{"podcast":{"title":"Decoding the Gurus","slug":"decoding-the-gurus-1328110","podcast_index_feed_id":1328110,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/decoding-the-gurus/","website_url":"https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/ca36b15f-e9a3-44d0-b341-cb03f96046e3/aj9LitB3bvW15m3-LL0fusjp.jpg","author":"Christopher Kavanagh and Matthew Browne","episode_count":264,"summary":"An exiled Northern Irish anthropologist and a hitchhiking Australian psychologist take a close look at the contemporary crop of 'secular gurus', iconoclasts, and other exiles from the mainstream, offering their own brands of unique takes and special insights. Leveraging two of the most diverse accents in modern podcasting, Chris and Matt dig deep into the claims, peek behind the psychological curtains, and try to figure out once and for all... What's it all About? Join us, as we try to puzzle our way through and talk some smart-sounding smack about the intellectual giants of our age, from Jordan Peterson to Robin DiAngelo. Are they revolutionary thinkers or just grifters with delusions of grandeur? Join us and let's find out!","last_synced_at":"2026-09-21T16:19:52.948269+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/decoding-the-gurus-1328110"},"episode":{"title":"Decoding Academia 36: Revenge of the Chimpanzees *Patreon Series*","slug":"decoding-academia-36-revenge-of-the-chimpanzees-patreon-series","published_at":"2026-07-08T12:40:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/decoding-the-gurus-1328110/decoding-academia-36-revenge-of-the-chimpanzees-patreon-series","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/decoding-the-gurus-1328110","url":"https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/decoding-academia-36-revenge-of-the-chimpanzees-patreon-series","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/9c68384a-a4ce-4887-9342-7220109796a6.mp3","summary":"In this Decoding Academia episode, we venture into comparative psychology, focusing on a fascinating line of work by Fumihiro Kano and colleagues on social intelligence and theory of mind in great apes. By showing apes short videos and tracking where they look, researchers examine whether they expect others to act based on what they have seen, what they know, or what they falsely believe. This approach offers a remarkable window into the evolutionary roots of human social cognition or, alternatively, the most elaborate way yet devised to explore what a chimp thinks of a man in a chimpanzee costume. We discuss what this kind of research might reveal about social intelligence across species: whether apes understand intentions, knowledge, and false beliefs; how their abilities compare with humans, dogs, and other animals; and why studying minds without language requires ingenuity, caution, and tolerance for participants who may simply decide the whole enterprise is beneath them. There is also some discussion of the usual complications: small samples, difficult data, flexible analyses, replication, and the gap between a beautifully designed experiment and a result we should treat as settled fact. But the main story is the genuinely intriguing attempt to study Theory of Mind beyond humans. Along the way, we discuss chimpanzee costumes, zoo life, dogs, and the disturbing possibility that crocodiles may be running more sophisticated cooperative hunting operations than most university committees. *The full episode is available on Patreon (57 mins)* 00:00 Introduction 03:57 Chimpanzee Theory of Mind & Eye Tracking 13:03 Attention, Grabbing and Orientation 24:03 The Role of Memory in Anticipation 26:10 Revenge of the Researcher 31:21 Statistical Concerns 43:44 Comparative Ps…","meta_description":"In this Decoding Academia episode, we venture into comparative psychology, focusing on a fascinating line of work by Fumihiro Kano and colleagues on socia…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1678,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/decoding-the-gurus-1328110/episodes/decoding-academia-36-revenge-of-the-chimpanzees-patreon-series/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/decoding-the-gurus-1328110/decoding-academia-36-revenge-of-the-chimpanzees-patreon-series.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}