has a computer engineering degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from Stanford University.

You can find The Factual's website here: https://www.thefactual.com/

You can connect with them on social media here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFactualInc/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thefactualnews

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefactualnews/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/civikowl/

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is1tlLnHsIQ

This show is supported and produced by Final Stretch Media. Final Stretch believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that captivates your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fsmedia2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finalstretch_media/

This show is also supported by QuikLee; the creators of Brain Racers. The world's first ever live racing competition for the brain. Download their app and play live on the weekends on an iOS device against the world. We have raced and it's a blast!

App Download: https://apple.co/33n8aJs

Our last sponsor creates survival technology as well as camping and other outdoor gear. Outer Wild's ultimate goal is to provide clean technologies for everyday devices as they are driven to create a more sustainable world. Use the code IS on your next purchase and receive an additional 10% off!

Website: https://www.outer-wild.com/

In this episode, I am speaking with John Cook about global warming, critical thinking, and misinformation inoculation.

We discuss:

•His science journey and how he started out in physics, moved away from science after graduation, but then was drawn back to it later in life.

•How in the long break between his Bachelor's and PhD, he was working in graphic design, cartooning, and founded the climate change website Skeptical Science.

•The origins of his interest in global warming and how discussions with his climate change denying father-in-law inspired him to start Skeptical Science.

•How social pressure is highly influential and leads many to hold flawed beliefs.

•How one of the best ways to combat misinformation is through what's known as inoculation, which is where critical thinking is very helpful.

•The concept of parallel argumentation.

•And other topics.

John Cook is a research assistant professor at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. His research focus is understanding and countering misinformation about climate change, with an emphasis on using critical thinking to build resilience. He founded Skeptical Science and authored the book Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, combining climate science, critical thinking, and cartoons to explain and counter climate misinformation. He also co-authored the college textbooks Climate Change: Examining the Facts and Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis and the book Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand.

You can find links related to our discussion here:

Cranky Uncle game: http://crankyuncle.com/game

Skeptical Science: http://skepticalscience.com

Debunking Handbook 2020: http://sks.to/db2020

Research comparing critical thinking vs. cartoon analogy corrections: http://sks.to/humorvsnonhumor

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/bGQYnVH6WHo

This show is supported and produced by Final Stretch Media. Final Stretch believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that captivates your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fsmedia2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finalstretch_media/

This show is also supported by QuikLee; the creators of Brain Racers. The world's first ever live racing competition for the brain. Download their app and play live on the weekends on an iOS device against the world. I have raced and it's a blast!

App Download: https://apple.co/33n8aJs

In this episode, I am speaking with Jacob Lund Fisker about physics, critical thinking, and personal finance.

We discuss:

•His journey into science and why he chose physics.

•How a website on anti-consumerism that he stumbled across in graduate school is what first interested him in economics and personal finance.

•How the current economic paradigm of infinite growth conflicts with the laws of physics and is unsustainable.

•His philosophy of critical thinking .

•What a tragedy it is that many people don't continue to develop intellectually after college.

•The power of first principles thinking.

•Possible reasons for why critical thinking is not more widely taught.

•And other topics.

Jacob wrote the first popular blog on financial independence and extreme early retirement. As one of the progenitors of the F.IR.E movement (i.e., financial independence. Retire early), his philosophy embraces a more responsible way of living beyond the wake, work, and consume cycle that encircles capitalistic societies today.

His book, Early Retirement Extreme (ERE), which applies systems theory to personal finance has sold over 40,000 copies. An astrophysicist by training, he retired at 33 and now focuses on practical aspects of individual adaption to the impacts of energy resources and climate breakdown.

You can find ERE websites of interest here:

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/

https://wiki.earlyretirementextreme.com/

https://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/

You can find the ERE book here:

Paperback and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/145360121X

Audiobook: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/zvjq7i422n

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/yNw-D57ZIzg

This show is supported and produced by Final Stretch Media. Final Stretch believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that captivates your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fsmedia2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finalstretch_media/

This show is also supported by QuikLee; the creators of Brain Racers. The world's first ever live racing competition for the brain. Download their app and play live on the weekends on an iOS device against the world. I have raced and it's a blast!

App Download: https://apple.co/33n8aJs

In this episode, the rest of the Intelligent Speculation team and I are discussing the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma.”

