The science of uncertainty — and the origin of conspiracy theories | Adam Kucharski

Elise Hu introduces the TED Talks Daily podcast and encourages listeners to participate in a survey to improve the show. The episode features mathematician Adam Kucharski discussing the human desire to explain complex phenomena, the challenges this poses in a world increasingly reliant on opaque technologies like AI, and the implications for trust and the spread of conspiracy theories. Kucharski uses examples ranging from aerodynamics and anesthesia to self-driving cars and the four-color theorem to illustrate his points, arguing for the importance of both trusting what we cannot explain and explaining what we do not trust.