The My Idiot Brother Questions Everything podcast is hosted by two brothers—self-proclaimed “idiots” with a serious passion for critical thinking. Each episode encourages critical thinking in the context of myriad subjects: from books and articles to barriers to reasoning, and from psychological, social and environmental influences to real examples of critical and non-critical thought. We draw on current events, philosophies, history, our own experiences and smart guests for lively, logical, good-humored conversations. Join us if you want to think more clearly, but especially if you don't.
We all know right from wrong. At least until being right becomes inconvenient.
In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything, we question where morality comes from? Did God invent it, did humans evolve it, or did somebody just start making rules and hope everyone followed along? And if morality is supposedly universal, why do we keep changing the rules—and making exceptions for people we like?
To answer these question, we look into 5,000 years of moral philosophy, religious hypocrisy, political tribalism, the Cornell 7, and whether artificial intelligence could someday be more moral than the humans who created it.
Along the way, we explore why our brains are remarkably good at confusing moral reasoning with rationalization.
Because maybe the biggest problem with our moral compass isn't that it doesn't work. It's that we keep adjusting it to point wherever we want to go.
6 Aug 2026
Episode 23: Know thyself!
We all like to think we're rational people. We weigh the evidence, follow the facts, and arrive at logical conclusions...right?
Well...maybe.
In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything, we take a journey from ancient Greece to modern psychology to explore one of the oldest—and most uncomfortable—pieces of advice ever given: Know thyself!
Why do smart people believe dumb things? Why do facts so often fail to change minds? Are we really searching for truth, or are we just acting as our own defense attorneys, tirelessly arguing our side of the case? We'll dive into motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, ego, identity, blind spots, self-deception, intellectual humility, and one of the most important skills you may have heard of: metacognition—thinking about your thinking.
Along the way, we'll challenge ourselves (and hopefully you) with a simple but unsettling question:
What if the hardest person to think critically about...is me?
Fair warning: This episode may cause you to question your opinions, your assumptions, and possibly that argument you won on Facebook in 2019.
If that sounds uncomfortable...
Good. That's probably where wisdom begins.
26 Jul 2026
Episode 22: Our monsters are misunderstood
In this episode of My Idiot Brother Questions Everything, we ask ourselves what happens when the person accused of doing something awful is not a stranger, an enemy, or a member of the “other side”—but one of our own?
We look at how tribal loyalty can turn otherwise sensible people into unpaid defense attorneys for politicians, churches, institutions, celebrities, and anyone else wearing the right jersey. Using sexual misconduct and institutional abuse scandals as case studies, we explore motivated reasoning, identity protection, moral hypocrisy, selective skepticism, and the remarkable human ability to demand courtroom-level proof for our allies while accepting a meme and a suspicious photograph as conclusive evidence against our opponents.
This is not an episode about proving that one political party, religion, or organization is uniquely terrible. Every tribe has bad actors. The real question is what the rest of the tribe does when the evidence points inward.
We also ask the deeply uncomfortable question: would you apply the same standards if the accused were your favorite candidate, pastor, coach, brother, or lifelong hero?
Spoiler: your brain may be less interested in discovering the truth than in protecting your team’s playoff chances.
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