How Does The Human Mind Work? - Paul Bloom - #608

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello everybody, welcome back to the show. My guest today is paul Bloom. He's a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, professor emeritus of psychology at Yale University, and an author. The human mind is a mystery. If it wasn't for the fact that we experience it, the universe would give us absolutely no indication that consciousness even existed. After an entire career studying psychology, Professor Bloom has some answers to the psychology questions we've all asked ourselves. Expect to learn whether you can actually remember everything that you've ever experienced, whether we know why consciousness evolved at all, why we should remember Sigmund Freud, why babies are way smarter than you think, whether attachment theory is rubbish, if psychology can tell us how to live a good life, and much more. Don't forget that if you are listening, you should have also got a copy of the Modern Wisdom reading list. It is 100 of the most interesting and impactful books that I've ever read. Fiction and non-fiction, real life stories, and there's links to go and buy them and descriptions about why I like them. And it's completely free. And you can get your copy right now by going to chriswillx.com/books. That's chriswillx.com/books. In other news, this episode is brought to you by Whoop. Whoop is a personalized digital fitness and health coach that monitors your body's physiology 24 seven via a non-invasive wearable and provides you with feedback on your lifestyle, training, sleep and recovery via an accompanying app. Whoop is much more than just a fitness tracker. It is a coach that can help you identify areas for improvement in your life, reinforcing positive behaviors and helping you to alleviate habits that have a negative impact on your overall health and wellbeing. The sleep tracking is really, really great. It is such an important red pill to take that the time that you spend in bed is not the time that you spend to sleep and learning how long you need to be in bed in order to get an appreciable amount of sleep and how that impacts your performance the next day and how the habits and the foods that you're eating and the supplements that you're taking change your HRV and your resting heart rate and your breath rate. It is very, very comprehensive but made incredibly simple by the app. Also you can join for free, pay nothing for the brand new Whoop 4 strap plus you get your first month for free and there's a 30 day money back guarantee. So you can buy it for free, try it for free and if you do not like it after 29 days, they will give you your money back. Head to join.whoop.com/modernwisdom. That's join.whoop.com/modernwisdom. In other other news, this episode is brought to you by MyProtein. You probably need some more protein in your life. Pretty much everybody does, no one is eating enough of it and the best protein that I have ever found is MyProtein's Clearway. It's light and fruity, it's so easy to drink that you can have it during a workout, but it has more protein in than a normal protein shake. Also, if you've been suffering with digestive discomfort or bloating from most other proteins, this is a really good solution. On top of that, their accessories, their protein foods, like their layered protein bars and protein flapjacks, everything is fantastic. Gone are the days where protein food supplements taste terrible. They've even got different types of beef jerky and yoga mats, clothing, whatever it is that you need. MyProtein's got it. They do international shipping and you can get a 37% or greater discount sitewide and worldwide if you go to bit.ly slash modern wisdom and use the code Modern Wisdom at checkout. That's bit.ly slash Modern Wisdom and Modern Wisdom at checkout. And in final news, this episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. One scoop of Athletic Greens contains 75 vitamins, minerals and whole food sourced ingredients, including a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, pre and probiotic, green superfood blend and more that all work together to fill the nutritional gaps in your diet. It's NSF certified for sports in the US., meaning that even Olympic athletes can use it. And it tastes really good. Most greens drinks are like the bottom filtering of a septic tank, but Athletic Greens is genuinely really nice. It's lifestyle friendly, whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy free or gluten free, and it contains less than one gram of sugar. But most importantly, it just works. It makes my digestion feel better, it makes my energy feel better, and I can really tell when I haven't taken it. So if you're looking to make an upgrade to your nutrition and really invest in your health, this is a great place to start. Head to athleticgreens.com/modernwisdom for a 60 day money back guarantee, a year's free supply vitamin D, five free travel packs and more. That's athleticgreens.com/modernwisdom.