John Petrocelli, PhD

I found John through his Ted Talk: “Why BS is more dangerous than a lie”, and I immediately grabbed a copy of his book, read it once, read it twice, cross-referenced everything, and then asked him on the podcast. We recorded the conversation with a live audience of members from both the Clear & Free and Born Free Method communities.

John’s research is important. As an experimental social psychologist at Wake Forest University, he helps to clarify why we all have the tendency to opine on every issue under the sun, regardless of whether or not our opinion is informed or utter b******t.

Thanksgiving is approaching, along with a presidential election. If your family is like me, there will inevitably be chatter around the election results, for better or for worse. Heaven forbid somebody challenges Aunt Sally on her very passionate argument for why Donal Trump was the better candidate. And nobody would ever dare to criticize Uncle Charlie’s passionate advocacy for Kamala Harris’ plan to ease conflict in the Middle East. And nowadays I pray for the loner who would have loved to see Jill Stein or RFK Jr. as the next president.

As the old adage goes…"Don’t talk politics around the dinner table.”

But is anything that they are saying true? Or is it b******t? Or is a flat out lie?

We are confronted by the same dilemma seemingly everywhere: from medicine, to politics, to environmentalism, to the supplement industry. It’s frankly hard to discern the signal in a sea of noise.

In my conversation with John, we go deep on:

* the Asche conformity experiments

* threats of social ostracism for being a non-conformist

* Dunning-Kruger Effect 

* B******t in the wine industry

* Honing your bullshitter detector

* How to reveal b******t when speaking to a bullshitter

* Pseudo- profound language espoused by New Agers like Deepak Chopra (with a live demonstration!)

* …and much more

Most importantly: What is the value in evaluating all of the evidence before forming an opinion? Do you necessarily have to opine every time you are given the opportunity? And how can you gently approach someone who seems to be espousing b******t without calling it for what it is?

Other references from the conversation:

* Harry Frankfurt, “On B******t”

* New Age Pseudo-Language Generator

* Why Most Published Research Findings Are False, by Jon Ioanniddis

Find John’s website HERE and go read his book, “The Life-Changing Science of Detecting B******t” (also great on Audible)

Full notes from the episode are available on Substack

Work with Nathan:

Beloved Holistics | Born Free Method | Clear & Free | Twins-Breech

Medical Disclaimer: Born Free Method: The Podcast is an educational progra