How to Burst Your Reality Bubble and Embrace Lasting Solutions
The Mother Jones Podcast
Mother Jones
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2019
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this Christmas Day edition of the Mother Jones Podcast, we replay our August conversation between veteran science journalist Ziya Tong and Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief, David Corn. Tong explains exactly how—despite the many wonders of the human brain—our minds can be hardwired to melt in the face of vast global problems by only allowing us to see what’s right in front of us. When considering tectonic movements of the global financial system, or the complex dynamics of climate change, humanity suffers from “scale blindness,” Tong writes in her book, "The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World." She calls it a “warped perspective,” preventing us from seeing the enormity of what’s coming “until it’s a little bit too late.” But there is hope for busting out of the powerful systems we take for granted. A way to do this is to design a new “mental blueprint” for how we view the world, she says.
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Jamila. To all of you who are celebrating today, a very Merry Christmas |
| 0:07.0 | from the whole Mother Jones podcast team, these past couple weeks have been a doozy. |
| 0:13.0 | Impeachment, primaries, protests, |
| 0:16.0 | I think we're all in need of some rest and serious relaxation. |
| 0:20.0 | So over the next two weeks, we're going to take a break from our normal programming and revisit some noteworthy episodes from 2019. |
| 0:29.0 | The episode you're about to listen to originally ran in August. It's a fascinating interview |
| 0:35.5 | between our mother Jones DC Bureau Chief David Corn and veteran science |
| 0:40.3 | journalist Zaya Tong.. Zayatong. |
| 0:43.3 | Zaya wrote a book about reality bubbles, |
| 0:46.6 | how we create them, how we destroy them, |
| 0:49.7 | and how we all live within them. So I hope you kick back, get cozy, put on some headphones, |
| 0:56.7 | and enjoy this Christmas Day conversation with Zion David. |
| 1:05.0 | You might have seen this viral clip going around this past week. |
| 1:09.0 | A video of Stephen Colbert, the late show comedian, talking about grief with |
| 1:14.8 | CNN's Anderson Cooper. |
| 1:16.5 | Kind of difficult. I have fairly vivid memories from right after they died. |
| 1:20.8 | There was another part of their chat that really struck me and I want to play it for you. |
| 1:26.4 | We're constantly being told by this administration you don't see what you see, you don't hear what you hear. Now they're saying you don't |
| 1:35.4 | feel what you feel. You don't actually feel that. |
| 1:38.8 | Colbert asked to talk about attacks on our shared reality, and he sums it up beautifully. |
| 1:45.0 | Our president wants to live in a fantasy world where only the way he perceives the world is the way it is, |
| 1:50.0 | only the things that sort of serve his vision and he's also trying to convince us |
... |
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