A lot of ink has been spilled about the crisis of misinformation, but Henry Farrell thinks we have a much bigger problem: manufactured public opinion.

Video: http://youtu.be/Mjyq9gAqH5g

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/05/25/260.-Social-Media-and-Social-Irrationality.html

Alastair MacIntyre thinks we’ve lost something essential at the core of our discussions of right & wrong, & Aristotle has been telling us for 2000 years.

Video: http://youtu.be/CDetc4y7_Gs

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/04/15/259.-After-Virtue.html

What do Aristotle, Carl von Clausewitz, and John Dewey have in common? They’re all better reading than the news right now, and they all stress the importance of prudent action.

Video: http://youtu.be/J8l_kDwiy70

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/03/07/258.-Phronesis-Theory-and-Practice.html

Our mental landscape is irrevocably bound up in variations of 26 characters, but we’re historical exceptions.

Video: http://youtu.be/N7Q4yU719FA

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2025/01/21/257.-Orality-and-Literacy.html

We’re accustomed to using technology to remember things on our behalf…but are we losing something important in the process?

Video: http://youtu.be/3WgdHdBxSqk

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/11/25/256.-Memory-and-the-Extended-Mind-Thesis.html

Amartya Sen’s “Rationality and Freedom” clarifies how the two concepts are intimately linked, how we can’t understand one without the other, & why voting is wholly insufficient to create a rational society.

Video: http://youtu.be/YMkzCMkyjtE

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/10/15/255.-Rationality-and-Freedom.html

There are 1.5 million non-profit organizations in the US. Effective Altruists try to direct people towards the good ones, but many don’t agree with their picks - maybe the problem is bigger than “picking a good charity.”

Video: http://youtu.be/0XjGKig1wlk

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/09/22/254.-Charity-and-Effective-Altruism.html

“Organization” is a technology, and as with many technologies, it embodies a set of values.

Video: http://youtu.be/VTcqt51Io4M

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/08/08/253.-Organizing-Systems.html

Generations are used to explain everything from the state of the economy to attitudes about sexuality, but do they really explain anything?

Video: http://youtu.be/ot5xdqdho4Y

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/06/20/252.-The-Theory-of-Generations.html

Scaremongers drive many to search frantically for something, anything that will make them feel safe, but safety isn’t a thing you can buy - it’s a feeling you have to build for yourself.

Video: http://youtu.be/ob7XTCtZn6U

Show Notes: https://thunkshow.com/2024/05/13/251.-Safety-and-Risk-Management.html