Introduction

In this week’s podcast, I interview linguist and psychologist Steven Pinker. Steve is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard and the author of thirteen books on language, cognition, psychology, evolutionary science, and writing. His books include The Language Instinct; How the Mind Works; The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined; Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress; Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters; and my two personal favourites: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature—which I read shortly after it was published in 2003 and which radically changed my view of the world and made me a Pinker fan for life; and The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, the best writing guide I’ve ever read. Today, we discuss his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. I hope you enjoy my interview with Steve Pinker.