Piece Description

In this ThoughtCast hour, science writer Jim Holt takes us on a jaunty tour of being and nothingess, existence and emptiness, quantum tunneling and the uncertainty principle. The author of Stop Me If You’ve Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes, Holt lends his wit to a dissection of the puzzle of existence, which happens to be the topic of his forthcoming book. A frequent contributor to The New York Times and other publications, Holt approaches his subject with a personal, philosophical and scientific point of view.
The program then turns to the enigma that is our economy -- and to the mentality and motives that led us to this mess, in a discussion with MIT economics professor James Poterba, who also heads the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Then Jonah Lehrer, the author of Proust was a Neuroscientist, and most recently of How We Decide, picks up on this theme, and examines the science of decision making, the power of wishful thinking to hijack our reason, and the potential to retrain the brain via the mind… And to wrap things up, Harvard economist Alberto Alesina adds his perspective on the "dopamine economy"!