Flip the Script

Invisibilia

NPR

Social Sciences, Science, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.5 • 22.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2016

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode we look at situation where someone flips the script – does the opposite of what their natural instinct is, and in this way transforms a situation. The clinical term is "complementarity." Usually when someone is hostile to us, we are hostile right back. But then in rare cases someone manages to be warm, and what happens as a result can be amazing. The episode starts with a story about a dinner party in DC, when an attempted robbery was foiled by... a glass of wine and some cheese. Then we travel across the pond, to Denmark, where police officers are attempting to combat the growing problem of Islamic radicalization with... love. And finally, we talk to a man who attempted to flip the script on one of our most basic animal functions: finding a mate.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, before we get started, we'd really like to hear what you think of Invisibiliah,
0:04.3	and there are two ways that you can do that.
0:06.2	If you listen on iTunes, you can write us a comment on our podcast page, or you can share
0:12.3	your opinions in a brief survey.
0:14.6	Go to npr.org slash Invisibiliah survey and follow the directions there.
0:20.5	Thank you so much.
0:26.3	This story starts in Washington, DC, on a warm summer night.
0:30.4	There were eight friends gathered around a backyard dinner table.
0:34.1	They were twisting family and friendship, and everybody was having a good time.
0:38.8	Kind of one of those great evenings, lots of awesome food in French wine.
0:45.9	It was like a magical night.
0:47.6	That's Michael Rabdo.
0:48.9	He was there with his wife and his 14-year-old daughter, Kyber.
0:53.0	And she says it was getting late, maybe around 10 pm, when it happened.
0:58.7	I was standing beside my wife, and I just saw this arm with a long-birled gun come between
1:04.1	us.
1:05.1	It was as if in slow motion this hand, and then it just got really quiet.
1:13.6	The hand belonged to a man, medium height, in clean, high-end sweats.
1:19.5	He raised the gun and held it first to the head of Michael's friend, Christina, and then
1:25.0	to the head of Michael's wife.
1:27.0	Then he said, give me your money.
1:29.0	That's Kyber, Michael's daughter.
	...

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