Episodios
-
In this episode I am exploring the divergence between productivity and wages in western economies since 1970. This was covered in one of my first podcasts and is a striking failure of society that has derailed post-war successes and led to the current situation of inequity and unrest. It puts us in the strange position that robotics and AI are going to make the vast majority of the world poorer and further behind.
Dean Baker is the co-founder and a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He has written numerous books and articles. His most recent book is Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer.
Join The Rational View on Facebook
Follow me on YouTube
-
In this episode Iām reviewing the scientific evidence on the safety of new mRNA vaccines. There has been a flurry of misunderstandings and misinformation posted online with the result being spreading vaccine hesitancy and a growing public health emergency. The WHO highlighted vaccine hesitancy as a major global health risk. Just this morning I heard announcements of Measles outbreaks. Vaccines have saved millions of lives. Theyāve eliminated smallpox and we are on the brink of eliminating polio. Measles no longer needs to hospitalize thousands of children unless we let it. That being said, there is risk associated with vaccines. Can we have a frank talk about the actual risks?
Look me up on YouTube and Facebook!
Patron dot podbean dot com slash THERATIONALVIEW
-
¿Faltan episodios?
-
In this episode I am continuing to cast a lens into the presence of inequity in society. The Rational View is about using evidence-based practices to promote justice for all. Over the years we, as a society, have made great progress in addressing inequality, but unscientific biases still abound. Many folks would say that weāve already equalized opportunities. Many would say great gulfs remain to be bridged. What does the data say?
Nilanjana Dasgupta is Provost Professor of Psychology and founding Director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her Bachelorās degree in psychology and neuroscience from Smith College and a Masterās degree and PhD in social psychology from Yale University. She is a leader in research on implicit bias and diversity science, applying it to complex social problems. Her award winning research has been featured widely in print and broadcast media. She is the author of Change the Wallpaper: Transforming Cultural Patterns to Build More Just Communities
Find me on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWU2V-SviNZV7mXd6VB0dAA
-
In this episode Iām interviewing a researcher who studies equality in the workplace. Her work stands out as being heavily influenced by quantitative studies on the effectiveness of various interventions aimed at leveling the gender gap in the workplace. I hope we can gain some insights into what is good and what does not work to promote fairness in the workplace.
Siri Chilazi is a senior researcher at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School whose lifeās work is to advance gender equality in the workplace. As a keynote speaker and strategic advisor, Siri collaborates with a wide range of organizations around the world. Her work regularly appears in leading media outlets. Siri has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Masterās in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and a BA in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College. Her most recent book, with co-author Iris Bohnet, is called āMake Work Fairā.
Support the podcast at patron dot podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
Join the Facebook discussion at TheRationalView
-
Happy New Year. Welcome to 2025! You made it! Iām glad to be able to share this with you.
Today I want to talk about a health fad called Earthing, or Grounding. Youāve probably heard of it. Is it supported by science or is it snake oil? This calls for The Rational View.
If you like my program please send money to patron dot podbean dot com slash THERATIONALVIEW
If you don't like my program come to my RationalView Facebook group and give me your best counter argument
-
In this episode Iām interviewing a scientist turned science fiction author who has written a book that takes the reader on a journey around the solar system to the many remote places weāve visited with our space probes. Iām eager to learn what he thinks about space exploration.
Dr John Moores is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science at York University. He is a member of the Royal Society of Canadaās College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, a recipient of the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Instituteās McCurdy Award and served as the Science Advisor to the President of the Canadian Space Agency from 2022-2024. John holds a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in Planetary Science. An author on over 100 articles in planetary science, John has also been a member of five NASA and ESA-led space mission teams.
Support the podcast at patron dot podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
Come chat on Facebook @TheRationalView
-
In this episode Iām interviewing someone with firsthand knowledge of the replacement of democracy with an authoritarian populist regime. What does this mean? Take, for example, the case of Hungary under the leadership of Viktor OrbĆ”n, the populist prime minister of Hungary since 2010. In 2022, European parliament declared that Hungary could no longer be considered a democracy. MEPs are concerned about several political areas concerning democracy and fundamental rights in Hungary. Some of the main areas are the functioning of its constitutional and electoral system, the independence of the judiciary, corruption and conflicts of interest and freedom of expression, including media pluralism. Academic freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of association, the right to equal treatment, including LGBTIQ rights, the rights of minorities, as well as those of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, are also problematic.
