Podcast appearances and mentions of jon haidt

Anxiety, dispair, loneliness, depression -- all we need is a social media recession! A popular thesis is that All The Bad Things things are on the rise among adolescents because of social media, a view popularized in Jon Haidt's 2024 book The Anxious Generation. Haidt is calling for an end of the "phone-based childhood" and hoping that schools banish all screens for the benefit of its students. But is it true than social media is causing this mental health crisis? Is it true that there even is a mental health crisis? We do a deep dive into Haidt's book to discuss the evidence. We discuss A weird citation trend in philosophy Whether there is a mental health crisis among teens Some inconsistencies in Haidt's data on mental health outcomes Correlation vs causation, and whether Haidt establishes causation Why on earth do the quality of these studies suck so much? Whether Haidt's conclusions are justified References The Anxious Generation (https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036) Jon Haidt's After Babel Substack (https://www.afterbabel.com/) After Babel's main post (https://www.afterbabel.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic) attempting to establish causation, and the response to critics (https://www.afterbabel.com/p/why-some-researchers-think-im-wrong). Collaborative review doc on adolescent mood disorders (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1diMvsMeRphUH7E6D1d_J7R6WbDdgnzFHDHPx9HXzR5o/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.rqnt07sjvlcd) Collaborative review doc on social media and mental health (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w-HOfseF2wF9YIpXwUUtP65-olnkPyWcgF5BiAtBEy0/edit?tab=t.0) Matthew B Jane's criticism of Haidt's meta-analysis (https://matthewbjane.github.io/blog-posts/blog-post-6.html) Aaron Brown's criticism (https://reason.com/2023/03/29/the-statistically-flawed-evidence-that-social-media-is-causing-the-teen-mental-health-crisis/) Stuart Ritchie's criticism (https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/dont-panic-about-social-media-harming-your-childs-mental-health-the-evidence-is-weak-2230571) Peter Gray's criticism (https://petergray.substack.com/p/45-the-importance-of-critical-analyses) Datasets Unaggregated life satisfaction data for boys/girls ages 11/13/15 across 44 countries (https://data-browser.hbsc.org/measure/life-satisfaction/) Australia hospital admissions due to self harm (https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/intentional-self-harm-hospitalisations/intentional-self-harm-hospitalisations-by-age-sex) France hospital admissions due to self harm (https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2024-05/ER1300EMB.pdf) Canada (https://yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca/hsp/inbrief?lang=en&_gl=1*rtyvsz*_gcl_au*MTA5ODMwMzc5MS4xNzM3NTAyMTk0*_ga*MTM0Njk4MTc4MS4xNzM3NTAyMTk0*_ga_44X3CK377B*MTczNzUwMjE5NC4xLjAuMTczNzUwMjIwNi4wLjAuMA..#!/indicators/083/self-harm-including-suicide/;mapC1;mapLevel2;sex(F);trend(C5001,C300);/) Ontario (https://www.cmaj.ca/content/195/36/E1210) # Socials Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link Become a patreon subscriber here (https://www.patreon.com/Increments). Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations here (https://ko-fi.com/increments). Click dem like buttons on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ) No screen time for a month. If you send an email to incrementspodcast@gmail.com, we're taking away your iPad. Image credit: Is social media causing psychological harm to youth and young adults? (https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/social-media-causing-psychological-harm-youth-and-young).

The boys drink and review Lucky 7 Porter from Evo, then discuss the purpose and role of universities. Why do we have so many majors in university? Why not have a basic education, then specialize at the masters and doctorate level? Early on, universities were "finishing schools for nobility." They taught how to think critically, how to communicate, how to be a cultured person, and how to fit in with the rest of European society. There is a cultural good to having an educated population, which is why we provide publicly funded education. Many of the universities were originally founded to train preachers and pious, civic-minded people. They've changed their emphasis over time. They still want to train people to be good citizens, but they've lost the concept of virtue and a common culture with common values. Often the universties are a hotbed of hostility towards our culture. They've become "subversities." There used to be a common understanding of "the good." There isn't anymore. The boys then discuss the recent changes, where students are protected from ideas that might make them uncomfortable. They're given "trigger warnings" and cry rooms. We're note producing free thinking, emotionally mature grown-ups who can go out into the world. Jon Haidt recommends that universities focus on "anti-fragility," which requires stress and pressure.

Helpful Support = 1. Increased Trajectory + 2. Increase Resilience Harmful Support = 1. No Improvement In Trajectory + 2. Lowered Resilience Support in Different Contexts - Workplace: Managers should focus on developing employees' skills and independence - Parenting: The goal is to raise independent adults, not perpetually dependent children - Friendships: There's a delicate balance between being supportive and becoming a "coach" - Addiction and mental health: Support should aim for long-term recovery and resilience, not enabling destructive behaviors Jon Haidt's Three Great Untruths: - "What doesn't kill you makes you weaker" => What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. - "always trust your feelings" => Feelings should be examined, sometimes immediate responses are counter productive and one should 'think slow, not think fast'. - "life is a battle between good people and evil people" => The world is not zero sum, most things are 'win-win'. Defining Effective Support - Support done well leads to independence and growth, not dependence - The goal is to "teach someone to fish" rather than continuously "giving them fish" - Good support maximizes the trajectory of someone's improvement over time - Effective support may involve allowing someone to struggle or fail in order to learn and grow Challenges in Providing Support - It can be difficult to let someone struggle or fail, especially in personal relationships - There's a balance between intervening and allowing natural consequences - The recipient's mindset (growth vs. fixed) impacts the effectiveness of support - Clear communication about the intention and reasoning behind support is crucial Reframing Support - Support should be viewed as increasing resilience and ability to handle future challenges - It's about being on the same "team" and working together for mutual growth and success - Good support acknowledges feelings without necessarily endorsing them - Support should aim for win-win outcomes rather than reinforcing a zero-sum mentality

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comChristine is a columnist for Commentary and a co-host of The Commentary Magazine Podcast. She's also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a fellow at UVA's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. The author of many books, her new one is The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World.For two clips of our convo — on algorithms killing serendipity, and smartphones killing quiet moments — pop over to our YouTube page.Other topics: the optimism of the early Internet; IRL (In Real Life) experience vs. screen experience; Taylor Swift concerts; the online boon for the physically disabled; Taylor Lorenz and Covid; how IRL improves memory; how emojis improve tone; how screens hinder in-person debate; sociologist Erving Goffman; tourists who never experience a place without an audience; Eric Schmidt's goal of “manufacturing serendipity”; Zuckerberg's “frictionless” world; dating apps; the decline of IRL flirting; the film Cruising; the pornification of sex; Matthew Crawford and toolmaking; driverless cars; delivery robots in LA; auto-checkouts at stores; the loss of handwriting; reading your phone on the toilet; our increased comfort with surveillance; the Stasi culture of Nextdoor; the mass intimacy of blogging; Oakeshott and “the deadliness of doing”; the film Into Great Silence; Christine's time at a monastery in Kentucky; Musk's drive to extend life indefinitely; Jon Haidt and kids' phones; trans ideology as gnosticism; the popularity of podcasts; music pollution in public; the skatepark at Venice Beach; and the necessity of downtime.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Aaron Zelin on the fall of Assad; Brianna Wu and Kelly Cadigan on trans lives and politics, Mary Matalin on our sick culture, Adam Kirsch on his book On Settler Colonialism, Nick Denton, and John Gray on the state of liberal democracy. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

