Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

Read the full transcript here. When does productivity become toxic? To which part(s) of ourselves or our lives should we anchor our self-worth? How can we connect our productivity to our values? How does self-esteem intersect with productivity? When should we listen to our bodies and intuitions, and when should we ignore them and perhaps even do the opposite? How should achievements affect our sense of self-worth? What are some techniques for emotional regulation? What is the "narrator mind" useful for? What are some good coping mechanisms? How ambitious should we be? How can we figure out whether our own productivity system is toxic or not?Israa Nasir, MHC-LP, is a New York City-based psychotherapist, writer, and the founder of WellGuide — a digital community for mental health awareness. A Pakistani-Canadian child of immigrants, she has a specific focus on mental health, identity formation, and healing for the AAPI first- and second-generation immigrant community. Israa has been featured in NBC, Vox, Huffpost, Teen Vogue, and other major publications and has been invited to speak at corporations such as Google, Meta, and Yale University. Israa sits on the Mental Health Advisory Board for both PopSugar (Vox Media) and the menstrual health product and advocacy brand, August. Learn more about her at her website, israanasir.com.Further reading:Toxic Productivity: Reclaim Your Time and Emotional Energy in a World That Always Demands More, by Israa Nasir StaffSpencer Greenberg — Host / DirectorJosh Castle — ProducerRyan Kessler — Audio EngineerUri Bram — FactotumWeAmplify — TranscriptionistsMusicBroke for FreeJosh WoodwardLee RosevereQuiet Music for Tiny Robotswowamusiczapsplat.comAffiliatesClearer ThinkingGuidedTrackMind EasePositlyUpLift[Read more]

Read the full transcript here. Are the terms "psychopath" and "sociopath" interchangeable? Are people suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) naturally violent? Are people usually born with these psychopathy, sociopathy, ASPD, or other similar personality disorders; or are they caused by environmental factors? To what extent do sociopaths have a sense of self or relatively fixed personality? Are sociopaths easily manipulated? How do shame and guilt differ? What is "gray rage"? To what extent do the primary "dark" personality traits (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism) overlap? From an evolutionary perspective, why might these traits appear in a population? Can (and should) people cooperate altruistically with sociopaths? Why do we treat crimes of passion less harshly than premeditated crimes? (For example, why do people found guilty of sudden, impulsive murder usually receive lighter sentences than people found guilty of premeditated murder?) Are sociopaths more or less impulsive than the average person? How prevalent are antisocial personality disorders? Are sociopaths more likely to commit crimes than the average person? What factors motivate the average person to avoid unethical behaviors, and which of these factors do sociopaths lack? Do sociopaths lie about the same kinds of things as "normies"? Do sociopaths naturally enjoy hurting other people? Are sociopaths able to feel happiness? How do sociopaths' sexual behaviors and orientations differ from normies'? Since the majority of violent crime in the world is perpetrated by young men, is the average young man basically a sociopath or psychopath? How easily can sociopaths identify one another? If someone thinks they might be a sociopath (or have any of the other "dark" personality traits), what should they do? How should sociopaths be integrated into society?M.E. Thomas is a practicing attorney who has advocated for equal rights and a better understanding of psychopaths since being diagnosed with psychopathy in 2010. She is the author of the book Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight. You can find her at sociopathworld.com.Further reading:PsychopathyIs StaffSpencer Greenberg — Host / DirectorJosh Castle — ProducerRyan Kessler — Audio EngineerUri Bram — FactotumWeAmplify — TranscriptionistsMusicBroke for FreeJosh WoodwardLee RosevereQuiet Music for Tiny Robotswowamusiczapsplat.comAffiliatesClearer ThinkingGuidedTrackMind EasePositlyUpLift[Read more]

Read the full transcript here. How much more robust have the social sciences become since the beginnings of the replication crisis? What fraction of replication failures indicate that the original result was a false positive? What do we know with relative certainty about human nature? How much of a difference is there between how people behave in a lab setting and how they behave out in the world? Why has there been such a breakdown of trust in the sciences over the past few decades? How can scientists better communicate uncertainty in their findings to the public? To what extent are replication failures a problem in the other sciences? How useful is the Implicit Association Test (IAT)? What does it mean if someone can predict how they'll score on the IAT? How do biases differ from associations? What should (and shouldn't) the IAT be used for? Why do replications often show smaller effect sizes than the original research showed? What is the Lifecycle Journals project?Brian Nosek co-developed the Implicit Association Test, a method that advanced research and public interest in implicit bias. Nosek co-founded three non-profit organizations: Project Implicit to advance research and education about implicit bias, the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science to improve the research culture in his home discipline, and the Center for Open Science (COS) to improve rigor, transparency, integrity, and reproducibility across research disciplines. Nosek is Executive Director of COS and a professor at the University of Virginia. Nosek's research and applied interests aim to understand why people and systems produce behaviors that are contrary to intentions and values; to develop, implement, and evaluate solutions to align practices with values; and, to improve research credibility and cultures to accelerate progress. Connect with him on Bluesky or LinkedIn, or learn more about him on the COS website. StaffSpencer Greenberg — Host / DirectorJosh Castle — ProducerRyan Kessler — Audio EngineerUri Bram — FactotumWeAmplify — TranscriptionistsMusicBroke for FreeJosh WoodwardLee RosevereQuiet Music for Tiny Robotswowamusiczapsplat.comAffiliatesClearer ThinkingGuidedTrackMind EasePositlyUpLift[Read more]

Read the full transcript here. Why do we suffer? Would we still suffer if we got rid of all craving and aversion? Is pain the same thing as suffering? How is suffering connected to the concept of self? Should people in horrible situations attempt to remove themselves from those environments or try to improve their plights in any way; or should they merely free themselves from suffering by releasing their "craving" for well-being and their "aversion" to misery? Why would the dissolution of the self free someone from suffering? Are we identical to our bodies and/or minds? Is attention the same thing as the self? Is the concept of "no-self" analytical or empirical? How does "flow" differ from distraction? Is it irrational to pursue our own happiness without regard for others? How and where do Buddhist ethics overlap with the ethics taught by (e.g.) Abrahamic religions? What are the roles of meditators in Buddhist monasteries? What do Buddhists believe about god(s)? What do they believe about reincarnation? Is reincarnation different from rebirth? What is the role of the Buddha himself in Buddhism? Can these concepts be understood and/or experienced without meditating or studying Buddhist texts?Jay L. Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy and Buddhist Studies at Smith College, Visiting Professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University, and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; metaphysics; the history of modern Indian philosophy; topics in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of logic; the philosophy of the Scottish enlightenment methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. He is the author or editor of over 30 books and over 200 articles, chapters, and reviews. A few of his most recent books include How to Lose Yourself: An Ancient Guide to Letting Go (with Maria Heim and Robert Sharf 2024), Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live without a Self (2022), and Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse (with the Yakherds 2021), and Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021). Learn more about him at his website, jaygarfield.org. StaffSpencer Greenberg — Host / DirectorJosh Castle — ProducerRyan Kessler — Audio EngineerUri Bram — FactotumWeAmplify — TranscriptionistsMusicBroke for FreeJosh WoodwardLee RosevereQuiet Music for Tiny Robotswowamusiczapsplat.comAffiliatesClearer ThinkingGuidedTrackMind EasePositlyUpLift[Read more]