Description (podcaster-provided):
Nigel Warburton interviews a range of authors about their books about thinkingThemes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Author interviews on books about thinking • Learning from failure and feedback • Creativity and efficiency from disorder • Training perception through smell and taste • Children’s fiction featuring a girl-robotThis podcast features interviews with authors about books that explore how people think and how thinking can be improved or redirected in everyday life. Across conversations, the focus is on the relationship between ideas and lived experience: how attention, training, and reflection can change what we notice and how we respond to the world.
A recurring theme is learning—particularly learning through experience rather than abstract theory. The interviews examine how people develop skills by refining perception, such as becoming more sensitive to sensory information, and how deliberate practice can transform initial ignorance into expertise. Another strand concerns problem-solving and creativity, including the counterintuitive ways that disorder, improvisation, and less rigid planning can sometimes produce effective outcomes.
The podcast also returns to the question of failure and feedback: what it takes to learn from mistakes, how environments can encourage honest appraisal, and why information from the world—rather than defensiveness or blame—matters for progress in many settings. Alongside these practical themes, there is room for storytelling as a vehicle for thinking, including discussion of fiction aimed at younger readers that raises questions about identity and perspective through imaginative scenarios.
Overall, listeners can expect author-led discussions that use books as starting points for examining perception, decision-making, creativity, and the habits that shape clearer, more adaptive thinking.
| Episodes: |
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David Edmonds on Undercover Robot 2020-Sep-01 12 minutes |
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Bianca Bosker on Cork Dork 2018-Mar-25 16 minutes |
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Tim Harford on Messy 2017-Jul-30 22 minutes |
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Matthew Syed on Black Box Thinking 2017-Jul-05 25 minutes |