Jonathan Berk

speaker

579 appearances 6 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 13 Aug

Jonathan Berk’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 6 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.

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All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions · Rerun: Ep69 “The Science Behind Why We Don’t Just Say What We Mean” with Psychologist Steven Pinker - Part 1 · 15 Jul 2026 podcast

We decided to do the show.

because of Steve Pinker's latest book on the subject.

To begin with, let's just talk about what is common knowledge.

The book is.

So, what struck me about the book, and what made me think this was something we wanted to talk about on this podcast, is the way Steve Pinker starts the book out.

This idea of common knowledge, both Jules and I, we use it every day.

It's part of anybody who's ever worked in game theory.

But I think, speaking for myself, that Steve Pinker is right in saying.

That I thought of it as a mathematical construct, an assumption to make our models work.

I never considered it to be a central, important part of human behavior.

And what the book has convinced me of is that that's what it is.

That in fact, this idea of common knowledge is very important in human behavior.

So before we turn to Steve, I think it's best that we describe what

What common knowledge is and why it is so important for human behaviour.

And maybe Jonathan, we should just

I don't know that any other people know that the emperors were not wearing clothes.

Exactly.

So what I think we're gonna do, Jules, is let's introduce our guest now and speak about the specific cases when common knowledge can be useful and how does common knowledge affect everyday human behavior?

Our guest today is Stephen Pinker, who is the Johnston Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University.

He really needs no introduction.

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