We discuss:

•How social media was founded on connecting people, but primarily due to its ad revenue business model it now causes intense polarization, an increase in suicidality, it provides a medium through which false information easily spreads, etc.

•How many aspects of society are moving on an exponential trajectory, technology in particular, and that our brains are not equipped to handle it.

•How the end goal of this ad-driven business model is to manipulate your emotions in order to put you in an emotional state where you are more likely to make purchases.

•That social media can also be used as a platform to benefit society, but that the negative aspects to it absolutely need to be addressed in order to elevate the positives.

•That we can't rely on the industry to self-regulate, which leaves us with a grass-roots and/or governmental regulation approach to solving this problem.

•How suicide rates have skyrocketed for the 10-14 age group.

•How certain aspects of social media acts as a literal drug, which can cause addiction.

•And other topics.

You can find out more about us here: https://bit.ly/35sJaTW

You can find Gaurav's articles here: https://bit.ly/3ay0Tto

You can find Garrett's articles here: https://bit.ly/3bV31eC

You can find Patrick's articles here: https://bit.ly/2YNis47

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/4At8_7-YjZw

This show is supported and produced by Final Stretch Media. Final Stretch believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that captivates your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fsmedia2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finalstretch_media/

This show is also supported by QuikLee; the creators of Brain Racers. The world's first ever live racing competition for the brain. Download their app and play live on the weekends on an iOS device against the world. I have raced and it's a blast!

App Download: https://apple.co/33n8aJs

In this episode, I am speaking with Manesh Girn about psychedelic science.

We discuss:

•His science journey and interest in philosophy.

•How he became interested in psychedelic science and the roundabout way that he had to position his career in neuroscience in order to be able to study it.

•His research on psychedelics and the scientific tools that he uses to study them.

•The psychedelic compounds that are primarily being studied at this point in time and the differences between them.

•That the therapeutic benefits is a combination of both the psychedelic experience as well as biochemical.

•How psychedelic medicine shows great therapeutic value when it comes to addiction and mental health.

•What microdosing is and its potential therapeutic value.

•And other topics.

Manesh is currently a PhD student in Neuroscience at McGill University and has been lead or co-author on over a dozen scientific publications and book chapters on topics including psychedelics, meditation, daydreaming, and the default-mode network. He currently has ongoing collaborations with leaders in the field of psychedelic neuroscience, including Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris from the Imperial College London Center for Psychedelic Research. In his free time, he also runs a YouTube channel - called The Psychedelic Scientist - where he discusses the latest findings in psychedelic science in an easy to understand, but non-superficial, form.

You can connect with Manesh on his social media here:

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pBZdXa

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepsychedelicscientist/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MGirnNeuro

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PsychedelicScientist

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/Tk49cf6Z84Q

This show is supported and produced by Final Stretch Media. Final Stretch believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that captivates your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fsmedia2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finalstretch_media/

This show is also supported by QuikLee; the creators of Brain Racers. The world's first ever live racing competition for the brain. Download their app and play live on the weekends on an iOS device against the world. I have raced and it's a blast!

App Download: https://apple.co/33n8aJs

In this episode, Patrick is talking with Bettina Schneider about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

They discuss:

•Her recent viral TikTok video where she briefly discusses how she first knew that COVID-19 was very serious.

•How Bettina was working in China at the time when COVID-19 first started to be taken seriously as a novel pathogen that had pandemic potential.

•The stark differences between how the Government handled the Ebola outbreak versus COVID-19.

•How the scientific community still doesn't know what the long-term effects are for those afflicted by the disease.

•How the severity of the disease was not taken seriously enough initially by the U.S. Government as well as by many of its citizens.

•Bettina's experience as she lived through the worst part of New York City's COVID-19 health crisis.

•How this is going to be a tough winter for the United States and that it's incredibly important everyone wear a mask, practice social distancing, and monitor their health closely.

•And other topics.

Bettina Schneider, MPH, is a PHI/CDC Global Health Epidemiology Fellow working with CDC South Africa within the Prevention Branch of the Division of Global HIV and Tuberculosis (DGHT). She holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the New York University School of Global Public Health where she graduated spring of this year. Prior international experience includes academic collaboration in Beirut, Lebanon with UNICEF and American University of Beirut to increase measles immunization coverage and cholera prevention efforts in Syrian UNIDP refugee camps during spring of 2019. During January of 2020, she collaborated with NYU Shanghai in Shanghai, China researching the affects of climate change on communicable respiratory illness.

