Think with Pinker

The media fills our minds with vivid images of rare events from plane crashes to terrorist attacks. In his guide to thinking better, Professor Steven Pinker explores how we can stop the news from distorting our understanding of the world. He’s joined by: James Harding a former editor of The Times and director of BBC News, and now the co-founder of Tortoise Media.Anna Rosling Rutland, co-founder and vice president of the Gap Minder Foundation and co-author with Hans and Ola Rosling of “Factfulness; Ten Reasons Why We're Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think”Producers: Imogen Walford and Joe Kent Editor: Emma RipponThink with Pinker is produced in partnership with The open University

Decision making in the courtroom: In his guide to thinking better, Professor Steven Pinker explores the life and death choices made by judges and juries.To help him sift signals from noise, he’s joined by: Judge Nancy Gertner: former United States district judge and now professor of law at Harvard UniversityElizabeth Loftus; professor at the University of California and one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century Producer: Imogen Walford Editor Emma Rippon Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University.

The way we think makes us vulnerable to bad decision making, but in his guide to thinking better, Steven Pinker explores how we can exploit our cognitive biases to make better choices. Professor Pinker is joined by:Daniel Kahneman, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, Nobel Prize in Economics winner and author of “Thinking Fast and Slow” and “Noise A Flaw in Human Judgement” Robyn Scott, writer, entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Apolitical, a peer to peer learning platform for public servants designed to make government smarter and more effective. Producers: Imogen Walford and Joe Kent Editor: Emma Rippon Think with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University.

Making predictions can be hard, especially about the future. In his guide to thinking better, Professor Steven Pinker explores the cognitive flaws that hobble us as forecasters.He’s joined by Barbara Mellers, the George I. Heyman University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of the Good Judgement project, and by Thomas Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times and author of 'Thank You For Being Late: An optimist’s guide to living in the age of accelerations.’Together they’ll help you evaluate your ideas, your cognitive blind spots and maybe even think a little more accurately about the future. Producers: Imogen Walford and Joe Kent Editor: Emma RipponThink with Pinker is produced in partnership with The Open University.