Steven Pinker's latest book [and the limits of psychology and beyond]

This is a peculiar and interesting discussion. The first hour and a quarter are about Pinker's latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows..., and then we have half an hour when Bialik and Cohen push Pinker on spiritualism, transcendent experiences, and the like. It's a peculiar juxtaposition. Though I have a bit of sympathy with Bialik and Cohen, my own position is closer to Pinker's.

The Rising Risks of Cancel Culture & The Psychology & Language That Built It!

In this explosive episode of Mayim Bialik's Breakdown, Dr. Steven Pinker (renowned Harvard psychologist and author of When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows) joins Mayim Bialik and Jonathan Cohen for a no-holds-barred conversation that quickly turns into a fiery debate on the limits of science, belief, and human consciousness.

From the hidden mechanics of social dynamics and language to the perils of thought policing and cancel culture, Dr. Pinker dives deep into how shared knowledge shapes society, why what people think others believe can shift power, and how social media became a modern-day coliseum for public shaming.

But the sparks really fly when Mayim and Jonathan challenge Pinker’s staunchly materialist worldview — questioning whether extrasensory perception (ESP), near death experiences (NDEs), and higher consciousness might point to something beyond the reach of scientific instruments. Pinker doesn’t hold back, offering his sharply skeptical takes on mystical claims and pushing back against spiritual notions with cool-headed logic.

Dr. Pinker also breaks down:

• Why what others think of us actually matters
• Dangers of being too direct or too indirect — especially for neurodivergent folks
• How to create or hide common knowledge in relationships
• The first case of cancel culture on social media (and its ancient roots!)
• The thin line between freedom of speech and incitement to violence
• How distrust in science fuels conspiracy theories
• Can we depoliticize science? Or is it already too late?
• The danger of defunding academic research
• Why authoritarian regimes fear open communication
• The healthcare system: overprescription, profit motives, and how to fix it
• Is free will real? Or are we just dancing to the tune of biology and environment?

Don’t miss MBB's first-ever toe-to-toe spiritual showdown between Mayim, Jonathan, and a die-hard materialist. Whether you lean scientific, spiritual, or somewhere in between, this conversation will challenge what you think you know about reality.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
04:04 - How Shared Knowledge Shapes Society
17:09 - Why What Others Think of Us Actually Matters
29:46 - What Happens When We Disagree on Moral Order?
38:51 - Dangers of Erosion of Trust in Institutions
52:40 - Freedom of Speech vs Incitement to Violence
1:00:45 - Dangers of Politicizing Science
1:05:10 - Dangers of Defunding Academia
1:11:52 - Mental Health System Challenges
1:17:15 - Mysticism vs Materialism Debate

The Tide Turned This Week | Heather Cox Richardson

Read “The sleeping giant is awakening“ by Robert Reich here: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-sleeping-giant-is-awakening

We need a new set of concepts (ontology) for talking about AI

I think our entire ontology for how we talk about and conceptualise A[G]I is confused. And I wouldn't be surprised if in ten years we will look back at the discourse today and laugh at how primitive some ideas are. A few hot and uncertain takes:

The way people talk about future… pic.twitter.com/1o5oilqzQh

— Séb Krier (@sebkrier) September 18, 2025

From deeper into this long tweet:

The way people talk about future AIs/AGIs feels like a category error. Sometimes they reify future systems as self-sovereign entities with their own goals and incentives, a different species that we need to learn to co-exist with. I think that's not impossible, and I used to be a lot more sympathetic to this view, but I'm a lot less certain now and it's certainly not self-evident. Agents can still be tools, and tool agents that operate along timelines don't need to necessarily be 'separate species'-like. [...]

To me at least, AGI will likely be a distributed ecosystem of different models, built by different companies and state actors, with different capabilities, architectures, and incentive structures.

Sutan's First Day of American School!

The Lie At The Heart Of Modern Conservatism (w/ Heather Cox Richardson)

YouTube:

NOTE: This livestream was recorded on Wednesday, September 17th at 3pm ET.

Is Trump and MAGA the inevitable endpoint to conservatism in America? JVL was joined by Heather Cox Richardson to discuss the state of conservatism in American politics.

The discussion gets really interesting around 21 minutes or so when Heather Cox Richardson advances the idea that the collapse of the Soviet Union is what began the slide toward the highly polarized society we now have.

Sen. Mark Kelly: Tech Companies Should Help Pay for AI Impact | Pivot

YouTube:

In this Pivot Quick Take, Sen. Mark Kelly makes the case for his "AI for America" plan, calling on tech companies to fund job retraining and infrastructure as AI reshapes the economy — plus how he personally uses AI in day-to-day life.

Kara Swisher Talks Elon Musk, Tim Cook And The 'Non-Capitalist' Behavior Of Tech Leaders

From YouTube page:

Sep 10, 2025

In an interview with Forbes Women, editor Maggie McGrath at the 2025 Forbes Power Women's Summit, legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher gives her unfiltered take on the people and trends shaping the future.

General comments about Silicon Valley start at about 12 minutes or so.

Halal food cart on a street in Hoboken

Whoops! A transformer doesn't understand F = ma

Correct! Just as a reminder: this is what a Transformer found after looking at 10M solar systems https://t.co/cz6MpG2Qtq pic.twitter.com/OozXPKYatb

— Martin Bauer (@martinmbauer) September 10, 2025

The Greatest Night in Pop [Media Notes 174]

Ian Leslie writes about The Greatest Night in Pop, a documentary about the making of "We Are The World." The opening paragraphs:

The Netflix documentary, The Greatest Night In Pop, tells the story of the making of We Are The World, the 1985 charity single featuring (almost) everyone in American pop at the time: Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Dionne Warwick…the list goes on and on.

