Thick Descriptions with Tressie McMillan Cottom

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

NBCNews

News, Nbcnews, Why Is This Happening?, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Chris Hayes, Politics, Government, Society & Culture, Msnbc, Withpod

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2019

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why do we summarize things into ‘tweet length versions’? It requires the flattening of nuance and personality and information that we need to talk about complicated things. Whether it’s the 280 characters of a tweet or a clickbait headline, we’re trafficking in hollowed out means of communicating that lack space for depth and complexity. While society is in a crucial moment of trying to figure out how to communicate with folks from different backgrounds about their own identities, we aren’t going to get anywhere talking in ‘tweet length versions’. What we need are ‘thick descriptions’, which Tressie McMillan Cottom is a purveyor of. Whether it be rage, gender, or for profit colleges, McMillan Cottom is able to guide you to the deepest part of any topic and mine for meaning when you get there. Email us at [email protected] Tweet using #WITHpod Read more at nbcnews.com/whyisthishappening RELATED READING: Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom Lower Ed by Tressie McMillan Cottom RELATED EPISODES: The Personal is Political with Brittney Cooper (May 15) Political Tribalism with Amy Chua (June 12) Futureface with Alex Wagner (released July 17) School Segregation in 2018 with Nikole Hannah-Jones (July 31)

Transcript

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0:00.0	there is not an efficient way to determine one's human capital.
0:03.6	The only thing we can do is try to hire someone some time.
0:06.6	Listen, I wish more people would.
0:08.5	No, seriously, I wish more people would.
0:11.1	And then tell me that you've got a better system for that.
0:13.6	We don't, you know, there are so many jobs that I would be terrible at on my own
0:18.9	staff, okay?
0:20.5	That I would interview very well for and not be good at.
0:23.5	Now, if I came in with my like nice fancy degree and my, my, my,
0:26.9	love you, my way of talking that is communicates a certain
0:30.5	that's a socioeconomic credential.
0:32.0	Yes.
0:33.0	Maybe you would hire me to do that job and I would make that job.
0:39.3	Hello and welcome to why is this happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.
0:42.7	Okay.
0:43.0	So indulge me for a minute, put a minute on the clock, maybe two,
0:48.6	to be champion, just a little rant, mini rant about the state of the discourse
0:55.2	capital T H, he capital D I S discourse.
1:01.5	Good.
1:01.7	It's on the fly.
1:03.2	Oh, here's, here's the thing about the world we live in and the information we
1:06.6	consume.
	...

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