Street Epistemology

Street Epistemology (SE) is a way to help people critically reflect on the quality of their reasoning through civil conversation. Definition from the Navigating Beliefs course by Street Epistemology International.

My story with SE

  1. 2013

    I heard Peter Boghossian on a podcast and read A Manual for Creating Atheists.

  2. January 2015

    I found Anthony Magnabosco's street epistemology videos and was in awe. I was also terrified to try it myself. I joined the SE Facebook group and did role-play sessions, then started having real conversations on Blab.

  3. Fall 2016

    Blab shut down in August. A few weeks later I put a table and a sign in Griffith Park and started filming 5-Minute Interviews. I posted my failures to the SE group for feedback and watched myself back for hours. That November I started the Cordial Curiosity channel.

    Two men smiling in a selfie in front of a table with a sign reading What do you believe and why? 5-Minute Interviews
    5-Minute Interviews in Griffith Park
  4. 2017

    I went out nearly every week for a few hours, around LA.

    A Cordial Curiosity 5-Minute Interviews table with two microphones and a patio umbrella on the grass at Echo Park Lake, with the lake fountain and pedal boats behind it
    5-Minute Interviews at Echo Park Lake, July 2017
    A man sitting at a Cordial Curiosity 5-Minute Interviews table on a hillside path with the Griffith Observatory behind him
    5-Minute Interviews below the Griffith Observatory, October 2017
  5. 2019

    I helped found Street Epistemology International and became its first president.

    Reid sitting at a Cordial Curiosity 5-Minute Interviews table on a hilltop with the Hollywood Sign and Los Angeles behind him
    Cordial Curiosity 5-Minute Interviews table high above Hollywood, March 2019
  6. 2022

    Peter Boghossian hired me to produce the videos for his Reverse Q&A tour.

  7. Since

    I created Spectrum Street Epistemology and now direct it for Boghossian. In 2026 we ran a Spectrum SE study in New Zealand.

Why I do it

I've wanted to help people think more clearly, myself included, for a long time. I started on YouTube because it's the same medium that first introduced me to these values.

My mantra was to fail forward, and I failed plenty. I'd assumed people would change their minds once they saw weak reasons, and they didn't. So I started studying why people believe things, like belonging, identity, and what they need from a belief.

I moved from trying to win to trying to understand. I ask how someone came to believe something, not only what they believe. My hope is that SE makes even political conversations something people don't dread.

Photos

Reid sitting at a small table with a 5-Minute Interviews sign at the LA Festival of Books
Street Epistemology at the LA Festival of Books, April 2016
A Today's Topics whiteboard with sticky-note questions next to a Cordial Curiosity 5-Minute Interviews table in a park
Today's Topics board at a Cordial Curiosity table
Reid, Peter Boghossian and Buck Bowen with their arms around each other on a dark set
Music video shoot with Peter Boghossian and Buck Bowen
Reid and Peter Boghossian in a selfie at the Sydney Opera House
With Peter Boghossian at the Sydney Opera House
A group of people standing on circular floor markers for a Spectrum Street Epistemology session in Budapest
A Spectrum Street Epistemology session in Budapest
Reid adjusting a microphone on a participant before a session in Budapest while Peter Boghossian looks on
Setting up a mic before a Spectrum Street Epistemology session in Budapest

"I have been truly impressed by their capacity to take critical thinking into the public square and ask people for their explanations why they say the things they do. It is important work."

Watch

Best SE videos

Press play and the video loads right here.

Listen

SE interviews

Conversations about Street Epistemology and Spectrum Street Epistemology. Each one opens at its source.

See all interviews

Cordial Curiosity

I host Cordial Curiosity, a YouTube channel of cool-headed conversations about what we believe and why. I'm also a co-founder and board member of Street Epistemology International (SEI), the nonprofit behind streetepistemology.com, and one of the main writers of its Navigating Beliefs course.