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.
267 - Do Your Own Research - Sedona Chinn
266 - Project Alpha - Brian Brushwood
265 - Chess Queens - Jennifer Shahade (rebroadcast)
264 - Nobody's Fool - Dan Simons and Christopher Chabris
263 - The Truth Wins - Tom Stafford (rebroadcast)
262 - If It Sounds Like a Quack - Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
261 - Hack Your Bureaucracy - Marina Nitze
260 - The Science of Stuck - Britt Frank (rebroadcast)
259 - Think Again - Adam Grant (rebroadcast)
258 - Under Alien Skies - Phil Plait
257 - What Do You Mean? - Celeste Kidd
256 - The Persuaders - Anand Giridharadas
255 - Good Arguments - Bo Seo
254 - I Never Thought of It That Way - Mónica Guzmán
253 - The World's Greatest Con - Brian Brushwood (rebroadcast)
252 - Procrastination - Britt Frank
251 - Come up for Air - Nick Sonnenberg
250 - Awe - Dacher Keltner
249 - The Power of Surprise (rebroadcast)
248 - Visual Thinking - Temple Grandin
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