What do these first steps towards authoritarianism look like and what can we do to avoid following the same path? Why do people want to go away from democracy? Are they racist bigots?
GƔbor Scheiring is a former member of the Hungarian parliament having served from 2010-2014 and an assistant professor of comparative politics at Georgetown University Qatar. He previously served as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University's Center for European Studies. His research explores the political economy and lived experiences of contemporary economic transformations through quantitative, qualitative, and comparative methods. He focuses on how economic shocks create precarity, leading to mental and physical suffering, and how these processes impact democratic stability. His book, The Retreat of Liberal Democracy, which won the BASEES 2021 Book Award, examines how working-class dislocation and elite co-optation foster illiberalism in Hungary.
Do you like the podcast? Share the love at patron dot podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
Do you hate the podcast? Join TheRationalView Facebook group and let's talk it out.
-
In this episode, Iām exploring the topic of the Outrage Industry. Who else is growing inured to over-the-top tirades of outrage and offense? This seems to be a relatively new phenomenon whereby click-bait memes generating outrage are monetized by social media networks into clicks. Letās explore how this impacts society and what we can do to counter it.
Richard Thompson Ford is a Professor at Stanford Law School. He has written about law, social and cultural issues and race relations for The New York Times, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Slate, and has appeared on The Colbert Report and The Rachel Maddow Show. He is the author of the New York Times notable books The Race Card and Rights Gone Wrong: How Law Corrupts the Struggle for Equality. He lives in San Francisco.
Come on by TheRationalView Facebook group or support the podcast at patron dot podbean dot com slash TheRationalView, or do both!
-
In this episode Iām interviewing a researcher who has been studying the impacts of methane on the greenhouse effect, and trying to assess whether burning natural gas is helping or hurting the climate. His most recent paper suggests that it should not be considered an improvement over coal.
Robert Howarth is an Earth systems scientist and ecosystem biologist with a Ph.D. jointly from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He joined the faculty of Cornell University in 1985 and was appointed the David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology & Environmental Biology in 1993. He also is an Adjunct Senior Scientist at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA, and is Co-Editor in Chief of the journal Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research. He has published over 250 scientific papers, reports, and book chapters and has edited or authored eight books. His peer-reviewed papers have been cited more than 85,000 times in other peer-reviewed literature, making him one of the most cited environmental scientists in the world. Howarthās research is broad ranging and includes climate effects on nutrient pollution in lakes and coastal ecosystems, nitrogen effects in coastal marine ecosystems, sources of methane from natural gas operations and agriculture, atmospheric ammonia pollution, alternative energy policies, and lifecycle assessments for hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, and renewable natural gas. He is one of 22 members of New Yorkās Climate Action Council, the group charged with implementing the Stateās ambitious climate goals laid out in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019.
If you agree we need more Rationality support the podcast at Patron dot podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
If you have a comment find me on Facebook at TheRationalView
-
In this episode Iām interviewing the leader of a new Canadian political party, the Canadian Future Party. Their website has the following statement that I liked, āThe CFP believes people from every corner of the country want to be united behind a common set of ideals: democracy, the rule of law, collective action, and individual rights. A country where you can live as you like, love who you want, and in exchange, you work hard, and we collectively agree on a common set of rules to let us live our different lives, together. Where decisions are based on evidence.ā This sounds like theyāve been listening to my podcast.
Dominic Cardy is the leader of the Canadian Future Party. Dominic Cardy brings a wealth of experience in international affairs and Canadian politics, having served as Minister of Education and then as an independent MLA, committed to public service and policy innovation. Born in the UK and raised in Fredericton, Dominic was elected as the Progressive Conservative MLA for Fredericton West-Hanwell in 2018 and re-elected in 2020. He served as Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development until 2022. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Dalhousie University.
