{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6462652801a21a001146cc01/6462652e10dbac0011c22cc0?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Is Democracy Rational? A conversation with Steven Pinker","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6462652801a21a001146cc01/show-cover.png?height=200","description":"<p>Human beings routinely make terrible choices but humanity still achieves amazing things.</p><p>How does this paradox work?</p><p>And is it still working when technology seems to amplify the worst in us.</p><p>In this episode, Politics on the Couch host Rafael Behr talks to Professor Steven Pinker about the constant struggle between evidence and emotion for control of the political agenda; whether truth and fact are winning the long war against superstition and falsehood, and why rationality always has the last word.</p><p>Professor Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and the author of a number of highly acclaimed and prize-winning books about psychology, cognitive science, linguistics and history.</p><p>His latest book Rationality: What it is; why it seems scarce; why it matters was published in September.</p><p><a href=\"https://stevenpinker.com/publications/rationality-what-it-why-it-seems-so-scarce-and-why-it-matters\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://stevenpinker.com/publications/rationality-what-it-why-it-seems-so-scarce-and-why-it-matters</a></p><p><strong>More about Steven Pinker:</strong></p><p><a href=\"https://stevenpinker.com/biocv\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://stevenpinker.com/biocv</a></p><p><strong>Other books by Steven Pinker mentioned in episode </strong></p><p><strong>The Better Angels of our Nature </strong></p><p><a href=\"https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-nature\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://stevenpinker.com/publications/better-angels-our-nature</a></p><p><strong>Enlightenment Now </strong> <a href=\"https://stevenpinker.com/publications/enlightenment-now-case-reason-science-humanism-and-progress\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://stevenpinker.com/publications/enlightenment-now-case-reason-science-humanism-and-progress</a></p><p>A couple of references in this episode that might be useful as further reading.</p><p>Michael Ignatieff’s book Fire and Ashes, about a failed career in politics</p><p><a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/27/michael-ignatieff-fire-ashes-review\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/27/michael-ignatieff-fire-ashes-review</a></p><p>Jonathan Rauch’s book The Constitution of Knowledge, about the crisis of trust in institutions</p><p><a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/26/the-constitution-of-knowledge-review-jonathan-rauch-trump\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/26/the-constitution-of-knowledge-review-jonathan-rauch-trump</a></p><p>Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Top 25 Political Science Podcasts on the web.</p><p><a href=\"https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts</a></p><p><a href=\"https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts</a></p><p><br></p>","author_name":"Larchmont Productions"}