Paul Bloom
Special guest
Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is past-president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, one of the major journals in the field.
Dr. Bloom has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, and for popular outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion.
Paul Bloom has been a guest on 6 episodes.
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Episode 114: Psychology Worth Doing (with Paul Bloom)
November 11th, 2024 | 1 hr 15 mins
developmental psychology, interesting findings, political bias
Paul Bloom joins the show to talk about a recent paper in which he argues that much of developmental psychology is not worth doing.
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Episode 103: Psych (with Paul Bloom)
March 8th, 2023 | 1 hr 9 mins
hucksters, penis hat, pop psychology, psych 101, writing tips
Paul Bloom joins Alexa and Yoel to talk about his new book. Their conversation touches on teaching, writing, the chutzpah required to think one can take on the task of summarizing a field, and the meaning of penis-shaped dream hats.
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Episode 95: What are Teachers Good For? (with Paul Bloom)
September 28th, 2022 | 1 hr 7 mins
critical thinking, half-gorilla-half-dolphin, recycled jokes, student emails, teaching
Paul Bloom joins Yoel and Alexa to talk about what they've learned about teaching. They swap stories, discuss goals, and speculate about whether they've gotten better or worse over time.
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Episode 74: Pleasurable Suffering (with Paul Bloom)
October 13th, 2021 | 1 hr 24 mins
kidneys, mountain climbing, orgasms, parenting, suffering
Paul Bloom joins us to talk about why we want to suffer. Sometimes it's a means to an end, but sometimes we desire it for its own sake. Plus, a very special extra guest host.
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Episode 26: Terrible Advice (with Paul Bloom)
July 24th, 2019 | 1 hr 8 mins
advice, happiness, meaning, parenting, perversity, values
Yoel and Mickey welcome returning guest Paul Bloom to the podcast to dispense terrible advice. We first talk about parenting—its impact on happiness and meaning, its transformation of the person; and then discuss perversity, including the enjoyment of doing transgressive things for no good reason.
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Episode 5: I Love How You Hurt Me (with Paul Bloom)
July 18th, 2018 | 1 hr 6 mins
beers, big 5, disagreeableness, empathy, fiction, monkey masturbation, pain, sex, very bad wizards
Yoel and Mickey welcome Yale psychologist Paul Bloom to the show, their very first guest. In a far ranging conversation, the trio discuss the potential benefits of pain. Why do we sometimes choose to suffer?