Brian Klaas On Chance, Chaos, And Why Everything We Do Matters

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4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

Have you ever wondered what would change if you could rewind your life and redo one small moment? Brian Klaas, a professor of Global Politics at University College London, explores this theme in a new book called "Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters."

He argues that tiny, chance moments can change our individual lives, maybe even the course of history on a global scale. Klaas offers several examples of big events that could have gone down very differently had one small thing been slightly altered.

The 1997 Zambian coup attempt in Southern Africa was prevented – almost literally, by a thread. The U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed hundreds of thousands of people in 1945. Kyoto, originally considered for targetting, was spared because a U.S. official had vacationed there with his wife 19 years earlier and asked President Harry Truman to spare it.

Klaas joins us to discuss why social scientists, and all of us, could benefit from acknowledging the world is chaotic and uncertain, and why in an interconnected world, everything we do matters.

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions.
0:08.5	With SAP Concur solutions, you'll be ready to take on whatever the market throws at you next.
0:14.0	Learn more at concur.com. Have you ever wondered what would change if you could rewind your life and redo one small moment?
0:32.0	It's a theme explored in the 1998 movie Sliding Doors,
0:34.8	starring Gwyneth Paltrow, is two versions of the same woman,
0:38.4	one who catches the train and comes home to her cheating partner,
0:41.9	and one who doesn't.
0:43.0	Helen?
0:44.0	I had just caught that train.
0:46.0	I had been home ages ago.
0:47.0	Oh, you don't go wondering about things like that.
0:50.0	Now, Helen's life is about to go down two different tracks.
0:55.0	trailer.
0:57.0	How can one fluke change everything?
1:00.0	That's what that movie asks, but it happens in Roncom'ss of course it's also the theme of a new book by social scientist Brian
1:06.3	Closs all about how tiny chance moments can divert our lives and even have a
1:11.8	serious set of global consequences.
1:14.6	After the break we're joined by Brian to talk about his book and how all of us could benefit
1:19.4	from acknowledging that the world is chaotic and uncertain and why in an interconnected world
1:24.6	everything we do matters. I'm Todd Zwilliken for Jen White you're listening to
1:29.8	the One A podcast where we get to the heart of the story. Take a chance and stay with us. We've got a lot to get into.
1:36.8	Take a chance, stay with us. We've got a lot to get into.
	...

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