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With Friends Like These

Cadence13

Is the path to hell really paved with Good Intentions? In “With Friends Like These: Good Intentions”, host Ana Marie Cox will introduce people and organizations who set out to make positive change, as well as the ones who ended up doing more harm than good. What’s the brain science behind warm fuzzy feelings? How does altruism change the way we feel about the world? And could trying too hard somehow get us killed? (Spoiler alert: yes.) From social enterprise to social media, our intention is to find the good - and figure out how it goes bad.

Is the path to hell really paved with Good Intentions? In “With Friends Like These: Good Intentions”, host Ana Marie Cox will introduce people and organizations who set out to make positive change, as well as the ones who ended up doing more harm than good. What’s the brain science behind warm fuzzy feelings? How does altruism change the way we feel about the world? And could trying too hard somehow get us killed? (Spoiler alert: yes.) From social enterprise to social media, our intention is to find the good - and figure out how it goes bad.

Location:

United States

Description:

Is the path to hell really paved with Good Intentions? In “With Friends Like These: Good Intentions”, host Ana Marie Cox will introduce people and organizations who set out to make positive change, as well as the ones who ended up doing more harm than good. What’s the brain science behind warm fuzzy feelings? How does altruism change the way we feel about the world? And could trying too hard somehow get us killed? (Spoiler alert: yes.) From social enterprise to social media, our intention is to find the good - and figure out how it goes bad.

Language:

English

Episodes

How Not to Cover a Conspiracy Theory

10/23/2020
QAnon! What a *wild* conspiracy theory! Blood-drinking! Pedophilia! JFK Jr.! Pretty fascinating stuff! I bet you want to listen to this episode! Which is exactly why we need to rethink how the media covers conspiracies and how we think about them. George Mason University disinformation researcher John Cook helps explain how we can keep toxins out of the media bloodstream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:31:43

Julián Castro Had Trouble Smiling

10/16/2020
Why do people enter public service? How do they keep going when times get hard — or they wind up not lasting long in a presidential primary? Julián Castro talks about injustice, strategic voting, and his new podcast, “Our America.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:45:29

Hating on the Hiker Bro Evangelist

10/9/2020
It’s easy to feel superior to John Allen Chau, the evangelical Christian who died attempting to bring the Bible to the North Sentinelese. We should ask ourselves if maybe it’s a little too easy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:26:52

Just Say No to Politics

10/2/2020
You might think being obsessed with politics — watching cable news, reading political blogs, and, er, listening to political podcasts — is a good thing! Historian Claire Bond Potter isn’t so sure. She joins us to talk her book, Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:47:30

The Empathy Engine

9/25/2020
We begin our “Good Intentions” series exploring the origin of the impulse to help. The good news is that empathy and altruism appear to be instinctive reactions to the pain of others! The bad news is that it’s super-easy to divert or suppress that instinct (hint: the President does it all the time!). USC neuroscientist Leo Christov-Moore explains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:47:18

The Friend Zone

9/18/2020
Eva Hagberg thought she knew who she was: a smart, overachieving loner on her way to literary fame. Then her brain went boom (technical term), and she had to reevaluate her relationship to achievement, to herself, and to the people that loved her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:01:00:42

Dark Arts Professors Against Trump

9/11/2020
Two founders of the Lincoln Project on their “psychological warfare” campaign against Trump, why Susan Collins must go, and how those viral ads are just the tip of the iceberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:38:39

What We Have Learned

8/21/2020
In this final episode of our “Converts” edition, we revisit some past episodes to see exactly what we’ve learned about how people do (and don’t) change their minds. What have we picked up from the a cop-turned-activist, a scientist who embraced mysticism, a conservative climate change advocate, and a onetime white nationalist who marched to say Black Lives Matter? The answers may surprise you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:30:10

Can You Convert a Conversion Therapist?

8/14/2020
You may know about the ways that “conversion therapy” has played out when it comes to religion. But what about the once-mainstream, secular professionals who refused to give up on the idea that their work wasn’t just necessary, but also the truly scientific approach to homosexuality? This is their story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:27:27

“Scared to Believe?”

