educationNov 2, 20161:26:46pending

Steven Pinker on Language, Reason, and the Future of Violence (Live at Mason)

Get every episode summarized

Each time Conversations with Tyler publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

About this episode

Steven Pinker has spent an entire academic career thinking deeply about language, cognition, and human nature. Driving it all, he says, is an Enlightenment belief that the world is intelligible, science can progress, and through rational inquiry we can better understand ourselves.

He recently joined Tyler for a conversation not only on the power of reason, but also the economics of irrational verbs, whether violence will continue to decline, behavioral economics, existential threats, the merits of aerobic exercise, photography, group selection, Fermi's paradox, Noam Chomsky, universal grammar, free will, the Ed Sullivan show, and why people underrate the passive (or so it is thought).

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow Steven on Twitter
Email us: [email protected]
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.

Get every episode summarized

Each time Conversations with Tyler publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.

Email me new episodes

Free for 3 shows. No card needed.

Know when Steven Pinker turns up

Follow Steven Pinker and once a week we email you every new episode they appeared on — including guest spots the show notes never mention, because we read the transcript.

Follow Steven Pinker

Free. Pick your own day and time.

Or alert me on every mention of this name →