Is the science of power posing real, or simply posing as science?
Welcome to the Hurt Your Brain internet playlist from December 18, 2016. 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.
Best fact from the week: Over 900 million people will walk into an American museum this year, more than all sporting events and theme parks combined. (Don't tell Disney, they'll start a museum division). From Warm Regards mentioned below.
PODCASTS
Deep Canvassing, You Are Not So Smart, 63 minutes Changing your mind is really hard, particularly when it's an issue core to your ideology. But what if someone came to your door to share their experience on the subject and you changed your own beliefs based on the conversation? This episode is more proof that the way to change hearts and minds is through connection, not facts.
Humanizing Science, Warm Regards, 48 minutes Warm Regards is a podcast about climate change, but this interview with Jonathon Foley, the director of Cal Academy, is fascinating. You'll learn about the importance of museums, why land usage is more important than transportation for climate change, what food security means, how science works, and the importance of communicating science with awe.
Ezra Klein--From College Blogger to Political Powerhouse, The Tim Ferriss Show, 100 minutes I'm a big fan of Vox's YouTube channel, which is only a small part of the vast news media empire that Ezra Klein is creating. Tim Ferriss is admittedly allergic to politics, and this discussion is much more focused on how Klein got to where he is and how politics works, rather than a partisan discussion into an echo chamber.
Quick facts from other podcasts:
The average temperature of a healthy person is not 98.6, but 98.2, and everyone's "normal" can be a degree off from that. Part 1 of Freakonomics Bad Medicine series.
VIDEOS
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Book Club #4, SimonOxfPhys, 10 minutes This is a YouTube channel I stumbled upon that features a physics PhD candidate from Oxford who discusses interesting things about climate, science, and being a PhD student. I quite enjoyed this review of the book "Sapiens", which has been on my list for a long while. This just bumped it to the top. ARTICLES AND OTHER LINKS Have you seen this super popular TED talk on power poses? You know, stand in front of the mirror in a powerful stance and you'll become more confident. Well one of the researchers involved did a complete reversal after learning about how certain methodology she used can easily lead to poor results. The Chronicle of Higher Education goes through the whole story.
A good explanation of The Birthday Problem. How many people need to be in a room for there to be a good chance that two people share a birthday? The answer will surprise you if you've never came across this trivia type question. Also, the site linked to, Now I Know, has a great daily newsletter with interesting things like this.
Found through Reddit: What are some awesome websites that not enough people know about?
Radio.garden. The coolest way to find free radio station streaming from anywhere in the world. I was listening to some music from Hong Kong while writing this.
That's all for this week!
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