#420 – Annie Jacobsen: Nuclear War, CIA, KGB, Aliens, Area 51, Roswell & Secrecy

Merchants of doubt are people or organizations who discredit science that threatens their agenda or ideology. The first merchants of doubt were members of the tobacco industry—when scientists discovered that smoking caused cancer, that was bad for businesses. It was also bad for capitalism in general because it suggested that the market wasn’t self-regulating, and lack of regulation was killing people. Other defenders of the free market started using the tobacco industry’s techniques, such as funding new (and hopefully more favorable) studies or calling for balanced media coverage.

In Merchants of Doubt, science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway study the doubt-mongering techniques used in several other important “debates”—nuclear disarmament, acid rain, the ozone layer, climate change, and the pesticide DDT. These techniques are still in use today.

The 21st century will bring changes and challenges unlike any humans have encountered before. Globalism and technological innovations are changing the structures of societies worldwide—and the changes are happening quickly. If people don’t face these challenges and help shape the future, the world could have a class of obsolete workers whose jobs have been automated and people could lose their ability to make their own decisions. In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari highlights the biggest challenges in the modern world, and he offers advice on making sense of and navigating such transitional times.

In this summary, you'll learn how algorithms like Netflix movie recommendations are teaching you to distrust your own judgment, why religion can’t solve 21st-century challenges, and how automation will threaten the jobs of humans in every industry.

We usually think of snap judgments as lazy, superficial, and probably wrong. But are they really? In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell argues that snap judgments can be just as good as—or even better than—the decisions that we make when we analyze a situation carefully. Blink delves into how and why we make the gut decisions we do, when it’s unsafe to trust our guts, and what we can do to make all our snap judgments smarter, less biased, and more efficient.

In this guide, we add some structure to Gladwell’s arguments and update the research he draws on, looking at how snap judgments might work in the brain. We also give you some additional strategies for maximizing the accuracy of your snap judgments.

Every day we face choices—what to order at a restaurant, what clothes to buy at a store, what show to stream after work. We make these choices without realizing how the way they’re presented affects us. If grocery stores didn’t stock candy at the register, would we eat less of it? If we had to “opt out” of being organ donors rather than “opt in,” would the organ donor pool grow?

In Nudge, Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass Sunstein examine how the way choices are designed and structured can “nudge” us toward better decisions. In this guide, you’ll learn why people make bad investment choices and how Thaler and Sunstein propose to revitalize the institution of marriage (by abolishing it). You’ll also find commentary on the psychological research underlying Nudge’s concepts as well as more recent data that sheds new light on Thaler and Sunstein’s findings.

What’s the secret to being a great leader? Whether you’re in a warzone or on the front lines of a corporate battle, Extreme Ownership argues that the best leaders take full responsibility for everything in their world: not only their actions, decisions, and failures, but also those of everyone on their team. By practicing Extreme Ownership, great leaders achieve victory by prioritizing the team above all else and focusing on constant improvement—and in this guide, we’ll show how you can, too.

Authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are former US Navy SEAL officers who served in one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. They honed the principles of Extreme Ownership on the battlefield, then applied the same tenets to the corporate world as business consultants. In this guide, we’ll add broader context from other leadership books such as Built to Last and Team of Teams to better illustrate how to apply Willink and Babin’s leadership principles to your life.

Merchants of doubt are people or organizations who discredit science that threatens their agenda or ideology. The first merchants of doubt were members of the tobacco industry—when scientists discovered that smoking caused cancer, that was bad for businesses. It was also bad for capitalism in general because it suggested that the market wasn’t self-regulating, and lack of regulation was killing people. Other defenders of the free market started using the tobacco industry’s techniques, such as funding new (and hopefully more favorable) studies or calling for balanced media coverage.

In Merchants of Doubt, science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway study the doubt-mongering techniques used in several other important “debates”—nuclear disarmament, acid rain, the ozone layer, climate change, and the pesticide DDT. These techniques are still in use today.

Nuclear energy is getting new attention globally, but it remains a divisive topic in the US. Some people say it’s the best way to meet our energy needs without worsening global warming, while others argue that the risks are too high.

Join Lex Fridman as he sits down with international relations scholar John Mearsheimer on the "Lex Fridman Podcast." Together, they embark on a thought-provoking exploration of geopolitical strategies and the key tenets of international politics. Mearsheimer articulates the principles of his offensive structural realism, a perspective that illuminates the anarchic spaces within international relations and the relentless quest for state power. As they dissect the various schools of thought—from defensive realism to liberalist ideologies—their conversation deepens with a critical assessment of the democratic peace theory, challenging the notion that economic interdependence is a surefire path to peace.

