The bestselling author and Ottawa Citizen columnist Dan Gardner discusses his new book, Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail—And Why We Believe Them Anyway (McClelland & Stewart, 2010), with Joseph Planta.

Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail—And Why We Believe Them Anyway by Dan Gardner. (McClelland & Stewart, 2010) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Future Babble

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line. In Vancouver, this is THECOMMENTARY.CA.

Dan Gardner joins me again. He is the author of a new book, Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail—And Why We Believe Them Anyway. I’m reading the book now, and it’s awfully thought-provoking and often surreal. We seem to want experts, in nearly every field to predict what’s going to happen in the future, whether it’s this weekend’s weather forecast, the economy in a year, the state of the world for our children. And with research on psychology, political science, and behavioural economics, more often than not the average expert as seen on television, as heard on the radio, as read in the newspaper or on the internet, is no more accurate than a flipped coin. Mr. Gardner was last on for his book Risk, which was a bestseller. Like that book, this one is a challenging, fascinating read. Dan Gardner is a senior writer and columnist at the Ottawa Citizen, as well he’s a popular public speaker, who holds degrees in law and history. The website for more is www.dangardner.ca. Future Babble is published by McClelland & Stewart. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Dan Gardner; Good morning, Mr. Gardner.

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