Comedy took me around the world. Curiosity took me back to university. Neither seems likely to leave me alone.
A lifetime getting here.
I’m Pete Johansson. I’ve spent decades performing stand-up, meeting people, and trying to understand what makes us tick. In 2024, I graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.Sc. after studying computational cognition and psychology.
Beginning again gave me new questions. It also reminded me what it feels like to be the person who doesn’t know yet.
For the curious and the cautious.
The Slow Learner is a home for that feeling: wanting to try something, while wondering whether the moment has passed. Here, there’s room for humour, research, creative experiments, AI, and the occasional change of mind.
You don’t need to turn every interest into an achievement. Some things are worth learning because being alive is more interesting when you do.
The conversations continue.
Season 1 explored comedy and the mind with Dr. Paul Whissell. Season 2 opens the conversation wider, with me as your host and Paul joining as an occasional guest or contributor.