Ari Weinzweig: Can Workplace Dignity Prevent Political Tyranny?
Release Date: 03/19/2025
The Final Five Minutes
How My View Grew
In this final curtain call of How My View Grew, I describe why I'm bringing the podcast to a close and offer ways for us to stay connected. Resources Every episode of How My View Grew on Keep up with my writing on my Listen to on the Lucy Ann Lance Show about ScreenWise Ann Arbor's initiative to make the Ann Arbor Public Schools phone-free all day. Watch a about this initiative, in which I appear. Sadly, the reporter neglected to mention that according to , phones make students less safe during school shootings. **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas,...
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Reclaiming Power and Agency When Everyone's Depressed (with David Storey)
How My View Grew
Another engaging riff with David Storey, Boston College philosophy professor and Spartan Race athlete. This time I take center stage. We explore why Americans are collectively depressed, why Democrats ignore power politics, why turning off phones and turning toward each other feels great, and how all of this is related. I make a case for phone-free schools. Dave helps me see even bigger benefits. We get political. We get personal. We refuse to give advice or answer the question, "What should the average person do?" **Key takeaways** 11:00 Feeling bottled up? Recapture the oomph and lock arms...
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Six Ideas for Democrats Who Have Not Given Up
How My View Grew
In this five-minute episode of How My View Grew, I offer six ideas for Democrats and Never-Trumpers who haven't given up: Doing something is better than doing nothing. We're lousy at predicting the outcomes of our actions. The 2026 mid-terms are super-important. Winning in 2026 requires two distinct tasks. Dems and Never Trumpers need a new mood. Biden-to-Trump voters need permission structures, not shaming. **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the...
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Status Differences Matter
How My View Grew
Status differences, real and perceived, and the resentment that comes with them. Republicans use them to fire up voters and win elections. Democrats largely ignore them. To regain power and reverse the authoritarian tide, Democrats will need to take status differences seriously. My five-minute take. **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Five Thoughts That Are Not Profound Or Useful
How My View Grew
In this five-minute episode, which concludes season three, I share five thoughts that I think you will enjoy even though they're neither profound nor useful. Co-ed Sleepovers Love Overestimated Pronouns Everywhere What Men Do A Bold Child **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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David Storey (Part 2): Alpha Energy Plus Economic Populism Plus Christianity Equals?
How My View Grew
Part two of a provocative conversation with David Storey, associate professor of philosophy at Boston College. **Key takeaways** 0:45 The right has coded expertise as feminine 2:45 How ironic: the manosphere exists in disembodied cyberspace 6:00 What Fight Club was all about 11:00 The retro-romantic part of MAGA 13:00 The war on terror was a weak halfway house between the Cold War and MAGA 17:00 The tech right as Nietzschean supermen 19:00 Funneling alpha energy into a mass movement against Big Tech 21:00 Can Democrats become more fluent in Christianity as they embrace economic populism? ...
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David Storey (Part 1): Raw Egg Nationalists and the Rise of the Manosphere
How My View Grew
Part one of a fascinating and just plain fun conversation about the manosphere with David Storey, associate professor of philosophy at Boston College. Our first experiment in doing a "high-brow brocast." Big ideas with a casual vibe. **Key takeaways** 4:00 Beards, mustaches, and the aesthetics of Trumpism 7:15 When my mask threatens your identity 12:10 Why this philosophy professor competes in Spartan races 17:00 The laptop class manipulates bits, not its 19:00 The economics behind the rise of the manosphere 24:00 The impact on young men of #metoo and the rise of girl-boss culture 26:00 When...
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No Kings Protest—Kudos and Disappointment
How My View Grew
This past Saturday, I attended the No Kings protest in a Midwestern college town. I walked in with a spring in my step, yet left early with a frown on my face. In this 5-minute episode of How My View Grew, I explain why. It's a good-news, bad-news tale. **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Greg Thomas: Can Injustice Catalyze a Hero's Journey?
How My View Grew
In this episode of How My View Grew, Greg Thomas describes how jazz saved him from hating so-called "white people" and how he learned to see the Black American experience as a hero's journey that is central to American history and culture. **Key takeaways** 3:00 Early-life learning about rabid southern racists 9:00 "I gotta pick up an instrument" 13:30 The pathologizing of Black Americans by "white" liberals 16:00 The depth and wisdom of Albert Murray, Ralph Ellison, and Stanley Crouch 19:00 "This history has got my back" and the artificiality of "whiteness" 22:00 The hero's journey 23:30...
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Two Audacious Ideas for a Post-Trump America (Really)
How My View Grew
When right-wingers in the United States were in the wilderness for decades, they didn't just sit on their hands. They envisioned bold ways to change the country. When they came to power, they were ready to act. Setting aside whether you like those ideas, ask yourself this: if Republicans could do this, why can't Democrats? Are liberals and progressives incapable of imagining what they'll do when back in power? Or have they simply not yet grown this potential? Maybe it's time for all of us to not just play defense against the current mayhem but also to envision a better offense. If your party...
info_outlineThe first two months of the new Administration in Washington DC have brought shocking degrees of chaos and disruption. Many people who didn't vote for the current President feel like they've been punched in the face and knocked to the ground.
How in a situation like this do you get back up? What actions can you take to lift your mood and make things in the world better?
This week's guest on How My View Grew, which launches season three of the podcast, is no stranger to this dilemma.
Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of the Zingerman's Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, knows something about getting crushed by a global shock and then finding a way to get back up. In his case, the event was Russia's brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. How he got back up was by learning about Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and then using this as inspiration to bring dignity into the workplace.
Ari's story offers a lesson about how to respond to disturbing and horrific events. It also raises a startling question: if millions of people felt a sense of dignity in the workplace, would they vote for demagogues claiming "you've been screwed" and promising to "fix it" for them? Or might they instead say, "No thanks. I'm good. If you want to be an autocrat, move to Russia?"
**Key takeaways**
- 5:00 When Ari was unconsciously competent at dignity
- 10:00 "Putin isn't going to call me for advice"
- 14:00 Inspiration from Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity
- 25:00 Honoring dignity doesn't take more time
- 27:00 Being authentic without dumping on others
- 32:00 Showing employees the financial numbers
- 36:00 "Maybe it's not because they're lazy."
- 43:00 Slipping daily and then gamefilming
- 45:30 Amiel's reflections
**Resources**
- A Revolution of Dignity in the Twenty-first Century Workplace, a pamphlet by Ari
- Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Ukrainian civic activist Valerii Pekar on Ukraine's stunning resilience (How My View Grew)
- Historian Marci Shore on how to improve the world amidst evil (How My View Grew)
- Depolarize politics by escaping the drama triangle (How My View Grew)
**Subscribe to the podcast**
To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
**Share the love**
Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.