Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Big Bang Productions Inc.
Steven Pinker on Cancel Culture, Common Knowledge & AI
50 minutes Posted Sep 24, 2025 at 8:34 pm.
Intro
When common knowledge is wrong
The role of common knowledge in social
Free will and determinism
Judging a book by its cover
Government suppression and common knowledge
The agree to disagree theorem
Generosity and charity in human affairs
The role of common knowledge in religious
LLMs and common knowledge
Outro
0:00
50:59
Download MP3
Show notes
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In this episode, Steven Pinker unpacks how common knowledge shapes everything from why rational people can’t agree to disagree to why markets boom and bust. We explore the risks of falsifying expert claims, the power of social norms, and whether civilization is held together by truths—or by the fictions we all agree to share.
Key Takeaways: 
coordination 
beliefs 
Additional resources: 
📚 When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows… by Steven Pinker: ⁠https://a.co/d/bKJzohi⁠ 
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Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known.
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