Are we being manipulated?

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 598 Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2018

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Who's pulling your strings - from advertisers and peer pressure to political campaigns and self-deception - hidden persuaders are everywhere. Journalist Poppy Noor, historian Sarah Marks, psychologist and magician, Gustav Kuhn, the philosopher, Quassim Cassam and Robert Colvile from the Centre for Policy Studies join Matthew Sweet to track them down. We're all confident that we know our own minds -- but do we? And if we don't, why not?

Producer: Zahid Warley

Quassim Cassam is professor of philosophy at Warwick University. He is the author of Self Knowledge for Humans and his new book, Vices of the Mind will be published next year.

Gustav Kuhn teaches psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His book Experiencing the Impossible : The Science of Magic will be published next year.

Sarah Marks is a post-doctoral researcher at Birkbeck College in London where she is one of the team involved in the Hidden Persuaders project.

Poppy Noor is a journalist and contributes to The Guardian newspaper.

Robert Colvile is the director of the Centre for Policy Studies.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's
0:27.5	out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:36.9	So, you've succumbed.
0:38.9	You heard the Arts and Ideas podcast calling to you, like that pie in the fridge.
0:44.3	Well, my name's Matthew Sweet, and I'm here to tell you that really there's no need to feel guilty.
0:50.0	Give in to your desires.
0:51.6	We all need ideas.
0:53.0	We all need the arts. And you're going to get them right here, right now, after this short message.
0:59.9	Hello, I'm composer Michael Barclay, and I just want to let you know about my podcast, which I think you might enjoy.
1:06.4	It's called Private Passions. Every week, a different guest chooses the classical music they're passionate
1:12.0	about. People like Alan Bennett, Jan Ravens, Grayson Perry. And what I love about it is how much
1:17.9	people reveal of themselves when they're talking about and listening to the music which moves them.
1:24.0	Just search for private passions in BBC Sounds. Download the free app now.
1:30.6	Take a good look at your surroundings. Are you where you think you are? Or is this an illusion?
1:36.9	Are you in fact being held prisoner in a crate somewhere in Albania? Just listen to this
1:43.3	sound. Let it to this sound.
1:45.7	Let it flow through you.
1:48.9	Don't worry, all we're going to do is unpeel you a little.
1:50.7	Investigate your thoughts.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.