In Singapore, you can face a heavy fine or even jail for offenses like spitting on the sidewalk or importing chewing gum. Meanwhile in New Zealand, a man who hatched himself from a giant egg was appointed the country’s “official wizard.” These are examples of tight and loose cultures. Tightness and looseness explain a lot about what we think is right and wrong when there’s more … [Read more...] about Michele Gelfand: What Tight & Loose Cultures Teach Us About the World & Ourselves
Episodes
A Guide for the Confused: What Is Critical Race Theory?
Even if you see through the phony panic being spun up by Trumpists, some of what you hear from critical race theorists can sound extreme, especially if you don’t know much about the context. In this episode, host Spencer Critchley offers a guide for people who feel confused about Critical Race Theory but aren't sure why. Episode Transcript On the one hand, Trumpist … [Read more...] about A Guide for the Confused: What Is Critical Race Theory?
To Go Forward, We Must Look Back: Colleen Murphy on Transitional Justice
If we keep talking about race, doesn’t that just keep racism alive? Now that we have a new president, why keep talking about the last one? Shouldn’t we move forward, and just put the past behind us? Spencer's guest this time says we can’t move forward unless we can look back as well, at truths that won’t go away until we face them. Colleen Murphy is an expert on what’s … [Read more...] about To Go Forward, We Must Look Back: Colleen Murphy on Transitional Justice
Georgina Mendoza McDowell: What We Already Know About How to Reform Policing
In the past three years, public opinion has swung strongly in support of police reform, from most Americans being against it to a strong majority now supporting it. Support for reform leapt upward in response to the horrific video of George Floyd’s murder on May 25, 2020. It’s terrible but true that it can take something like that to motivate change, as Martin Luther King … [Read more...] about Georgina Mendoza McDowell: What We Already Know About How to Reform Policing
Susan Neiman: What America Can Learn From Germany About Facing Its Past
More than a century and a half after the Civil War, America still hasn’t faced the full truth of what caused that catastrophe or what came after it. Many Americans still believe in the myth of the Lost Cause, a rewritten history in which a noble, innocent South valiantly defended itself against invaders from the North. In this fiction, slaveholders became the victims. Racism — … [Read more...] about Susan Neiman: What America Can Learn From Germany About Facing Its Past