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Subscribe, Rate, & Review on YouTube • Spotify • Apple PodcastsThis week I speak with New York Times best-selling author and creative technologist Robin Sloan about the themes of his inimitable novel Moonbound, one of those reads that wrapped me in a vortex of wonder and synchronicity, and raises questions like:Where is the line between technology and magic?What is a computer, really, and do humans qualify?How wrong might we be about the future?How do stories shape reality, and what happens when we have to make room for the stories of the more-than-human world?A crucial point of note: this is “hard science fiction”, but it's not the kind you're used to. At a time when even the most square, prosaic suits are quick to quote Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law, it is appropriate that sci-fi as a kind of thinking-through of our condition would reflect the cultural retrieval of premodern tropes like wizards, dragons, talking animals, and sacred swords.What follows is a rich discussion of how Robin and I both enjoy traversing and interrogating those familiar boundaries between the lost and found, the sensible and the ineffable, wildness and city, born and created, sleep and waking, care and power…Project LinksLearn more about this project and read the essays so far (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).Make tax-deductible donations to Humans On The LoopBrowse the HOTL reading list and support local booksellersJoin the Holistic Technology & Wise Innovation Discord serverJoin the private Future Fossils Facebook groupHire me for consulting or advisory workChapters0:00:00 – Teaser0:01:38 – Intro0:06:50 – Robin's Story0:08:35 – The Care and Feeding of AI0:13:38 – Magical Technologies vs. The (Other) Powers of Nature0:21:46 – Persistent Wildness in The Post-Apocalyptic Future0:28:57 – Mapping Everything & Getting Lost0:32:30 – The City of Transformation: Ephemeropoli from Burning Man to Rath Varia0:37:48 – Tuning Longevity to the Duration of our Interests0:41:49 – The Loss of Self in Data & The Metamorphic Self0:49:02 – Beaver Governance is Better Governance0:54:23 – Living Robots & Sleeping Institutions in Liquid Modernity1:02:16 – How Do We Keep Healthy Rhythms While Scaling?1:10:35 – Life at The College of Wyrd1:18:01 – Recommendations for Good Discussion & Book Takeaways1:23:09 – Thanks & OutroMentionsEliot Peper (Re: FF 47, 115)Eliot Peper's interview with Robin Sloan, “Binding The Moon”Gordon Bell's MyLifeBitsTim Morton's Hell: In Search of A Christian EcologyThe Long Now FoundationKevin Kelly's “The Expansion of Ignorance” (Re: FF 128, 165, 204)Star WarsTyson Yunkaporta (Re: FF 172)Adventure TimeThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of The KingdomMichael Crichton's Jurassic ParkJack VanceM. John HarrisonHerbert SimonJames C. Scott's Seeing Like A StateRichard Doyle's Darwin's PharmacyKim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (Red, Green, Blue)Neil Gaiman's Long Now talk “How Stories Last”Jonathan Rowson/Perspectiva's antidebateThe Templeton FoundationZygmunt Bauman's Liquid ModernityAlexander RoseJohan Chu & James Evans's “Slowed Canonical Progress in Large Fields of Science”Michael Garfield's “The King Is Dead, Long Live The King: Festivals, Science, and Economies of Scale”Erik Hoel's “The Overfitted Brain”JF Martel (Re: FF 18, 71, 126, 214)Phil Ford (Re: FF 126, 157, 214)Erik Davis (Re: FF 99, 132, 141)The WeirdosphereBell LabsMagic: The GatheringComplexity Podcast 42: “Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West on Calling Bullshit”Inna Semetsky's “Information and Signs: The Language of Images”The I ChingPhilip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass)Iain McGilchristClaire EvansJames BridleQuanta Magazine This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe
Deze keer is Ionica Smeets te gast. Ze is hoogleraar wetenschapscommunicatie aan de Universiteit Leiden en we spreken met haar over haar vakgebied en in het bijzonder over misleidende grafieken. Pepijn van Erp dook in het onderzoek naar de invloed van gewelddadige videogames op het gedrag van jongeren en tenslotte denken we na over een politieke partij die zijn standpunten helemaal op wetenschap zou baseren.Natuurlijk weer onder de bezielende leiding van Richard Engelfriet!Reacties, suggesties en tips zijn welkom op podcast@skepsis.nlBoekentips:John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed. Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, (2023)Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World (2021)Videogames en geweldChristopher J. Ferguson, Video Game Violence and Pseudoscience: Bad Science, Fear, and Politics, Skeptical Inquirer (2014)Simone Kühn et al, Does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention study, Nature Mol Psych (2019)APA Resolution on Violent Video Games (2015) - pdfGesprek met Ionica SmeetsEigen websiteExistential Comics, Socratic Hostage NegotiationsNationaal Expertisecentrum Wetenschap & Samenleving Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
To its disciples, science can seem like an infallible tool to determine fundamental truths about the world that we live in. But the truth is, science can fall victim to misinformation, disinformation and fraud, like many other institutions. Some scientists have turned the proverbial microscope on science itself. Jevin West, an associate professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, and co-founder and inaugural director of the Center for an Informed Public at UW, visited the University of Nevada, Reno for a Discover Science lecture and was hosted on the Discover Science podcast by associate professor of statistics Paul Hurtado, and Madeleine Lohman, master's and doctoral student in the Department of Statistics and Data Science and the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology program. The three discuss issues related to trust in science, education about how to identify trustworthy information for people as young as kindergarteners to the elderly and how taking an interdisciplinary approach is critical to making progress in the information sciences.
