Episode 202: Right In The Heartballs

Play Now!

We humans are hyper-social critters. For that reason, it can be difficult for us to discover which of our ideas social pressures unknowingly impose upon us. Changing our minds can thus require a kick implied in this Episode 202: Right In The Heartballs.

In this episode, I read from: David McRaney's newer book How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion; the Wikipedia pages for both the Ashe Conformity Experiments and the Overton Window; the political blog Bending Left, written by thereisnospoon; and the website for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The voice of Joseph G. Lehman, the current President of the Mackinac Center gives us an intro into the Overton Window; and D. L. Myers intones the portentous utterance of the Powell movement. KMFDM's "Attak" opens the show backing Noam Chomsky's mention of the Powell Memorandum itself. I close today with Julie and Rolf and the Campfire Gang doing "Over the Rainbow."

[Oh, and yes, this episode is posted a couple days late, due to the heat wave and its deleterious effects on electronics. I'm as sorry as I can be over the weather and my inability to control it.]