Bettina is familiar with working in the public sector of public health. She has previously worked for the Minnesota Department of Health in the Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control (IDEPC) Division with a primary focus on zoonotic surveillance. More recently, she has worked for New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the Bureau of Communicable Disease with the surveillance of critical threat antimicrobial-resistance, where she conducted a city-wide surveillance evaluation of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections.

You can connect with Bettina on her social media here:

TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJ9GNhmQ/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Be_Sc_Ience

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bettina-schneider/

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/tVlPnrUb91w

This show is supported and produced by Final Stretch Media. Final Stretch believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that captivates your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fsmedia2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finalstretch_media/

This show is also supported by QuikLee; the creators of Brain Racers. The world's first ever live racing competition for the brain. Download their app and play live on the weekends on an iOS device against the world. I have raced and it's a blast!

App Download: https://apple.co/33n8aJs

In this episode, I am disagreeing, respectfully of course, with Jim Matthews.

We discuss:

•His background and how it has come to shape his current worldview.

•His opinion that Rod Balgojevich, the 40th Governor of Illinois, went to prison because he was interfering with the Democratic Party's strategy. That the 17 charges he was found guilty of were unjustified.

•How the Government creates market distortions with the example of FHA loans presented.

•How there will always be people willing to take advantage of whatever system that we design, but that this isn't a sufficient reason to not consider implementing that system.

•His interpretation of laws created by the judicial system as being more like rules instead of actual laws. In his opinion, the only laws that we have are God's laws and the laws of physics.

•The scientific method and how it is not a perfect enterprise, but it is the most reliable way of generating new knowledge.

•How he doesn't like the current trajectory of the country and uses the current rioting and looting as an example.

•And other topics.

Jim Matthews grew up on the south side of Chicago in the 1950s. Upon graduating from high school, he enlisted in the air force and served for four years as a mechanic where he primarily worked on airplane ejection systems. After his time in the military, he spent 31 years at Illinois Bell and five years at ComEd in IT. After ComEd, he then spent 3 years working for the state of Illinois as the Chief Information Officer where he helped to restructure the state's IT department and ended up saving the state $130 million a year. After working for the state, he then moved on to Charter communications company as the Vice President of architecture and strategy until his retirement.

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/dFy4KZGx2j8

This show is supported and produced by Final Stretch Media. Final Stretch believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that captivates your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fsmedia2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finalstretch_media/

This show is also supported by QuikLee; the creators of Brain Racers. The world's first ever live racing competition for the brain. Download their app and play live on the weekends on an iOS device against the world. It's a blast!

App Download: https://apple.co/33n8aJs

Today's episode is also brought to you by Mackhard Barber Shoppe, which specializes in the art of Men's grooming. You can find their website here: https://mackhard.com/

Our last sponsor for today's episode is Society 57, a social space designed to imaginatively bring people together from all walks of life. You can find their website here: https://www.society57.com/

In this episode, the rest of the Intelligent Speculation team and I are discussing outrage culture.

We discuss:

•What exactly outrage culture is.

•How humans are easily overcome by their emotions and that the media, politicians, etc. know this and use it as means to capture our attention.

•How people have stopped listening to each other and, consequently, this has lead to a breakdown in civil discourse.

•That having access to all of this information through our smart devices exacerbates outrage as you are constantly exposed to sensationalized headlines.

•How the echo chambers of social media reinforce outrage culture and, in general, severely disrupts critical thinking as you can no longer evaluate the nuances of the issue.

•That emotions aren't inherently bad, but you must learn to control them and understand how they are influencing you in the moment.

•Why it's so hard for people to admit that they're wrong.

•And other topics.

You can find out more about us here: https://bit.ly/35sJaTW

You can find Gaurav's articles here: https://bit.ly/3ay0Tto

You can find Garrett's articles here: https://bit.ly/3bV31eC

You can find Patrick's articles here: https://bit.ly/2YNis47

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/nYHX2anejyU

This show is supported and produced by Final Stretch Media. Final Stretch believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that captivates your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fsmedia2020

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finalstretch_media/

This show is also supported by QuikLee; the creators of Brain Racers. The world's first brain ever live racing competition for the brain. Download their app and play live this weekend on an iOS device against the world. I have raced and it is awesome. If you are in the top 10, you have a chance to win money. See you there!

