#417 Rick Shenkman - Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics
RECORDED ON NOVEMBER 9th 2020.
Rick Shenkman is the founder of George Washington University’s History News Network, the website that features leading historians’ perspectives on current events. He is a New York Times best-selling author of seven history books. His latest book is Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics. Mr. Shenkman is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter and the former managing editor of KIRO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle. In 1997 he was the host, writer and producer of a prime-time series for The Learning Channel inspired by his books on myths. In 2008 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Historians. He gives lectures at colleges around the country on several topics, including American myths and presidential politics.
In this episode, we talk about Political Animals. We go through topics like evolutionary mismatch; how good we really are at reading politicians, and if it is easy for them to lie to us; self-deception in politics; the role the media play in politics; the problem with presenting information in the form of stories; empathizing with strangers in modern large-scale societies; relying on gut feelings; and solutions to current political problems.
Time Links:
Political evolutionary mismatch
Can people know politicians well enough?
Is it easy for politicians to sell us lies?
Self-deception
The media, and presenting information in the form of stories
Can we empathize with people that are not part of our group?
Should we rely on our gut feelings?
Solutions to these problems
Follow Rick’s work!
Follow Dr. Rick’s work:
Website: https://bit.ly/36hMDU5
Website for the book: https://bit.ly/2IpvkYI
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/3khJj02
Political Animals: https://amzn.to/3lgKsGr