Games can serve as an escape from reality—but they can also shape our understanding of trust, collaboration, and what might be possible IRL. Megan Garber talks with C. Thi Nguyen, an associate philosophy professor at the University of Utah, to better understand how games can help us safely explore our current reality and shape new realities, too.
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Jun 2024
How to Know What's Real: How to be Immortal Online
With digital spaces regularly evolving and updating, and the infinite scroll beckoning to us at all times, this episode questions if we have, as a culture, fully embraced the end of endings. Hanna Reichel, an associate professor of reformed theology at Princeton Theological Semin ... Show More
37m 23s
Sep 2024
How to Know What's Real: How to Know What’s Really Propaganda
Peter Pomerantsev, a contributor at The Atlantic and author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, is an expert on the ways information can be manipulated. For this special episode, Megan talks with Peter about the role of propaganda in America and how ... Show More
23m 38s
Nov 2024
Best of “How To”: Spend Time on What You Value
This new season of How To is a collection of our favorite episodes from past seasons—a best-of series focused on slowing down, making space, and finding meaning in our hectic lives. This first episode, from our third season called How to Build a Happy Life, features the Harvard B ... Show More
34m 57s
Jan 2024
Episode 126, 'Playfulness Versus Epistemic Traps' with C. Thi Nguyen (Part I - The Ideal Thinker)
<p class="">There's great pleasure to be found in make-believe. Instantly shifting our perspectives and belief systems gives rise to new possibilities – possibilities that are unavailable to the serious and sober-minded. Yet, as time passes, so does our desire to play. Adults – a ... Show More
38m 31s
Mar 2025
How Is Trauma Dumping Affecting My Relationships?
This week, JVN sits down with existential psychotherapist and author Dr. Sara Kuburic, widely recognized as the @Millennial.Therapist in Instagram, to delve into the phenomenon of "trauma dumping." We’re exploring the nuances between sharing personal experiences and overloading o ... Show More
41m 20s
Apr 2024
025 - Alex Ferrari
<p>In this episode, Robert welcomes Alex Ferrari, a distinguished podcaster, author, consultant, and award-winning filmmaker with a quarter-century of experience in the film industry. Alex delves into his transformative journey from filmmaking to podcasting, inspired by "The 4-Ho ... Show More
1h 26m
Sep 19
Algorithmic Social Media Is Driving New Slang
From viral slang such as “skibidi” to the rise of so-called brain rot, linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic, aka the “Etymology Nerd,” and associate editor Allison Parshall, who covers the mind and brain, unpack how social media and algorithms are reshaping the way we commun ... Show More
26m 55s
Mar 2025
Queer Eye’s Antoni Shares the Surprising Ways That Food Can Change Your Life
This week, JVN and Antoni Porowski serve up a delicious conversation on the intersections of food, identity, and personal growth. From Antoni’s culinary journey to the ways food connects us to our past, present, and future, they explore how what we eat can reflect who we are. Ant ... Show More
40m 21s