Dominicās career spans roles with the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, the National Democratic Institute, and the Forum of Federations, working across Asia and Africa. He also led the New Brunswick NDP from 2011-2016 and served as Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition from 2017-2018. Additionally, Dominic has been a flying instructor since 1994 and is a member of the editorial board of Inroads, a Canadian policy journal.
Support the podcast at Patron dot Podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
Let's chat about the issues on Facebook at TheRationalView
-
In this episode I'm dipping my toes into a new topic a little bit outside my range, but we can still use the tools of science and evidence to assess. The economy and Modern Monetary Theory. It is a new idea that clashes with classical economics. It can be summarized as the idea that governments whose dollar is not linked to a gold standard don't need to worry about deficits. It encompasses the idea of guaranteed employment for all. The discussion will also explore the failure of the capitalism system. My guest is an expert on this topic. Let's get grounded in the facts.
Jamie Merchant is a writer living in Chicago who writes about political economy and radical political theory. His writing has appeared in many publications including The Baffler, The Brooklyn Rail, The Nation, and In These Times. His book, Endgame: Economic Nationalism and Global Decline, was published by Reaktion Books in 2024.
Support the podcast at patron dot podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
Come and chat on Facebook at TheRationalView
-
In this episode I am interviewing a neuroscientist and a writer who has done a lot of work on synesthesia, or the melding of sense perceptions. His most recent book delves into how we can take back control of our attention from addictive social media. This should be of interest to most of us, and especially to parents of young children and teenagers who donāt know what to do to help their kids put down the devices and engage with life.
Dr. Richard E. Cytowic, a pioneering researcher in synesthesia, is Professor of Neurology at George Washington University. He is the author of Synesthesia, The Man Who Tasted Shapes, The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology, and, with David M. Eagleman, the Montaigne Medalāwinner Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia. His new book is entitled, āYOUR STONE AGE BRAIN IN THE SCREEN AGE: Coping with Digital Distraction and Sensory Overloadā.
Support the podcast at patron dot podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
Come visit me on Facebook at TheRationalView
-
In this episode Iām returning to the mysterious and challenging topic of consciousness and awareness, the elusive theory of mind that philosophers have chased for centuries, and is now coming to heel under the tools of neurobiology and the framework of modern physics. My guest today has performed experiments on rats that lend credence to the intriguing idea that quantum mechanics could play a basic role in the function of the mind. Are our brains quantum computers? This is a question for The Rational View.
Dr. Micheal Weist received his PhD in Theoretical High-Energy Physics from University of Michigan and is an associate professor of Neuroscience at Wellesley College. His research is focused on learning about the physical basis of consciousness. What is it about the matter in a living brain that makes it experience perceptions, feelings, and thoughts? His research focuses on sensory integration in rats, attempting to understand how neural activity in different parts of the brain gets combined or coordinated to generate a single coherent perception.
Support the podcast at patron dot podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
Come find me on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok
-
In this episode weāre going to chat with someone who understands the value of a good civics education. This comes at a time when observers are rating the US as a flawed democracy, and a current presidential nominee has been indicted for insurrection. Gerrymandering of districts is rampant, voter suppression bills are common, and a significant minority of voters seem to feel this is just fine.
Dr. Lindsey Cormack is an associate professor of Political Science and Director of the Diplomacy Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. She earned her PhD in Government from New York University and is raising a daughter on the Upper East Side. She currently serves as the Secretary for Community Board 8 in Manhattan. She created and maintains the digital database of all official Congress-to-constituent e-newsletters in the DCInbox Project. Her research has been widely published. She is the author of the new book, HOW TO RAISE A CITIZEN (And Why Itās Up To You to Do It).
Support the podcast at patron dot Podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
Join me on Facebook at TheRationalView and let me know what you think
-
In this episode weāll be discussing polarization and the idea of moral narcissism. My guest has published an article in a substack newsletter discussing this idea that people today are taking on absolute moral stancess in polarizing issues because of the status it gives them in their tribe, irrespective of the cost. In her blog she makes an analogy of a group who believes eating blue cheese is immoral so they outlaw it. As a result of their banning blue cheese, people start dying from eating unregulated blue cheese. There is another group who believe the group outlawing blue cheese is evil. They ostracize members of the group from society resulting in some members of the group being radicalized and resorting to violence. Both groups are holding their moral purity above the lives of people. She calls this behaviour moral narcissism.
