Is there anything we can actually do about polarization?

10/29/24 • 41 min

Whoever wins the election, Americans will still want to rip each other's heads off. Social psychologist Jay Van Bavel helps us understand why we should care about polarization, how we got here, and what, if anything, we can do about it.

From the episode:

Jay Van Bavel's book The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony
The paper on political sectarianism Jay co-wrote
Find out more about Jay Van Bavel and his work
Follow Jay on X and Instagram: @jayvanbavel

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Get in touch at [email protected]

From the episode:

Jay Van Bavel's book The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony
The paper on political sectarianism Jay co-wrote
Find out more about Jay Van Bavel and his work
Follow Jay on X and Instagram: @jayvanbavel

Get in touch at [email protected]

Previous Episode

So many tears but what do they say?

We all know that moment - when you feel like you need to cry in front of other people, but don't want to cry. In this episode, Yowei talks to Heather Christle, the author of The Crying Book, to parse what’s happening in that moment, what tears are saying and how we should respond to them.

From the episode:

Heather Christle's The Crying Book
Heather's new book In the Rhododendrums: A Memoir with Appearances by Virginia Wolf
Follow Heather on X and Instagram @heatherchristle
The Thai Life Insurance commercial from our crying experiment

Get in touch at [email protected]

Next Episode

The Group That Gets It

The story of someone who suffered alone in secret for 8 years with a problem he was too afraid to Google - and then he stumbled into a support group. In this episode, we dive into the emotional dynamics of support groups with Jason Yu. Why did support groups help him, when nothing else did?

From the episode:

Listen to Jason Yu's podcast Fidget
Follow Fidget on Instagram @fidgetpodcast
The TLC Foundation, an organization for body-focused repetitive behaviors
Jason's book recs for learning how to build community: The Art of Gathering and How We Show Up