In 1923, a famous scientist predicted how work would change in 2023. Now, 100 years later, we can confirm: He was shockingly right… and yet totally wrong. What happened? The answers can tell you a lot about what’s coming in the next 100 years,

The Best Ways to Use a Crisis

1 Nov 30th, 2022 1h 12m

Everyone’s freaking out! How can that be put to good use? In this episode, we discuss the unexpected benefits of the bubonic plague, what the four-day workweek tells us about the future of work, how world-changing technologies become adopted, w

How to Stop Obsessing Over “What If…?”

1 Oct 27th, 2022 40m 34s

Have you ever messed up — or just thought you messed up! — and then obsessed over what you could have done better? This episode is about what’s happening in your brain, why you’re doing it, and how to finally let it go.The “Build For Tomorrow

How to See Gain, Where Others See Loss

1 Sep 29th, 2022 43m 26s

You can find opportunity in the hardest situations. But how?To answer that out, we take lessons from one of the most fascinating changes in cultural history -- when the record player was invented. Many people loved it, but musicians hated it.

Why “Nobody Wants to Work Anymore” is BS

1 Aug 25th, 2022 43m 37s

Want to fix the problem with work today? It starts by understanding the common phrase “nobody wants to work anymore” — including what’s right about it, what’s wrong about it, and why critics have been using these exact same words for more than

To Save Barbie, They Had to Change Her

Jul 28th, 2022 43m 37s

Barbie sales were plummeting. A new leader had a vision: The doll needed to be “a reflection of our times.” But how do you make something more modern? In this episode, we learn how Barbie took some big risks — and then take a trip through toy h

Teddy Bears Are History’s Most Subversive Toy (Classic)

1 Jun 30th, 2022 47m 46s

The teddy bear: Is it cute and cuddly, or a “horrible monstrosity” that’ll destroy humanity? In 1907, many people feared the worst — that this new toy would ruin young girls’ developing maternal instincts, and lead us to a terrible fate. This i

Real Ways to Predict the Future

1 Mar 31st, 2022 49m 25s

Do you wish you could predict the future? Not in a street-corner psychic kind of way, but in a more personal, meaningful way. How can you know what’s coming, and to know what decisions you should make? To answer that, we talk to many experts —

The Climate Problem We Can Solve Now

1 Feb 24th, 2022 40m 3s

Climate change is described as a “generational battle,” in which young people care and older people don’t. But this is a perfect example of how we think about generations all wrong — and that has big consequences. If we can drop our assumptions

Do We Lose Skills Because of Technology?

Dec 28th, 2020 49m 47s

We once knew how to do important things... until new technology made us weaker, lazier, and dumber. That’s a story we’ve told ourselves for centuries. But is it true?Get in touch!Website: jasonfeifer.comNewsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com

When Novels Were A "Bad Influence"

Oct 15th, 2018 41m 20s

Today, novels are a wholesome alternative to modern vices. But long before television and video games, novels were the new and scary form of entertainment. They were accused of corrupting the youth, of planting dangerous ideas into the heads of

Bicycles Were A Misogynist's Nightmare

Jun 8th, 2017 34m 42s

When the bicycle debuted in the 1800s, it was blamed for all sorts of problems--from turning people insane to devastating local economies to destroying women's morals. We explore why the bicycle scared so many people, and what happens when the

Wearing A Walkman Was Illegal

1 1 Sep 12th, 2016 24m 48s

Today's critics say that smartphones separate us. We no longer make the kind of in-person human connections that we once did, they say. Well...In this episode, take a trip back to the 1980s — when the portable cassette player was accused of tu

All the Fun Facts You Have Wrong!

1 May 26th, 2022 46m 39s

Our brains are full of fun facts: the memory span of a goldfish, Marie Antoinette’s famous words, the vomitoriums of Rome, and more. But what if it’s all wrong? In this episode, I debunk more than a dozen common misconceptions and then ask: Why

Coffee: The Original Controversial Drug

1 1 Nov 20th, 2017 31m 16s

For 500 years, a succession of kings, sultans, and businessmen have tried to ban or destroy the world’s favorite morning pick-me-up. Among their claims: Coffee makes you impotent! It destroys brain tissue! It attacks the nervous system! And mos

Where the Anti-Vax Movement Came From

Sep 9th, 2017 27m 56s

“One might suppose that the popular prejudice against vaccination had died out by this time,” one writer complains. It sounds like a lament from today, but in fact, it’s from 1875. Anti-vaxxers may seem like a product of our fake-news, health-h

Why Games Like Chess Are Threatening

Jul 20th, 2017 25m 10s

For as long as chess has been around — and we’re talking 1,500-plus years — someone has tried to ban it. But why? The answer is complicated, but it begins here: For ages, global and moralistic leaders have viewed games as a threat worth quashin

My New Podcast

Mar 14th, 2023 35m 43s

I have some important news about Build For Tomorrow.And here’s my new show, Help Wanted: https://link.chtbl.com/85RcT5bT Get in touch!Newsletter: onethingbetter.emailWebsite: jasonfeifer.comInstagram: @heyfeiferTwitter: @heyfeiferLear

The Greatest Myth About Learning

Feb 23rd, 2023 41m 24s

For decades, people have been told they have a certain “learning style.” Maybe you think you’re a visual learner, for example, or a reading/writing learner. But new research is upending all that. Here’s what we got wrong — and how we can become

The Four-Day Workweek Is Here

Apr 28th, 2022 40m 53s

The four-day workweek was once just an experiment. Now it’s regular life for many people. So what’s that like? In this episode, we look at the good, the bad, the reason our workweek evolved the way it did, and what it’ll take to get everyone el

Why People Can’t Write, and How To Fix That

Jan 27th, 2022 46m 37s

Who is to blame for people’s poor writing skills? It isn’t texting or tweeting. It’s a fateful decision made in 1875, from which we’ve never recovered. In this episode, we find out what went wrong — and how today’s educators are reinventing the

We Can Make Politics Smarter

Dec 27th, 2021 45m 58s

We like to laugh at lawmakers for their technology ignorance, like when Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked a Facebook executive if she’ll “commit to ending finsta.” But how do gaffes like these actually happen? The answer is more complicated than yo

The Case for Sex Robots

Nov 25th, 2021 47m 29s

Sex robots?! For decades, people have debated their dangers or called them ridiculous. But what if these bots can actually be a good thing? Here is the surprisingly human argument for a dystopian-sounding technology — and why it matters far bey

This Episode Will Change Your Brain

Oct 28th, 2021 42m 26s

People worry that technology changes our brains. It’s the reason why tech critics talk about dopamine, a chemical that they say turns us into social media addicts. But when I called actual brain scientists and asked them to fact-check the criti

Simple Pleasures Aren’t Simple (See: Knitting)

Sep 30th, 2021 46m 54s

Is everything really political these days? Or has it always been that way?To answer that, let’s look at the story of knitting. Can anything get simpler than knitting? Balls of yarn! Comfy socks! So when the knitting community began reckoning w