Soundside host Libby Denkmann talks to a panel of experts about Open A.I.'s Sora. What are the potential impacts of highly realistic text-to-video apps on our politics and the creative economy?Guests:Cade Metz, a technology reporter at the New York Times who covers artificial intelligence.Erin Heidenreich, a filmmaker and director of the documentary films “The War To Be Her” & “Rising Sons.”Jevin West, an associate professor at the University of Washington's Information School and a co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public.We can only make Soundside because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW:https://www.kuow.org/donate/soundside
The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science
Today's guest is Professor Carl Bergstrom from the University of Washington. Carl has been touring Australia over the last few weeks and we were delighted when he agreed to join us while he was in Melbourne. Carl works across evolutionary biology, informatics and science studies and has become particularly well-known for his work concerning the spread of misinformation and what we can do about it. Together with his colleague Jevin West, Carl developed a university course named ‘Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World', which they have since developed into a best selling book. In this episode Carl discusses a range of topics including the role institutional norms and incentive structures play in shaping science, the challenges of studying misinformation and why he believes we must urgently turn our collective attention to the study of collective human behaviour if we hope to address our current information crisis.Transcript of the episode available here: https://www.hpsunimelb.org/post/carl-bergstrom-transcript-s2-ep9 Resources related to the episode:Carl's Website: https://ctbergstrom.com/'Calling Bullshit' Website: https://callingbullshit.org/Guardian Article: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/aug/01/carl-bergstrom-people-are-using-data-to-bullshitThanks for listening to The HPS Podcast with your current hosts, Samara Greenwood and Carmelina Contarino.You can find more about us on our blog, website, bluesky, twitter, instagram and facebook feeds. This podcast would not be possible without the support of School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne.www.hpsunimelb.org
Heather Lalley, Winsight Grocery Business, on the Kroger-Albertson's merger // Feliks Banel, All Over the Map -- Mount Rainier, Maryland // Kathryn Stone on the How St. stairs assaults/ 911 text surveys // Margaret Brennan on the DOJ subpoena of Mike Pence // Dose of Kindness -- Dancing Grannies // Gee Scott on NOT watching the Super Bowl/ locking groceries behind glass // Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, UW, on emerging A.I. programsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We humans make a lot of decisions. Apparently, 35,000 of them every day! So how do we improve our decisions? Is there a process to follow? Who are the experts to learn from? Do big data and AI make decisions easier or harder? Is there any way to get better at making decisions in this complex, modern world we live in?To dig into these questions we talked with…ourselves! We recently published our first book, Make Better Decisions: How to Improve Your Decision-Making in the Digital Age. In this book, we've provided a guide to practicing the cognitive skills needed for making better decisions in the age of data, algorithms, and AI. Make Better Decisions is structured around 50 nudges that have their lineage in scholarship from behavioral economics, cognitive science, computer science, decision science, design, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. Each nudge prompts the reader to use their beautiful, big human brain to notice when our automatic decision-making systems will lead us astray in our complex, modern world, and when they'll lead us in the right direction.In this conversation, we talk about our book, our favorite nudges at the moment, and some of the Great Minds who we have interviewed on Artificiality including Barbara Tversky, Jevin West, Michael Bungay Stanier, Stephen Fleming, Steven Sloman and Tania Lombrozo.If you enjoy our podcasts, please subscribe and leave a positive rating or comment. Sharing your positive feedback helps us reach more people and connect them with the world's great minds.Learn about our book Make Better Decisions and buy it on AmazonSubscribe to get Artificiality delivered to your emailLearn more about Sonder StudioThanks to Jonathan Coulton for our music This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit artificiality.substack.com
We talk about our elections with new WA Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and discuss election security, how to vote, important dates and more. Then UW professor Jevin West updates us on the misinformation and disinformation surrounding the 2022 elections. More info at aarp.org/wavotes.
Every generation reaches a point where they claim that discourse has gone to hell. But that doesn't mean we're going to miss out on our chance to complain about it as well.Carl Bergstrom is a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington. Though trained in evolutionary biology and mathematical population genetics, Carl is perhaps best known for working across disciplines and integrating ideas across natural and social sciences. Recently, Carl teamed up with Jevin West to launch the Calling Bullshit project, developing a website and course materials for teaching quantitative reasoning and information literacy. That project then grew into Carl's latest book, “Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World.”Carl and Greg sit down and talk about critical thinking, identifying misinformation in a world where it flows so freely, the psychology of debunking and teaching bullshit detection.Episode Quotes:What does the future of calling bullshit look likeWe do need to catch up to the realities of the environment that we live in and we need to adapt the way that our education system works to the way that our culture is changing. And I think absolutely we need to teach some media literacy that involves thinking about social media. We need to be deliberate in teaching critical thinking. We need to teach concepts like lateral reading so that people know how to look into that. Data driven bullshitSo much of the bullshit is data-driven today because the world is so intensely quantified both through the prevalence of all kinds of sensing in the world that we live in, ambient sensors and everything else being recorded and monitored, but also because of this intensely online nature of our lives. That generates a tremendous amount of data about what we're interested in, what we want to buy, where we want to go, who we want to date.Who can we trust for news now?Even if you know, I pick up my iPhone and hit the news app in the morning and I have a couple of intelligent analyses from various places. But, you know, as we talk about, somebody got a lip job, and then there's nine cats that look like Disney princesses, and they're all head to head. And as good of a person as I try to be, you got to see those cats. This kind of is a race to the bottom if you will.Show Links:Guest Profile:Faculty Profile at University of WashingtonCarl Bergstrom's WebsiteCarl Bergstrom on LinkedInCarl Bergstrom on TwitterCarl Bergstrom on InstagramHis Work:Carl Bergstrom on Google ScholarDetecting Bullshit Article on Science.orgCalling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven WorldEvolution
