APA Interview & Deleted Interview Questions


I recently answered some questions from Skye Cleary, managing editor of the APA blog. Some of the interview questions were really fun. In fact, I ended up going over the word limit. So I had to delete some things. But if you’re interested in the deleted interview questions, then you can find some of them below. The main interview is here: “APA Member Interview: Nick Byrd“.

The Deleted Interview Questions

What time of day are you most productive and creative?

My mind is at its best in the first 6-7 hours of my day. When I’m smart, I use those hours to accomplish the most demanding and important things on my to-do list. But when I’m foolish, I waste that time on mindless and/or unimportant work.

What do you like to do outside work?

Hmm. It varies:

What is your favorite quote?

“You cannot escape philosophy.”

I’m guessing that this has been uttered in one form or another by many people in many contexts. The last time I saw this line was when I read “Neuroscience Needs Behavior: Correcting a Reductionist Bias” in Neuron. Here’s a free copy of the paper.

What is your least favorite type of fruit and why?

Mango. That smell. Yuck. I feel sick just thinking about it.

What would you like your last meal to be?

Whatever makes my body most useful to science.

Crystal Meth & Your Brain: An Infographic


Methamphetamine use is on the rise (Drug Enforcement Administration 2015). And so are crystal-meth-related drug convictions (see “State Sentencing…”). So what do we know about crystal meth? In particular, what does crystal meth do to your body and brain? The South Shore Recovery Center has some answers. In fact, they’ve done us the favor of turning those answers into the infographic below.
Continue reading Crystal Meth & Your Brain: An Infographic

True Story: I Made $1000 By Responding To One Spam Email


The holiday season and the US presidential election were in full swing. So I was growing increasingly curmudgeonly by the day. Add to that the fact that I had multiple deadlines looming. Oh! And I hadn’t had coffee yet. So I was probably an 8.5 on the “I hate the world” scale.

And it’s not even 8:00am.

I had just started my I’m-not-quite-ready-to-get-out-of-bed-but-I-should-probably-start-working-on-something sequence. First stop: email. After glancing at a few emails, I come across a spam email that was sent to everyone in the philosophy department.
Continue reading True Story: I Made $1000 By Responding To One Spam Email

Philosophers’ Carnival #142


Welcome to the 142nd instantiation of The Philosophers’ Carnival.* The posts are below. In parentheses are the categories into which each post might fit and below is an excerpt. Special thanks to Jared Smith over at Philosophy & Polity who resurrected this edition after it was tragically erased from my server!

Continue reading Philosophers’ Carnival #142