The documentary is based on hours of footage from the night they recorded the single, only a few minutes of which was used for the original music video. The Greatest Night In Pop (TGNIP) came out eighteen months ago, and while millions of people have viewed it, I’m constantly surprised to learn that many have not. Everyone should.

If I had to recommend a documentary or just ‘something to watch on TV’ for absolutely anyone - man or woman, old or young, liberal or conservative, highbrow or lowbrow - I’d recommend The Greatest Night In Pop. It may not be the deepest, most profound ninety minutes of TV, but it is irresistibly enjoyable. And actually, like the best pop, it is deep; it just doesn’t pretend to be.

Diversity and roles:

I’ve written before about how diversity needs to be interpreted beyond demographic attributes like race and gender to temperament and personality. The British management researcher Meredith Belbin constructed a famous inventory of behavioural types which together make up a successful team: the Resource Investigator, the Coordinator, the Shaper, the Catalyst, and so on.

TGNIP prompted me to come up with an inventory of my own: the Decider, the Connector, the Conscience, the Old Buck, the Disrupter, the Weirdo, and the Lover.

The players:

• The Decider: Quincy Jones
• The Connector: Lionel Richie
• The Conscience: Bob Geldof
• The Old Buck: Smokey robinson
• The Disrupter: Stevie Wonder
• The Weirdo: Bob Dylan
• The Lover: Diana Ross

H/t Tyler Cowen.

Turning Point, fireworks, coffee

AI task length is increasing

Task length is the key AI metric to watch - and it’s accelerating faster than almost anyone outside the industry realises https://t.co/LHzNjsQIco

— Matt Clifford (@matthewclifford) September 11, 2025

Friday Fotos on Saturday: Manhattan as seen from Hoboken, 2014

Mom – The family sitcom has come a long way since the 50s and 60s [Media Notes 173]

Mom (2013-2021) showed up on my Netflix feed sometime within the last month. I saw Allison Janney on the clip, a plus, as I liked her as C.J. Craig in The West Wing. I saw it was a sitcom. I’m certainly in the mood for a sitcom. And that title proclaimed, “family wholesomeness,” and yes, that’s there. But it’s not the wholesomeness of the sitcoms I grew up with. 

From the Wikipedia entry:

Set in Napa, California, it follows dysfunctional mother/daughter duo Bonnie and Christy Plunkett, who, after having been estranged for years while both struggled with addiction, attempt to pull their lives together by trying to stay sober. [...] Mom received acclaim from critics and audiences for the writing and performances (particularly Janney's), as well as for addressing real-life issues such as: alcoholism, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, addictive gambling, homelessness, relapse, cancer, death, erectile dysfunction, domestic violence, overdose, palsy, rape, obesity, stroke, ADHD and miscarriage; and for maintaining a deft balance between the humorous and darker aspects of these issues.

Whoa!

I grew up with, for example, Father Knows Best:

The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six seasons and 203 episodes. Created by Ed James, Father Knows Best follows the lives of the Andersons, a middle-class family living in the town of Springfield. The state in which Springfield is located is never specified, but it is generally accepted to be located in the Midwestern United States. [...] As before, the character of Margaret was portrayed as a voice of reason, and Jim's character was that of a thoughtful father who offered sage advice in response to his children's problems. A responsible man, he loved his wife and children and would do whatever he could to give them a better life. Jim was a salesman and manager of the General Insurance Company in Springfield, while Margaret was a housewife. Their home was located at 607 Maple Avenue. One history of the series characterized the Andersons as "truly an idealized family, the sort that viewers could relate to and emulate." As the two eldest children aged from teenager to young adult, Betty (1956) and Bud (1959) graduated from high school and attended Springfield Junior College.

That’s a different world, very different.

I wonder how much daytime soaps changed over the same period?

BTW, I’ve now finished the first two seasons (of eight) of Mom, and will continue watching, though I don’t know whether or not I’ll go the distance. All that stuff that Wikipedia passage mentions, I’ve seen much/most of it in these two seasons. It’s light and enjoyable, which is what I was looking for. That is to say, it really is about family solidarity, even if the families involved are dysfunctional and centered on single moms. Every episode has one, two, or three scenes in an AA meeting. So we’ve got scenes of dysfunction in action, AA meetings (for a little distance), and reconciliation. For the most part, it works.

How the Clark Family Creative learns a song in a day

YouTube:

Behind the Scenes: How We Learn a New Song in One Day

Hey guys! Tonight we have our most requested video! We explain how we learn a new song in one day. During the 2020 quarantine when we started, we were learning 4 or 5 songs a week but we modified the arrangements to their skill level at the time. The kids were done with homeschool and it was something fun that kept us sane during a very chaotic time. As the world started opening back up and the years went by we gradually decreased the new songs/videos to twice a week but with more difficult arrangements. The days that we film the songs start with a morning drive (and coffee) around a pretty neighborhood we all love. We listen to a playlist that we’ve all added songs to and come up with one that we all like for the day. Once we choose the song, we head back home. Cash and Beckett spend about 15 minutes on their own learning their parts. Colt and Cash will work together on guitar tones and getting the guitar sound perfect. Then Colt will work with Bellamy on her bass part. She can usually learn that in about 30 minutes. Next Colt will play with Beckett, working on the breaks and fills. The order that he works with them can be subject to change based on whether we have homeschool that day. Lastly we run the song all together around 3 or 4 times and film it right after. We hope you enjoy this little behind the scenes video of our process. Also, if you’re local to the Tampa Bay area, we’d love to see you at our show at Hutchinson Auditorium on Florida College’s campus on 9/20 at 7pm. I’ll leave the link below. Hope to see you there!