We continue our Best of 2024 episodes with an  episode from the Village SquareCast podcast, hosted by the Village Square.We wanted you wonderful SquareCast listeners to know that we didn't plan for this episode to drop on Leap Day and we didn't plan on it being (we kid you not) Episode 100. But both things just happened. At the very least, we think that's a sign that you really ought to listen. Were we "the universe has a plan" maximalists, though, we'd say it means you need to quit your day job and follow bridge builders like Jon Haidt and The Village Square around like Jack Kerouac groupies. You pick. Here's our blurb to help inform your imminent life choice:What if, at a pinnacle of our civilization's technological achievement, everything just broke — the institutions we've come to rely upon in navigating a modern complex world, the shared stories that hold a large and diverse democratic republic together, and even a common language through which to navigate the rising tide of crisis.  According to renowned social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, this describes our current reality, one that he calls “After Babel.” In this new normal, we are scattered by a digital environment into feuding tribes that are governed by mob dynamics and driven by a minority of ideological outliers, made stupid at warp speed by group think, and — thanks to social media — armed with billions of metaphorical “dart guns” with which to immediately wound “the enemy” in ways that are hardly only metaphorical. What could go wrong?Our very special guest, Dr. Jonathan Haidt, will delve into the profound impact of social media on democratic societies, dissecting the intricate web of challenges it poses to civic trust and civil discourse. Don't miss this chance to hear from one of the foremost thought leaders of our time — one who has generously given his counsel to The Village Square, and countless efforts like ours — on this existential challenge of our time. Read Why the Past Ten Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid  in The Atlantic and learn more about Dr. Haidt by clicking the MORE button, below.Additional InformationThe Village SquareCast PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comEric is a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, where he runs the new Centre for Heterodox Social Science. He's also an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His new book is The Third Awokening: A 12-Point Plan for Rolling Back Progressive Extremism (its title in the UK is Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution). He also runs a 15-week online course on the origins of wokeness that anyone can sign up for.For two clips of our convo — why race/gender/sexuality are now considered sacred identities, and whether peak woke is past us — head to our YouTube page. Other topics: born in Hong Kong with a diplomatic dad; raised in Tokyo and Vancouver; living in the UK ever since; how the US spreads its culture wars abroad; the BLM moral panic; “hate speech”; psychotherapy and Carl Rogers; the psychological harm of growing up with homophobia; the gay rights movement; wedding cakes in Colorado; Jon Rauch; Jon Haidt; the taboos of talking immigration or family structure; the Moynihan Report shelved by LBJ; Shelby Steele's book on white guilt; Coleman Hughes and “intergenerational trauma”; anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; the AIDS crisis; the tradeoffs in trans rights vs. women's rights; the spurious “mass graves” of indigenous Canadians; the CRA of 1964 dovetailing with the Immigration Act of 1965; Chris Caldwell; Richard Hanania; America's original sin of slavery; Locke and Hobbes; Douglas Murray's The War on the West; Churchill; cancel culture; CRT as unfalsifiable; Ibram Kendi; the gender imbalance in various industries; Chris Rufo; how Trump makes wokeness worse; the absence of identity politics in Harris' convention speech; and being comfortable with being “abnormal”.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Rod Dreher on religion and the presidential race, Michelle Goldberg on Harris, David Frum on Trump, Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy on the history of animal cruelty, John Gray on, well, everything, and Sam Harris for our quadrennial chat before Election Day. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

This is Empires of the Future, conversations to encourage the Church in a time of change.  The Anxious Generation By Jon Haidt, Part 2 - A Plan of Action Can childhood be salvaged?   “After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Why?” - The Anxious Generation https://www.anxiousgeneration.com In this episode, we look at the challenges Gen. Z is facing according to this book.  The technology, and the cultural trends that have followed it, have changed childhood.  This calls for the current generation of parents to make changes for the sake of their children, so that childhood can be free from excessive comparison, bullying, distraction, and information overload. "The Empires of the future will be Empires of the Mind." - Winston Churchill 

This is Empires of the Future, conversations to encourage the Church in a time of change.  The Anxious Generation By Jon Haidt, Part 1 - Defining the Challenge “After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Why?” - The Anxious Generation https://www.anxiousgeneration.com Matt Castro rejoins Empires of the Future for this installment of the podcast!  In this episode, we look at the challenges Gen. Z is facing according to this book.  The technology, and the cultural trends that have followed it, have changed childhood.  All who care about young people should ask how childhood has changed and what we can do about it.  "The Empires of the future will be Empires of the Mind." - Winston Churchill 

Jon Haidt's main points: - No smartphones before high school. Parents should delay children's entry into round-the-clock internet access by giving only basic phones (phones with limited apps and no internet browser) before ninth grade (roughly age 14). - No social media before 16. Let kids get through the most vulnerable period of brain development before connecting them to a firehose of social comparison and algorithmically chosen influencers. - Phone-free schools. In all schools from elementary through high school, students should store their phones, smartwatches, and any other personal devices that can send or receive texts in phone lockers or locked pouches during the school day. That is the only way to free up their attention for each other and for their teachers. - Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence. That's the way children naturally develop social skills, overcome anxiety, and become self-governing young adults. Arguments for and Against Banning Social Media Until 16: Arguments For Banning Social Media for 16-Year-Olds Mental Health Issues: Social media can cause anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem due to constant comparison and social pressure. Cyberbullying: Teenagers are vulnerable to online bullying and harassment, leading to severe emotional distress. Privacy Concerns: Teens might not understand privacy settings, risking exposure to personal information and online predators. Addiction and Distraction: Excessive use can lead to addiction, reducing time for studies, physical activities, and face-to-face interactions. Sleep Disruption: Social media use before bed can disrupt sleep patterns and lead to poor-quality sleep. Body Image Issues: Exposure to unrealistic body standards can lead to negative body image and eating disorders. Misinformation: Teens may be susceptible to fake news, affecting their understanding of the world. Arguments Against Banning Social Media for 16-Year-Olds Communication: Helps teens stay connected with friends and family, fostering social bonds. Educational Resources: Provides access to educational tools and resources. Skill Development: Develops digital literacy and communication skills. Self-Expression: Offers a platform for sharing interests and creativity. Awareness and Activism: Raises awareness about social issues and encourages civic engagement. Support Networks: Online communities provide support and a sense of belonging. Parental Supervision: With guidance, teens can learn to use social media responsibly. If you want to contact us please do so at info@cloudstreaks.com

Color War. Underwear on the outside of your clothes. Sailing badges. Friendship bracelets. It is difficult to overstate how attached some people get to their sleepaway camp experiences - they don't explain, they proselytize. And right now, camp is having a moment in our popular culture as we debate what Jon Haidt has deemed the “phone-based childhood.” Camp is one of the last screen-free zones for kids, and that's both exciting and, as a parent, a little scary.Today on ParentData, we're joined by Steve Baskin, a career camp director and incoming head of the American Camping Association, to talk about all things summer camp.  We discuss resilience, the value of free play, the need for phone-free time, whether or not your kids will actually brush their teeth (they will!) and why homesickness might actually be a good thing. Special thanks to Falcon Camp in Carrollton, Ohio for lending their voices to this episode.Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting.

This week, social psychologist and author Jon Haidt joins us to discuss the challenges and solutions for parenting in a digital age. We explore the impact of technology on child development, discussing how to reclaim the joy and adventure of childhood from the clutches of smartphones and screens. Haidt shares practical advice on fostering resilience, encouraging free play, and building community to help children thrive in today's tech-saturated world. I WROTE MY FIRST BOOK! Order your copy of The Five Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans Here: https://bit.ly/3rMLMsLSubscribe to my free newsletter for parenting tips delivered straight to your inbox: draliza.substack.com Follow me on Instagram for more:@raisinggoodhumanspodcast SPONSORS:Mud/wtr: Go to mudwtr.com/humans, you can get a free frother and $20 offSaks: Find inspiration for your new vibe, everyday, at saks.comNerdwallet: Don't wait to make smart financial decisions. Compare and find smarter credit cards, savings accounts, and more today at NerdWallet.com.Mysteries about True Histories: Follow (OR listen) on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podsPlease note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comKara is a journalist who has covered the business of the Internet since 1994. She was the cofounder and editor-at-large of Recode, and she's worked for the NYT, the WaPo, and the WSJ. She's now the host of the podcast “On with Kara Swisher” and the co-host of the “Pivot” podcast with Scott Galloway, both distributed by New York Magazine. Her new memoir is Burn Book: A Tech Love Story. It's a fun read, and it was good to hang out with her again after many years. We were both web pioneers and it's good to remember those days of the blogosphere. And we get fiery at times.For two clips of our convo — debating how woke the MSM really is, and how readers are smarter than journalists — pop over to our YouTube page. Other topics: Kara's rough childhood on Long Island; losing her dad at an early age and contending with a bad stepdad; her military family and her interest in serving; how DADT made things worse for gays; being an AIDS quilt folder; lesbian tropes; our mutual dislike of Pride parades; her fearlessness as a young reporter; The McLaughlin Group; the condescension of legacy media; tycoons who buy media outlets; Jeff Bezos; Marty Peretz; Friendster, Zip2 and Suck.com; how Facebook was seen as a savior for media; how trolls are chagrined when you talk to them; how Zuckerberg is “lovely but awkward” in person; Bill Gates; Peter Thiel; how gay hookups drove the early internet; how the apps kill serendipity; the power of podcasts for community; how the right innovated direct mail and talk radio; Obama's pioneering with web outreach; how Twitter made January 6 (and Trump himself) possible; Kara watching every single episode of The Apprentice; how Trump's act is getting stale; how social media is not a good business model; Elon Musk; buying Twitter to “make him more interesting at parties”; the Walter Isaacson bio; Elon's vile tweets on Paul Pelosi; his trans daughter; ketamine; Mark Cuban on DEI; abortion in the 2024 election; how social media is fracturing and losing appeal with Gen Z; the decline of cable news; the disinfo on unarmed black men killed by cops; how BLM led to more black lives lost; the grievance-industrial-complex of the right; how its reactionaries just want to “burn s**t down”; why Kara is a China hawk; why she disagrees with Jon Haidt; the TikTok ban; the Twitter Files; Hunter's penis; Tipper Gore and dirty lyrics; and how Kara counsels her four kids about social media and porn.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy (the first 102 are free in their entirety — subscribe to get everything else). Coming up: Adam Moss on the artistic process, Johann Hari on Ozempic, Nellie Bowles on the woke revolution, Noah Smith on the economy, George Will on Trump and conservatism, Bill Maher on everything, and the great Van Jones! Send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Step into the future with Boltzmann. Join our Telegram at https://t.me/Boltzmann_Net to experience the future of crypto and AI where privacy meets unlimited potential Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: / @history102-qg5oj   Link to my cancellation insurance: https://becomepluribus.com/creators/20 Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref... Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn... Bibliography: The Fate of Empires by Hubbard Religions of the World by Houston Smith Forgotten Truth by Houston Smith The Decline of the West by Spengler The Lessons of History by Will Durant Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant Caesar and Christ by Will Durant The Life of Greece by Will Durant The Age of Faith by Will Durant a History of Philosophy by Will Durant Examined Lives by James Miller A History of the World by CJ Meyers A History of the World by McNeil A History of the Arabs by Sir John Glubb Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quiggley The Evolution of Civilizations by Carroll Quiggley Europe: A History by Norman Davies A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia by David Christian A Secular Age by Charles Taylor Cotton, Climate and Candles by Bulliet Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary Al Muqahdimmah by Ibn Khaldun A History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer A Secret History of the World by Mark Booth The Sacred History by Mark Booth The Master and His Emissary by Ian McGhilchrist Strategy by Lawrence Freedman  Sex and Civilizations by JD Unwin Atrocities by Matthew White The Dictators by Richard Every Spiteful Mutants by Edward Dutton Dominion by Tom Holland The Righteous Mind by Jon Haidt The Gateway Protocol by Robert Monroe A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson Empty Planet by Brocker and Ibbitson Disunited Nations by Peter Zeihan The Ancient City by Foustel de Coulanges Nihilism by Seraphim Rose  Behavior by Sapolsky The Happiness Hypothesis by Jon Haidt

