Human Nature with Roni Fouks

Nir Minerbi and Amir Naveh are two of the founders of a quantum computing company called Classiq.  So it turns out, quantum computing is a thing. Quantum computing is an exciting new approach that integrates computers as we know them today with the principles of quantum physics.   An important distinction between the classic Newtonian physics and quantum physics is that, in Newtonian physics, thin...

How do words shape our thoughts and our reality? How can changing one word dramatically impact people's opinions? What really is the importance of being precise in your speech? Orly studies psycholinguistics, which is the meeting place between psychology and linguistic studies. In particular, she researches how language can affect our attitudes, emotions, and responses. We spoke about the res...

What makes some people resilient, and others not? How can we make psychology scalable?  Prof. Danny Hamiel is a clinical psychologist by trade and a researcher. Danny's bigger picture is to promote well-being on a larger scale. He is the head of the Cognitive-Behavioral unit in the Tel-Aviv university mental health center and is the director of the unit for school interventions at the Cohen-H...

How are game theory, math, and values related? In this episode, we spoke about Game Theory and its different applications in real life with Prof. Eilon Solan from Tel Aviv University. Eilon holds a PhD in Mathematics from the Hebrew university. Besides his fascination with math, Eilon is also a fan of sci-fi and he authored two science fiction books in Hebrew. One of the topics we spoke about is t...

How can insights from political psychology help us improve the debate between the right and the left?  In this episode we spoke with Prof. Gilad Hirschberger, an experimental social and political psychologist who studies collective threats and their relevance to group survival concerns and to intergroup relations. Based on a multidimensional existential threat (MET) model that he developed, he stu...

Have you ever asked yourself, "Do I really have free-will? Or is everything that happens already pre-determined"? If so, you're in luck. In this episode we spoke with Prof. Daniel Levy, a cognitive neuroscientist and the dean of the school of Psychology at IDC. Daniel's research focuses on understanding the processes of the human mind, specifically on different aspects of memor...

Are we rational? Are we as moral as we think we are? Can we really trust ourselves to make rational ethical decisions?  In this episode, we have Dr. Guy Hochman, who is a senior lecturer and the head of the MA program in Behavioral Economics  at Reichman University. Guy received his PhD in organizational psychology from the Technion university and then went on to complete his post-doctorate at Duk...

In this episode, we spoke with  Prof. Shimon Shocken, the founding dean of the school of Computer Science at Reichman University. After being a tenured professor at NYU for 10 years, Shimon came back to Israel to take part in building a new academic institution from scratch. Over the years, Shimon was also a visiting professor at Harvard and Stanford, and served as chairman of the Computer Science...