Listeners are treated to a rich tapestry of historical reflection as Fridman and Mearsheimer examine pivotal conflicts through the lens of structural factors, emphasizing the precedence of systemic influences over more transient collective emotions. As they delve into the complexities of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and NATO's eastward expansion, Mearsheimer sheds light on contemporary dynamics, including the crucial role of nuclear deterrence in modern-day international relations. The podcast weaves from the U.S.-China rivalry and proxy wars to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, revealing an intricate web of ideologies and power plays that shape global policy. Beyond the rigor of academic discourse, Mearsheimer shares personal philosophies, inspiring individuals to chase their passions with a balance of humility and hubris, all while fostering an appreciation for the finite nature of life itself.

Merchants of doubt are people or organizations who discredit science that threatens their agenda or ideology. The first merchants of doubt were members of the tobacco industry—when scientists discovered that smoking caused cancer, that was bad for businesses. It was also bad for capitalism in general because it suggested that the market wasn’t self-regulating, and lack of regulation was killing people. Other defenders of the free market started using the tobacco industry’s techniques, such as funding new (and hopefully more favorable) studies or calling for balanced media coverage.

In Merchants of Doubt, science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway study the doubt-mongering techniques used in several other important “debates”—nuclear disarmament, acid rain, the ozone layer, climate change, and the pesticide DDT. These techniques are still in use today.

According to writers Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer represents a modern-day Prometheus, the Greek Titan eternally punished for stealing fire from the gods and imparting it to humanity. In American Prometheus, Bird and Sherwin provide a comprehensive biography of Oppenheimer, a historical figure best known for developing the atomic bomb. And although Bird and Sherwin focus on Oppenheimer’s work on the bomb, they also shed light on his personal life, detailing his evolution from adolescent activist to eventual political martyr.

In this guide, we’ll examine Oppenheimer’s life before the bomb, his role in developing the atomic bomb at the Manhattan Project, and the politically motivated security hearing that saw him lose his security clearance in 1954. To conclude, we’ll touch on Oppenheimer’s transformation post-hearing, detailing his exile from the upper ranks of US government. Throughout this guide, we’ll also present further historical context for key events and assess the contemporary impact of Oppenheimer’s work.

What do the Iraq War, investment banks, and the American Red Cross have in common? According to intellectual provocateur Nassim Nicholas Taleb, they all lack “skin in the game”: something to lose if they don’t achieve their goals. We ignore this simple failsafe far too often, but, according to Taleb, it’s the single most important contributor to human progress.

Skin in the Game is the fifth book in former options trader Nassim Taleb’s acclaimed Incerto series, in which the controversial thinker explains how skin in the game has shaped the world as we know it and why humanity’s biggest problems are due to the fact that we don’t have enough of it.

In our guide, we’ll provide a more complete picture of Taleb’s unique philosophy using ideas from his other writings, and we’ll compare his complex and controversial beliefs to those of detractors such as Richard H. Thaler (Nudge) and Steven Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature).

Merchants of doubt are people or organizations who discredit science that threatens their agenda or ideology. The first merchants of doubt were members of the tobacco industry—when scientists discovered that smoking caused cancer, that was bad for businesses. It was also bad for capitalism in general because it suggested that the market wasn’t self-regulating, and lack of regulation was killing people. Other defenders of the free market started using the tobacco industry’s techniques, such as funding new (and hopefully more favorable) studies or calling for balanced media coverage.

In Merchants of Doubt, science historians Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway study the doubt-mongering techniques used in several other important “debates”—nuclear disarmament, acid rain, the ozone layer, climate change, and the pesticide DDT. These techniques are still in use today.

Join Lex Fridman as he sits down with international relations scholar John Mearsheimer on the "Lex Fridman Podcast." Together, they embark on a thought-provoking exploration of geopolitical strategies and the key tenets of international politics. Mearsheimer articulates the principles of his offensive structural realism, a perspective that illuminates the anarchic spaces within international relations and the relentless quest for state power. As they dissect the various schools of thought—from defensive realism to liberalist ideologies—their conversation deepens with a critical assessment of the democratic peace theory, challenging the notion that economic interdependence is a surefire path to peace.

Listeners are treated to a rich tapestry of historical reflection as Fridman and Mearsheimer examine pivotal conflicts through the lens of structural factors, emphasizing the precedence of systemic influences over more transient collective emotions. As they delve into the complexities of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and NATO's eastward expansion, Mearsheimer sheds light on contemporary dynamics, including the crucial role of nuclear deterrence in modern-day international relations. The podcast weaves from the U.S.-China rivalry and proxy wars to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, revealing an intricate web of ideologies and power plays that shape global policy. Beyond the rigor of academic discourse, Mearsheimer shares personal philosophies, inspiring individuals to chase their passions with a balance of humility and hubris, all while fostering an appreciation for the finite nature of life itself.