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Explain It Like I’m Smart

49 episodes

Even the smartest people benefit from more context. These experts are here to provide just that.

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All Episodes (49)

Red ink disperses in water with the words "Menopause Chaos" overlaid in bold white font.

The science of menopause in 13 minutes

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13 min

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Close-up of a multicolored, reflective surface depicting two human-like eyes with iridescent hues surrounding them.

Yuval Noah Harari: An AI scenario you should not ignore

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11 min

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with

Yuval Noah Harari

Why Texas and Florida are America’s NEW economic powerhouses

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8 min

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Joseph Politano

The data on dating—and the golden rule for better “luck”

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8 min

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The psychopathic brain is different—but it CAN be treated

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10 min

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Three industrial smokestacks emit dense, white smoke against a blue sky.

We’re not doomed. Here’s how to revive Planet Earth

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8 min

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Sean B. Carroll

An illustrated human brain with musical notes to suggest the concept of music and cognition against a vintage anatomical background.

Homo sapiens: The “great synthesizers” of music

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9 min

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Michael Spitzer

A man sitting at a desk on a phone.

How did we end up here? Anthropologist explains how work has shaped society

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9 min

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Zen buddhism 101 by zen buddhism 101.

A Zen master’s guide to crushing pain & unlocking peace

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8 min

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Robert Waldinger

An ufo flying over a forest.

Why haven’t we found aliens? A physicist shares the most popular theories

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13 min

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An older man pondering with his hand on his chin, contemplating effective altruism.

What is effective altruism? Philosopher Peter Singer explains

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8 min

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A drawing of a human brain depicting the red section, symbolizing anxiety.

Anxiety evolved to help us — what went wrong? A neuroscientist explains.

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8 min

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A sparkler with the word orgasm on it.

A sex educator explains orgasms (plus an exercise for expanded pleasure)

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11 min

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A snake is sitting on top of a dollar bill.

Why fraud still thrives on Wall Street

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8 min

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Kelly Richmond Pope

a clock that is in the middle of a circle.

The science of super longevity

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7 min

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the cover of a magazine with a picture of a man's face.

Why high-ranking leaders should be psych tested

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6 min

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a pink computer keyboard with the word sex spelled on it.

How porn f*cked our minds

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6 min

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a man sitting in a box with a plant in it.

The friendship recession

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8 min

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Harvard professor explains Bayes’ rule

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5 min

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Master divergent and convergent thinking

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5 min

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The physics of time, entropy, and death

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5 min

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Sabine Hossenfelder

The neuroscience of loving music

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8 min

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Michael Spitzer

The mind-bending physics of time

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8 min

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Only high performers pass this kind of job interview

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4 min

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Sun Tzu: 4 battle principles for business leaders

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8 min

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How dirty debaters win against better opponents

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5 min

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The 3 dimensions of secrets: What are you hiding and why?

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7 min

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Michael Slepian

Why your brain thinks you’re Matt Damon

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4 min

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How psychedelics work

Why psychedelics change your reality

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6 min

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Matthew W. Johnson

war technology

Google’s secret “Project Maven”: Evil—or moral?

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Related

A man with short, grayish hair, wearing a dark blazer and black shirt, stares directly at the camera against a black background.

Sam Harris: Your mind is all you have. Is yours working?

“I think we need a truly open-ended conversation with 8 billion strangers, and what makes that hard to do increasingly is a level of political fragmentation and extremism and partisanship born of our engagement with these new technologies.”

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10 min

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Red ink disperses in water with the words "Menopause Chaos" overlaid in bold white font.

The science of menopause in 13 minutes

What can you do to support your health during menopause? “If exercise were a drug, that would be the one thing that we would be giving to everybody.”

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13 min

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Close-up of a multicolored, reflective surface depicting two human-like eyes with iridescent hues surrounding them.

Yuval Noah Harari: An AI scenario you should not ignore

“What happens if you incorporate an AI? It’s now a legal person, and it can make decisions by itself. So you start having legal persons in the U.S., which are not human, and in many ways are more intelligent than us.”

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11 min

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Yuval Noah Harari

Fragmented image of the U.S. flag with white stars on a blue background and red and beige stripes, resembling weathered paint on a wall.

The one temptation to resist post-election: Good vs. evil

“Most of us aren’t sure what to think about everything, but we don’t really see that modeled anywhere, right? You’re supposed to know for sure, and there’s very little intellectual humility on social media or on TV.”

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4 min

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A person sits pensively with name tags around them reading "Hello, I'm a... writer? bookstore owner? father?.

Ryan Holiday on the art of perception and self-reflection

How the successful marketer used ancient philosophy to overcome modern obstacles and change his mindset.

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5 min

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