App download: https://apple.co/33n8aJs

In this episode, I'm speaking with Dr. Patrick Maloney about the current state of the pandemic.

We discuss:

•The number of cases in the U.S. From March up until now.

•How more and more evidence is pointing to airborne transmission of SARS-COV-2.

•The strong correlation between how effective a state was at flattening the curve and whether or not leadership listened to the scientific community.

•That without a vaccine, there are three primary requirements that are absolutely necessary to safely reopen and where the U.S. has fallen short.

•How the current administration has failed to provide adequate leadership during this pandemic.

•The erosion between science, the media, and politics, which is why it's so important that scientists communicate directly with the public at this moment in time.

•How the U.S. Has failed in many parts of the country to flatten the curve and how our response to this crisis provides a glimpse of how we may respond to the global warming crisis in the future.

•A long digression into global warming, politics, and what humanity needs to do in order to ensure our long-term survival.

•And other COVID-19 related topics.

Dr. Patrick Maloney is beginning a fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention beginning this upcoming September. He will be working as a part of the Key Populations Team within the Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch of the CDC Center for Global Health. The Key Populations Surveillance Team provides technical leadership and assistance to strengthen local capacity for conducting HIV surveillance among key and other at-risk populations. While this position is based in Atlanta, GA, he will be traveling frequently to Africa and Southeast Asia in order to support local public health programs.

He earned his Ph.D. From Louisiana State University and holds an MPH from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has authored a number of publications, volunteered with the Phoenix Projects - an organization dedicated to the expansion of primary education, local employment, and public health - in both Nicaragua and Guatemala, and has even designed and taught courses in public health.

You can find his recent articles here:

https://www.intelligentspeculation.com/covid19

You can find our YouTube channel here:

https://bit.ly/2PItPWc

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/KNvuxck9Mzk

This show is supported and produced by Grips Visual Marketing. Grips believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that GRIPS your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/getagrip.vm/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getagrip.vm/

In this episode, I'm speaking with Dr. Ian McCarthy about the dark side of social media.

We discuss:

•Why engineering and his atypical journey towards a PhD.

•How academic freedom coupled with curiosity lead him to want to look further into the darker side of social media.

•That while you don't have to explicitly pay to use social media, it does cost you when it comes to your information.

•The addictive nature of social media and how they have assimilated technologies from the gambling industry.

•The contrast between reading online versus reading a book or newspaper.

•Deep fakes; the good and the bad.

•That to properly insure the credibility of information in today's world, people have to demand it.

•The importance of knowing how to identify credible sources of information.

•And other topics.

Dr. Ian McCarthy is a Professor at Simon Fraser University and at Luiss University where he studies and teaches operations management, innovation management, change management, social media, creative consumers and the world of management education. Business Insider named him alongside Arianna Huffington and Sir Richard Branson on a prestigious list of “Smart Thinkers Everyone Should Follow.” Further, he is one of the authors of the award-winning paper on the Social Media Honeycomb, which, as of December 31st 2016 was the most highly Google Scholar cited papers across all business, management, and economics journals in the last five year period.

He earned his Ph.D. In industrial engineering from the University of Sheffield. He was also a Fullbright Scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology studying the impacts of university innovation on local and national economies. He has publications in leading management and engineering journals including the Academy of Management Review, Industry and Corporate Change, California Management Review, and many others.

As an award-winning teacher, he has taught at some of the leading business and engineering schools. Prior to becoming an academic, he worked as an engineer and manager in the electronics manufacturing and metals processing industries.

You can find his website here:

https://itdependsblog.blogspot.com/p/home.html

You can find the papers discussed in the episode here:

Confronting indifference toward truth - https://bit.ly/2PlNtaf

Deepfakes: Trick or treat? - https://bit.ly/2ER7jIF

Social media? It's serious! Understanding the dark side of social media - https://bit.ly/3kgdhD9

You can find him on social media here:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Toffeemen68

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmccarthy1/

You can find this episode on our YouTube channel as well:

https://youtu.be/cdZOnvBKnzo

This show is supported and produced by Grips VisualMarketing. Grips believes in creating something that disrupts attention spans and challenges the marketing status quo. They do this by creating high quality visual content that GRIPS your audience. You can find them on:

Facebook - https://m.facebook.com/getagrip.vm/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/getagrip.vm/