[powerpress]
In our current journalistic environment, complex stories can get reduced to unidimensional character figures, fodder for New York Post headlines.
We scroll our social media feeds and further entrench our belief system, one incentivized by provoking us with fear and anger.
So when we’re in our siloed states and preaching to the choir, are we really affecting anything meaningful?
The 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway got the same treatment: a flashpoint that contains multitudes, flattened into a choice between hero and vigilante.
Anand Giridharadas found something else, a petri dish for the themes he has spent his career writing about. Anand, a former foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times and the bestselling author of Winners Take All and The Persuaders, spent three years reporting his new book, Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City.
The book also marks a return. After a close friend told Anand he had lost his way, he traded punditry for reporting and rediscovered what it means to seek understanding and lead with curiosity.
Change is the fundamental theme of the podcast, usually through the lens of personal change. Anand approaches the same work through institutions and systems, and the two meet in a simple, difficult idea: We have to change ourselves if we want to change the world.
Inside this conversation:
- Choco, a Lost Childhood Photo & Life on the Sidewalk
- Meeting People Where They Are
- Progress, Backlash & a Light Dusting of Steven Pinker
- Inside the Epstein Emails: Beliefs vs. Interests
- Somewhere People vs. Nowhere People
- The Aspen Consensus & a Hateful Standing Ovation
- Daniel Penny’s Interrogation Tape & the Prosecution’s Gamble
- A Marine, His Daughter & a Bridge Back to Connection
- Calibrated Optimism & the American Experiment
For those who prefer a visual experience, the conversation is available on YouTube. As always, the audio version streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Peace + Plants,
Listen, Watch, & Subscribe
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