Stories about the pitfalls of knowing just a little bit too little.
Prologue.
Host Ira Glass describes the thing that we all do at some point: talk expertly about something we don't actually know anything about. It's so common, explains This American Life contributing editor Nancy Updike, that some friends of hers invented an imaginary magazine devoted to such blathering. It's called "Modern Jackass." (4-1/2 minutes)
Act One. Small Thoughts in Big Brains.
This American Life producer Alex Blumberg investigates a little-studied phenomenon: children who get a mistaken idea in their heads about how something works or what something means, and then don't figure out until well into adulthood that they were wrong. Includes the tale of a girl who received a tissue box for Christmas, alledgedly painted by trained monkeys. (13 minutes)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1090