Context is king: whether in language, ecology, culture, history, economics, or chemistry. One of the core teachings of complexity science is that nothing exists in isolation — especially when it comes to systems in which learning, memory, or emergent behaviors play a part. Even though this (paradoxically) limits the universality of scientific claims, it also lets us draw analogies between the context-dependency of one phenomenon and others: how protein folding shapes HIV evolution is meaningfully like the way that growing up in a specific neighborhood shapes educational and economic opportunity; the paths through a space of all possible four-letter words are constrained in ways very similar to how interactions between microbes impact gut health; how we make sense both depends on how we've learned and places bounds on what we're capable of seeing.Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I'm your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we'll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.This week on Complexity, we talk to Yale evolutionary biologist C. Brandon Ogbunu (Twitter, Google Scholar, GitHub) about the importance of environment to the activity and outcomes of complex systems — the value of surprise, the constraints of history, the virtue and challenge of great communication, and much more. Our conversation touches on everything from using word games to teach core concepts in evolutionary theory, to the ways that protein quality control co-determines the ability of pathogens to evade eradication, to the relationship between human artists, algorithms, and regulation in the 21st Century. Brandon works not just in multiple scientific domains but as the author of a number of high-profile blogs exploring the intersection of science and culture — and his boundaryless fluency shines through in a discussion that will not be contained, about some of the biggest questions and discoveries of our time.If you value our research and communication efforts, please subscribe to Complexity Podcast wherever you prefer to listen, rate and review us at Apple Podcasts, and/or consider making a donation at santafe.edu/give. You'll find plenty of other ways to engage with us at santafe.edu/engage.Thank you for listening!Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.Follow us on social media:Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedInDiscussed in this episode:“I do my science biographically…I find a personal connection to the essence of the question.”– C. Brandon Ogbunugafor on RadioLab"Environment x everything interactions: From evolution to epidemics and beyond"Brandon's February 2022 SFI Seminar (YouTube Video + Live Twitter Coverage)“A Reflection on 50 Years of John Maynard Smith's ‘Protein Space'”C. Brandon Ogbunugafor in GENETICS“Collective Computing: Learning from Nature”David Krakauer presenting at the Foresight Institute in 2021 (with reference to Rubik's Cube research)“Optimal Policies Tend to Seek Power”Alexander Matt Turner, Logan Smith, Rohin Shah, Andrew Critch, Prasad Tadepalli in arXiv“A New Take on John Maynard Smith's Concept of Protein Space for Understanding Molecular Evolution”C. Brandon Ogbunugafor, Daniel Hartl in PLOS Computational Biology“The 300 Most Common Words”by Bruce Sterling“The Host Cell's Endoplasmic Reticulum Proteostasis Network Profoundly Shapes the Protein Sequence Space Accessible to HIV Envelope”Jimin Yoon, Emmanuel E. Nekongo, Jessica E. Patrick, Angela M. Phillips, Anna I. Ponomarenko, Samuel J. Hendel, Vincent L. Butty, C. Brandon Ogbunugafor, Yu-Shan Lin, Matthew D. Shoulders in bioRxiv“Competition along trajectories governs adaptation rates towards antimicrobial resistance”C. Brandon Ogbunugafor, Margaret J. Eppstein in Nature Ecology & Evolution“Scientists Need to Admit What They Got Wrong About COVID”C. Brandon Ogbunugafor in WIRED“Deconstructing higher-order interactions in the microbiota: A theoretical examination”Yitbarek Senay, Guittar John, Sarah A. Knutie, C. Brandon Ogbunugafor in bioRxiv“What Makes an Artist in the Age of Algorithms?”C. Brandon Ogbunugafor in WIREDNot mentioned in this episode but still worth exploring:“Part of what I was getting after with Blackness had to do with authoring ideas that are edgy or potentially threatening. That as a scientist, you can generate ideas in the name of research, in the name of breaking new ground, that may stigmatize you. That may kick you out of the club, so to speak, because you're not necessarily following the herd.”– Physicist Stephon Alexander in an interview with Brandon at Andscape“How Afrofuturism Can Help The World Mend”C. Brandon Ogbunugafor in WIRED“The COVID-19 pandemic amplified long-standing racial disparities in the United States criminal justice system”Brennan Klein, C. Brandon Ogbunugafor, Benjamin J. Schafer, Zarana Bhadricha, Preeti Kori, Jim Sheldon, Nitish Kaza, Emily A. Wang, Tina Eliassi-Rad, Samuel V. Scarpino, Elizabeth Hinton in medRxivAlso mentioned:Simon Conway Morris, Geoffrey West, Samuel Scarpino, Rick & Morty, Stuart Kauffman, Frank Salisbury, Stephen Jay Gould, Frances Arnold, John Vervaeke, Andreas Wagner, Jennifer Dunne, James Evans, Carl Bergstrom, Jevin West, Henry Gee, Eugene Shakhnovich, Rafael Guerrero, Gregory Bateson, Simon DeDeo, James Clerk Maxwell, Melanie Moses, Kathy Powers, Sara Walker, Michael Lachmann, and many others...
Chris Sullivan's Chokepoint -- low ridership and revenue on state ferries // Diane Duthweiler with the first person in the world to receive a COVID shot // Hanna Scott on treating homelessness as an emergency // Dose of Kindness -- hope from Congress? // Gee Scott on the Russell Wilson back-and-forth // Prof. Jevin West on training teens to recognize misinformation See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: fake fact-checking videos take disinformation to a different level. For MisinfoDay we talk to expert Jevin West from the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public. Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Futures Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can find transcripts, links for the curious and more episodes on our website: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/fake-fact-checking-and-disinformation/ Subscribe to our new podcast, The Unlearn Project. You can follow us to keep updated with our latest insights on Flipboard, LinkedIn, Twitter and WeChat. Send us your news ideas to sbi@sydney.edu.au. We read your emails. Music by Cinephonix. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This week: fake fact-checking videos take disinformation to a different level. For MisinfoDay we talk to expert Jevin West from the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public. Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Futures Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can find transcripts, links for the curious and more episodes on our website: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/fake-fact-checking-and-disinformation/ Subscribe to our new podcast, The Unlearn Project. You can follow us to keep updated with our latest insights on Flipboard, LinkedIn, Twitter and WeChat. Send us your news ideas to sbi@sydney.edu.au. We read your emails. Music by Cinephonix. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Leonard Steinhorn on the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict // Scott Radnitz and Jevin West from the Center for an Informed Public on Ukraine/Russian misinformation // Margaret Brennan on Russia's plans in Ukraine // Hanna Scott on the latest developments in Susan Cox Powell's case // Dose of Kindness -- Operation Victory gifts Marine Corps veteran a home of his own // Gee Scott on Trump's support of Putin and the pope knocking on Russian embassy's door // Rachel Belle on magical mushroom coffee See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Episode 28: We're back with a new episode of Sit'N Listen, this time with guests Dr. Carl Bergstrom and Dr. Jevin West to discuss their book "Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World." Introduction (00:00) About the authors (00:50) What is bullshit? (09:01) Goodhard's Law (13:39) Graph reading pitfalls (20:46) Correlation and causation (24:39) Assessing scientific claims (34:23) Combating public misinformation (39:50) Conclusion (46:25) For More Information: Book: https://www.callingbullshit.org/ Course Lectures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2OtU5vlR0k&list=PLPnZfvKID1Sje5jWxt-4CSZD7bUI4gSPS Carl Bergstrom: http://ctbergstrom.com/ Jevin West: https://jevinwest.org/ Tyler Vigen's website on unrelated correlated variables: https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations. Article in The Atlantic about the marshmallow test and confounding variables: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/ This episode was written and produced by Edward Chen, Sanjana Kulkarni, Shantam Ravan, and Samantha Tracy. Special thanks to Justin Skycak for help with Zoom audio processing. Feel free to send us any comments, questions, or topic suggestions at sitnpodcast@gmail.com.
