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Invisibilia

The Pattern Problem

Invisibilia

NPR

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, Social Sciences, Science

4.622.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2018

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A panel of judges sits to decide the fate of the young woman. She's the child of addicts and an ex-addict and ex-felon herself, and she's asking the court to trust her to become an attorney. The outcome of her case hinges on a question we all struggle with: are we destined to repeat our patterns, or do we generally stray in surprising directions? - a question increasingly relevant in an age when algorithms are trying to predict everything about our behavior. CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of sexual abuse.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey everyone, before we get started, we have a favor to ask.

0:03.6

If you like Invisibiliah, please help us spread the word about the show.

0:07.8

One way you can do that is to go to Apple Podcasts and rate and review us.

0:12.0

It helps other people find the show.

0:14.3

Another way, tell a friend, seriously.

0:16.9

Word of mouth is like the best tool for letting people know about the show.

0:20.2

So tell your friends, tell your mom, tell your cousins.

0:23.4

You can even tell people you hate, seriously.

0:25.9

It really makes a difference.

0:27.0

It's natural to look for patterns.

0:30.7

There's a certain safety in knowing that the man was a murderer

0:34.4

because his mother violently abused him.

0:36.4

Children who are violently abused don't seem to do that well.

0:39.6

That's a pattern.

0:40.8

And if there's a pattern, then there's something we can do about it.

0:44.2

Not violently abuse our children.

0:46.7

Problem solved.

0:48.4

On November 16th, 2017, the Washington State Supreme Court was called to session

1:05.5

as tall lawyer with a choir boy face named Sean Hopwood set sweating at the defense table.

1:11.2

Behind him was his client, a responsible looking woman named Tara Simmons,

1:15.6

who had graduated near the top of her law school class and was now trying to become a lawyer.

1:20.6

The question in front of the court was, would this version of Tara,

...

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