MSNBC's Ari Melber hosts "The Beat" on Wednesday, March 27, and reports on a Democrat who flips an Alabama House seat, former DOJ official Jeff Clark in the hot seat today, and senators accusing Mark Zuckerberg of slow-walking their social media and child safety inquiries. Eugene Robinson, David Corn, Jon Haidt and Zeke Emanuel join to discuss.

Click this link to start earning rewards on Ipsos iSay! https://www.inflcr.co/SHII6 Thanks Ipsos iSay for sponsoring! Link to Common Ground-   / @commonground-qg5oj   Link to my podcast common ground-   / @history102-qg5oj   Instagram: Rudyard William Lynch (@rudyardwlynch) • Instagram photos ...https://www.instagram.com › rudyardwlynch Twitter:https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref... Patreon, First 200 pages of cultural history of America and 400 of history of the new world alongside exclusive maps:https://www.patreon.com › whatifalthist Biblography: Lineages of Modernity by Todd Emmanuel The Origins of Ideology by Todd Emmanuel Sex and Power in History by Amaury de Riencourt Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quiggley Sex and Power in History by JD Unwin Eve's Rib by Robert Poole The Genetic Lottery by Harden Behave by Sapolsky Cynical Theories by James Lindsay Woke Racism by John McWhorter Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris The Naked Woman by Desmond Morris Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia Culture's Consequences by Hofsteder Evil by Baumeister The Happiness Hypothesis by Jon Haidt

Click the link for Raycon below: http://buyraycon.com/WHATIFALTHIST Link to Pluribus. Cancellation Insurance-https://becomepluribus.com/creators/20 Link to my podcast-   / @commonground-qg5oj   Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref... Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn... Bibliography: Universe 25 itself The Righteous Mind by John Haidt Sociobiology by EO Wilson Envy by Helmut Schoeck The Human Zoo by Desmond Morris The Secret of our Success by Joseph Heinrich The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene Behave by Sapolsky The Conscious Universe by Dean Radin Nihilism by Seraphin Rose The Unabomber's Manifesto War, Peace and War by Peter Turchin A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell Cynical Theories by James Lindsay Lost Connections by Johann Hari Stolen Focus by Johann Hari Evil by Baumeister The Master and His Emissary by McGhilcrhist The Ascent of Humanity by Eisenstein Guide to Late Antiquity by Peter Brown The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman The Fate of Empires by Hubbard Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quiggley The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray Woke Racism Trump and a Post Truth World by Ken Wilber Woke Racism by John McWhorter The Coddling of the American Mind by Jon Haidt

We wanted you wonderful SquareCast listeners to know that we didn't plan for this episode to drop on Leap Day and we didn't plan on it being (we kid you not) Episode 100. But both things just happened. At the very least, we think that's a sign that you really ought to listen. Were we "the universe has a plan" maximalists, though, we'd say it means you need to quit your day job and follow bridge builders like Jon Haidt and The Village Square around like Jack Kerouac groupies.  You pick. Here's our blurb to help inform your imminent life choice: What if, at a pinnacle of our civilization's technological achievement, everything just broke — the institutions we've come to rely upon in navigating a modern complex world, the shared stories that hold a large and diverse democratic republic together, and even a common language through which to navigate the rising tide of crisis.  According to renowned social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, this describes our current reality, one that he calls “After Babel.” In this new normal, we are scattered by a digital environment into feuding tribes that are governed by mob dynamics and driven by a minority of ideological outliers, made stupid at warp speed by group think, and — thanks to social media — armed with billions of metaphorical “dart guns” with which to immediately wound “the enemy” in ways that are hardly only metaphorical. What could go wrong? Our very special guest, Dr. Jonathan Haidt, will delve into the profound impact of social media on democratic societies, dissecting the intricate web of challenges it poses to civic trust and civil discourse. Don't miss this chance to hear from one of the foremost thought leaders of our time — one who has generously given his counsel to The Village Square, and countless efforts like ours — on this existential challenge of our time. Read Why the Past Ten Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid  in The Atlantic and learn more about Dr. Haidt by clicking the MORE button, below. The program includes a preview of Haidt's highly anticipated upcoming book The Anxious Generation, available at the end of March. You're not going to want to miss it. The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Funding for this podcast was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities. This program is part of a larger project "Healing Starts Here" funded by New Pluralists. Learn more about our project, and other inspiring grantees here.

- The Insidious Lie That We Can't Understand Each Other: https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/identity-trap - A Case for Color Blindness | Coleman Hughes | TED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxB3b7fxMEA - Compelling case for our colourblind Constitution https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/letters/compelling-case-for-our-colourblind-constitution/news-story/27c30802cc4fc971304b923db33f9ce1 If you want to contact us please do so at info@cloudstreaks.com

We all flub up from time to time. None of us are perfect parents. But there are a few very big, but very common parenting mistakes we'd like to avoid or counteract if we can.  As mothers, we love our children dearly and want the very best for them in life. We want to nurture and protect them and to fill their childhood with wonderful opportunities to learn and grow and create lasting memories. Isn't that right?  Yet sometimes, the things we do in an attempt to “help our kids out” end up “holding them back” instead. Sometimes, our parenting mistakes actually just serve to handicap our children. Countless habits fall into this category, but in this episode of Loving Life at Home, we'll look at six parenting practices -- all extremely common in our current culture -- that will sabotage your child's future success if you don't guard against them. FREE PRINTABLES MENTIONED - Age-Appropriate Chore Chart - Bedroom Inspection Checklist - Ideas for Earning Screen Time: Chart FURTHER READING - "Play Deprivation is a Major Cause of the Teen Mental Health Crisis." -  article by Jon Haidt & Peter Gray - "8 Ways Screens are Ruining Your Family's Life" - article by Lori Leibovich for Huffington Post - 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You - sobering book by Tony Reinke - Love Your Husband/Love Yourself - my book on prioritizing your marriage, even after children VERSES CITED - “If any will not work, neither let him eat.” - 2 Thessalonians 3:10 - "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than men..." - Colossians 3:23 - "Excuses might be found for a thief who steals because he is starving. But if he is caught, he must pay back seven times what he stole, even if he has to sell everything in his house.” - Proverbs 6:30 - "Keep me from paying attention to what is worthless.” - Psalm 119:37 - "My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.” - Psalm 119:71 - "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven…” - Ecclesiastes 3:1 - "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh.Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate.” - Mark 10:7-9    

