Episode · People I (Mostly) Admire · 2025-09-27
Books mentioned on 167. The Secret of Humanity? It’s Common Knowledge.
Steven Pinker’s new book argues that all our relationships depend on shared assumptions and “recursive mentalizing” — our constant efforts to understand what other people are thinking. He and Steve talk about the psychology of eye contact, the particular value of Super Bowl ads, and what it’s like to get cancelled.
Steve Levitt discussed Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker and When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... by Steven Pinker.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Enlightenment Now
Discussed“Five years ago, we talked a lot about his book entitled Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.”
Where to get it
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When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...
Discussed“So, you got a new book out and it's called When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Plugged Rationality
“In a more recent book, Rationality, I tried to figure out what would seem to be obvious, namely that rationality is a good thing and science is a good thing.”
Plugged The Stuff of Thought
“I came to it from psychology in particular the psychology of language in a book that I wrote 15 years ago the stuff of thought language is a window into human nature”
Plugged Superfreakonomics
“I'm just reflecting on the most prominent attempt to cancel me which happened after Steven Dubin and I published super freconomics and we had a discussion of geoengineering.”
“Steven Pinker's latest book is called When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.”