Think It Through: the Clearer Thinking Podcast

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April discusses the false dilemma fallacy, in which a person attempts to persuade to you to choose between a limited number of options when there are actually more options available. Episode 21 Show Notes: Here's a great definition and discussion of the false dilemma fallacy: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/false-dilemma-fallacy-examples.html Another good...

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Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April discusses the importance of experts in society and why it's so hard for some people to trust them. And, as promised, she put lots of articles in the show notes below, because she wants you to trust her. Episode 20 Show Notes For science information that's both educational and entertaining, subscribe to Phil Plait's astronomy blog: https://www....

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April explains what skepticism is (and what it is NOT). She also discusses its importance in the scientific method, and shows how it can help you "trust the science." She also confesses that she is one of those annoying people who looks up stuff on Google to prove their spouses wrong. Episode 19 Show Notes: Richard Popkin's Britannica article on ske...

Send us Fan Mail Over the next three episodes (she only meant to do two episodes on the topic but it turned out she needed three!), April explains the connection between trust and critical thinking. In Part I, she discusses the importance of interpersonal trust, why it's so necessary, what can go wrong when we trust, and ways to avoid putting our trust in the wrong people. And she uses both &...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April outs herself as an optimist and spends a little over 12 minutes justifying her attitude. Episode 17 Show Notes: The American Psychological Association definiton of optimism: https://dictionary.apa.org/optimism Oxford Language Dictionary definition of optimism: https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/optimism Psychology Today's article on optimism: https://...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April talks with Ed Dentzel, host of the Unfound Podcast, which focuses on missing person cases with the stated goal of turning up new information that might lead to a resolution of the case. Ed discusses how he approaches each case, using research, interview skills, and good logic and reasoning to uncover information and present it to his listeners in a straightf...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April talks about inconsistency. While logical inconsistency is always wrong (it's known as the fallacy of inconsistency ), personal inconsistency is a little more complicated. When people say one thing and then later do or say another thing, we tend to think that's a bad thing (and we are certainly right, at least sometimes). But, because consistency is...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April and her friend John Champion,  co-host of "Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast," get all nerdy and philosophical about the ways in which the Trek triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy epitomize the Aristotelian proofs of ethos (appeal to authority), logos (appeal to logic), and pathos (appeal to emotion). Plus they reminisce about the good...

Send us Fan Mail April talks with Celestia Ward, one of the hosts of Squaring the Strange , a podcast that focuses on evidence-based analysis covering a very wide variety of topics. In this episode, April finds out how Celestia got started as a skeptical researcher; they also discuss some of the techniques Celestia uses to focus on finding facts while still acknowledging that she, like all of us,...

Send us Fan Mail April talks about one of the sneakiest fallacies, the misplaced burden of proof. Here's an example: Friend: George told me he's not getting the vaccine because it's dangerous. You: How do you know it's dangerous? Friend: I'm just telling you what George said. How do you know he's wrong? You: I...um...what? Here's what it is, and what to do when i...

Send us Fan Mail April begins Season 2 by talking about why we seem to be so angry these days, and what we can do to take it down a notch. Episode 11 Show Notes Here's Nancy Rommelmann's op-ed describing the fallout from the online outrage against her and her husband: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-rommelmann-me-too-portland-20190222-story.html Harvard's Elizabeth Barto...

Send us Fan Mail April's pretty excited for her upcoming season!

Send us Fan Mail April explains why we are all so bad at determining probability and risk. Well, maybe you're not, but she is. Anyway she talks about death a lot, which is a topic lots of people find interesting; but don't worry because she avoids the gory details. Unless you like the gory details, in which case...sorry about that. Episode 10 Show Notes An interesting probability calcula...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April uses the definition of “bullshit” described by American philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt in his seminal 1985 essay, “On Bullshit” to discuss its impact on our lives and ways to see through it. As you can probably tell, she also says “bullshit” a lot. Episode 9 Show Notes  I purchased the big red Bullshit Button that you hear in this episode from Amazon if you...

Send us Fan Mail In this short episode, April explains what mindfulness is and its potential use as a tool for better critical thinking. Episode 9 Show Notes The Niroga Institutes' definition of mindfulness: https://www.niroga.org/media/news/2019-what_is_mindfulness.php?gclid=Cj0KCQjw8rT8BRCbARIsALWiOvSf6DfTkjHq-ZMMjqbicowM3dtk3UC3huZgTbBZKCaOe-hLVlBxGwkaAjv8EALw_wcB The Happier Skeptic'...

Send us Fan Mail April discusses media literacy in a wide-ranging conversation with Shanna Gilkeson, a doctoral candidate in media and communication at Bowling Green State University. They talk about what does and doesn't work when applying traditional media literacy skills to today's media landscape. Shanna gives some great tips about how she approaches fact-checking, talks about how sh...

Send us Fan Mail April interviews journalism professor Jennifer (Jenny) Mitchell about today's media landscape. Topics include what qualifies as media, who owns giant media conglomerates, the difference between hard news and opinion pieces, professional journalists vs. citizen journalists and bloggers/vloggers, the ethical principles that professional journalists should follow, and the credib...

Send us Fan Mail April discusses Jonathan Haidt's "Moral Foundations Theory," that has its roots in evolutionary psychology and attempts to explain how we view politics and social policy. We use the same basic moral foundations to create our beliefs and opinions, but we interpret and layer them differently. When we recognize which of these foundations people are using to build their...

Send us Fan Mail In this short but important episode, April explains what the principle of charity is, how it seems to have been forgotten in today's discourse, and ways we can incorporate it into our face to face and online discussions. Show Notes: Jeff Stolle explains how the principle of charity fits into civil discourse: https://www.registerguard.com/story/business/names-faces/2020/06/02/...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, April discusses why fallacies are so powerful and persuasive, and gives examples of some common ones to show how prevalent they are in our lives. She talks to Stephanie Willes, who teaches COM and rhetoric at UNLV and is researching how online anti-vaccine communities use fallacies in their arguments to recruit and keep followers. Follow COMteacherapril on Faceboo...

Send us Fan Mail April explains one of the reasons why arguments can go "off the rails"--because the people involved are either unintentionally or deliberately arguing past each other. This happens when people think they are arguing about the same thing, but they are actually arguing different issues related to the topic.   April's Show Notes for Episode 2: Here's a basic expla...

Send us Fan Mail In the premiere episode, April begins by NOT talking about critical thinking at all! Instead, she discusses some of the reasons why clear thinking is so difficult. Topics include: Feelings as a prelude to thoughts How our brains utilize heuristics, and how they sometimes don't work in our favor Cognitive biases that lead us to incorrect conclusions about the world Using delib...

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