We break down the perils of social media and screen time on young minds AND give you helpful alternatives. We also try to figure out the plural form of rhinoceros (please help us) and call for help for de-mystifying my dad's scary dreams (dream readers - email me!).  Last but not least - how my dad found out santa wasn't real (hint - it wasn't his older siblings) - so sad!OH WAIT - The best part - we have our first MINI EPISODE.  This convo ended in about 20 minutes of my dad and I reminiscing on our martial arts training days...and comparing our education to other forms of martial arts.  Including the MASSIVE BENEFITS of martial arts training for kiddos' confidence, awareness, self-discipline, and so much more.  I also might reveal my super secret tactic for winning all my sparring matches against guys twice my size......The mini episodes are ONLY AVAILABLE inside the Patreon group!  Select the link below to get all the benefits.... Episode Resources:Tim Ferris and Jon Haidt video referencedERIC Research PlatformGoogle ScholarPub MedAcademia.orgAmerican Psychological AssociationWatch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@therelationalparentingpodcast/videosEmail us your parenting questions and stories!: jennie@jenniebee.co.Help us do what we do with a small monthly contribution: https://www.patreon.com/TheRelationalParentCoach/membershipJoin the WAITLIST for The Relational Parenting Village! - A New Monthly Membership Program where parents gather for community, growth, accountability and support.  PLUS ongoing monthly live events, classes and education resources to keep you motivated and growing on your parenting journey.  Let's do this!!Find me or book a free consult:Website: https://www.jenniebee.co/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therelationalparentingpodcast/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.hayes.507TikTok: @therelationalparentcoach.Sign up for the weekly newsletter here for a weekly parenting tip!Please leave us a review!  Your feedback helps others find us, and helps us grow so we can keep creating content for parents to benefit from.Creators & Guests Natalie Long - Editor Rick Hayes - Host Jennifer Hayes - Host Thanks to our monthly supporters Rick Hayes Happy Parenting and Good Luck Out There!

Social psychologist Dr. Jon Haidt stated conclusively at the end of February that “social media is a major cause of the mental illness epidemic in teen girls.” He asserts that the social science data now shows causation, not mere correlation -- and he posted a public Google doc to prove it. In this episode, we discuss how this research should inform Christian parenting, and how it should shape the church's engagement with teenagers.https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic

Today the Pugs reflect on a remarkable essay by Jon Haidt in which he correlates the mental health of young people since 2013 and their sex and political outlook. The mental health of all young people has been getting worse, but it is worst for liberal girls and it is best for conservative boys. Why 2013? And why does sex and political outlook make a difference? These are the questions that the Pugs ponder. Please join us for the conversation. Here's a link to the article if you'd like to read it yourself--https://www.thefp.com/p/why-the-mental-health-of-liberal Support the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Order Jason Cherry’s The Making of Evangelical Spirituality: https://a.co/d/5LdNXiu

Today the Pugs reflect on a remarkable essay by Jon Haidt in which he correlates the mental health of young people since 2013 and their sex and political outlook. The mental health of all young people has been getting worse, but it is worst for liberal girls and it is best for conservative boys. Why 2013? And why does sex and political outlook make a difference? These are the questions that the Pugs ponder. Please join us for the conversation. Here's a link to the article if you'd like to read it yourself--https://www.thefp.com/p/why-the-mental-health-of-liberal Support the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Order Jason Cherry’s The Making of Evangelical Spirituality: https://a.co/d/5LdNXiu

Today the Pugs reflect on a remarkable essay by Jon Haidt in which he correlates the mental health of young people since 2013 and their sex and political outlook. The mental health of all young people has been getting worse, but it is worst for liberal girls and it is best for conservative boys. Why 2013? And why does sex and political outlook make a difference? These are the questions that the Pugs ponder. Please join us for the conversation. Here's a link to the article if you'd like to read it yourself: https://www.thefp.com/p/why-the-mental-health-of-liberal Support the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8 Order Jason Cherry's The Making of Evangelical Spirituality: https://a.co/d/5LdNXiu

In the wake of new CDC data, social psychologist Jon Haidt argues: "There is now a great deal of evidence that social media is a substantial cause, not just a tiny correlate, of depression and anxiety, and therefore of behaviors related to depression and anxiety, including self-harm and suicide."    Get exclusive content here!: https://thepetekalinershow.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We dive into David Foster Wallace's sprawling 1993 essay “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction.” How do TV and new forms of media keep their hold on us when we know at some level that they're reinforcing our loneliness and passivity? That's easy, Wallace says, post-modern cool. Flatter me, let me think we're all in the joke together, give me “an ironic permission-slip to do what I do best whenever I feel confused and guilty: assume, inside, a sort of fetal position, a pose of passive reception to comfort, escape, reassurance.” But in the years since this essay, the TV landscape has completely transformed. Has it transcended its function as a surrogate companion for lonely people, or has it just found new ways to keep us isolated and passive? Plus, we talk about the recent new SPSP guidelines and Jon Haidt's recent essay on why he's resigning from the organization. (Sorry, Jon!)

Is there any possibility of fruitful dialogue with your mildly crazy, significantly intoxicated uncle at Thanksgiving dinner? We turn to Karl Popper's essay, The Myth of the Framework, to find out. Popper argues that it's wrong to assume that fruitful conversation is only possible among those who share an underlying framework of beliefs and assumptions. In fact, there's more to learn in difficult conversations which lack such a framework. We discuss - What is The Myth of the Framework? - The relationship between the myth of the framework and epistemological and moral relativism - Modern examples of the myth, including Jon Haidt's recent Atlantic essay (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/) and Paul Graham's Keep your identity small (http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html). - Why there's more to learn from conversations where the participants disagree, and why conversations with too much agreement are uninteresting - Linguistic relativism and the evolution of language as a refutation of the myth - The relationship between the myth of the framework and the Enigma of Reason Quotes I think what religion and politics have in common is that they become part of people's identity, and people can never have a fruitful argument about something that's part of their identity. By definition they're partisan. - Paul Graham, Keep your identity small The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit. Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past. It's been clear for quite a while now that red America and blue America are becoming like two different countries claiming the same territory, with two different versions of the Constitution, economics, and American history. But Babel is not a story about tribalism; it's a story about the fragmentation of everything. It's about the shattering of all that had seemed solid, the scattering of people who had been a community. It's a metaphor for what is happening not only between red and blue, but within the left and within the right, as well as within universities, companies, professional associations, museums, and even families. - Jonathan Haidt, Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid The proponents of relativism put before us standards of mutual understanding which are unrealistically high. And when we fail to meet these standards, they claim that understanding is impossible. - Karl Popper, MotF, pg. 34 The myth of the framework can be stated in one sentence, as follows. A rational and fruiful discussion is impossible unless the participants share a common framework of basic assumptions or, at least, unless they have agreed on such a framework for the purpose of the discussion. As I have formulated it here, the myth sounds like a sober statement, or like a sensible warning to which we ought to pay attention in order to further rational discussion. Some people even think that what I describe as a myth is a logical principle, or based on a logical principle. I think, on the contrary, that it is not only a false statement, but also a vicious statement which, if widely believed, must undermine the unity of mankind, and so must greatly increase the likelihood of violence and of war. This is the main reason why I want to combat it, and to refute it. - Karl Popper, MotF, pg. 34 Although I am an admirer of tradition, and conscious of its importance, I am, at the same time, an almost orthodox adherent of unorthodoxy: _I hold that orthodoxy is the death of knowledge, since the growth of knowledge depends entirely on the existence of disagreement. Admittedly, disagreement may lead to strif, and even to violence. And this, I think, is very bad indeed, for I abhor violence. Yet disagreement may also lead to discussion, to argument, and to mutual criticism. And these, I think, are of paramount importance. I suggest that the greatest step towards a better and more peaceful world was taken when the war of swords was first supported, and later sometimes even replaced, by a war of words. This is why my topic is of some practical significance._ - Karl Popper, MotF, pg. 34 My thesis is that logic neither underpins the myth of the framework nor its denial, but that we can try to learn from each other. Whether we succeed will depend largely on our goodwill, and to some extent also on our historical situation, and on our problem situation. - Karl Popper, MotF, pg. 38 References - Why the past 10 years of American life have been uniquely stupid (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/), by Jonathan Haidt - Keep your identity small (http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html), by Paul Graham - The Enigma of Reason (https://smile.amazon.com/Enigma-Reason-Hugo-Mercier/dp/0674368304?sa-no-redirect=1) by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber - Glenn Loury and Briahna Joy Grey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-pxokcOUHY&ab_channel=TheGlennShow) - Normal Science and its Dangers (https://earthweb.ess.washington.edu/roe/Knowability_590/Week1/Normal%20Science%20and%20its%20Dangers.pdf) Social media everywhere Follow us on twitter (@Incrementspod, @VadenMasrani, @BennyChugg), and on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ). Tell us about your shaken framework at incrementspodcast@gmail.com Image: Cornelis Anthonisz (1505 – 1553) – The Fall of the Tower of Babel (1547)

