STEVEN PINKER – WHEN EVERYONE KNOWS THAT EVERYONE KNOWS

Join acclaimed thinker Steven Pinker for a fascinating conversation about one of the most powerful – and puzzling – forces shaping our lives: common knowledge. In his new book When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows, Pinker explores how our awareness of what others know (and what they know we know) underpins everything from first dates and protests to revolutions and viral trends. 

It may sound like a mental pretzel, but we do it effortlessly – using cues like laughter, eye contact, and blunt speech to signal what’s shared and understood. Just as often, we dodge it with innuendo, euphemism, or strategic silence. 

Why do we hoard toilet paper in a crisis? Why are crypto ads all over the Super Bowl? Why is honesty so hard – and social media so explosive? With his trademark wit and insight, Pinker breaks down the hidden logic of human interaction – and what it reveals about how we connect, cooperate, and coexist. 

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He has won many prizes for his teaching, his research on language, cognition, and social relations, and his twelve books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Rationality. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” 

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