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.
227 - Imaginable - Jane McGonigal
226 - The World's Greatest Con - Brian Brushwood
225 - Blindsight and Neuromarketing
224 - The Conversation Lab - Misha Glouberman
223 - To Persuade is Human?
222 - The Power of Surprise - Michael Rousell
221 - Conversations and Conversions at the Portable Planetarium
220 - A Very Short History of Life on Earth - Henry Gee
219 - Irrational Labs - Evelyn Gosnell
218 - Unwinding Anxiety - Jud Brewer
217 - Livewired - David Eagleman (rebroadcast)
216 - Shape - Jordan Ellenberg
215 - Jerks at Work - Tessa West
214 - Exploring Genius
213 - Vaccine Hesitancy
212 - The Power of Us - Jay Van Bavel
211 - QAnon and Conspiratorial Narratives
210 - Julia Shaw - The Memory Illusion (rebroadcast)
209 - Masks (rebroadcast)
208 - The Extended Mind - Annie Murphy Paul
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