In this episode we welcome back author Will Storr whose new book, The Status Game, feels like required reading for anyone confused, curious, or worried about how politics, cults, conspiracy theories communities, social media, religious fundamentalism, polarization, and extremism are affecting us - everywhere, on and offline, across cultures, and across the world.
What is The Status Game? It’s our primate propensity to perpetually pursue points that will provide a higher level of regard among the people who can (if we provoked such a response) take those points away. And deeper still, it’s the propensity to, once we find a group of people who regularly give us those points, care about what they think more than just about anything else.
In the interview, we discuss our inescapable obsession with reputation and why we are deeply motivated to avoid losing this game through the fear of shame, ostracism, embarrassment, and humiliation while also deeply motivated to win this game by earning what will provide pride, fame, adoration, respect, and status.
285 - What Do You Mean? - Celeste Kidd (rebroadcast)
284 - Awe - Dacher Keltner (rebroadcast)
283 - Cultures of Growth - Mary C. Murphy
282 - They Thought We Were Ridiculous - Andy Luttrell
281 - More Chat, Less Bot - Jeremy Utley, Kian Gohar, Henrik Werdelin
280 - Supercommunicators - Charles Duhigg
YANSS 279 - Pluralistic Ignorance (rebroadcast)
278 - An Admirable Point - Florence Hazrat
277 - Visual Thinking - Temple Grandin (rebroadcast)
276 - How to Stand up to a Bully - Andrea Chalupa
275 - Blight - Emily Monosson
274 - Cascades - Greg Satell
273 - The Conspiracy Test - Jesse Richardson
272 - Quit! - Annie Duke (rebroadcast)
271 - Survival of the Richest - Douglas Rushkoff (rebroadcast)
270 - Defining Genius
269 - Deconstructing How Minds Change - Michael Taft
267 - Do Your Own Research - Sedona Chinn
266 - Project Alpha - Brian Brushwood
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