Cross Section: Steven Pinker – Science Weekly podcast

We ask Prof Steven Pinker whether today's doom and gloom headlines are a sign we're worse off than in centuries gone by, or if human wellbeing is at an all-time high

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Cognitive psychologist and linguist Prof Steven Pinker of Harvard University is no stranger to intellectual controversy. Since 1994, a series of bestselling books, including The Language Instinct, The Blank Slate and The Better Angels of Our Nature, have unleashed a torrent of criticism. Pinker's determination to apply scientific thinking to politics, society and culture has left some accusing him of scientism - an overweening faith in the power of science in every sphere. His latest book, Enlightenment Now, is a vigorous defence of Enlightenment progress against the prophets of doom.