David Pinsof is an evolutionary social scientist and a co-creator of the game Cards Against Humanity. He holds a PhD in Psychology from UCLA, where he studied the evolutionary origins of political bullshit, and has written a handful of academic papers, one of which has been cited 152 times and another of which was quoted in the New York Times.

David is the author of the ‘Everything Is Bullshit’ Substack, which aims to poke holes in the stories we tell ourselves. He joins the show to discuss why happiness & morality are bullshit, the difference between bullshit & lying, why we conceal the status monkey, and more!

Important Links:

David’s Twitter
David’s Substack; Everything is Bullshit
Cards Against Humanity
The Execution Hypothesis; by Richard Wrangham
Discordianism
Our podcast with George Mack
Our podcast with Will Storr

Show Notes:

What is bullshit?
The difference between bullshitting and lying
Why moralizing is bullshit
Concealing the status monkey
The origins of Cards Against Humanity
How are status games changing?
Why happiness is bullshit
Happiness as a status symbol
How can we escape bullshit?
Why we’re driven by negative emotions
How to become more positive
The role of humor in calling out bullshit
MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

On Bullshit; by Harry G. Frankfurt
Propaganda; by Edward Bernays
Influence: Science and Practice; by Robert Cialdini
The Moral Animal: Why We Are The Way We Are; by Robert Wright
The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It; by Will Storr
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History; by Howard Bloom
Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
Happy; by Derren Brown
Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
Gödel, Escher, Bach; by Douglas Hofstadter

David Pinsof — Everything is Bullshit (EP.161)

Infinite Loops