This week: Yuval Noah Harari speaks with Andrew Yang, Jonathan Haidt on why the last ten years have been uniquely stupid, why coastal cities are sinking, how a working-class Aussie miner got invited to NASA, and how to spot the alignment of four planets this month.YUVAL HARARI & ANDREW YANGYuval Noah Harari, the historian and author of the best-selling book “Sapiens”, has talked to US presidential candidate Andrew Yang in a fascinating conversation about AI, public policy and the future of work.Andrew is known for campaigning for universal basic income- a very controversial idea, especially in the United States. He's also very concerned about job automation, and what happens to people who lose their careers due to technological advancements.His insights go hand in hand with Yuval, who has written extensively on what happens when we face massive technological changes, such as the Industrial Revolution, or the now with the AI Revolution.They discuss how job automation and idless can lead to people heading down rabbit holes of political and religious extremism, and how the war in Ukraine may be our biggest motivation to move away from fossil fuels.Yep- they cover some very important topics, and we definitely recommend you give it a watch and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.And if you're interested in the ethical implications of AI and automation- don't miss our Philosophical Ethics course starting next month. Sign up at the link in our bio.JON HAIDTEveryone's talking about Jonathan Haidt's latest essay “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid”, published last week in The Atlantic.It's been called the best explanation of how social media is making us unfit for democracy. And in it, Jon uses the metaphor of the tower of Babel.If you went to a religious school, maybe you know the story- but if you don't, the cliff notes version is that after the Great Flood, a group of people speaking one shared language built a tower tall enough to reach heaven.This made God angry, and he thinks that these people have gotten too big for their boots, and are going to get more and more cocky. So he confuses their language so they can't understand each other, therefore stopping their ability to work together.According to Jon Haidt, a social psychologist, this is what social media is doing to us.We hoped social media would help us work together, but instead it is fracturing the way we communicate, and it's having terrible effects on our society.And if you haven't yet, grab yourself a SIGNED copy of Jon's must-read book, “The Righteous Mind” from our shop. We only have one copy left! Head to the link in our bio.SINKING CITIESHave you got that sinking feeling?Well if you live in a coastal city, that's literally what's happening to you.Earth scientists recently published a paper showing that coastal cities around the globe are sinking by up to 5 centimetres a year! They studied the satellite imagery of 99 cities on 6 continents to find that the sinkiest cities are mostly in Asia- such as Tianjin, Karachi and Manila.While rising sea levels due to climate change play a major role in the sinking, scientists believe that most of it is caused by humans.When the researchers looked at Google Earth imagery of the sinking regions, the team saw mostly residential or commercial areas, leading them to believe that groundwater pumping is the main culprit.But there's hope! Back in the day, Shanghai and Jakarta were sinking more than 10 centimetres per year, on average. Then their governments better regulated groundwater extraction, and the sinking has slowed right down.AMATEUR ASTRONOMERThis miner from outback Australia went from being a school dropout to a prized astronomer!His name is Trevor Barry, and he's the recent recipient of the Astronomical Society of Australia award. He's known in the space world for his contributions to astronomy, all done from his backyard in the isolated town of Broken Hill.Trevor left high school to take up an apprenticeship at one of the local mines, but he always wondered why the night sky looked the way it did. His obsession with astronomy reached its peak when he designed and built his own observatory and telescopes!In 2008 he found a white spot on his favourite planet, Saturn, which ended up being an electrical storm. NASA and the Cassini team have used Trevor's data, and three years ago Trevor got to travel to NASA's headquarters to meet the leader of the Cassini imaging team, Carolyn Porco.We love Trevor's story- it teaches us that there are so many alternative pathways to achieve success, and that all you need is passion!If you're an amateur astronomer, come study cosmology at Think Inc Academy with Professor Alan Duffy. Sign up at the link in our bio.APRIL SKIESSky gazers- this is your month!April is perhaps the best month for peeping our planets. Yep- April skies are so clear there's even a song written about them.Beginning around Sunday morning, you'll be able to see something pretty rare- Mars, Venus, Jupiter AND Saturn in one straight line.To see this awesome planetary foursome, those of us in the Southern Hemisphere should head out about an hour before sunrise and look to the southeast, where the sun is about to rise.There you'll be able to see with your naked eyes all four planets in a neat line.While this makes sky gazing far easier, the line is just an optical illusion. The planets aren't actually lined up, and from any other vantage point in space you'd be able to see that they're far apart.If you're someone who's always gazing up into space thinking about the meaning of it all- come along to see theoretical physicist Brian Greene LIVE in conversation this June. You'll have the chance to pick Brian's brain about life's biggest questions. Tickets are at the link in our bio.---That's all for this week- we hope you learned something new! Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list for specials on our upcoming Brian Greene tour, and on our Think Inc. Academy courses starting next month. Until then, keep well!Sign up to our newsletter → bit.ly/think-sign-up

Does the Twitter trans community have a problem with sexually violent threats? Will Elon Musk hurt Twitter? How accurate is Jon Haidt’s take on what is ailing American? How big a threat was the Gretchen Whitmer kidnappling plot? Is this question-heavy format for episode descriptions annoying? To discuss this episode with other Blocked and Reported subscribers, click here?Show notes/Link:The tweets Jesse was complaining about: A threat to hang the likes of Kathleen Stock:Normal stuff: "Why The Past 10 Years Of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid":https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/Than Robinson on the SPLC: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/03/the-southern-poverty-law-center-is-everything-thats-wrong-with-liberalismThe Whitmer “kidnapping” “plot”:https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/fbi-michigan-kidnap-whitmerhttps://reason.com/2022/04/08/gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-acquittal-fbi/The Takes:https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/michigan-militia-trial-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-highlights-surge-violen-rcna22903https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/09/whit-a09.htmlImage: People attend a Freedom Rally in support of First Amendment rights and to protest against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan on May 15, 2021. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images) This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.blockedandreported.org/subscribe

Evolution's major win, Facebook Files, Aussie concentration camps, AI predicting melting ice, and more!Read the blog → thinkinc.org.au/think-inc-thursdays-027/Watch the full ep → instagram.com/thinkinc/channel/Sign up to our newsletter → bit.ly/think-sign-up

S2 E24: The Journal of Controversial Ideas“You can't have a good education if you're not exposed to ideas you don't agree with”Twelve years ago, Francesca Minerva published an academic article in the Journal of Medical Ethics giving a moral defence of infanticide. She was overwhelmed by the reaction she received - for an academic article in the early days of Twitter and Facebook, it went ‘viral'. She received death threats from the public, academics refusing to shake her hand, and she found it hard to get tenure. But she says that she was lucky. If the same thing happened today, she'd be a lot worse off than a few disgruntled colleagues.Francesca is one of the co-founders of the Journal of Controversial Ideas, alongside Peter Singer and Jeff McMahan. Their aim is to promote free inquiry on controversial topics, in the face of what they see as increasing censorship across the academy.“It has become really common for academics to sign petitions to get somebody they disagree with fired or demoted…”Francesca worries that without the capacity to discuss or challenge widely held views, our search for the truth will fall flat. She worries that the very idea of academic enquiry is changing: that truth is ‘constructed' rather than ‘discovered'.“I don't know if university as we know it is going to survive.”Works cited include:Jon Haidt and The Coddling of the American MindRonald Dworkin on TruthRead the Full TranscriptFrancesca MinervaFrancesca Minerva is a research fellow at the University of Milan. Between 2011 and 2020 she has worked as a post-doc at the University of Melbourne, at the University of Ghent, and at Warwick University. She is the co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Controversial Ideas. Her research focuses on applied ethics, including lookism, conscientious objection, abortion, academic freedom, and cryonics.On Opinion is a member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.More on this episodeLearn all about On OpinionMeet Turi Munthe: https://twitter.com/turiLearn more about the Parlia project here: https://www.parlia.com/aboutAnd visit us at: https://www.parlia.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“Microaggressions are so hard because they typically don't meet traditional philosophical conceptions of blameworthiness…”Microaggressions are the latest front in the culture wars - seemingly harmless comments such as “yes, but where are you really from…” or misused pronouns, over time, can cause profound damage to the receiver. But the idea of cautioning an act so seemingly harmless feels like thought-policing.In her book The Ethics of Microaggression, Regina Rini defines a MicroAggression as “an act or event that is perceived by a member of an oppressed group as possibly but not certainly instantiating oppression.”There's a lot to unpack here, and a lot to trigger both Right and Centre, since it tells us the aggression is in the eye of the beholder. Microaggressions can't be ‘judged' from the outside, they can only be heard.To many, that feels intuitively dangerous: old school totalitarianism could see you hauled off for ideas other might suspect you of having; with MicroAggressions, one might be hauled off for ideas someone else could have based on your suspected intent.Rini explains the philosophical misunderstanding at the heart of the war around microaggression: the huge mismatch between the Harm Felt and the Blame Attributable.Minute acts of indignity can add up to systemic violence and have profound real-world consequences for their victims, but how do you blame the often unconscious perpetrator for an act so ‘micro'?Listen to Regina and Turi discuss:Why MicroAggressions have become such a cause celebre in the Culture WarsMicroAggression and the threat to freedom of speechThe history of the idea to Chester Pierce in the 1970s.The problem of Collective Harm vs Individual BlameHow the idea of MicroAggression is woven into thinking about systemic inequality.“We're suffering from an inability to hold two thoughts in our heads the the same time… First, MicroAggressions add up to real and serious harm in the lives of marginalised people. Second, most MicroAggressions are NOT the sort of the thing we can easily blame people for”Works Cited include:Derald Wing Sue: Race TalkChester Pierce, who coined the term.Jon Haidt and Greg Lukianoff's The Coddling of the American MindRegina RiniRegina Rini holds the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Moral and Social Cognition at York University in Toronto. Prior to that, she taught at NYU's centre of bioethics. She writes a regular philosophy column for the TLS.More on this episodeLearn all about the Parlia Podcast here.Meet Turi Munthe: https://www.parlia.com/u/TuriLearn more about the Parlia project here: https://www.parlia.com/aboutAnd visit us at: https://www.parlia.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What is the formula for happiness? Leah and Jackie sit down with author and social psychologist Jon Haidt to talk about his first book, The Happiness Hypothesis. In this conversation, Jon shares how we get in our own way of achieving the happiness we desire, where happiness truly comes from, and strategies for creating it. 

