America’s Federal Reserve made its third straight 0.75% interest-rate hike, with Jerome Powell, the Fed’s chair, warning that more hikes would follow. But with inflation still high, and labour markets still tight, is the Fed doing all it can? A new report suggests that forced labour and marriage are on the rise around the world. And reflecting on one man’s long search for extraterrestrial life. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer
“There’s people wandering around in packs, not thinking for themselves, seized by this mob mentality trying to spread their disease and destroy society. And you probably think, as I do, that you’re the good guy in the zombie apocalypse movie, and all this hate and polarization, it’s being propagated by the other people, because we’re Brad Pitt, right?” —Dr. Robb Willer, Polarization and Social Change Lab at Stanford University
When it comes to navigating our deepening ideological divide in America, what if we’re not so much the hero fighting the forces of evil—instead we’re accidentally acting just a little too much like “foot soldiers in the army of the undead,” wonders our special guest, Dr. Robb Willer. Robb has been working on understanding the moral underpinnings of this accelerating anger—and his research shows that we’re speaking different languages.
Dr. Willer, professor of psychology and sociology at Stanford University and Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab (and movie buff), shares his highly-relatable, user-friendly and scientifically-grounded advice on how we might improve the quality of our political conversations—and possibly ditch a few zombies along the way. Kristin Hansen, Executive Director of Civic Health Project (and one of our favorite civic superheroes) joins us to facilitate the conversation.
Dr. Robb Willer is a Professor of Sociology, Psychology (by courtesy), and Organizational Behavior (by courtesy) and the Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab at Stanford University. He studies politics, morality, cooperation, and status. Learn more about Dr. Willer’s work here, see below for some of Dr. Willer’s articles.
Kristin Hansen, Executive Director of Civic Health Project, is a national leader in the field of bridge building, having taken a “civic sabbatical” from her tech career to help save American democracy (and we’re so glad she has). She’s devoted to accelerating the efforts of academics and practitioners who seek to reduce polarization and improve civil discourse in our citizenry, politics and media. Previously, she’s held senior executive roles at Intel, IBM and multiple start-up software companies.
This important programming is offered in partnership with Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of our multi-year series “UNUM: Democracy Reignited.”
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.
In which $300 million in 2022 money is unwisely spent on the world's first real-world cryptocurrency transaction, and Ken explains why a bro should not have an army. Certificate #11904.
Millions of Americans’ pandemic secret was those invisible adult retainers — but SmileDirectClub stock has now fallen 95%. Spotify finally launched audiobooks because nothing feels sticker than Charlotte’s Web. And the Fed just raised interest rates by a record amount for a 3rd time in a row, because someone’s gotta blink first.
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Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West’s direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for performing ‘morality’ or ‘authenticity’. In Against Decolonization: Taking African Agency Seriously (Hurst, 2022), Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò fiercely rejects the indiscriminate application of ‘decolonisation’ to everything from literature, language and philosophy to sociology, psychology and medicine.
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò speaks to Pierre d’Alancaisez about the project of ‘decolonisation’ as intellectually unsound and unrealistic. Táíwò rejects decolonisation’s conflation of modernity with coloniality and takes to task the decolonisers’ confused attempts at undoing of global society’s foundations.
He argues that the decolonisation industry, obsessed with cataloguing wrongs, is seriously harming scholarship on and in Africa. Worst of all, today’s movement attacks its own cause: ‘decolonisers’ themselves are disregarding, infantilising and imposing values on contemporary African thinkers.
This much-needed intervention questions whether today’s ‘decolonisation’ truly serves African empowerment. Táíwò’s is a bold challenge to respect African intellectuals as innovative adaptors, appropriators and synthesisers of ideas they have always seen as universally relevant.
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò is Professor of African Political Thought and Chair at the Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University. His writings have been translated into French, Italian, German and Portuguese. His book How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa won the Frantz Fanon Award in 2015.
President Abraham Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution of Indigenous people in American history, following the 1862 uprising of hungry Dakota in Minnesota and suspiciously speedy trials. He also issued the largest commutation of executions in American history for the same act. But there is much more to the story of Lincoln’s interactions and involvement, personal and political, with Native Americans, as Michael S. Green shows. Lincoln and Native Americans (Southern Illinois UP, 2021) explains how Lincoln thought about Native Americans, interacted with them, and was affected by them.
Although ignorant of Native customs, Lincoln revealed none of the hatred or single-minded opposition to Native culture that animated other leaders and some of his own political and military officials. Lincoln did far too little to ease the problems afflicting Indigenous people at the time, but he also expressed more sympathy for their situation than most other politicians of the day. Still, he was not what those who wanted legitimate improvements in the lives of Native Americans would have liked him to be.
You’ve likely seen these signs hanging outside bars in Chicago. Pale yellow, almost white with the red-white-and-blue Old Style logo in thebig top square with a bottom partition that reads “Bottles and Cans,” “Cold Beer,” “Cerveza Fria” or even “Package Liquor”. Well there’s a reason so many of those signs still light up Chicago bars. Reporter John Fecile uncovers this mystery in this week’s episode.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250 million lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and his three adult children, accusing them of "persistent and repeated" business fraud. Rolling Stone politics reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez joins us to discuss the case and what's at stake for the Trumps.
Russian president Vladimir Putin declared a “partial” military mobilization to shore up forces in Ukraine. It was the first such move since World War II, and was met with rare protests.
And in headlines: demonstrations in Iran continued over a woman who died in police custody, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates again, and a former Minneapolis police officer was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the murder of George Floyd.
Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffee
