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What if the real power in your life isn’t what you know, but what you know that everyone else knows you know?
Money only works because we all believe everyone else believes in it. Governments stand because we assume everyone else will follow the rules. Even love, status, trust, and cancel culture are driven by invisible social agreements that live in our shared mind.
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Steven Pinker, Harvard psychologist, cognitive scientist, bestselling author, and one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today,” to decode the science of common knowledge and how it shapes everything from money and power to social media, revolutions, and your daily relationships.
We talk about why some ideas go viral and others don’t, why cancel culture and public shaming are so effective, why dictators fear free speech, and how misinformation hijacks our “collective brain.” Steven also shares powerful tools from his books Rationality and When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows to help you think more clearly, protect yourself from cognitive biases, and become a better learner and communicator in a noisy, hyper-connected world.
If you’ve ever wondered why people follow the crowd, why markets boom and crash, why social norms feel so powerful, or how to stay rational when everyone is yelling online, this conversation will help you see the hidden architecture behind human behavior – and use that insight to upgrade your thinking, your learning, and your life.