On this podcast, Marty talks about how difficult it is to find middle ground.  After introducing one of his brothers to the writings of historian Heather Cox Richardson, he is in turn told by that brother that "in the eyes of Jon Haidt" such a writer would not be worth her weight in salt.  Intrigued by his brothers objection over a fairly objective writer, Marty decided to explore just exactly who Jon Haidt is and what is his game.  Marty was delighted to find a great article about this professor from May 24, 2020 in the Atlantic Magazine, written by Peter Wehner.  The article touches on the how Haidt tries to be a centrist in a world that is filled with increasing factionalism.  That there is a moral responsibility for a  democracy to find discourse and an exchange of ideas.    Haidt has spent his life trying to qualify and teach how people can achieve this civic morality.    Ironically, Haidt (like Richardson) tend to view the world through the lens of history, confusing Marty as to why his brother would even infer that a like minded person like Haidt would be opposed to Richardson.  The upshot is a long pondering on factionalism, what it has brought us and how challenging it is to create the dynamic of exchanging ideas without them being shot down.   Even in one's own family, coming from the same background!   Marty then proceeds to talk about the responsibility musicians have in creating "morally" in a  society.   Is it right to have artists that choose to glorify subjects that tend to decay and tear society for money?  Are they no different than entertainer-pundits who preach factionalism for money?   When is expression artistic or just factionalism is "artistic" clothing.   Throughout the podcast we come up for air with some music from Marty's new album "Everydayeveryday."   Please support Marty and this podcast by sharing with friends or giving a financial gift.

Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, has a riveting explanation for the deepening and seemingly intractable partisan division in America’s politics. Turns out it has a lot more to do with the basics of human psychology and our moral reasoning habits than we’d care to admit. And – strangely enough – “elephants” are involved. Whether you’re frustrated by our inability to engage constructively to solve problems, or just permanently perplexed by the thinking of people on the opposite side of the political divide, you won’t want to miss Jon Haidt. You’ll never see politics quite the same again – with the way things have been going lately, we think that’s probably a good thing.

Although Bryan and Hunter talk about Jon Haidt all the time, this is actually only Jon's second appearance on the podcast. It was well worth the wait. Having read Jon's books many times and interviewed many of his peers, this podcast was a fantastic opportunity to get stuck in and re-examine the world through the lens of both ancient wisdom and modern science.

What exactly is ‘awe’ and does it bring us, as individuals or as a society, any benefit? Dacher Keltner joins Igor and Charles to discuss why Canadians feel differently about awe than the Chinese, how to take an ‘awe walk’, why emotions vary across historical time, and the importance of experiencing diverse emotions and how to balance them, while the 'Dacher-Guesses-Emotions' game reveals the alarmingly fine line between disgust and desire. Igor digs into controversies over different theories of emotion, Dacher talks of inequality and elation as the new frontiers of social psychology, and Charles learns that awe may play a key role in the very process of scientific discovery itself. Welcome to Episode 20. Special Guest: Dacher Keltner.

On this episode of The Open Mind, we're delighted to welcome Jonathan Haidt. Haidt is the Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, based in the Business and Society program at New York University, a social psychologist whose research examines the intuitive foundations of morality. He's coauthor of “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure” as well as author of the New York Timesbestseller, “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.” He studies the origins of the human moral sense and their relevance to polarization and dysfunction, American politics, intellectual life, and our everyday lives and debates. Before coming to NYU, Professor Haidt taught for 16 years at U.Va, University of Virginia. 

Jon Haidt offers candid perspective on today's university campuses, contemporary journalism, public discourse, and his own journey—as well as ways to better equip iGen students in their pursuit of human flourishing. Guests: Jonathan Haidt Peter Wehner Links: Why a 21st Century Enlightenment Needs Walls, Jonathan Haidt, RSA Replay Complicating the Narratives, by Amanda Ripley The moral roots of liberals and conservatives, Jonathan Haidt, TED2008 Can a divided America heal?, Jonathan Haidt and Chris Anderson, TED2016 Let Grow Heterodox Academy

I got some new audio gear and wanted to try a podcast-only discussion (no video this time). Let me know if it works for you! zubin@turntablehealth.com Discussed items include Jon Haidt's new book, Dr. Eugene Gu's Twitter shenanigans, college campus witch hunts, and how I look like The Rock (with one teeny weeny caveat). And here's that link to become a Facebook supporter: facebook.com/becomesupporter/zdoggmd

A discussion on “Is there an ideological monoculture at British universities, and does it matter?” with: Jonathan Haidt, Author, The Coddling of the American Mind Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics, Birkbeck College Joanna Williams, Head of Education, Policy Exchange and Author, Academic Freedom in an Age of Conformity Lord Macdonald of River Glaven Kt QC, Warden, Wadham College, University of Oxford full podcast at: https://policyexchange.org.uk/pxevents/is-there-an-ideological-monoculture-at-british-universities-and-does-it-matter/

Show Notes A discussion of The Coddling of the American Mind, just published this month, with the authors Greg Lukianoff and Jon Haidt. Greg Lukianoff is director of Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Jon Haidt is a founder of Heterodox Academy and professor of ethical leadership at NYU's Stern school.   Timeline The history behind the Coddling article 1:59 Greg's battle with depression 6:15 Nietzsche or Stoic views of pain 9:00 The untruth of good and evil people 12:20 Is no one truly evil? 18:16 Solutions 20:09 Is Jon hopeful? 24:20   Books and Article Mentioned In This Episode: The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jon Haidt The Worry Cure: Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You by Robert Leahy Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by David Burns Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Taleb The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations by Amy Chua People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil by M. Scott Peck Does Our Cultural Obsession With Safety Spell the Downfall of Democracy? by Thomas Chatterton Williams ... See the full list of episodes of Half Hour of Heterodoxy >> Transcript This is a transcript of this episode.

