Four playlists, Richard Simmons, and Mr Money Mustache
Welcome to the Hurt Your Brain internet playlist from February 19, 2017. It's a collection of podcasts, videos, and other links for people who love to learn online and are fascinated by the world. Click here to get playlists emailed to you as they come out.
This week, all the media I ingested seemed to fall into similar categories, so I wanted to mix things up and do some mini playlists. I hope you find something awesome and interesting among the selections.
PLAYLISTS
Playlist- How to change minds in this insane world Have you ever argued with someone about their deeply held belief and changed their mind? Oh damn, you neither? We live in strange times when it comes to the truth, where we've never had more information and we've never had more polarization on what reality is. The podcasts and handbook below provide an excellent crash course on what the hell is going on. Backfire effect, echo chambers, filter bubbles, empathy, it's all there. If you only have time for one, definitely go with Love + Radio. It's a follow up with Daryl Davis (from The Silver Dollar, one of my favorite episodes of any podcast), a black musician who has made the habit of befriending and changing the minds of klansmen. There might be hope after all.
You Are Not So Smart: The neuroscience of changing your mind (part 1)
You Are Not So Smart: How motivated skepticism strengthens incorrect beliefs (part 2)
You Are Not So Smart: How to fight back against the backfire effect (part 3)
Playlist- Space You might have noticed that I'm a sucker for anything space related. I just discovered the Space Rocket History podcast which is exactly what it sounds like and will be right up your alley if the space race era interests you (almost 200 episodes now). These other recent shows and videos seemed to fit quite nicely with this new discovery of mine. The last two are videos and both have stunning animation.
Space Rocket History #1: Ancient Rocketry: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
The Leonard Lopate Show: The Women Who Transformed Astronomy
Playlist- Blockchains A blockchain is what makes digital currency like Bitcoin possible. Bitcoin might not be taking over the world like it's early adopters hoped, but it looks like blockchains and their huge potential are here to stay. Planet Money does an excellent overview of the situation and the video below it is a visualization on how it works.
Playlist- How to read and not forget everything a week later Until this year, I never had any kind of strategy for reading non-fiction, and growing up, I was certainly allergic to things like SQ3R that I learned in school. Well, it turns out that stupid acronym is on to something because my current method of note taking and summarizing truly helps. The two below essays are short and simple guides that help define a modern reading strategy.
Two more great podcasts Missing Richard Simmons It's been a while since I've seen a new podcast with only one episode get so much buzz. This is funny, bewildering, heartbreaking, and very well produced. Richard Simmons and his 40+ year manic persona has fallen off the face of the Earth, and a friend is trying to figure out why.
The Tim Ferriss Show: Mr Money Mustache- Living Beautifully on $25-$27K Per Year Mr Money Mustache is the online persona of Pete Adeney, who runs a super popular personal finance blog, all about retiring early and ruthlessly cutting expenses. I've read some of his articles over the years and know his reputation for being much more aggressive with how much he thinks people should be saving (like 75%) vs what a typical financial advisor might suggest (like 10%). I thought this was a great interview and it will get you fired up to save more and to spend your time doing things that make you happy.
Quote: "Knowledge is not only power; it is happiness, and being taught is the intellectual analog of being loved." – Isaac Asimov
That's all for this week!
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