Tackling a crisis in critical thinking with Alex Edmans
Air Dates: August 11 鈥 August 17, 2025
Scholars, journalists and even some politicians often warn about the lack of critical thinking in contemporary public and private life. Alex Edmans picks up that alarm and warns that we鈥檙e regularly exploited by those who would use our own sloppy thinking and unconscious biases to mislead us.
Edmans is a professor of finance at London Business School. His research interests are in corporate finance, responsible business and behavioral finance. He serves in leadership roles for the American Finance Association, Western Finance Association, Financial Management Association, British Academy and the Academy of the Social Sciences. He has spoken at economic forums, testified in the United Kingdom Parliament and been interviewed by many major news networks. He has won 28 teaching awards, was featured in 鈥淭hinkers50 Radar鈥 and was named professor of the year by Poets & Quants in 2021. His latest book, 鈥淢ay Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit our Biases- And What We Can Do About It,鈥 was published in 2024.
On this week鈥檚 episode of 鈥淪tory in the Public Square,鈥 Edmans discusses the harmful implications that a lack of critical thinking can have on our communities. He called on government officials and educators to act with integrity and clarity while spreading information and said, 鈥渆ven if the statement was actually given by the person, it may well be misleading.鈥
鈥Story in the Public Square鈥 broadcasts each week on public television stations across the United States. In Rhode Island and southeastern New England, the show is broadcast on Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Check your local public television listings for airtimes near you! An audio version of the program airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET, Sundays at 2:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. and Mondays at 4:30 a.m. ET on SiriusXM鈥檚 popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. 鈥淪tory in the Public Square鈥 is a project of the Pell Center at 黑料网. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.