After years of serving as a high school government and law teacher, Sharon McMahon took her passion for education to Instagram, where more than a million people (who affectionately call themselves āGovernerdsā) rely on her for non-partisan, fact-based information as āAmerica's Government Teacher.ā Sharon is also the host of the award-winning podcast, āHereās Where It Gets Interestingā, where, each week, she provides entertaining yet factual accounts of Americaās most fascinating moments and people. In all that she does, Sharon encourages others to be world-changing humans. She has led her community in various philanthropic initiatives that have raised more than $9 million for teachers, domestic violence survivors, terminally ill children, medical debt forgiveness programs, refugees, and more. In addition, she is the author of āThe Preambleā, a Substack newsletter about politics and history.
Join me on Facebook @TheRationalView and we shall rule the galaxy
Patron dot Podbean dot com slash TheRationalView
-
In this episode Iām going to be sharing with you an earlier interview with Dr. Micheal Levin that I found to be really mind bending. In it I wanted to explore the cellular basis of consciousness, and we delved into that a little bit, however the part that I found really interesting was his discussion of how cells work together and communicate to build macroscopic structures like bodies and hands, and maintain your shape over long time periods. I find it inspiring to realize how much we have yet to learn. Are individual cells conscious? How can this be? And If they are how does this cellular consciousness come together to form a unified experience in a single organism? Are human cells like ants in a colony? Is our mind a hive mind? I hope you enjoy this discussion.
Michael Levin received dual B.S. degrees (computer science and biology), followed by a Ph.D. (Harvard University). After post-doc training (Harvard Medical School), he started his independent lab at Forsyth Institute focusing on the biophysics of cell:cell communication during embryogenesis, regeneration, and cancer. In 2009 he moved his group to Tufts, where they use biophysical and computational approaches to study decision-making and basal cognition in cells, tissues, and synthetic living machines. Levin holds the Vannevar Bush chair, and directs the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts, working to crack the morphogenetic code for applications in regenerative medicine, bioengineering, and artificial intelligence. Recent work includes the modulation of native bioelectric circuits to control embryogenesis, regeneration, and cancer, and the creation of novel synthetic living proto-organisms.
Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView
Facebook comments appreciated @TheRationalView
-
In this episode Iām continuing to look at consciousness and cognition and the working memory that sets humans apart from all other animals. Human working memory can be roughly quantified to hold about 7 items at once in a sequence and allow conscious manipulation, consideration, and attention to about 4 of them at a time. These numbers are surprisingly consistent across all humans. The size of working memory in humans is much larger than in our nearest relatives the great apes. The ability to remember sequence information also seems to be unique.
Today Iām interviewing a researcher who studies the evolution of the human capacity for cognition. His vocabulary and working memory are both immense. I need to stretch my working memory to the limit just to parse some of his most elegant utterances. For example, in a recent exchange he opined the following gem: āHowever, as Karl Friston reminded us, the mathematical itinerancy of stochastic genetical and epigenetical mechanisms in ergodic systems can explain the appearances, disappearances, and reappearances of some technological outcomes of Early Pleistocene human behaviours from a far more rational scientific basis than can any self-justifying assertion that āabsence of evidence is not evidence of absenceā.ā
Professor emeritus Michael Walker is a paleoanthropologist with degrees in Medicine, Physiology, and Prehistoric Archaeology from Oxford University including his doctorate on the prehistoric physical anthropology and archaeology of the southeastern Spanish region of Murcia. He established systematic two important Palaeolithic excavation sites, one with fossil remains of fourteen Neanderthals in deep sediments with dates from 130,000 to 40,000 years ago, and a very much older site dating to between 900,000 and 772,000 years ago where he discovered burning in the cave, as well as abundant stone artefcts among which is the earliest stone hand-axe from Europe. The unique hand-axe reawakened Dr. Walkerās interest in neuroscience and, in particular, about how cognition might lead to surprising manual behaviour that was not passed on culturally. This hypothesis, based on the Free Energy Principle, has implications on the evolution of human cognition and calls into question time-honoured interpretations by anthropologists about human cultural transmission.
