The US is run by meme lords, and Steven Pinker on common knowledge... and common delusions

The US is run by meme lords, and Steven Pinker on common knowledge... and common delusions

54:34 Feb 12, 2026
About this episode
Trump flies over a US city in a jet, dumping excrement on protesters; welcome to the era of government-endorsed AI slop videos. Charlie Warzel from The Atlantic joins the show to talk about the US's experiment in government-by-meme. Plus: psychologist Steven Pinker argues that what drives society is knowing that what we know is widely know — in his term, "common knowledge". But what if our beliefs about everyone else's inner thoughts turn out to be wrong?
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