Jan 24, 2021

Chris and Jonathan discuss expertise and intellectual humility with Alan Levinovitz, a professor of religion, frequent guest on A User’s Guide to Cheating Death, and the author of the book Natural. As facts, arguments, and content flood our attention, how can we know whom to trust when our health is at stake? This month’s drinking game revolves around the word “adjudicate.” Drink responsibly!

1:11 The Anthony Fauci lie

2:14 A theologian on expertise

9:12 Tribalism

16:04 John Ioannidis and COVID-19

21:34 ScientificConsensus.com

26:09 The onslaught of contrarian content

32:30 People should be suspicious of sexiness in their epidemiology

35:25 When your job is to uncover hidden truths….

39:30 A looming epistemic crisis and how to avoid it

49:16 On intellectual humility

57:33 Twitter hiatus

* Theme music: “Fall of the Ocean Queen“ by Joseph Hackl.

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Links:

1) Alan Levinovitz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlanLevinovitz

2) Alan Levinovitz’s book, Natural: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/50128614

3) Thorpe’s Science editorial on the value of debating science in the public arena: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6526/213/tab-pdf