Episode Notes Carl Bergstrom is a professor who teaches a course in calling out BS science that he teaches with his co-author Jevin West. In this episode, we chat with Carl about how we can be better skeptics about the research, data, and statistics we come across on a daily basis. We also get to ask him if polling data really matters. Follow Carl on Twitter @CT_Bergstrom Follow Jevin on Twitter @jevinwest Get a copy of Calling BS Get your free books by Chris here: https://bit.ly/3vkRsb6 Follow @TheRewiredSoul on Twitter and Instagram Subscribe to The Rewired Soul Substack Support The Rewired Soul: Get books by Chris Support on Patreon Try BetterHelp Online Therapy (affiliate) Donate
When British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow described the sciences and humanities as “two cultures” in 1959, it wasn't a statement of what could or should be, but a lament over the sorry state of western society's fractured intellectual life. Over sixty years later the costs of this fragmentation are even more pronounced and dangerous. But advances in computing now make it possible for historians and engineers to speak in one another's languages, catalyzing novel insights in each other's home domains. And doing so, the academics working at these intersections have illuminated hidden veins in history: the unsung influence and cultural significance of those who didn't write the victors' stories. Their lives and work come into focus when we view them with the aid of analytic tools, which change our understanding of the stories we've inherited and the shape of power in our institutions. One strain of the digital humanities called data feminism helps bring much-needed rigor to textual study at the same time it reintroduces something crucial to a deeper reconciliation of the disciplines: a human “who” and “how” to complement the “what” we have inherited as fact.Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I'm your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we'll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.This week we talk to Emory University researcher Lauren Klein, co-author (with Catherine D'Ignazio) of the MIT Press volume Data Feminism. In Part 1 of a two-part conversation, we discuss how her work leverages the new toolkit of quantitative literary studies and transforms our understanding of historical dynamics — not just in the past, but those in action as we speak…For Part 2 in two weeks, subscribe to Complexity wherever you listen to podcasts — and if you if you value our research and communication efforts, please rate and review us at Apple Podcasts and/or consider making a donation at santafe.edu/give.You can find numerous other ways to engage with us — including job openings and open online courses — at santafe.edu/engage.Thank you for listening!Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.Follow us on social media:Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn Related Reading & Listening:Data Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio & Lauren Klein“Dimensions of Scale: Invisible Labor, Editorial Work, and the Future of Quantitative Literary Studies” by Lauren KleinOur Twitter thread on Lauren's SFI Seminar (with video link)Cognition all the way down by Michael Levin & Daniel DennettComplexity 34 - Better Scientific Modeling for Ecological & Social JusticeComplexity 42 - Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West on Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven WorldComplexity 45 - David Wolpert on the No Free Lunch Theorems and Why They Undermine The Scientific MethodComplexity 64 - Reconstructing Ancient Superhighways with Stefani Crabtree & Devin White Mentions Include:Ruha Benjamin, Joy Buolamwini, Julia Lefkowitz, Ted Underwood, Derrick Spires, David Wolpert, Farita Tasnim, Stefani Crabtree, Devin White, Donna Haraway, Carl Bergstrom, Joe Bak-Coleman, Michael Levin, Dan Dennett
Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it's increasingly difficult to know what's true. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Jevin West is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington. He directs the Center for an Informed Public, whose mission is to resist strategic misinformation, promote an informed society, and strengthen democratic discourse. He is co-author with Carl Bergstrom of “Calling Bullshit,” a book on how to spot and refute misinformation.
Have you ever wondered what it means to be data literate in a world of big data and AI? Now that so many decisions rely on information that is only readable by machine and our statistical intuitions, which were bad before, are now practically useless, what is data literacy in the age of AI and how important is it? We talked with Jevin West, assistant professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, co-founder of the DataLab, director of the Center for an Informed Public and co-author of the acclaimed book Calling B******t to ask these questions and more. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit artificiality.substack.com
In this episode of 92Y Talks, we present another installment of excerpts from our recent State of Democracy Summit, produced in collaboration with the Knight Foundation, ProPublica, and Craig Newmark Philanthropies. Democracy in Public: Kounkuey Design Initiative's Chelina Odbert, Eric Klinenberg of NYU's Institute for Public Knowledge, and Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering and host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart. As America becomes more ideologically divided along geographic lines, what roles can public spaces, both physical and digital, play in fostering public discourse and bridging divides? Their discussion follows introductions by The Knight Foundation's Lilly Weinberg and Lynn Ross from Reimagining The Civic Commons. Technology, Misinformation, and Democracy: Debora Plunkett of Harvard's Belfer Center, ProPublica's Jeff Kao, and Jevin West from the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public in conversation with Emily Tisch Sussman, host of the Your Political Playlist podcast. They are introduced by Craig Newmark. Art and Democracy: Kai Wright, host of WNYC's The United States of Anxiety, inaugural poet Richard Blanco, and Mahogany L. Browne, author of Black Girl Magic, share their reflections on how art strengthens democracy and what role artists play in deepening our understanding of America.
These are difficult times. How do we make sense of what is happening around us? Well, there is science. Anirban Mahapatra joins Amit Varma in episode 221 of The Seen and the Unseen to share his insights on the science of Covid-19 -- and on the state of science and scientific writing in general. Also check out: 1. Covid-19: Separating Fact from Fiction -- Anirban Mahapatra. 2. Anirban Mahapatra on Twitter and Google Scholar. 3. The Age of Pandemics -- Chinmay Tumbe. 4. India's Tryst With Pandemics -- Episode 205 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chinmay Tumbe). 5. Other episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the pandemic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 6. Publish and Perish -- Agnes Callard. 7. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills -- Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 8. A Scientist in the Kitchen -- Episode 204 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Krish Ashok). 9. Gell-Mann Amnesia. 10. The Prem Panicker Files -- Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prem Panicker). 11. How Zeynep Tufekci Keeps Getting the Big Things Right -- Ben Smith. 12. Zeynep Tufekci's newsletter, Twitter and column archive. 13. Mendelay. 14. Marginal Revolution. 15. Human and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare -- Episode 4 of Brave New World (Vasant Dhar in conversation with Eric Topol.) 16. Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again -- Eric Topol. 17. Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World -- Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom. 18. The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread - and Why They Stop -- Adam Kucharski. 19. Eric Topol, Dr Angela Rasmussen, Natalie Dean, Carl Bergstrom, Adam Kucharski, Ed Yong, Carl Zimmer, Helen Branswell, News From Science and Nature News & Comment on Twitter. 20. The Nature Newsletter. 21. The Scientist. 22. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark -- Carl Sagan. 23. The World According to Physics -- Jim Al-Khalili. 24. Brian Greene, Michio Kaku and Michael Benton on Amazon. 25. Feeding the Hungry in the Pandemic -- Episode 210 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ruben Mascarenhas). 26. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 27. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 28. The Selfish Gene -- Richard Dawkins. 29. Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett on Amazon. 30. Early Indians -- Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 31 Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From -- Tony Joseph. 32. Beware of Quacks. Alternative Medicine is Injurious to Health -- Amit Varma. 33. Self-Esteem (and a Puddle) -- Amit Varma. 34. Unlikely is Inevitable -- Amit Varma. Please subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! And check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing.