8/7/2020
In the 1990s, evangelical churches bought and gave away thousands of copies of the book, “Left Behind,” hoping its overwrought depiction of the End Times would frighten unbelievers into the arms of Christ. That is not what happened. Amy Frykholm, author of “Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America,” explains what did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:45:26

The Science Writer Who Became a Mystic

7/31/2020
Julie Rehmeyer is a science writer who studied math at MIT. She also lives with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a disease that many doctors treat with skepticism bordering on derision. So when traditional medicine couldn’t help her, she had to try treatments science couldn’t support. Julie’s book is Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer’s Odyssey into an Illness Science Doesn’t Understand Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:33:05

America Is a Nation of Converts, with Thomas Kidd

7/24/2020
Thousands of people crowding public venues to hear the word of the Lord. Men fainting, women claiming to be healed, all rejoicing at being “born again.” When you think of “converts,” this may be what you picture, because it’s a familiar scene — more familiar than you may realize. The quintessentially American revival meeting was born before the country itself, in the mid-1700s, during what we call today “The First Great Awakening.” Our guest this week is Thomas Kidd, a historian at Baylor...

Duration:00:48:00

The Moment You Realize You’re White

7/17/2020
Former mayor of Minneapolis Betsy Hodges comes on to talk about how the Rodney King uprisings started her journey to anti-racist activism — and what happened when, in 2015, her anti-racist ideals ran up against the realities of governing a city rocked by the shooting of a black man by white police officers. Her piece on the King uprisings is here. Her op-ed in the New York Times about how white liberals stand in the way of progress on police violence is here. Learn more about your ad...

Duration:00:48:45

From Feminist to Fascist

7/10/2020
What would turn a passionate, witty feminist into a xenophobic white nationalist? This week’s episode tells the story of Cordelia Scaife May, the eccentric heiress whose fortune underwrote both the Pittsburg Children’s Museum and the most influential network of immigration restrictionists in American history. Our episode owes much to the New York Times’ investigative report on Scaife May last year, [“Why an Heiress Spent Her Fortune Trying to Keep Immigrants Out”] Learn more about your ad...

Duration:00:26:29

“The Cop Who Realized The Bad Apple Was Him”

7/3/2020
In his 34 years in law enforcement, Norm Stamper participated in — or approved of — the gassing of protesters “hundreds” of times. Yet, he thought of himself as a reformer. He was, he thought, one of the “good guys.” His first book was intended to pull back the curtain and expose those *other* cops. Five years into retirement, he realized he was one of those other cops all along. Today, he’s advocate for not just changing policing policy, but resetting the whole system. Find out how he got...

Duration:00:45:57

”The Heart Decides and Reason Justifies”: A conservative climate activist’s evolution

6/26/2020
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) was proud of his Tea Party bona fides, until his son said he couldn’t vote for a climate change denier. Inglis wound up changing his mind, and gained one vote but lost a lot more — he’s now a former congressman, on a mission to recruit more conservatives to the climate cause. You can find out more about Inglis’ organization at RepublicEN.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:38:10

How White Light Moments Change Your Brain, with Andrew Newberg

6/19/2020
How White Light Moments Change Your Brain, with Andrew Newberg If you’ve listened to the show at all this season, you’ve learned that the brain doesn’t want to change. And when it does change, it’s usually a slow process of erosion or evolution. So... what about the white light moments we’ve all heard of, if not experienced? Throughout history, there are accounts of people who undergo an instantaneous conversion of some kind: a flash of insight or comprehension that changes their lives...

Duration:00:32:46

When Denouncing Racism Isn’t Enough

6/12/2020
Derek Black thought he was done with the white nationalist movement when he wrote a public letter renouncing the ideology he grew up in. Then he realized that white nationalism wasn’t just the racists that used to listen to his white nationalist radio show and read his white nationalist website — white supremacy was everywhere, people just weren’t talking about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:00:50:03

When Protests Changed Minds

6/5/2020
You can’t escape the images of protest and unrest happening in our country this week. But what will be their lasting impact on Americans’ — especially white Americans’ — views? We look back to the 1960s civil rights movement for clues. Princeton political science professor Omar Wasow work focuses on how the two different waves of protest in that era effected both voting patterns and Americans’ interest in cause of ending racial discrimination. SHOW LINKS How 1960s Black Protests Moved...

Duration:00:53:47

When Your Thoughts Are Not Your Own

5/29/2020
So far this season of “WFLT: Converts Edition,” we’ve focused on why the brain resists change — but that doesn’t mean that people give up on trying. Previous episodes have taught us that arguing doesn’t work and that people’s beliefs can be impervious to facts. But what about the blunt force approach? What about… brainwashing? We'll talk to science writer Kathleen Turner, author of the book, "Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control.” Thanks to our sponsors! Best Fiends: If you’re...

Duration:00:34:39

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