“The Reddit Top Minds” is a column where I highlight some Reddit users who are particularly intelligent and knowledgeable. The goal of this series is to share the knowledge that people on Reddit have and learn from them, hopefully expanding your mind like they did!
Let’s start off with two TED speakers, Bill Nye and Michael Pollan. They probably don’t need much introduction for you already, but I’ll give you one anyway.
Bill Nye is quite well-known as the Science Guy from tv show “Bill Nye”. Now he’s better known as an author and speaker on science, sustainability – a science educator who just won the 2018 Stephen H.
The reddit top minds
1. Bill Nye –
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Bill Nye is an American science educator, writer and television host. He is best known as the Science Guy on the PBS children’s show Bill Nye the Science Guy and its subsequent series, Bill Nye Saves the World.
While he doesn’t have his own subreddit yet (yet) he does have 62k subscribers on his channel BillNyeTheScienceGuy. His channel is for science videos and content, but he does talk about a wide variety of topics in his videos, from sex to religion to politics – with a heavy focus on environmentalism which has earned him a large following in reddit among science enthusiasts.
2. Michael Pollan –
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Michael Pollan is an American author, journalist, and lecturer in the fields of food science and history. He is well known for his 2011 book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which became a New York Times best seller.
Cited as one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Important People” he was selected in 2006 as one of America’s leading intellectuals by Foreign Policy Magazine and featured in a similar list by the London Financial Times.
He has also written several books on technology, especially the role of computers in society. He has been a professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Information, and is a professor in its Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.
In 2011 Pollan posted an essay on Reddit titled “Why I Eat Meat.” He later co-wrote an op-ed for the New York Times titled “Consuming Meat Is Killing Us”. He frequently discusses his views on meat consumption and animal rights in his public appearances.
3. Lance Armstrong –
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Lance Armstrong is an American former professional road bicycle racer who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. Lance Armstrong has been both praised and criticized for his actions.
Confessed usage of banned substances, including erythropoietin (EPO), Human Growth Hormone (HGH), testosterone and cortisone during his cycling career.
He has been criticized for being dishonest about the use of these performance-enhancing substances, especially in denying their use after being publicly accused; media reports have described him as a “serial liar” and liar.
4.Barbara Oakley –
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Barbara Oakley is an American author, researcher, consultant and professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. She is a co-author of Engineering the Future, the 2016 winner of the National Academies Communication Award for best video.
She is also the author of a number of books on learning in technical fields, including A Mind for Numbers (2014) which won the Society for Technical Communication’s best book award.
She describes herself as “passionate about helping people learn so they can achieve their goals”, having worked as an academic advisor, technical consultant, and engineering professor. Much of her work focuses on adult learning and retention efforts in both academia and industry.
She has written about her own experiences with learning as an adult in her blog The Learning Scientist . She collaborates with Kaplan Test Prep developing content for technology-driven test preparation services.
5. Julia Galef –
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Julia Galef is an American developmental psychologist and a professor of psychology at Wharton, who has done research in the field of learning and cognition. She is a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and has done research on topics such as empathy, social cognition, and moral reasoning.
6. Dan Ariely –
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Dan Ariely is an Israeli behavioral economist based at Duke University. He is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics, Business and Psychology at Duke University. His research is in topics including judgment and decision-making, behavioral economics, social psychology, and uncertainty in decision making.
He has written several popular books about behavioral economics and has appeared on The Today Show and 60 Minutes .
7. Murray Gell-Mann –
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Murray Gell-Mann is an American theoretical physicist seen as a pioneer of theoretical particle physics. Murray Gell-Mann, who was born in New York City, is a former Physics professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
His contributions to physics include the quark model, the Gell-Mann–Nishijima formula for string theory, the Gell-Mann–Okubo formula which led to Maki–Nakagawa–Sakata matrix theory (often abbreviated MNS or MS), and numerous other contributions through his work on nonlinear dynamics and complexity.
