Cited Podcast

In the last episode of the (ir)Rational Alaskans, Riki Ott, Linden O’Toole, and thousands of other Alaskan fishers won over $5 billion in punitive damages against Exxon for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In our finale, while Ott and O’Toole wait for their cheques, Exxon fights back with a legal and academic appeal. In that appeal, they marshal the most-respected psychologist of a generation.

The (ir)Rational Alaskans is a partnership with Canada’s National Observer. You can also read about this story in Jacobin. Additionally, you may want to watch the film documentary Black Wave to learn more about the legacy of the Exxon Valdez. For a full list of our credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page.

Programming Note: This marks the end of our returning season, the Rationality Wars. We will back with another season shortly, sometime this fall. If you want to catch that season, make sure to stay subscribed to our podcast feed (Apple, Spotify, RSS). You can also stay updated by following us on X (@citedpodcast), and you can contact us directly at info [at] citedmedia.ca if you have any questions or any feedback. Finally, if you are impatient and just itching for more content, check out some of our other stuff, like: the other episodes in this season, if you joined up late; the episodes from last season, especially America’s Chernobyl; or some of the highlights from our other podcast, Darts and Letters.

The post Episode #7: The (ir)Rational Alaskans (pt. 3 of 3) appeared first on Cited Podcast.

Last episode, the Exxon Valdez oil spill devastates Cordova, Alaska. In this second part, 12 Angry Alaskans, a jury of ordinary Alaskans picks up our story. They muddle through the most devastating, and most complicated, environmental disaster in US history. How would they decide the case?

You can listen to a trailer of the next week’s episode, Damaging Rationality. The (ir)Rational Alaskans is a partnership with Canada’s National Observer. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page.

The post Episode #6: The (ir)Rational Alaskans (pt. 2 of 3) appeared first on Cited Podcast.

After the unprecedented Exxon Valdez oil spill, a jury of ordinary Alaskans decided that Exxon had to be punished. However, Exxon fought back against their punishment. They did so, in-part, by supporting research that suggested jurors are irrational. This work came from an esteemed group of psychologists, behavioural economists, and legal theorists–including Daniel Kahneman, and Cass Sunstein. In this three-part series in partnership with Canada’s National Observer, we investigate the forgotten legacy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the research that followed. This first part, an Alaskan Nightmare, covers the spill and its immediate effects.

Subsequent episodes will run weekly. Subscribe today to ensure you do not miss part #2, 12 Angry Alaskans, and part #3, Damaging Rationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page.

The post Episode #5: The (ir)Rational Alaskans (pt. 1 of 3) appeared first on Cited Podcast.

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public?

This is episode four of Cited’s returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page.

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This week, we’re taking a little break before continuing our latest season, the Rationality Wars. We’re playing one of the our best documentary episodes from the large archive of our previous show, Darts and Letters. The episode called the Hippie High-Rise.

For seven years, from 1968 to 1975, one eighteen story high-rise was the heart of Canada’s counterculture. Rochdale College in Toronto, ON, was jammed full with leftist organizers, hippies, draft dodgers, students, artists, and others just looking for a good time.

Although, Rochdale wasn’t really a “college.” It was something much bigger: a political, educational, communal, artistic, and psychedelic experiment. During its time, it was endlessly lambasted by conservatives and leftists alike–until it reached its inglorious end. Today, like much of the counterculture, it’s often remembered for its problems: its ideological contradictions, drug-addled hedonism, bourgeois individualism, sexism, suicide, and more. However, is that the whole story? Were the kids in the hippie highrise onto something, …or was it indeed just one giant waste of time? Marc Apollonio investigates.

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A group of landholding elites waged psychological warfare on the El Salvadoran people, and oppressed them for generations. When a psychologist and Jesuit priest defended the rationality of the people against their oppressors, he paid the ultimate price. 

This is episode three of Cited’s returning season, the Rationality Wars. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page.

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The psychological establishment has long pathologized diverse forms of sexual identity and gender expression. In the mid-century, a brave movement of gays and lesbians fought back and claimed: no, actually, we’re healthy. But in the process, did they define other identities unhealthy?

This is episode two of Cited’s returning season, the Rationality Wars. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page.

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Every protest movement has been dismissed as a mere ‘mindless mob,’ caught in a psychological frenzy. Where did this idea come from, and why does it last?

This is episode one of Cited’s returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. You can also hear a trailer of next week’s episode, the (ir)Rational Rainbow, on our website.

The post Episode #1: The (ir)Rational Mob appeared first on Cited Podcast.

The Rationality Wars tells stories about the political and intellectual battles to define rationality and irrationality. Behind every definition of rationality, somebody benefits, and somebody is harmed. We ask: what does it mean to be rational?; what does it mean to be irrational?; and most of all, who gets to decide? Episodes run weekly starting June 24th, throughout July and into August.

The post Introducing: The Rationality Wars (Season Trailer) appeared first on Cited Podcast.