Jevin West, Associate Professor at the University of Washington and coauthor of the recent book: Calling Bullshit – the Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, joins Bob and Julia to discuss the nature of BS, how it has changed with the emergence of the internet and social media, and when and how to challenge it. Other topics include: how to reestablish trust in information and the danger of “predatory publishing.”
Join us for this roundtable discussion with experts Jevin West, Director of the nonpartisan Center for an Informed Public, and David Mikkelson, the founder of Snopes.com. Jevin and David provide a detailed look at the history and current state of misinformation and will equip you with the tools and resources you need to distinguish fact from fiction. Learn how to determine if the sources you’re using are reputable, how to report misleading information and scams, how to best approach friends or family who have shared inaccurate content, and much more.
'Calling Bullshit' co-author Jevin West tells us how the attempts to delegitimize the presidential election could be warping the electorate. Misinformation has been a part of American politics since George Washington didn't have wooden teeth. But in the past decade lies and distortions have become central to the conversation about how our country is run and who runs it. Social media platforms have taken some measures to help stop the spread of many of these lies in the run-up to the 2020 election, and it appears they had some success. But the job isn't done, as misinformation concerning the result of the election and the validity of the vote continues to spread. For this week's episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast we speak with University of Washington researcher Jevin West about the election and its aftermath. The co-author of Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World tells us what he saw on Election Day, why the lies surrounding this election are different from those we've seen before and how to combat them. He also discusses what four years of almost nonstop nonsence has done to our country and our brains, and what it means for our future.
Lynda Lopez talks with Jevin West, a professor and director of the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, about widespread disinformation surrounding the election on social media. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This election has included almost every type of disinformation, including deepfake videos that are manipulated to look real, and even the creation of a fake persona with a very real-looking face that was generated by a computer. In fact, software that uses artificial intelligence to create photos of people who don’t exist is increasingly cheap and widespread. Molly speaks with Jevin West, a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Center for an Informed Public. He says fake faces work for disinformation because people relate to human faces. But that’s not even the biggest concern.
This election has included almost every type of disinformation, including deepfake videos that are manipulated to look real, and even the creation of a fake persona with a very real-looking face that was generated by a computer. In fact, software that uses artificial intelligence to create photos of people who don’t exist is increasingly cheap and widespread. Molly speaks with Jevin West, a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Center for an Informed Public. He says fake faces work for disinformation because people relate to human faces. But that’s not even the biggest concern.
This election has included almost every type of disinformation, including deepfake videos that are manipulated to look real, and even the creation of a fake persona with a very real-looking face that was generated by a computer. In fact, software that uses artificial intelligence to create photos of people who don’t exist is increasingly cheap and widespread. Molly speaks with Jevin West, a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Center for an Informed Public. He says fake faces work for disinformation because people relate to human faces. But that’s not even the biggest concern.
This election has included almost every type of disinformation, including deepfake videos that are manipulated to look real, and even the creation of a fake persona with a very real-looking face that was generated by a computer. In fact, software that uses artificial intelligence to create photos of people who don’t exist is increasingly cheap and widespread. Molly speaks with Jevin West, a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Center for an Informed Public. He says fake faces work for disinformation because people relate to human faces. But that’s not even the biggest concern.
This week: Jevin West joins us to discuss disinformation in social media in the wake of the US election. Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Disruption Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can subscribe to our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes and links to this episode, including the news stories of the week, other stories we bring up and more are available at: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/misinformation-fake-news-and-elections-on-the-future-this-week/ You can follow us on Flipboard, LinkedIn and Twitter to keep updated with our latest insights. If you enjoyed this episode, you can listen to more in our playlists https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/thefuturethisweek/
This week: Jevin West joins us to discuss disinformation in social media in the wake of the US election. Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Disruption Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can subscribe to our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes and links to this episode, including the news stories of the week, other stories we bring up and more are available at: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/misinformation-fake-news-and-elections-on-the-future-this-week/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=podcast You can follow us to keep updated with our latest insights. Flipboard: https://flip.it/jdwqTP LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/sydney-business-insights Twitter: https://twitter.com/SydBusInsights If you enjoyed this episode, you can access our playlists at http://sbi.sydney.edu.au/thefuturethisweek/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=podcast
This week: Jevin West joins us to discuss disinformation in social media in the wake of the US election. Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Disruption Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can subscribe to our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes and links to this episode, including the news stories of the week, other stories we bring up and more are available at: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/misinformation-fake-news-and-elections-on-the-future-this-week/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=podcast You can follow us to keep updated with our latest insights. Flipboard: https://flip.it/jdwqTP LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/sydney-business-insights Twitter: https://twitter.com/SydBusInsights If you enjoyed this episode, you can access our playlists at http://sbi.sydney.edu.au/thefuturethisweek/?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_medium=podcast
In this episode we chat to Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West authors of Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in Data-Driven World. Carl Bergstrom is a theoretical and evolutionary biologist and Professor of Biology at the University of Washington. Jevin West is an Associate Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, he also co-founded the DataLab and directs the Center for an Informed Public. Show notes: @CT_Bergstrom @jevinwest / jevinwest.org Calling Bullshit (Allen Lane - 2020) Calling Bullshit Course @lawrenceyolland / @gemmamilne / @radicalscipod
James talks to Prof. Jevin West, Director Center for an Informed Public at UW & Morgan Wack of Election Integrity Partnership about social media and misinformation.
It's increasingly difficult to know what's true. Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art. We are fairly well equipped to spot the sort of old-school bullshit that is based in fancy rhetoric and weasel words, but most of us don't feel qualified to challenge the avalanche of new-school bullshit presented in the language of math, science, or statistics. In Calling Bullshit, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data. You don't need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Bergstrom and West exuberantly unpack examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern bullshit. We have always needed people who call bullshit when necessary, whether within a circle of friends, a community of scholars, or the citizenry of a nation. Now that bullshit has evolved, we need to relearn the art of skepticism. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/support
How to spot misinformation with Prof. Jevin West, Director of the nonpartisan Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington. This episode is a live online event on how you can avoid falling for the attempts to mislead that are all around us. The spread of misinformation is among the most pressing challenges of our time. New platforms for human interaction and information sharing have opened the door to misinformation, disinformation and other forms of networked manipulation, which not only mislead and create divisions, but also diminish trust in democratic institutions such as science and journalism. Jevin West provides us with a powerful set of tools to cut through the most intimidating data. You don't need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Jevin West provides examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern misinformation.
