How predictions took over our lives
6/12/202650 min
From betting apps to AI models, prediction has become big business. This hour, why we're so drawn to certainty, and what happens when we mistake forecasts for facts. Guests include professor Brendan Dwyer, philosopher Carissa Véliz, and journalist Simone Stolzoff.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
This message comes from Avalara. What's it like running a business with Avalara? No thinking about tax and compliance. It's handled, calculating, filing, validating accurately and audit defensively. Avalara, agentic tax and compliance with confidence.
Manoush Zomorodi· Host0:16
This [chime] is the TED Radio Hour. [upbeat music] Each week, groundbreaking TED Talks- Our job now is to dream big ... delivered at TED Conferences- To bring about the future we want to see ... around the world.
Speaker 10:30
To understand who we are.
Manoush Zomorodi· Host0:31
From those talks, we bring you speakers and ideas that will surprise you- You just don't know what you're gonna find ... challenge you- We truly have to ask ourselves, like, why is it noteworthy? ... and even change you. I literally feel like I'm a different person. [laughs] Yes. Do you feel that way? Ideas worth spreading from TED and NPR. I'm Manoush Zomorodi. On the show today, what happens when we become obsessed with predicting the future?
Brendan Dwyer· Guest1:03
[upbeat music] It was the FIFA World Cup in Doha, Qatar, so it was in November, which means my students were here. They were in our workroom, and they were huddled around a laptop.
Manoush Zomorodi· Host1:16
Brendan Dwyer is a former football coach and now a professor of sports leadership. He's at Virginia Commonwealth University, which is a financial supporter of NPR. On this day, his students