Add your two cents on Facebook @TheRationalView
If you like me to keep doing this send more than two cents to patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView
-
In this episode Iām going back to look at consciousness and cognition, and specifically one aspect of our mental capacity that sets us apart from other animals. Itās our ability to recall items in a sequence, for those of you who are software buffs, basically we have a short term memory buffer that acts like a linked list. We can remember a list of numbers (about 7 or so), or letters, or items in a particular order over a short timespan if we are not too distracted. This capability is called working memory.
Working memory can be roughly quantified to hold about 7 items at once in a sequence and allow conscious manipulation, consideration, and attention to about 4 of them at a time. These numbers are surprisingly consistent across all humans.
The size of working memory in humans is much larger than in our nearest relatives the great apes. The ability to remember sequence information also seems to be unique.
Some scientists speculate that the evolution of working memory is what separates humans intellectually from other intelligent animals. Working memory capacity is strongly correlated with fluid intelligence.
HĆ©ctor Manrique: graduated in Psychology in 1999, then he started his scientific career by studying ethanol metabolism in the brain and its effect on memory in rodents and got his PhD in Psychobiology in 2005. Hmm sounds a lot like my graduate work inadvertently studying the effects of alcohol on my brain. In 2008 he joined The Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig, Germany) where he investigated the cognition of the four species of great apes. After having occupied different positions in several Spanish universities he currently holds a professorship in Developmental Psychology at Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain.
Support The Rational View at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView
Throw in your 2 cents on Facebook @TheRationalView
-
This episode is a rant about why people donāt have time to become better informed about the issues. It is about why people are rushed. It is about why people feel mistreated by the system. The Rational View is going to rant about inequity and highlight the growing resentment amongst the struggling middle class at the elite robber barons of capitalism.
Capitalism is about greed. It is about gloves-off below-the-belt big-stack bullying that pretends it provides a level playing field. Iām no communist. I believe that a well regulated market system is probably the best way that we know of to efficiently distribute goodsā¦But Iām not taken in by the rich ponces who have been pushing the big lie that lack of market regulation and union busting is good for us. If you are too young to recall the collapse of the entire capitalist system due to under-regulation, I will remind you of 2008 and the sub-prime mortgage collapse where the government spent trillions of dollars to pay off the bad bets made by the Wall Street elite financial class. Our current system is capitalism for the masses and socialism for the rich. Its a system that is happy to grind away the earnings of lower and middle class citizens and to keep them fighting for table scraps, but if Biff is about to miss a yacht payment the government is only more than happy to give his bank a few hundred million dollars of quantitative easing to help their bottom line. My interview with Naomi Oreskes on her book the Big Myth is an eye opener that I highly recommend.
Support the podcast at patron.podbean.com/TheRationalView
Add your voice on Facebook @TheRationalView
-
This episode is one of my favorite interviews. A great chat that was part of my series on consciousnessāare we biological robots? Iām getting into some real science talking to a biophysicist who brings the esoteric world of quantum mechanics to bear on the topic. His groundbreaking work in the lab provides us with some real measurements that provide tantalizing hints at the previously unknown quantum processes tied to consciousness.
Dr. Luca Turin was born in 1953 in Beirut, Lebanon, to Italian-Argentinian parents and was brought up in France, Italy and Switzerland. He studied Physiology and Biophysics at University College London, PhD in 1978. Dr. Turin worked at the CNRS 1982-92, then became a lecturer in Biophysics at UCL 1992-2000. He is best known for his work on olfaction, in which he proposed a quantum mechanism for odorant recognition by receptors. For 8 years he was CTO of a venture company designing odorants for fragrance and flavors with a success rate 100 times the industry average. After returning to full time research in 2009, in collaboration with Makis Skoulakis in Athens, Greece, he has shown that both flies and humans can detect molecular vibrations by smell. His current interest is in quantum electronics in neuroscience. He is the author of three perfume guides, a collection of essays and a popular science book on how smell works. He is currently a Professor in the Medical School at the University of Buckingham (UK).
Join the Facebook discussion @TheRationalView
Twitter @AlScottRational
Instagram @The_Rational_View
- Mostrar más