The 2020 election is fast approaching. As the race heats up, so too does the level of disinformation. In this episode, we talk with Jevin West. West is the director of the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public. West and his team study misinformation. We'll discuss the misinformation surrounding mail-in voting. We'll also talk about deep fakes and the very real possibility that it may take a while to determine who won the presidential election and how bad actors might take advantage of this situation to undermine the results. Finally, we talk about the corrosive role misinformation plays in society.
Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound, and it's increasingly difficult to know what's true and who to believe. What we could all use is a field guide and, thankfully, my next guest has provided us with one. He is Jevin West, Director of the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, and Co-author of Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World.
"It's not just Facebook any more. It comes now in your text messages, it comes in old fashioned email..."Tracking fake news across this election is a daily endeavour for Jevin West, co-author of Calling Bullsh*t, who is waging a war on misinformation online.He outlines to Daniel Hewitt the new threats in this election and why American voters have no idea that the local news they're reading each day is far from authentic.Meanwhile Robert Moore and Laura Schwartz discuss the impact of the wildfires on the campaigns and Mica Mosbacher, adviser to the Trump 2020 campaign, argues why voters will be focused on the economy and law and order issues, with some telling signs from her home in Austin, Texas.The group inevitably look ahead to the forthcoming presidential debates - a lot more of that to come in Episode 8 - before our man of the jingle, digital detective Fred Dimbleby, wows the crowd with the unexpected influence of GIFs on the 2020 race for the White House.
Now, maybe more than ever before, it is time to learn the art of skepticism. Amidst compounded complex crises, humankind must also navigate a swelling tidal wave of outright lies, clever misdirections, and well-meant but dangerous mistaken claims….in other words, bullshit. Why is the 21st Century such a hotbed of fake news? How can we structure our networks and their incentives to mitigate disinformation and encourage speaking truth to power? And whose responsibility is it to inform the public and other experts about scientific research, when those insights require training to understand?Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I’m your host, Michael Garfield, and in each episode we’ll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.This week, we talk to Former SFI External Professor Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, both at the University of Washington, who recently translated their landmark undergraduate course on Calling Bullshit into an eminently readable and illuminating book from Penguin Random House. In this episode, we discuss their backgrounds and ongoing work in the evolutionary dynamics and information theory of communication, how to stage a strong defense against disinformation, and the role of scientists and laypeople alike to help restore the reasoned discourse we all so desperately need.If you value our research and communication efforts, please consider making a recurring monthly donation at santafe.edu/give, or joining our Applied Complexity Network at santafe.edu/action. Also, please consider rating and reviewing us at Apple Podcasts. Thank you for listening! Related Links & Resources:CallingBullshit.orgCarl Bergstrom’s Website & Twitter.Jevin West’s Website & Twitter.Cost and conflict in animal signals and human languageby Michael Lachmann, Szabolcs Számadó, and Carl T. Bergstrom at PNASThe physical limits of communication or Why any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from noiseby Michael Lachmann, M.E.J. Newman, Cris Moore in The American Journal of PhysicsDeepfakes and the Epistemic Backstopby Regina Rini at Philosopher’s ImprintHunger Game: Is Honesty Between Animals Always the Best Policy?by Natalie Wolchover at Scientific AmericanPublic Editor by Goodly LabsVisit our website for more information or to support our science and communication efforts.Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.Podcast Theme Music by Mitch Mignano.Follow us on social media:Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn
David Kamien is the CEO of Mind Alliance and is someone who understands that in order to truly collaborate with your clients, you have to understand their needs on a granular level. That means capturing the data in a way that proactively predicts legal and regulatory risks that companies like them are likely to face, but also list the probable impact that those risks are likely to impact them specifically. While this may sound like a pipe dream to some, and a delusion to others, Kamien thinks that improving the state of data in law firms through knowledge graphs and taking concrete, and logical steps toward improving and leveraging data, will help get law firms to where they can leverage the data in ways that will truly turn them into counselors to their clients. It means creating a data strategy for the firm that creates higher levels of sophistication so that the data turns into answers, and those answers turn into the types of action that clients are willing to pay for. Law firms should not sit back and wait for this to magically happen. If you want to generate value, you are going to have to collaborate very closely with clients. And in this day and age, that involves data. Information Inspirations Most of us in the information profession have touted our skills as fact finders. In this time of misinformation on the Internet, that skillset is needed more than ever and seems to be showing up more and more in the media as they look for Misinformation Experts like the University of Washington's Information School, Jevin West. West appeared this week on one of our favorite non-legal podcasts, Make Me Smart, where he uncovered some of the reasoning behind the cult that is QAnon, and why its ability to manipulate information makes it so popular, and so hard to convince those believers in the conspiracy that it really is misinformation. Staying in touch with clients and others isn't simply about setting up the next Zoom meeting. Julie Saravino produced a great list of ways to have that personal interaction with others in a way that "ups your game" and makes you stand out from those who still rely upon Zoom, email, and phone calls. Listen, Subscribe, Comment Please take the time to rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Contact us anytime by tweeting us at @gebauerm or @glambert. Or, you can call The Geek in Review hotline at 713-487-7270 and leave us a message. You can email us at geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com. As always, the great music you hear on the podcast is from Jerry David DeCicca.
QAnon is more than just a conspiracy theory. BuzzFeed News has taken to calling it a “collective delusion.” Others just call it a cult. Whatever you call it, QAnon is not based on fact, but it’s had much more staying power than, say, Pizzagate or garden-variety social media misinformation. There are thousands of Facebook groups, supporters at Trump rallies and even candidates for Congress who say they believe the theory that President Donald Trump is battling Satan-worshiping pedophiles at the highest levels of government. Today, we’ll talk with professor and author Jevin West about QAnon’s spread and how to fight it. Plus, we answer your questions about Q, like how to talk to a loved one who’s caught in its thrall. As always, you can find links to everything we talked about today on our episode page at makemesmart.org.
