Podcast Summary: Alive with Steve Burns – Adam Savage on Critical Thinking and Truth in a Post-Truth World
Host: Steve Burns | Guest: Adam Savage (MythBusters, Tested)
Release: November 19, 2025 | Lemonada Media

Episode Overview

This episode of Alive with Steve Burns delves into the anatomy of truth, myth, and misinformation in a world overwhelmed by stories and digital noise. Steve’s guest is Adam Savage, legendary co-host of MythBusters and science communicator. Together, they explore how narratives shape belief, the scientific method as an antidote to misinformation, and the messy, necessary art of living with uncertainty.

Key Topics & Insights

1. Story vs. Truth: Why We Love Myths

• Steve kicks off sharing his own experience as the subject of a persistent urban legend (his "death") and reflects on the seductive power of stories versus stubborn facts.

  • “It seemed that everyone preferred the story to the facts. It was really surreal. But now, honestly, it feels like that's all of us all the time... we're standing in front of a fire hose of misinformation.” – Steve (01:08)

• Adam draws parallels between myths, memes, and the human habit of shaping reality through engaging narratives:

  • “I had a lot of time, over 14 years of making the show, to think about urban legends and why they propagate... People love a great story about why stuff happens. We want the story that's the most interesting version. That's totally a human trait.” – Adam (11:55)

• Stories as Innate: Adam and Steve agree the preference for story over bare fact is "innate," a product of both evolution and culture, making us vulnerable to both wisdom and misinformation.

2. The MythBusters Method: Confirmed, Busted, Plausible

• Adam explains the origin and utility of the three MythBusters verdicts:

  • “Busted and confirmed showed up fully formed. ...I added plausible. Plausible came out of my own sense of humor... enjoying the fact that the universe is totally uncertain. ...It ends up being the most common adjudication of myths.” (09:49)

• Plausibility as a Liminal Space:

  • "I'll reframe plausibility as existing within a space of both knowing and not knowing. It is existing in a space where you have an imperfect amount of information from which you can draw some conclusions, but they are not conclusive." – Adam (20:42)
  • Steve warns plausibility “makes a crack just big enough that we can fill it with all our confirmation bias.” (19:31)

3. Why We Fall for Misinformation

• Conspiracy as Comfort:

  • “When it comes to disinformation and conspiracy theories, one of my side theories has been that people in a state of desperation want to believe that someone is in charge. A conspiracy is actually semi reassuring.” – Adam (11:55)

• The Danger of Uncertainty:

  • “I think the human mind does best when it spends a lot of time in that not knowing space, in that liminal space. But it's an uncomfortable place to be.” – Adam (21:04)
  • Steve: “People will take what is obviously plausible... and just run with it as fact... because I prefer that and it makes me feel good. And I think that's a dangerous thing.” (22:32)

• Debate Culture & “Bad Faith”:

  • Adam outlines why “debating a bad faith debater” is pointless – they exploit selective facts, weaponize the fear of uncertainty, and promote the illusion of certainty.
  • “We live in this kind of current debate culture where... if someone doesn't have a direct answer to a direct question, it's like, I destroyed them. And nothing could be farther from the truth for the building of actual knowledge.” (23:53)

4. Critical Thinking Tools for the Digital Age

• The “Batman Utility Belt” for Beliefs:

  • Steve says, “What I want is like a Batman utility belt full of things to do to kind of test a proposition before I decide whether or not I believe that... It’s already hard to tell what’s real.” (26:40)

• Adam’s Advice: Community & Local Reality:

  • "The way we counter biases collectively, that's the thing. It's collective... putting people back in contact with each other.” (29:45)
  • “Diverse communities... when you meet a lot of people from a lot of different places, it makes it a lot harder to make snap judgments or to hate them.” (39:32)

• Limits of Fact-Checking at Scale:

  • “No, I don’t think [we can micro-bust all the memes]. I think there’s too many, too fast, it’s been too weaponized, and it’s too efficient. But I also think, again, I redound to community as the greatest balm for bias.” (37:29)

