Episode 74: Why We Believe Things That Aren’t True, with Dr. Joseph Pierre

I had a blast interviewing psychiatrist and author Dr. Joseph Pierre, who joined me to explore why false beliefs are so compelling—and so hard to shake. We dive into his book False: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren’t True, and talk delusions, the slippery boundary between pathology and normal belief, and how the internet, identity, and algorithms shape what we think is true. From cognitive biases to the power of repetition, and from free speech dilemmas to AI’s role in misinformation, this episode is a fast-paced tour through the psychology of belief—and what it takes to think critically in a post-truth world.