QAnon is more than just a conspiracy theory. BuzzFeed News has taken to calling it a “collective delusion.” Others just call it a cult. Whatever you call it, QAnon is not based on fact, but it’s had much more staying power than, say, Pizzagate or garden-variety social media misinformation. There are thousands of Facebook groups, supporters at Trump rallies and even candidates for Congress who say they believe the theory that President Donald Trump is battling Satan-worshiping pedophiles at the highest levels of government. Today, we’ll talk with professor and author Jevin West about QAnon’s spread and how to fight it. Plus, we answer your questions about Q, like how to talk to a loved one who’s caught in its thrall. As always, you can find links to everything we talked about today on our episode page at makemesmart.org.
Authors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West talk with Spokesman-Review columnist Shawn Vestal about their book "Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World" on the live-stream of the Northwest Passages Book Club. This program was made possible by generous grants from Avista, Numerica Credit Union, The Innovia Foundation, and listeners like you! Thank you for your support!
Isn’t it frustrating when you're unsure if you can trust what you read on Facebook, watch on YouTube, or hear on a podcast? Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it’s increasingly difficult to know what’s true. We need a set of powerful tools and the skill to cut through the most intimidating data! That’s why I’m joined by Professor Jevin West in this episode. Jevin and his coauthor Carl Bergstrom are the authors of the book, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World. You don’t need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Tune in to understand selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern bullshit. Grab your copy of Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World here: https://amzn.to/2EklZj1 Or visit https://www.callingbullshit.org for more info. -------------------------------- Connect with Curiosityness... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curiositynesspodcast/ Website: https://www.curiosityness.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curiosityness Twitter: https://twitter.com/Curiositynesstv Claim your FREE Curiosityness sticker at https://www.curiosityness.com/freesticker/ Find me, the host of Curiosityness on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travderose/ Or send me an email to travis@curiosityness.com
Authors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West talk with Spokesman-Review columnist Shawn Vestal about their book "Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World" on the live-stream of the Northwest Passages Book Club. This program was made possible by generous grants from Avista, Numerica Credit Union, The Innovia Foundation, and listeners like you! Thank you for your support!
KIRO Radio's Dave Ross sits down with biologist and data scientist Carl Bergstrom as well as director of the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public Jevin West, to discuss misinformation during the pandemic. From bad communication strategies from local and world leaders, to conspiracy theories spreading online with nefarious ends, Bergstrom and West are here to, well, call it out. Their new book Calling Bullsh*t is available now. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.
Matthew Gardner, Windermere Chief Economist, on rising rents and home prices // Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, authors of Calling Bull**** // Hanna Scott on efforts to defund the SPD and the Auburn PD // Feliks Banel, All Over the Map -- Adams, Asotin, and Benton Counties // Margaret Brennan on the next congressional aid package/ the 2020 presidential race // Dose of Kindness -- the gift of music, in the form of a free Steinway piano // Chris Sullivan on sentencing for the 2016 Jungle killings See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.
This episode of The Exam Room is a conversation with Dr. Jevin West, an associate professor in the Information School at the University of Washington. We talk about his new book, Calling Bullshit - The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World. This is a fun and engaging discussion about one of the greatest healthcare challenges facing this generation of health consumers - Misinformation. From the granular definitions of bullshit to prescriptive strategies for helping people avoid it, this episode is sure to spark a bigger conversation about media literacy and how we consume and propagate information. The Calling Bullshit website with lots of good links. https://callingbullshit.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
We are living, in case you haven’t noticed, in a world full of bullshit. It’s hard to say whether the amount is truly increasing, but it seems that everywhere you look someone is trying to convince you of something, regardless of whether that something is actually true. Where is this bullshit coming from, how is it disseminated, and what can we do about it? Carl Bergstrom studies information in the context of biology, which has led him to investigate the flow of information and disinformation in social networks, especially the use of data in misleading ways. In the time of Covid-19 he has become on of the best Twitter feeds for reliable information, and we discuss how the pandemic has been a bounteous new source of bullshit.Support Mindscape on Patreon.Carl Bergstrom received his Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University. He is currently a professor of biology at the University of Washington. In addition to his work on information and biology, he has worked on scientific practice and communication, proposing the eigenfactor method of ranking scientific journals. His new book (with Jevin West) is Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, which grew out of a course taught at the University of Wisconsin.Web siteUniversity of Washington web pageGoogle Scholar publicationsWikipediaTwitterAmazon author pageCalling Bullshit website
“Flattening the Infodemic Curve,” features a conversation with Jevin West, associate professor in the Information School at the University of Washington and director of the Center for an Informed Public, regarding misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lack of scientific clarity around COVID-19 has offered a perfect opening for conspiracy theories. May and Sam talk to a scientist monitoring those rumors online: Jevin West of the Center For An Informed Public at the University of Washington. He explains how accepting a certain level of uncertainty around the pandemic can help people resist easy answers and, over time, inch closer to the truth. On Twitter: @mayvortega and @samuelbrasch
The COVID-19 pandemic has created what the World Health Organization calls an "infodemic." Technology has made it possible for information to travel quickly around the world. Combine that with a virus that isn't fully understood and you get a information ecosystem where it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. In this episode we talk with Dr. Jevin West. West is the Director of the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public. The center studies misinformation and works to promote an informed society while strengthening democratic discourse. West talks about the role misinformation has played in our current public health crisis. He also discusses conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 as well as advice on how to judge whether a source is reliable or not. This episode also features a commercial for the different funds UW Tacoma has created to help students during this crisis.
Jevin West from the UW Center for an Informed Public // Chris Sullivan visits the field hospital in Shoreline // Maj. Mike Lyons on the coronavirus outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt // Hanna Scott on the new Snohomish County quarantine facility/ the latest WA "essential worker" guidance // Dose of Kindness -- Steve Hartman's online kindness classes // Gee Scott on the NFL moving ahead with 2020 plans/ wild animals moving into neighborhoods // Feliks Banel remembers author Betty MacDonald, who also survived the King County TB outbreak
BYU's Douglas Thomas teases out good marketing design from "dark patterns." Paco Underhill, Envirosell, explains how a store's design impacts shoppers' behavior. UW's Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom spot fake news. Barbara Durrant, San Diego Zoo, wants to bring back the functionally extinct northern white rhino. Byron Adams of BYU shares lessons from Antarctica's strange creatures. Elizabeth Hennessy on conservation vs evolution in the Galapagos Islands.
Author Lydia Pyne follows the history of successful fakes. Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom of the University of Washington teach a class on calling people out. Author Marta McDowell describes the rich history and pleasures of the White House gardens. Author Harlan Lebo situates the movie "Casablanca" in its historical context and reveals its enduring appeal.
