Literary Friction - The Science Of Bias With Jennifer Eberhardt

Literary Friction

Arts

4.9 • 593 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2019

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We know that literature - like all culture - is biased, but can books also be a way of recognising and combating stereotypes? Our guest, Dr Jennifer Eberhardt, is widely considered one of the world’s leading experts on racial bias, and her new book Biased is a comprehensive look at the science of unconscious bias and how it affects our society. With this show, we’re continuing our conversation about race and literature that we started with Reni Eddo-Lodge and Kishani Widyaratna in 2017 (you can find that show in our archive). Specifically, we're looking at racial bias: what it is, how it damages our society, and if there's anything we can do about it. So, join us for the next hour as we try to further decolonise our minds. Email us: litfriction@gmail.com Tweet us and find us on Instagram: @litfriction Recommendations on the theme, The Science of Bias: Octavia: Swing Time by Zadie Smith https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/565/56513/swing-time/9780141036601.html Carrie: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2016/invisible-man-by-ralph-ellison/ General Recommendations: Octavia: Whereas by Layli Long Soldier https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/layli-long-soldier/whereas/9781529012804 Carrie: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/lisa-taddeo/work/three-women Jennifer: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/224792/just-mercy-by-bryan-stevenson/9780812984965/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Literary Friction on NTS. I'm Carrie Plitt, here as always with my co-host, Octavia Bright.
0:39.2	Hi, Octavia. Hi, Carrie. How are you doing today? I'm great. How are you? Yeah, I'm really good. I am really looking forward to the show today. Yeah, me too. So on this show, we're continuing our conversation about race and literature that we started in our show with Reddy Edda Lodge and Kishani Wuduratna in 2017, which you can find in our archive.
0:46.4	Specifically, today we'll be looking at racial bias, what it is, how it damages our society, and if there's anything we can do about it.
0:53.0	We know that literature, like all culture, is biased, but can books also be a way of recognizing and combating stereotypes?
0:59.0	We are so lucky to be welcoming our guest, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt, who is widely considered one of the world's leading experts on racial bias.
1:02.0	Her new book, Biased, is a comprehensive look at the science of unconscious bias and how it affects
1:06.6	our society.
1:07.8	Octavia, do you want to tell our listeners a little bit more about Jennifer?
1:11.1	I would love to.
1:12.9	Dr. Jennifer Eberhard is a professor of psychology at Stanford in the United States and a recipient
1:17.3	of a 2014 MacArthur Genius Grant.
1:20.4	She's been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
1:24.7	and was named one of foreign policies 100 leading global thinkers.
1:29.3	She's an impressive woman. She's a very impressive woman. Possibly the most decorated person
1:32.9	we've ever had on the show. Yeah, I think so. So today we will talk to Jennifer about biased,
1:37.8	more generally about bias in literature, and finally we will give our book recommendations.
1:42.6	So join us for the next hour as we try to further
1:45.3	decolonize our minds. Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt, thank you so much for coming on literary friction.
1:52.5	We've asked you to start with a reading. Would you mind setting it up for us?
1:56.0	Sure. And thank you for having me. I'm going to start with a passage from the middle of the book.
2:03.6	My husband, Rick, is the adventurous type.
2:07.6	So when he decided he wanted to drive us through the noisy, congested city streets of Montego Bay
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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