WHEN EVERYONE KNOWS THAT EVERYONE KNOWS... Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life

Fred Sanders delivers this audiobook about metacognition with a perfect balance of erudition and approachability. Psychology professor Pinker describes how we understand our thoughts and how we know what others are thinking. To frame this discussion, he evokes the classic moment from the '90s television show "Friends," the one in which Phoebe realizes "they don't know we know they know!" That scene played for laughs, but Pinker is seriously applying this approach to the understanding of shared knowledge, as well as how we can be misunderstood. Social media is rife with examples of attempts at humor or sarcasm being taken out of context. Sanders doesn't oversell these themes; he delivers Pinker's ideas clearly, trusting that listeners will follow them. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2025]