Author Lydia Pyne follows the history of successful fakes. Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom of the University of Washington teach a class on calling people out. Author Jane Brox explains the evolution of silence. Justin O’Sullivan, University of Auckland, uses fecal transplants to fight disease.
This week: calling bullshit, sexist credit cards and death predictions with Jevin West. Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Disruption Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can subscribe to this podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Libsyn, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow us online on Flipboard (http://flip.it/jdwqTP), Twitter, or http://sbi.sydney.edu.au. Show notes and links to this episode, including the news stories of the week, other stories we bring up and more are available at: http://sbi.sydney.edu.au/Bullshit-and-algorithms-on-the-future-this-week If you enjoyed this episode, you can access our playlists at http://sbi.sydney.edu.au/thefuturethisweek
The stories this week: calling bullshit, sexist credit cards and death predictions with Jevin West. Show notes and links to this episode, including the news stories of the week, other stories we bring up and more are available at: http://sbi.sydney.edu.au/bullshit-and-algorithms-on-the-future-this-week
This week: calling bullshit, sexist credit cards and death predictions with Jevin West. Sandra Peter (Sydney Business Insights) and Kai Riemer (Digital Disruption Research Group) meet once a week to put their own spin on news that is impacting the future of business in The Future, This Week. You can subscribe to this podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Libsyn, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow us online on Flipboard (http://flip.it/jdwqTP), Twitter, or http://sbi.sydney.edu.au. Show notes and links to this episode, including the news stories of the week, other stories we bring up and more are available at: http://sbi.sydney.edu.au/Bullshit-and-algorithms-on-the-future-this-week If you enjoyed this episode, you can access our playlists at http://sbi.sydney.edu.au/thefuturethisweek
This week, we revisit our conversation with the head of University of Washington's new Center for an Informed Public, Jevin West, who's best known for his course, “Calling Bullsh*t,” a class that teaches students how to, among other things, discern and dispatch with disinformation. West says that in many instances, there's a moral imperative for calling out BS when you see it. Links: Jevin West's TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZeMRy_PTmA Calling Bullsh*t course videos: https://callingbullshit.org/videos.html Calling Bullsh*t syllabus: https://callingbullshit.org/syllabus.html See if you can tell which face is real, and which is a computer amalgam: http://www.whichfaceisreal.com
The University of Washington recently received a $5 million grant to launch the Center for an Informed Public, a multi-disciplinary endeavor at the University of Washington aimed at strengthening our democracy by addressing the many threats posed by the propagation of disinformation, not just online, but also by governments foreign and domestic. We talk with the center's inaugural director, Jevin West, who's best known for his course entitled “Calling Bullshit,” which teaches students how to discern and dispatch with disinformation. Then, in the first of our reports from Indivisible's very first National Campaigns Network in DC, we talk with a leader from Indivisible Kentucky about the race to unseat Mitch McConnell, and how Indivisibles here in Washington can best get involved in the fight. Links: Jevin West's TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZeMRy_PTmA The complete 2017 Calling Bullsh*t course videos: https://callingbullshit.org/videos.html Calling Bullsh*t syllabus: https://callingbullshit.org/syllabus.html See if you can tell which face is real, and which is a computer amalgam: http://www.whichfaceisreal.com Contact Indivisible Kentucky to help #DitchMitch: https://www.facebook.com/indivisibleky/
Jevin West, UW prof, on the new Center for an Informed Public // Jill Schlesinger on Equifax refunds/ lowering interest rates // Paging Dr. Cohen -- medical mistakes // Hanna Scott on WA funding for gun research // Dose of Kindness -- saving a little girl's life // Sports Insider Danny O'Neil on Bobby Wagner's contract/ Golden Tate's suspension
In 2017, Jevin West and a colleague developed a course titled “Calling BS.” The goal is to teach students how to spot and refute BS, especially the kind wrapped in numbers, data, figures, and statistics. The class discusses the role that social media and misdirected algorithms play in spreading this and other forms of misinformation, and how the breakdown of communication systems in science and journalism have made it more difficult to combat it. Since the inception of the class, more than 70 universities have shown interest in adopting some version of the course. The content is now expanding into into high schools and middle schools (sans “BS”). Hear what has been learned teaching the class, and, more broadly, the rise of misinformation, specifically within and about science, and what can be done in education, policy, and technology to address this threat to democracy and the integrity of science.
Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom teach us about how to see through misinformation and fake news. Adam Day shares his love for violins and talks us through the intricacies of making these instruments. Dan Buettner describes his research in examining communities where people live longer, happier lives. Lee Humphreys examines the connections we make online in her new book "The Qualified Self: Social Media and the Accounting of Everyday Life."
Jevin West and Carl Bergstrom teach students at the University of Washington how to sort through misinformation in the digital age. Their latest development? A new game called Which Face Is Real that asks you to choose between an image of a real person and an image of a completely fake, computer-generated person, placed side-by-side. It's surprisingly difficult, and they talk with Dave Ross about how fake people, fake videos and even fake audio will soon become nearly impossible to detect.
Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, who teach the Calling Bullsh** course at UW // Laura Loe Bernstein on rezoning, upzoning, NIMBYs, YIMBYs, and PHIMBYs // Nathan Wilson from KIRO7 on welfare fraud in Washington // Margaret Brennan on replacing Justice Kennedy // Michael Medved's review of Sicario: Day of the Soldado // Sports Insider Danny O'Neil on the M's sweeping Baltimore/ Special Olympics come to Seattle/ ESPN Body Issue
This week we're talking about bullshit: what it is, how to detect it, and how to call it out. First, staff writer Nick Douglas joins us for a rousing game of “Two Truths and a Lie.” Then we talk to Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, professors at the University of Washington who teach a course called Calling Bullshit. Finally, Alice talks about why we're so susceptible to bullshit with staff writer Beth Skwarecki, who writes the Bullshit Resistance School column on Lifehacker. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Bob and guest, Professor Jevin West, Assistant Professor in the Information School at the University of Washington, discuss the scientific method, real world practice of scientific research, and the importance of increasing our basic literacy of concepts in science and technology. Dr. West is co-director of the Data Lab at U of W and also co-teaches a new and novel course called “Calling BS in the Age of Big Data.” This show aired live on KMUD radio on April 6, 2017.
Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, two professors at the University of Washington, talk about their new course on "Calling Bullshit".