Jeff Wise

Jeff Wise graduated from Harvard with a degree in evolutionary biology.[1]

Jeff Wise began his freelance writing career after graduating from college, at first focusing on travel and adventure.[1] In a 2010 podcast interview, he describes why he switched fields from biology to journalism:

“I wasn’t so interested in the test tube work or going out and spending five years investigating the life cycle of a barnacle, but the story of the life cycle of the barnacle can be absolutely fascinating. So, I was very happy to spend … a half an hour reading the paragraph (or whatever it may be) about the barnacle. But, I didn’t want to be the guy in the boat watching the barnacle.”[2][3]^:2:28

As of 2016, Jeff Wise has written one book and two shorter electronic-only publications:

• Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger (2009)[4]—book, 256 pages
• The Plane That Wasn't There: Why We Haven't Found Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (2015)[5]—e-publication, 95 pages
• Fatal Descent: Andreas Lubitz and the Crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 (2015)[6]—e-publication, 61 pages

Wise's extensive print and web news magazine writing includes the following topics:

• Aviation[7][8]
  • Air Force One[9]
  • Airbus A350 Plane[10]
  • Flight 235 (TransAsia Airways)[11]
  • Flight 447 (Air France)[12][13]
  • Flight MH370 (Malaysia Airlines)[13][14]
  • Flying[15]
  • Helicopters[16]
• Brain function[17]
  • Amphetamines[18]
  • Fear[13][19][20][21]
  • Lying[22]
  • Nihilism[23]
  • Pleasure[24]
  • Psychopaths[25]
  • Self-Control[26]
• Earthquakes[27]
• The Everglades[28]
• John McAfee[14][29][30]
• Population[14]
• Submarines[31]
• Survival[32][33][34]
• Travel[35][29]
• Whales[36]

Jeff Wise has appeared as himself in several TV series and one TV movie, exploring and explaining science and history. His on-camera appearances[37] are:

• TV Series Chelsea (2016): 1 episode
• TV Series Your Bleeped Up Brain (2013): 2 episodes
• TV Series The Indestructibles (2011): 2 episodes
• TV Movie Gates of Hell (2010)

He also produced the TV documentary:

• Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee (2016)[37]

Jeff Wise advocates scientific materialism and has explained in an interview with Alex Tsakiris in 2010, using Freud as an example, that a successful explanatory theory requires a mechanism:

“[A] scientific theory is something that tries to increase our understanding by making a prediction, by saying ‘Okay, we’re going to say that the earth orbits around the sun, therefore we would expect to see this motion of the planets,’ or something like that. I think the thing that’s often overlooked is that the theory requires a mechanism. And I think this is why Freud ultimately I think was cast aside, because Freud had a lot of interesting ideas and suppositions about how the brain works, but he never offered any mechanisms.”[38]

In the same interview, discussing the difference between science and popular, but non-scientific, ideas, Wise said:

“When you mention these guys who claim that they’ve found evidence that near-death experiences cannot be explained through materialistic explanations and so forth, it’s not that I’m afraid to look into it. But it doesn’t really fit into my schema for how I basically have come to conclude the world works. It’s not fear so much as it doesn’t really mesh into how I believe the world fundamentally works.”[38]

Dismayed by the Trump presidency, administration, and Republican control of Congress, Jeff Wise has tweeted:

• 1/21/2017 (the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president), sarcastically commenting on a retweet playing up the Trump/Russia dossier, in Russian: “США наши!” (“Our U.S.!”)[39][40]
• 2/1/2017: “As economy cratered in '08, Americans vowed: "We'll find out who did this! & 8 yrs from now, we'll give them the presidency, Senate & House”[39]
• 2/9/2017: “... Trump voters elected a president who has no basic understanding of what his job is or how US govt works”[39]
• 2/14/2017, commenting on a retweet reporting that the House Republicans voted 23–15 to not request copies of Donald Trump’s tax returns: “Really, Republicans? Really?”[39][40]

Jeff Wise is married to Sandra Garcia[4] and has two sons.[1] He is an amateur pilot and lives in New York City.[41]

• Official website
• Huffington Post articles
• Popular Mechanics articles
• Psychology Today articles