Are You Willing to Challenge Your Own Tribe? | Robert Wright
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2022
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why, from an evolutionary perspective, is it so terrifying for many of us to contemplate challenging our own tribe? How comfortable would you be hopping on social media and questioning the deeply held convictions of your closest friends and colleagues? Even if you don't want to be public about it, are there ways to have more empathy for somebody whose views are different from yours? Robert Wright believes the future of civilization hinges on our ability to get better at this.
Robert Wright is the author of the bestselling book Why Buddhism Is True. He also writes the Nonzero Newsletter, is host of The Wright Show podcast, and his newest mission is something he calls the Apocalypse Aversion Project. This episode explores: how mindfulness meditation can help us overcome our biases; how we are often manipulated by natural selection; the concepts of confirmation bias and attribution error; the pain and joy of pushing back against the conventional wisdom of your own tribe; the difference between cognitive and emotional empathy; why Robert is a big believer in talking to people with whom he disagrees; and the importance of making friendships across ideological lines.
This episode is the second in our weeklong series about bias. If you missed Monday's episode with the excellent journalist Jessica Nordell, you can listen here.
Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/robert-wright-411
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the 10% Happier Podcast. |
| 0:06.5 | I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:11.0 | Hey, hey, why from an evolutionary perspective is it so terrifying for many of us to contemplate |
| 0:18.3 | challenging our own tribe? |
| 0:21.1 | How comfortable would you be popping on social media and questioning the deeply held convictions |
| 0:26.3 | of your closest friends and colleagues? |
| 0:28.9 | This tribalism becomes more deeply entrenched in modern culture. |
| 0:32.8 | I suspect many of us find this prospect to be increasingly unappetizing. |
| 0:38.8 | But are there ways to do it with some modicum of safety? |
| 0:42.4 | Or even if you don't want to be public about it, are there ways to have more empathy with |
| 0:46.2 | somebody whose views are different from your own? |
| 0:50.4 | My guest today believes the future of civilization hinges on our ability to get better at this. |
| 0:56.4 | You may know Robert Wright from his bestselling book with the audacious title, Why Buddhism |
| 1:01.2 | Is True. |
| 1:02.2 | I love that book. |
| 1:03.7 | Robert also writes the non-zero newsletter and is host of the Wright Show Podcast. |
| 1:09.5 | I am a subscriber to and fan of both the newsletter and the podcast, by the way. |
| 1:15.0 | Bob's new mission, which you can follow if you subscribe to the aforementioned newsletter, |
| 1:19.7 | is something he calls the Apocalypse a Version Project. |
| 1:23.6 | As I mentioned, he believes deeply that in order for the species to overcome the massive |
| 1:27.8 | challenges confronting us from tribalism to climate to nuclear proliferation, we need |
| 1:33.5 | to take the next step in our evolution. |
... |
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