Useful Delusions

Hidden Brain

Hidden Brain Media

Arts, Science, Performing Arts, Social Sciences

4.6 • 40.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Podcast hosts are used to being the ones asking the questions. This week, though, we’re going to flip that script, and put Shankar in the guest seat. We’ll hear a recent interview he did with Krys Boyd of the public radio show Think from KERA in Dallas. The discussion revolves around Shankar's latest book, Useful Delusions, and how self-deceptions can bind together marriages, communities, and even entire nations.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.
0:04.4	It's one of the most common tropes in Hollywood.
0:07.0	It seems the tables have turned, Mr. Powers.
0:10.6	The classic turning of the tables.
0:13.7	When the person at the bottom of the heap suddenly has all the power.
0:18.4	When I left you, I was but the learner.
0:20.6	Now I am the master.
0:22.9	Or the unassuming guy with glasses ends up being the superhero.
0:27.3	You mean you think I'm Superman?
0:31.3	I'm willing to bet my life on.
0:33.6	Lois, you are priced.
0:35.6	There's a reason the storytelling technique is so popular.
0:38.6	It allows characters to break out of the box we've put them in.
0:42.2	It allows us to see them in a new light.
0:47.9	Today, we decided to turn the tables on me.
0:52.9	We're going to bring you a conversation I had with Chris Boyd,
0:55.8	host of the public radio show Think at KERA in Dallas.
1:00.6	She'll be interviewing me about my most recent book, Useful Delusions.
1:06.4	This week on Hidden Brain, the delusions that keep couples happily married,
1:11.2	the rituals that help patients heal, and the self-deceptions that hold nations together.
1:18.0	The End
1:25.0	Lots of bad things can come from our failure to accept reality.
	...

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