5. The Future of Truth: Where Is This All Going?

• Adam offers a cyclical view:
  • “Sometimes I think back on the screeds... in George Washington's cabinet... and the things they are calling each other make some of what's being written today seem semi tame... polemicization is cyclical.” (40:11)
  • On the future: “I think that there will be a shift back towards a more egalitarian normalcy... but it could be a whole generation before we are agreeing to work together on some common version where everyone benefits.” (41:24)
• On Tech & Misinformation:
  • “We’ve decimated all of our local news to such a degree and consolidated local news outlets... we need to get back to local coverage of local issues.” (42:31)
  • Steve: “I want you and the mythbusters to arrive in that moment, and... say, aha! Let’s test this belief before you share it...” (43:39)
  • Adam highlights the rise of YouTube as a kind of distributed mythbusting collective, passing on the methodology to new generations. (44:29)
• On Science as a Vocation:
  • “Working scientists were among the happiest people that I got to spend time with... science isn’t an avocation... it’s a vocation for the mildly curious up to the intense and incredibly crazy curious.” (49:01)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On balancing rigor and chaos in making and thinking:

  • “The rigor and the enjoyment of tedium... the ability to sit with that tedium, honestly, might be the engine of everything else I've achieved.” – Adam (06:32)

• On uncertainty:

  • “It is a muscle that I've been able to build.” – Adam, on learning to stay in the space of not-knowing (26:10)

• On the myth of Steve Burns’ death:

  • “No matter what I did, I couldn't get truth to cut through a sea of stories... It was really surreal.” – Steve (01:16)

• On collective agreement as the foundation of truth:

  • “The world has worked because a lot of people were agreeing to be polite. And when a concentrated group of people decide to not be polite, they can harm stuff in an abiding way and quickly. And that's shocking, right?” – Adam (37:31)

• Mark Twain invoked:

  • “Mark Twain said that travel is toxic to bigotry.” – Adam (39:32)

• On deepfakes, AI, and the news:

  • “It's so difficult because we've decimated all of our local news to such a degree... we need to get back to local coverage of local issues.” (42:31)

Timestamps – Important Segments

• Steve recounts being an urban legend: 00:49–02:25
• Adam explains the “Busted/Confirmed/Plausible” methodology: 09:49–11:09
• Stories as memes, why myths survive: 11:55–13:24
• The narrative mind and our vulnerability to misinformation: 18:47–19:33
• The lure and risk of “plausibility”: 19:33–22:32
• Debate, weaponized uncertainty, and skepticism: 23:22–25:00
• Critical thinking as method and as muscle: 26:10–28:24
• The myth of “busting every myth”: 37:29–39:32
• History, cycles of polemic, hope for the future: 40:03–42:10
• On AI, local news, and the importance of community: 42:10–43:39
• Passing the mythbusting torch via YouTube: 44:29–45:29
• Science as a joyful vocation: 49:01–50:23

Final Thoughts

• Steve’s Recap:
  • “Our brains prefer story over facts. That’s both good and bad… Plausibility is living in both knowing and not knowing at the same time, and that’s an uncomfortable place to be... We can’t bust every myth. There’s simply too many, and they come at us too fast.” (51:10–52:26)
• Adam’s Summation:
  • “Testing your hypothesis before asserting your belief makes you happy.” (50:10–50:23)
  • “The scientific process... it’s a vocation for the mildly curious up to the intense and incredibly crazy curious.” (49:01)

Takeaways for Listeners

• Critical thinking isn't about certainty—it's the practice of methodical curiosity and the willingness to sit with uncertainty.
• Stories help us make sense of the world, but also make us vulnerable to misinformation, especially when narrative feels better than fact.
• Community is the antidote—face-to-face engagement, local connections, and collaboration anchor truth and fend off bias.
• We can't bust every myth, but we can slow down, test our beliefs, and remember the joy in not always knowing for sure.

Quote highlight:

“Nobody has all the answers and everyone’s an idiot.”
— Adam Savage (25:14)

“I think the human mind does best when it spends a lot of time in that not knowing space... but it's an uncomfortable place to be.”
— Adam Savage (21:04)