Tim Urban

Things Tim Says on Podcasts

Writer and illustrator behind the blog Wait But Why, known for long-form essays that pair stick-figure drawings with deep dives into science, technology, procrastination and human behavior. Appears widely as a guest, including on Invest Like the Best, the Lex Fridman Podcast, All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg, and Plain English with Derek Thompson. Gave the TED talk on procrastination that became one of the most-watched TED talks ever, and wrote the book What's Our Problem?

Where to Find Them

Tim Urban writes Wait But Why and writes The Logan Bartlett Show . They have also been a guest on Invest Like the Best (Patrick O'Shaughnessy) (3 times) , Lex Fridman Podcast (2 times) , Creator Science with Jay Clouse (2 times) , The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk (2 times) , Conversations with Coleman (2 times) , Infinita City Times , All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg , Summation with Auren Hoffman , Plain English with Derek Thompson , This Week in Startups , Into The Machine , Y Combinator Startup Podcast , Joe Lonsdale: American Optimist , Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps , The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch , The Startup Ideas Podcast and Moonshots with Peter Diamandis .

Recently: “"Why are you here?" with Tim Urban” on Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps (October 2026); “Ep. 112: Tim Urban on Startup Cities, AI Safety, Longevity, and Building Better Societies” on Infinita City Times (July 2026); “The sights and sounds of Bhutan” on Wait But Why (November 2025); “Tales from Toddlerhood” on Wait But Why (October 2025); “Episode 2: Tim Urban of Wait But Why on Algorithmic Viruses, Cultural Antibodies, and the Art of Audience Building” on Into The Machine (October 2025); “The Right Way To Be A Skeptic w/ Tim Urban ” on Conversations with Coleman (June 2025).

What They Said

“The problem for us is that our technology is exponential, but our wisdom is cyclical. You look back and you're like, oh, the Salem witches, we're so much smarter than them. It's like, well, we know more than them, but the way they're behaving is a lot of what I see on Twitter. … Wisdom does not go up exponentially. And that's a problem because more technology gives us exponentially more power. … I'm scared of that species having too much power.” — Tim Urban, Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Josh Szeps closed by asking Urban to bet on what becomes of humanity. Urban says he leans optimistic by temperament but couldn't win that debate against a pessimist, because on an exponential curve the past is a poor guide to the future.

Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps · 2026-10-19 Permalink → Listen →
Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
Tim Urban

right? Exactly, unless it's this awful dystopian thing where the bads get worse and the we serve, we survive the bads on page 800, but we will not survive the bads on page 801. If that's that's one storyline, that would be unfortunate, and it's totally plausible.

Josh Szeps

What storyline do you? I want to, you've given me lots of your time, so I'll wrap it up here. But let's wrap up with your sort of big picture prognostication. Like, if you are a betting man, what do you what will become of us, Tim?

Tim Urban

…what I see on Twitter. And that was also a downswing, maybe. And then there was an era, you know, in ancient Greece when they were more humane than people 800 years later. And it seems like we, unfortunately, wisdom does not going up exponentially. And that's a problem because more technology gives us exponentially more power. But if we're not getting wiser, then that's the species that is in. I'm scared of that species having too much power. And that's interesting.

Josh Szeps

Yeah. So I'm scared. If you go through periods where your wisdom peaks and then your wisdom troughs, and there's a kind of a sign curve of wisdom over civilizations over here. History, then as the technology gets bigger and bigger, the peaks become more and the troughs get more damaging. And maybe…

Tim Urban

Yeah, yeah, exactly. The big troughs are, I think, the deal breaker here. So the question is: you know, look, we built, we had the Enlightenment and built laws and liberal values and stuff, which is a way of containing our worst nature. We have a history of being very clever recently, especially at…

Josh Szeps

I hope we do.

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