The Culture Inside

Invisibilia

NPR

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Social Sciences, Science

4.6 • 22.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2017

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Is there a part of ourselves that we don't acknowledge, that we don't even have access to and that might make us ashamed if we encountered it? We begin with a woman whose left hand takes instructions from a different part of her brain. It hits her, and knocks cigarettes out of her hand and makes her wonder: who is issuing the orders? Is there some other "me"in there I don't know about? We then ask this question about one of the central problems of our time: racism. Scientific research has shown that even well meaning people operate with implicit bias - stereotypes and attitudes we are not fully aware of that nonetheless shape our behavior towards people of color. We examine the Implicit Association Test, a widely available psychological test that popularized the notion of implicit bias. And we talk to people who are tackling the question, critical to so much of our behavior: what does it take to change these deeply embedded concepts? Can it even be done?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, before we get started, if you haven't heard it, you should listen to Up First,
0:04.2	the Morning News Podcast from NPR. When news moves fast, it's the quick morning update on what's
0:09.6	happened and what you need to start the day. Wake up with Up First, tomorrow morning by 6am
0:15.1	Eastern Time, on the NPR One App and wherever you listen to podcasts.
0:20.4	This is Invisibilia Amalese Spiegel, and I'm Hannah Rosen.
0:23.6	And I'll be talking to your hands on it.
0:25.6	Hello? Hello. Hi.
0:27.6	Hi. Hi.
0:29.1	Hi.
0:29.9	Recently, Elise and I called up a woman named Karen Burn. In her late 20s, Karen had gotten this
0:36.4	very serious operation. The operation was to treat her epilepsy, which had gotten so bad that
0:42.6	she was having near-constant seizures. So her doctors put her to sleep, cut into her brain.
0:48.4	And when she woke up, her speech was a little funny, but basically Karen says she was feeling fine.
0:54.5	I had woken up and I was sitting on the hospital bed talking to my surgeon.
1:01.8	And then all of a sudden, her left hand picked itself up, started moving towards her shirt,
1:06.9	and delicately unbuttoning the buttons one by one, while her surgeon was standing right there.
1:12.8	My hand was taking my clothes off.
1:15.3	Taking your clothes off?
1:16.7	Me and my hand would take my shirt off.
1:24.6	And you didn't have any thought like I'd like to take my blast off now?
1:27.9	No, no, no, I just started to do it.
1:30.8	Karen, of course, was completely shocked. And so is her surgeon.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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