As we begin to heal on the other side of a painful presidential election, we're left with deep cultural divides that frankly have been growing there for a while. So it's worth taking a giant step back and examining ourselves and the insulated bubbles we've put ourselves in. As comfortable as this social insulation is, it--along with a culture of intense sensitivity that lobotomizes what we say for fear of offending others-- keeps us from the free exchange of ideas. Instead we perceive someone with even the smallest deviation from our point of view as "one of them.” While those with extreme liberal views fight for a unrealistic level of absolute inclusion which flies in face of our objective differences, extreme conservatives feel their side of the coin is just as right and they passionately defending their own strict point of view and seek inclusion as well. Both sides arm themselves with friends and Facebook feeds which reinforce and fuel what they already believe. It’s worth taking a step out of that fray and examining ourselves and yes— fearlessly climbing out of our safe and comfy pods to try to understand and accept people who are different.  This week’s guest, professor Gad Saad (affectionately called “The Gadfather”) is a popular evolutionary psychologist who applies science to how we consume ideas, products and perspectives. He has two books, “The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption” and “The Consuming Instinct” and hosts a Youtube channel called “The Saad Truth,” which critiques political correctness, the ideology of multiculturalism, and goes against the grain of incredibly homogeneous and overly sensitive academic environments. Besides the election, Gad and I take on how our culture has grown to be so divided, how it’s  continually censored in how we listen, share and debate ideas.  Link: http://www.growbigalways.com/episodes/gad-saad

As we begin to heal on the other side of a painful presidential election, we're left with deep cultural divides that obviously have been growing there for a while. So it's worth taking a giant step back and examining ourselves and the insulated bubbles we've put ourselves in. As comfortable as this social insulation is, it--along with a culture of intense sensitivity that lobotomizes what we say for fear of offending others-- keeps us from the free exchange of ideas. Instead we perceive someone with even the smallest deviation from our point of view as "one of them.” 

While those with extreme liberal views fight for an unrealistic level of absolute inclusion which flies in face of our objective differences, extreme conservatives feel their side of the coin is just as right and they passionately defend their own strict point of view and seek inclusion as well. Both sides arm themselves with friends and Facebook feeds which reinforce and fuel what they already believe. It’s worth taking a step out of that fray and examining ourselves and yes— fearlessly climbing out of our safe and comfy pods to try to understand and accept people who are different.  

This week’s guest, professor Gad Saad (affectionately called “The Gadfather”) is a popular evolutionary psychologist who applies science to how we consume ideas, products and perspectives. He has three books, “The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption,” “The Consuming Instinct” and "Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences" and hosts a Youtube channel called “The Saad Truth,” which critiques political correctness, the ideology of multiculturalism, and goes against the grain of incredibly homogeneous and overly sensitive academic environments. Besides the election, Gad and I take on how our culture has grown to be so divided, how it’s  continually censored in how we listen, share and debate ideas.  

Music credit: Jill and Kate Insensitive Illustration credit: Barry BlittPhoto credit: Ryan Remiorz

 

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