After hearing the Theories of Everything Part 1 and Part 2, everyone got suuuuuuper jealous that Hunter was getting Spiros all to himself. In the spirit of Mixed Mental Arts, Hunter decided to share Spiros with Dave Colan, Cate Fogarty, Andrew Hunter and Christopher Leon Price. Continuing off from the last conversation, Spiros unpacks how he thinks of truth in thinking about physical reality. Then, Dave Colan (after struggling to remember Sam Harris' name) brings up Sam's recent comments about Hunter on the Joe Rogan Experience. Sam's comments prove to be an excellent teaching opportunity because they reveal the sort of theories we form about other people based on limited and emotionally provocative evidence. The whole point that I (Hunter) was trying to clumsily make on Joe Rogan was that because of the Dunbar Number most humans are an abstraction. We have to stereotype. The question is what we stereotype around. Spending time at Oaks Christian, it was clear that the stereotype people had of scientists was formed around people like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins was formed around people who insulted beliefs they did not understand. In fact, I came to realize that Jesus Christ was a better neuroscientist than Sam Harris which you can read about here. Now, Sam has proved my point. He has formed an opinion about me based on very limited evidence and his feeeeeeeeeelings about me. It's an amazing demonstration of #DescartesError and the #DunbarNumber. Is the model that Sam Harris laid out of Hunter Maats a good model of me? Well, I'll leave that for you to judge. But take a look at what he has said here. For regular listeners to Mixed Mental Arts, you'll see that while Sam's impression of me is perfectly understandable that it's a great example of what Spiros talks about with "truncate and renormalize." Sam has a truncated data set around who I am and that he has then renormalized around that very limited data. Can he justify his impression? Of course! He can point to that very limited amount of information and justify his impression. And yet, there's other data. There's over 200 episodes of Bryan and me interviewing hundreds of different scientists and then synthesizing those ideas together into a coherent worldview. Sam Harris has said I'm wrong about the "relevant biology." That's a huge problem. Whether I'm wrong or he is doesn't much matter. What matters is that the "relevant biology" has become so overcomplicated and atomized that either me (a Harvard biochemistry grad who has interviewed hundreds of scientists) or him (a neuroscience PhD) don't understand the "relevant biology." If we can't figure it out, then it's no wonder science can't win the public over. Science needs to figure out and present a coherent worldview in order to effectively win people over. The #MarchForScience is a nice show of support...but which science are these people in favor of? Is it rationalism or intuitionism? Is it the multi-level selection of David Sloan Wilson, Jon Haidt and Joe Henrich or the gene-centric model of Dawkins and Harris? And, more basically, what is science anyway? Because it's clear that Spiros, Jon Haidt and me are operating on a very different understanding of what science is than Sam Harris is. Sam Harris has painted a picture of religious people with statistics that is actually a terrible model of who they actually are. I'm an apatheist. I don't really care about God. I don't go to Church or Mosque. I care about practically improving people's lives using whatever tools are available. And that's why I'd moved on from Sam Harris and was focused on making Smart Go Pop but then Brentwood Boy got so emotional about the whole thing that he couldn't help saying Candyman five times. As Cate Fogarty points out in this article, I was just doing exactly what Joe Rogan did with Carlos Mencia. I was calling out someone who was hurting the community. Why does Joe defend Sam? Because Joe has feeeeeeeeeelings about Sam that cause him to value defending his friend over examining the evidence impartially. Sam Harris is Joe Rogan's sacred cow. And that's okay. That's the way humans work. All of us. You, me, New Atheists and old school Arabs. And if we want to have a better world, then we all have to stop pretending like we have it all figured out and start reflecting on the problems in our own culture and do the difficult work of self-reflection and calling out the Fundamentalists who have wrapped themselves in the flag of our cherished causes. As I've covered in earlier episodes, the challenge for people is to spot who is and who is not a Fundamentalist and to see who preaches our values but doesn't actually practice them. Joe Rogan's defense of Sam Harris will reveal before this community just how hard this is. Thank you, Sam Harris! You're the best. You beautifully proved my point and have created the social drama that will drive attention to the science. Don't believe me. Decide for yourself. That's what science is about. It's not about authority or Harvard or PhDs. It's about forming better Theories of Everything by breaking your old theories to make room for better and better ones. People do that all the time with TV shows. Look at Game of Thrones. People had theories about whether Jon Snow was dead. Then, they were confronted with the evidence of the next season. Many theories died and people moved on. You can't break your old theories unless you're exposed to the evidence and you can't be exposed to the evidence if the people who are the public faces of science don't tell you about it. That's why Mixed Mental Arts has branded an alternative to The Four Horsemen. We call it The Holy Trinity of Cultural Evolution. They present newer and much more powerful Theories of Everything. WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO BELIEVE US. That's not what science is about. It's not about human authority. It's about the evidence. So, examine it and draw your own conclusions and then let's hash them out and see if we can all evolve better Theories of Everything together. The internet is our intellectual thunderdome. Sam Harris just dragged his public persona into the arena when he said I was wrong about the "relevant biology." May the best ideas win. Two ideas enter. One idea leaves. Idea dying time is here. In other news, Spiros is now going to be taking any and all questions and answering them for you through Mixed Mental Arts. Send questions to @quantum_spiros! Also send him requests for more 80's cartoon theme songs in Greek. Love to all humanity - Toto

Living in America, Bryan and Hunter constantly hear demands for Muslims to call out the fundamentalists in their own midst. We think this is a great idea. However, before you can do that, you have to be able to spot a fundamentalist. And that it turns out is quite easy when you're looking at a fundamentalist in someone else's tribe and quite hard when you're looking at the fundamentalists in your own tribe. It's easy for Westerners to see the fundamentalists in the Arab world and quite hard to see the fundamentalists in their own midst. Recently, we had Jordan Peterson on The Bryan Callen Show and the community cheered Jordan Peterson on for calling out the Social Justice Fundamentalists on college campuses. How great? A lot of listeners knew these college kids had gone nuts. Thank goodness someone was standing up to them. That is not the reaction Jordan Peterson has gotten on college campuses and from his fellow Professors. Some people in his own community have cheered him on but many have attacked him. Hunter had a similar experience recently when he challenged certain fundamentalists whom we've had on The Bryan Callen Show, namely Peter Schiff and Thomas Woods. Some people cheered Hunter on and one Mixed Mental Artist even congratulated him on making it through the Peter Schiff interview "in spite of all the government that was getting in the way." Others were either confused by what he was doing and many insulted him. And that gives you a reality on why Muslims don't call out the Fundamentalists in their own midst. Many have a hard time spotting which imams are the fundamentalists and their sense of loyalty to the tribe outweighs their commitment to figuring out realistic solutions to the problems of their society. In short, it was a perfect demonstration of why Hunter and Bryan have been focusing so much on the work of people like Jon Haidt. Feelings drive our choices without even realizing it and it's only when those feelings are brought into conflict that we realize that those feelings are there. And this is the big difference between a Mixed Mental Artist and a Fundamentalist. The Mixed Mental Artist craves finding conflicts between their beliefs and reality. That's what it's all about. When your beliefs don't fit reality, then you have an opportunity to improve them. You are forced to confront your existing feelings and potentially change them. You are forced to re-examine your existing beliefs and potentially realize that you've been wrong about yourself and the world for decades. And that is upsetting. That is what Fundamentalists don't do. In fact, the Arab language has two words that capture beautifully what makes a fundamentalist. They don't engage in ijtihad. You're probably familiar with the word jihad. It means struggle. Ijtihad though is the reflexive form. It means struggle with oneself. Fundamentalists don't struggle with themselves. They decide they have a monopoly on the truth and they have all the answers and then they spend their lives pursuing that simple answer to the end of the line. In every case, the Fundamentalist believes that their tribe is the source of all good and that anything that threatens that is the source of all the world's problems. If only we could get rid of all the world's problems, everything would be solved. A few examples should suffice: Islam: The Way of the Prophet is the answer to everything. Anything that doesn't fit with that must be eliminated. And so, Islamic Fundamentalists like the Taliban try to eliminate toothbrushes and kites. Social Justice: Racism and sexism and colonialism are the sources of all our problems. We must deny the white man banh mi and sushi. If someone feels oppressed by the need to use a limited number of pronouns, we must recognize all 70 pronouns. In the name of social justice, there is nothing we won't do. It sounds good but like all virtues taken too far it becomes ridiculous and self-defeating. Sharing food between different cultures promotes tolerance. Words, including pronouns, are tools. Languages simplify over time. English used to have an informal version of you, namely thou. Ultimately, speakers threw out that pronoun because it was more of a pain in the ass than it was worth. Language is a tool that people use and 70 pronouns just isn't user-friendly. The Free Market: The free market is not the same thing as a free for all. Free market fundamentalists like Peter Schiff and Thomas Woods don't understand that. They hate government and so they just keep foolishly wanting to strip it away. To them, the FDA is like the toothbrush. It wasn't there in the time of the prophet so we rip it out. In fact though, you only need to look at what is happening with food safety in China right now to see what would happen. People are injecting cancer-causing gel into shrimp to make them look plumper. Some people will do anything for a buck, including peddle free market fundamentalist ideology as if they are representing the free market. Atheism: Atheist fundamentalists are a great example. They're not violent because theirs is a culture that fights with words but the thinking is the same. If only we could get rid of religion, then all our problems would be solved. And like all fundamentalists, they have large and complex rationalizations for what are ultimately very simple feelings. In practice, the people involved end up being bad scientists. They spend so much time engaged in jihad that they don't really engage in ijtihad. They're not doing the hard work of figuring out how your beliefs don't fit the evidence. And they don't. Because #DescartesError The Alt-Right: A reactionary movement to social justice. It's a white identity politics movement that blames the problems of the world...on tolerance. And so rushes towards NAZI ideology. The list goes on and on. There are a lot of flavors of fundamentalism right now. On the surface, they seem different. However, they are all essentially the same. They're like different flavors of ice cream. Different flavors. All of them are still ice cream. And just like ice cream, fundamentalism is immediately satisfying. It takes three seconds to understand and the rest is delicious confirmation bias. "Oh!!! We just need to get rid of The West/Racism/Government/Religion and all our problems will be solved for us!" And then, you can spend decades being convinced of how you knew it all along! "Ohhhhh! I was even more right than I thought. Yes. This is so great. I'm a genius. Why are other people such idiots that they don't see this?" People in the West seem to think Muslims should call out their own Fundamentalists. I think they should. But rather than just preaching at Muslims, I think we should lead by example and develop a playbook for how to effectively handle fundamentalism. The West is a great place to pioneer this because our Fundamentalists are generally less violent. Generally. Good thing Bryan has been taking boxing classes. We're going to try and put the fun back in fundamentalism. But fundamentalists can't take a joke at their expense. They're such snowflakes that when their feel feels get hurt they get violent. Will Bryan's boxing skills be sufficient when some fundie comes at him? We'll see. Get ready, Mixed Mental Artists. There are a lot of bad ideas out there. We're going to fight them all.

