Why You Did That: Robert Sapolsky's Behave, Rewinding One Act From a Second to a Million Years
Why did you do that? Robert Sapolsky's Behave rewinds a single act through your brain, hormones, childhood, genes and culture. His case that biology amplifies rather than dictates, which studies aged badly, and the free-will fight.
Your Gut Is Guessing: What Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow Gets Right, and the Chapters That Failed
Your fast, confident gut answers most questions before you think. Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow shows when it misleads you. Which findings held up, and which chapters failed replication, as Kahneman admitted.
Nice Players Finish First: Veritasium on Game Theory, the Prisoner's Dilemma and Why Tit for Tat Won
You think winning means beating the other player. Veritasium shows why a strategy that never wins a single game won Axelrod's Prisoner's Dilemma tournaments: be nice, hit back, forgive, be clear.
Your Normal, Measured: WHOOP's Will Ahmed on Wearables That Spot Illness Early, GLP-1s and the FDA Fight
WHOOP's Will Ahmed says your wearable baseline can flag illness, show which habits help, and protect muscle on GLP-1s. We check his muscle claim and how WHOOP's blood pressure fight with the FDA really ended.
The Case Too Small to Take: Why No Lawyer Wants Your Small Claim, and How AI Could Change That
Plaintiff lawyers turn away cases worth under about $5,000 in fees. Eve's Jay Madheswaran says AI can do that labour, so firms take far more clients. a16z is an Eve investor; we check the claims.
Borrowed Resilience: Mohamed El-Erian on the Iran War, $116 Oil and Why a Second Shock Could Cost More
Mohamed El-Erian says the world survived the first Iran-war oil shock on borrowed resilience. Those buffers are spent, and a second disruption could mean $150 oil while borrowing costs are high. We check his numbers.
Power Without a Vote: How Robert Moses Ran New York Unelected, and How LBJ Built the Senate's Top Job
Robert Moses ran New York for 30 years without an election, by drafting the laws, locking powers into bonds and making himself too useful to fire. Dwarkesh Patel sets that beside LBJ. We check the figures.
Measuring the Wrong World: Rob Kurzban on Why You Feel Bad When Nothing Is Wrong
Evolutionary psychologist Rob Kurzban says every feeling measures something and motivates a response, and many bad feelings are reading a world we left. Envy, road rage, anxiety and judginess, checked.
Wisdom Can't Be Taught: Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and the Seeker Who Walked Away From the Buddha
Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha follows a seeker who leaves every teacher, even the Buddha, because wisdom can't be handed over. The story, why it says wisdom must be lived, and where the idea goes too far.
Let Them, Then Let Me: Mel Robbins's Let Them Theory, Its Stoic Roots, and Where It Stops Working
Mel and Sawyer Robbins's The Let Them Theory says stop managing other people and own your response. Both halves, the Stoic roots, what research says about control, and where the idea stops working.
More Information, Not More Truth: Yuval Noah Harari's Nexus on Why AI Is an Agent, Not a Tool
Yuval Noah Harari's Nexus argues information connects people more than it reveals truth, and that AI is the first technology that can decide for itself. His case, what it means for democracy, and the pushback.
The Elephant Decides First: Jonathan Haidt on Why Good People Disagree and How to Talk Across the Divide
Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind says we judge by gut and reason afterward, and that morality runs on more than harm and fairness. The elephant and rider, six foundations, and what has held up.