My Idiot Brother Questions Everything

In this week's episode of  My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we investigate one of humanity's oldest traditions: loudly proclaiming a set of values while doing something completely different. Why do politicians campaign against corruption and then discover a sudden love for lobbyists and graft? Why do religious leaders preach humility while building empires? Why do environmentalists...

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects five different freedoms—but they all point to a deeper question: how should a free society handle disagreement? In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything we use critical thinking to unpack the logic behind those protections, why they were added to the United States Constitution through the Bill of Rights, and why underst...

Ignorance is usually framed as a lack of information. But what if it’s sometimes a management strategy? In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we examine willful ignorance — the deliberate avoidance of information that would create responsibility, liability, or uncomfortable change. The law doesn’t treat this lightly, and neither should we. Deliberately avoiding confirmation co...

Fear kept our ancestors alive. Today, it keeps us compliant. In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we explore fear as one of the most effective—and most abused—motivational tools in modern society. Using neuroscience, psychology, and real-world examples from religion, politics, business, health, and pop culture, we break down what fear does to the brain, why it shuts down crit...

What happens when a villain says something kind… and a hero says something ugly? In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we put our instincts on the stand and put vibes on trial. We start with some of the worst advice people swear by—“trust your gut,” “follow your heart,” and other phrases that sound profound right up until you think about them for ten seconds. Then we move to t...

Critical thinking is easy when the problem is abstract. It’s much harder when the problem is your life. In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we move critical thinking out of theory and into midlife—where decisions are shaped by fear, loyalty, identity, and incomplete information. Using a long, painful divorce as a case study, we examine how people reason when trust is comprom...

In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we take a serious, standards-based look at why conspiracy theories are so appealing, why they spread so easily, and why they tend to collapse under careful scrutiny. We start by clarifying what we’re not doing: this is not about mocking people or defending institutions by default. Skepticism is healthy. Curiosity is good. But skepticism wi...

In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we discuss why some people treat confidence like a résumé and disagreement like a personal attack. We examine narcissism and the Dunning–Kruger effect as recurring enemies of critical thinking. We talk swindling suitors, know-it-alls, and public figures who never met a fact they couldn’t ignore. The result is a conversation about how ego r...

We all like to think we follow the facts. In reality, we often follow our feelings — and then hire our brains as defense attorneys. In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we break down why otherwise rational people ignore overwhelming evidence in order to defend bad actors and bad causes. Using core critical-thinking concepts like Ockham’s razor, confirmation bias, cognitive di...

In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we dive into the wild world of religious truth claims—why some folks think they have the exclusive backstage pass to the universe, and why that confidence might have more to do with psychology than divine VIP status. We’ll look at confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, and the peculiar human habit of trusting feelings as if they were pee...

In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we ask "simple" questions about two of America’s most entertaining political mysteries: Does Donald Trump have something to hide about Jeffrey Epstein? And, did Hillary Clinton have something to hide in her email server saga? And instead of shouting about it on social media , we do something radical: we use critical thinking! We walk liste...

In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we ask one of humanity’s oldest and most uncomfortable questions: Can you make people good — or just scared of getting caught? From the Founding Fathers to Prohibition to today’s moral crusades, we dive into the messy business of legislating morality . Along the way, we’ll meet Thomas Jefferson the rationalist, a few witch-hunters who real...

Ever been in an argument that went absolutely nowhere? (Of course you have — you’re on the internet.) In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything , we dive into the hall of shame of bad arguments — the logical fallacies and rhetorical shortcuts that sound clever but collapse under the weight of critical thinking. From ad hominem attacks (“You’re just saying that because you’re a [add...

Ever been too embarrassed to ask a question, challenge a claim, or admit you might be wrong? Welcome to the world of shame — one of humanity’s oldest social control tools and a significant impediment to critical thinking. In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything, we dig into how shame hijacks our brains, narrows our reasoning, and keeps us quiet when we should speak up. From Galile...

In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything, we discuss Tribalism: it’s not just for cavemen with spears anymore. We dive into how our “team spirit” can hijack our brains and short-circuit critical thinking. We start in ancient Greece, where Sparta and Athens bickered like rival sports fans, then fast-forward to the tragic and deadly Hutu–Tutsi conflict to show how powerful—and danger...

In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything, we take things in new directions, far right and far left. Let's talk politics. Well, not really. Let's just talk politicians and how they can exemplify non-critical thinking and, at the same time, be quite effective. While we're at it, let's also talk about religion! Joking, sorta. We'll just compare some of the ways the major Western relig...

Ever hear someone brag about being a cynic? Well, listen in. It ain't nothin' to brag about - well, I mean, unless you don't like critical thinking! In this episode we discuss the differences between skepticism, cynicism, and denialism, and then add some color in the form of conspiracy theories. One of those terms is doing its own thing. Wanna guess which one? Well, it's skepticism, the good one a...

We all want to think clearly, right? But, what happens when our brain protects comfort more than the truth? We'll answer these questions, and more brain-busters, in this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything. We'll define cognitive dissonance and provide lots of examples of how we might experience it. Did you know it's natural and we all experience it? Well, you do now. We'll get into t...

Confirmation bias, ever heard of it? Well, listen in and we'll tell you all about it, at least how these two idiots understand the term. We'll define the term and give examples of how it shows up in our day-to-day from social media posts generated by malicious algorithms, to echo chambers, to political tribes, to healthcare conspiracies and overconfidence. We, again, use historical and contemporar...

In this episode, we define "critical thinking" as the ability to question; to acknowledge and test previously held assumptions; to recognize ambiguity; to examine, interpret, evaluate, reason, and reflect; to make informed judgments and decisions; and to clarify, articulate, and justify positions. We also miserably attempt to define the term in our own words. Then, we identify traits of critical t...

What's this podcast all about and who is my idiot brother? Well, tune in to this intro episode and we'll answer those questions and more. My Idiot Brother Questions Everything is brought to you by two brothers, undoubtedly, both idiots, but who are nonetheless passionate about critical thinking. While the podcast is singular in focus, the scope of discussions is broad. We talk about anything relat...