Robb Willer has the best twitter handle of any academic ever: @GhostFaceWiller. Yes, he's a Professor of Sociology and Psychology and Business at Stanford...but he also has an amazing twitter handle. All of these things matter. What's most important? That's not for me to say. I think that really the whole is greater than the sum of any of these parts. As the Germans say, it's the gestalt of Robb Willer that makes him especially cool. He's also done some incredibly cool studies. He darkens Obama's face to see if that makes white folk more anxious. He studies how testosterone affects people's tendency to react to potential perceived threats to their masculinity. And, most awesomely, he studies how the work of Jon Haidt can be applied to help groups be better at recruiting people from different tribes/cultures/cults/political parties/religions to their point of view. Of course, one of the big questions for the college-educated crowd is what is up with Trump's supporters. Part of that story is racism. But a big part of that story is also the Hillbilly Honor Culture that has been passed down for ages from the Scots-Irish. It's a culture that made sense in a herding context. It's not a culture that serves the needs of people in the Information Age. That's not a comfortable thing for humanity to talk about but that's the moment in history we've reached. It's time we became more reflective and each took a look at what we've picked up from our families and why. The science is all there. Now, it's time to put it all together. It's time for Mixed Mental Arts.

David and Tamler continue their series of breaking down a classic essay/article in their fields. For this installment, David assigns Tamler Anthony Greenwald's fascinating 1980 review article "The Totalitarian Ego." What do totalitarian regimes, scientific theories, and your own cognitive biases have in common? As it turns out, quite a bit. Why do egos rewrite our memories, preserve our beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence, and make us think we're way more important than we are? And how does Thomas Kuhn fit into all this? Plus, we read a few of our favorite iTunes reviews.LinksAudience video of Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2016 Session on Moral Purity with Kurt Gray, Jon Haidt, David Pizarro (courtesy of Kate Johnson) [youtube.com]Greenwald, A. G. (1980). The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history. American psychologist, 35, 603. [verybadwizards.com] 

Darwin had a problem with bees. Understanding how evolution might work at the level of individuals was easy. Have an individual whose genes give them an advantage in resisting disease or avoiding predators and on average they will breed more and pass on more of their genes to the next generation. But bees and other social insects weren’t so easy. Kamikaze-like, bees will dive in and sting you, their barbs getting stuck in you and die to save the hive. Of course, when a human being sacrifices their life to save their child, that’s easy enough for evolution to explain. By sacrificing your life for your child, you are helping to ensure that your genes are passed on. But the bee that stings you at a picnic, can’t have children because those bees are sterile. In the Origin of Species, Darwin referred to sterile subgroups as the "one special difficulty, which at first appeared to me insuperable, and actually fatal to my theory.” Nowadays, evolutionary biologists have no problem providing an explanation for this behavior. In fact, the problem is that they have two competing explanations with explanations not just for bees but for how evolution makes sense of religion. Biologists like Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne argue that the bee gives its life because by defending the hive it is helping to pass on the genes of its closely related hive mates. They deny that natural selection can operate at the level of groups and so large human social organizations (like religion) have no function. Biologists like EO Wilson and today’s guest David Sloan Wilson argue that selection can happen not only at the level of individuals but also at the level of groups. If that’s the case, then our groupishness (including religion) are useful. As you can imagine, the idea that religion could be on balance or even sometimes useful is something that people like Dawkins take issue with. The consequences of this rift are beautifully summed up in Jon Haidt’s Righteous Mind: "To Dennett and Dawkins, religions are sets of memes that have undergone Darwinian selection. Like biological traits, religions are heritable, they mutate, and there is selection among these mutations. The selection occurs not on the basis of the benefits religions confer upon individuals or groups but on the basis of their ability to survive and reproduce themselves. Some religions are better than others at hijacking the human mind, burrowing in deeply, and then getting themselves transmitted to the next generation of host minds. Dennett opens Breaking the Spell with the story of a tiny parasite that commandeers the brains of ants, causing them to climb to the tops of blades of grass, where they can more easily be eaten by grazing animals. The behavior is suicide for the ant, but it’s adaptive for the parasite, which requires the digestive system of a ruminant to reproduce itself. Dennett proposes that religions survive because , like those parasites, they make their hosts do things that are bad for themselves (e.g., suicide bombing) but good for the parasite (e.g., Islam). Dawkins similarly describes religions as viruses. Just as a cold virus makes its host sneeze to spread itself, successful religions make their hosts expend precious resources to spread the “infection.” These analogies have clear implications for social change. If religion is a virus or a parasite that exploits a set of cognitive by-products for its benefit, not ours, then we ought to rid ourselves of it. Scientists , humanists, and the small number of others who have escaped infection and are still able to reason must work together to break the spell, lift the delusion, and bring about the end of faith.” To be clear, Professor Wilson is not saying that religion is here to stay. He is saying that our tendency towards groupishness (including religion) is an outcome of evolution and that in thinking about religion we have to recognize that. Once you understand that perspective, you begin to see how science and religion can finally start talking to each other. Professor Wilson is president of the Evolution Institute (http://evolution-institute.org ) and SUNY Distinguished Professor at Binghamton University. His books include Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way we Think About Our Lives, and The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time. His next book, titled Does Altruism Exist? will be published in 2015 by Yale University Press. The Books Professor Wilson mentioned were Complexity and the art of public policy by David Colander and Roland Kupers, Give and Take by Adam Grant and Evil Genes by Barbara Oakley.

As a professor at the University of Virginia, Jonathan Haidt uses the scientific method to study human morality…which leads to asking people some pretty screwed up questions. Would it be wrong if a man bought a chicken from the store for dinner, had sex with it and then ate it? A brother and sister are on holiday together and they decide it would be fun to have sex. The sister is already on the pill, but the brother decides to use a condom just to be safe. They enjoy it, but they decide to just do it this one time and keep it as a secret between them. The secret brings them closer. You may or may not have a problem with having sex with your dinner, but you probably have a big problem with a brother and sister having sex. The question is why? Most people's first reaction is to say that close relatives shouldn't have children because of the high risk of genetic abnormalities, but with the sister on the pill and the brother using a condom is that really a risk. But wouldn't it destroy their relationship? Well, in this situation, sharing a secret of their one-time fling brought them closer together. What hypotheticals like these reveal is that we feel that things are wrong first and then we struggle with reasons to justify those feelings. Are we rational creatures or are we primarily emotional creatures searching for reasons to justify what we feel? In his first book, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, Jon Haidt manages to draw ten great ideas from the world's ancient religions and analyzes them through the lens of modern scientific research. Haidt does so much more than simply examine the practical benefits of ancient teachings from the perspective of neurology and psychology; he also reflects on the nature of religion itself. Is the propensity for religious experience born into us? If so, what function does it serve? While The Happiness Hypothesis compellingly answers these questions, it is Haidt's second book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Religion he delves much more deeply into the consequences of modern research for a society. Religion, like politics, serves to draw us out of ourselves and bind us into a group that is larger than ourselves, but it also gives us the feeling that our view of the world is the truth whole and entire. By creating understanding of the universal tendency towards being blinded by our emotions, Haidt is on a mission to foster a dialogue between political and religious groups that operates from a place of humility and a genuine desire to understand the other person's perspective. On the show, Bryan, Jonathan and Hunter discuss everything from why Washington is broken to why 1% of men give the rest of us a bad name to tribes in Papua New Guinea that believe a little homosexuality is essential for becoming a man. It's an hour-long journey through the weird and wonderful world of human nature that will leave you with time-tested and science-tested wisdom for how you can be happier and more fulfilled. Jonathan Haidt can be followed on twitter at @JonHaidt. For more on his work check out The Happiness Hypothesis, The Righteous Mind and the following websites: www.RighteousMind.com www.YourMorals.com

Tamler and Dave discuss recent work in philosophy and psychology about the differences in moral values and practices across cultures. We talk about the implications of moral diversity: does  it mean that we cannot criticize that practices of other cultures? How should we regard moral disagreement? Are there objective “truths” in ethics? Somehow we need to play clips from The Big Lebowski and Pulp Fiction in order to resolve these questions.Links"No Donnie, these men are nihilists, nothing to be afraid of."Interview with Jon Haidt."Pigs are filthy animals"