Dr. Todd Rose | Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions
Release Date: 10/26/2023
God Squad: Ten Paces at High Noon
Village SquareCast
We have become a most tediously offended people. We’re not talking about the big stuff — it’s the “little” things we wonder about. “Sticks and stones may break my bones” and “water off a duck’s back” seem quaint and anachronistic in today’s culture of maximal aggrievement. Provoked by even the slightest offense — that, mind you, we seem to be on constant vigilance to find — we’re on a hair trigger that sends us into conjuring up “us vs. them” and “good vs. evil” thinking and language. Scholars have written that this sad state of affairs reflects a...
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Flying Pig Academy: Location, Location, Location
Village SquareCast
Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address. The first, second and third rule? Like buying a house: location, location, location OR local local local. This is easier to fix than you thought. The Village Square is a proud member of , a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work...
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Dr. Theodore R. Johnson: If We Are Brave | UNUM Series
Village SquareCast
We claim to be a nation founded on an idea. But, especially in these times of civic rupture, are we even all talking about the same idea? Contributing Washington Post opinion writer Dr. Ted Johnson joins us again to discuss his beautiful, powerful new book “If We are Brave: Essays of Black Americana.” The program is faciliated by Dr. Nashid Madyun, Executive Director of Florida Humanities. Find hte program . This program is part of the series in partnership with Florida Humanities — “UNUM: Democracy Reignited,” a multi-year digital offering exploring the past, present and future of...
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Mónica Guzmán: One Step Closer | UNUM series
Village SquareCast
As we contemplated who we might invite for this post-election UNUM gathering, we were (temporarily) flummoxed. A week after the election would we be in need of an expert in election law, a therapist or an exorcist? Could we just place all three on speed dial? Then we realized that no matter what happens during – and after – the 2024 election, there will undoubtedly be some BIG feelings about it, so our task on November 12th is utterly clear even now: we’ll need to take one step closer to each other. That journey has a sherpa, and her name is Mónica Guzmán. Mónica is the...
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God Squad: Lost & Found
Village SquareCast
America’s young adults are telling us they’re not OK — in ways large and small. It’s high time to take a good, close listen and have a frank conversation about the spiking anxiety & depression among adults coming of age in this time of disruption and disconnection. We’re losing more young adults than we can bear. As successive generations move away from organized religion, perhaps there’s a longing for spiritual direction that we have in our souls for relationship, community and ritual. Can religious congregations help to address this problem? If so, how do they connect and...
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Tim Urban: What's Our Problem?
Village SquareCast
What, exactly, is our problem? Author Tim Urban, known for his extended riff on procrastination in his endlessly wise, sidesplittingly funny, stick-figure illustrated blog, emerged from a 6-year deep think with an answer that has the power to save humanity (from itself). In Urban’s analysis, the primitive mind is a furry orange monster holding a burning torch, big dumb looking genies called golems roam the land — and we’re going to need a resurgence of rival genies to save us. Oh and we're all moths wasting our lives circle the porch light. In this episode, Tim joins us to...
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God Squad: Church v. State
Village SquareCast
As we barrel toward America’s 250th, one could argue that if we crack up before we get there (some bad days we’d take even odds), it’ll have something to do with the complexity of being in charge of executing one of the founders’ biggest ideas — that the church and the state were to be separate in this new nation of theirs. (It had been so much “easier” when the king told all us peasants what religion we were.) Our framers, for the first time in history, asserted that a citizenry had “natural rights” as human beings, given to them only by God, to follow (and be responsible...
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Frenemies: Berny + Geston both love their country.
Village SquareCast
Friends since middle school, Berny Jacques and Geston Pierre are both children of Haitian political refugees who fled political instability that put their families at risk – with Geston’s parents arriving a little earlier than Berny’s. Despite their friendship and shared family immigration story, they have reached very different conclusions about politics and social issues in the United States today. What Berny and Geston have found in the space and differences between them, we believe, has a lot to teach the country they both dearly love. In the lead-up to a contentious...
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Wisdom from Conflict: Resetting The Table
Village SquareCast
Drawing on decades of experience addressing volatile disagreements surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, works to transform toxic polarization and destructive political conflict in the U.S. We’ll be joined by Resetting the Table’s Co-Founding CEO, Melissa Weintraub, a veteran peacebuilder and social entrepreneur who has spent her career building transformative communication across divides, overcoming dehumanization and distrust, and working toward a shared society in both the U.S. and Israel-Palestine. This program is part of the series in partnership with Florida Humanities...
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God Squad: Seeking High Ground in the School Wars
Village SquareCast
In a culturally, religiously and racially diverse society like ours — with a single public school system designed to educate America’s children — maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that the culture wars have Officially Hit Our Schools. When you clear away the noise, at the core of the struggle is this: what should our schools teach our children—and who decides? Joining us for this conversation are special guests school board member Dr. Marcus Nicolas and Lea Marshall, a beloved high school theatre teacher. God Squad joining us: Father Tim Holeda of St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral,...
info_outlineAt the core of the deep societal divisions we navigate every day is an assumption that we share little with “those people” with whom we share a country—a belief that leaves us on dangerous ground as a nation. But author and entrepreneur Dr. Todd Rose says we’ve got that all wrong. According to Dr. Rose, not only do we agree more often than we think but we’re making terrible assumptions about what the people on our own side of the aisle think—then acting on those incorrect assumptions in a way that accelerates the divisions. Born of our highly social nature and hardwiring in our DNA, we so desperately want to protect our status and reputation inside our groups so we conform with what we think our group thinks—finding ourselves inside a “collective illusion” that is not only destabilizing society, it’s making us personally miserable.
Dr. Rose offers his compelling and revelatory insights about human forces that are far too easily ignored in his most recent book: “Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions.” We think his work is just so important that we’re delighted to bring him to Tallahassee to meet you (and we’ll be hosting book clubs to dive into “Collective Illusions” through the year). We don’t think you’ll ever see the world quite the same way again (trust us, that’ll be a good thing). Learn more about Dr. Rose below.
Pick up a copy of Collective Illusions (you'll thank us) at our partner bookseller Midtown (wherever you live).
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The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
Funding for this podcast was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.