October 16, 2012

University Honors presents David McRaney Oct. 30

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The University Honors Program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale welcomes journalist, author, and reality-check-casher David McRaney to campus for a public lecture on Oct. 30.

The talk begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Student Center Auditorium. A reception and book signing will follow. The lecture is free, and the public is welcome to attend.

McRaney is the author of "You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory is Mostly Fiction, and 46 other Ways You're Deluding Yourself." If the title isn't descriptive enough, the publisher describes the book as "an entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise."

McRaney's visit will not be a night of haranguing and shaming, though. McRaney asks his audience -- be it a live audience or a reader -- to think again, to consider, and to understand themselves and the world around them better.

To put it in more formal terms, the book, and the lecture, is about "cognitive biases, heuristics, and logical fallacies."

University Honors Program presents several lectures during the academic year, featuring speakers that generally are well established in some form of academia or community leadership, and who present viewpoints that many people find both challenging and interesting.