Curiosity Porn

Sociologist Joel Best--Mr. Halloween, himself!--joins James and Guy to calm our worst societal fears! Kids aren't getting dumber, crime is not getting worse, psychotic neighbors are not poisoning your children's Halloween candy, and "social construction" is not a bad word. We are, however, generally pretty bad at math.

Artificial Intelligence Professor, Michael Hanegan, joins James and Guy to discuss how AI will affect work, learning, medicine, education, and more!

Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus joins Guy and special guest co-host Jerry Green to talk about misremembering, rich false memories, the Satanic Panic, deep fakes, lifetime movies, and getting swatted with a magazine by a woman on an airplane.

Political scientist Emily Stacey and historian Aaron Bachhoffer discuss the history of subversive humor concerning race and sexual orientation. Also, check out Dr. Stacey's podcast Not My Generation: https://notmygeneration.captivate.fm/

The hosts of the podcast Decoding the Gurus join James and Guy to talk about galaxy brain, pseudo-profound bullshit, and Jordan Peterson.

In this episode, Guy and James visit with Dr. Benjamin Goldman, assistant professor of economics at Cornell University, regarding his research into economic mobility. In addition to his position at Cornell, Dr. Goldman is a research affiliate with Opportunity Insights, the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities and EdRedesign. Their conversation focuses on research Dr. Goldman conducted wit...

James and Guy look back on the episodes they've done so far--the good, the bad, and the ugly. Find out who their dream guests would be, what they're still curious about, and their favorite guest answer to their special question.

In this episode, Dr. Bryan Caplan, economist at George Mason University, discusses his book, The Case Against Education, with Guy & James. Caplan explains why he thinks most of the gains from education are from signaling rather than human capital development, and how this distorts the education process. Along the way, we also discuss Caplan's views on immigration and why he has developed a pre...

Have you ever hesitated to share something because you were afraid people wouldn't understand? Or, worse, that they would understand but would punish you for it? This is episode is for you! Philosopher Emily McWilliams from the University of Dayton joins James and Guy to discuss a variety of ways that people can suffer communicative injustices.

In this episode, Dr. Robert Litan, co-Author of "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism" and "Better Capitalism," discusses why economic growth remains an important priority, why not all forms of capitalism are created equal, and why we need a continuous entrepreneurial revolution. Along the way, Dr. Litan shares his thoughts on the role immigration plays in spurring innovation and economic growth, the i...

Philosopher Jerry Green joins us to talk about how hard it is to define conspiracy theories, what attracts people to conspiracy theories, and whether James and Guy should start producing children's programming.

Dylan Pahman is the Executive Editor of the Journal of Markets & Morality and a research fellow at the Acton Institute. He joins us to discuss the the work of the Acton Institute in exploring and promoting the relationship between religion and liberty. Along the way we learn why he thinks St. John of Damascus is the greatest theologian and why Adam Smith gets misunderstood. He and Guy also hav...

Part 2 of our discussion with Jerry Muller. Dr. Muller tells us a variety of ways that obsessing over measuring things leads to very bad outcomes - for schools, for healthcare, for policing, and more! Dr. Muller also tells us how metrics ruined Jordan Peterson (kind of).

This is the first of a two-part episode in which Guy and James visit with Dr. Jerry Muller, professor emeritus of history at the Catholic University of America, regarding two of his books. In this episode, Dr. Muller explores some of the themes and ideas in his book "The Mind and the Market" - an intellectual history of capitalism. We discuss the criticisms leveled at capitalism by thinkers on bot...

Christopher Freiman, Professor of General Business at West Virginia University, joins us to discuss several political ideas people think are just obviously true, but are they? We discuss selling votes, selling citizenship rights, billionaires, paying attention to politics, and a universal basic income.

James and Guy Discuss James' article, We Hate Each Other. Link to James' article: https://nondoc.com/2023/08/21/we-hate-each-other-growing-incivility-undermines-the-values-of-our-democracy/ Perry Bacon - Democrats are Wrong about Republicans. Republicans are Wrong about Democrats: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/democrats-are-wrong-about-republicans-republicans-are-wrong-about-democrats/ Mern...

The philosopher Amy Olberding joins us to discuss her book The Wrong of Rudeness and explains why some ancient Chinese philosophers had a much better handle on the importance of manners than we in the West do now.

In this episode, Guy and James visit with author Micah Leydorf about her new book, "The Unseen Battle: An Unexpected Love Story." We find out what led her to become an author, the misperceptions of authors getting rich off their books, and some of her criticisms of the American Church. We also discuss the resurgence of interest in marriage and family in the U.S. Along the way, we discover why Mica...

In this episode Guy and James break down a report issued by Slack Technologies a few years ago discussing the importance of having "aligned workers." While the report makes the argument that aligned workers are more productive, more satisfied with their work, and are better for the bottom line, Guy and James aren't sure it actually demonstrates all of this. They also compare it to a Gallup Survey...

James and Guy are joined by former law enforcement officers, Kyle and Gary Eastridge. Kyle and Gary share what it was like to be police officers during the height of the Satanic Panic hysteria when the public was convinced that Satanists were sacrificing babies by the thousands. For more of Gary's and Kyle's fantastic stories, check out the Eastridge Family Cop Tales & True Crime Podcast. To l...

In this episode, Guy and James discuss Guy's recently accepted paper on the Satanic Panic. The panic was a moral panic that extended from the 1970's to the early 1990's. During this conversation, Guy explains what moral panics are, how they emerge, and how motivated reasoning contributes to them. They then look at the Satanic Panic in particular - something both have direct experience with (yes th...

Co-Hosts Guy and James have a fun Conversation with Dr. Michael Munger. Dr. Munger is the director of the Politics, Philosophy & Economics program at Duke University, the author of multiple books (including "Is Capitalism Sustainable" and "Tomorrow 3.0" which we discuss in this episode), and the host of the podcast "The Answer is Transaction Costs." We discuss how capitalism tends to deteriora...

Dr. Anthony Fowler is a Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. His Research interests include unequal political participation, electoral selection and incentives, political polarization, and the credibility of empirical research. He is the author of "Thinking Clearly with Data" and co-host of "Not Another Politics Podcast." In this episode, Guy and Crain inte...

Hosts Guy Crain (Professor of Philosophy and James Davenport (Professor of Political Science) want to turn you on - intellectually speaking, that is. In this pilot episode of curiosity porn, we'll explain what that is, what we'll be exploring in this show, and how the word "porn" has been applied to much more than just sex. This show is about satisfying your intellectual curiosity. So join us as w...

Hosts Guy Crain and James Davenport interview Dr. Samuel Perry, professor of sociology, at the University of Oklahoma regarding Christian Nationalism. Dr. Perry has written two books on the topic: Taking American Back for God (co-authored with Andrew Whitehead) and The Flag & the Cross (co-authored with Phillip Gorski). Guy and James dig into how Dr. Perry defines Christian Nationalism, how he...