WAB Learns: Theory of Knowledge: CORE: Knowledge and the Knower

Things that make you go hmmm....

Closer to Truth
YouTube Channel exploring philosophical ideas and questions from a wide variety of AOKs
PBS Idea Channel
Explores everything from quantum physics to the genius of Super Mario Brothers.
Arts & Letters Daily
Website that is continuously updated with new material relevant to all areas of the TOK course.
Worldmapper
Collection of world maps rendered based on a wide variety of parameters.
The Peters Projection
Series of maps and discussion about what maps represent about reality.
Where Your Brain Figures Out What It Doesn't Know
NPR story about brain science and self-monitoring.
A Little Bit of Knowledge
This American Life programme on the perils of knowing just a little about something.
Implicit Association Test
Demonstration test from Harvard's implicit association test project—people associate "others'" faces with negative words.
The Library of Babel
Jorge Luis Borges on knowledge and truth.
Critical Reasoning
Free set of six podcasts on reasoning, fallacies and organizing an argument.
Radio Lab Choice
Discussion of how a complete lack of emotion causes a failure of decision-making.

How Desire Can Warp Our View of the World
Can we trust our own eyes? The science of “motivated seeing” says not always.
Do You Really Believe What You Believe?
Just because you said it, do you really believe it? Great visuals
From Ignorance to Wisdom
If you learn something for the first time, does that make you knowledgeable?
Belief and Doubt
The brain treats questions about beliefs like physical threats. Can we learn to disarm it?
Entitled to Their Own "Facts"?
Ellen Goodman piece about fact-checking; pits emotion versus reality.
The Multiple Truths of the Mappable World
Chapter of book on relationship between maps and truth.
What Makes Us Moral?
Newsweek article (2007) by Jeffrey Kluger about brain science and the evolutionary roots of morality.
The World Seen from New York
New Yorker cover about cultural/geographical/emotional perspective.
No love for outsiders
Discover Magazine piece about a brain chemical that facilitates bonding, but also facilitates bias against "others".
Houdini's Skeptical Advice
Scientific American article about Houdini and Conan Doyle. Explores how the brain desires to find explanations for things that confuse it.
NASA Crushes 2012 Mayan Apocalypse Claims
NASA released a video rebuttal of all the main arguments by proponents of the 12/12 apocalypse
Yes, Looks Do Matter
Discussion (with Susan Boyle as starting point) of the rational and emotional roots of stereotyping.
Fish as Good as College Students
National Geographic report on study that shows mosquito fish can determine the difference between quantities.
You're not as smart as you think you are
Economist article about distribution of knowledge.
9 questions for Martha Nussbaum
Interview with interesting links to the importance of different perspectives.
What Statistics Can and Can't Tell Us About Ourselves
Article from the New Yorker magazine about big data and human behaviour.