Shaping Opinion

Psychologist, author, researcher and professor Barry Schwartz joins Tim to talk about his landmark book called Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. While Barry has written several books and is a popular public speaker, this book is about how having more choice may not be all it’s cracked up to be. In this episode, he discusses the balance between having the freedom of choice and the potential to be held captive by having too much choice.

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In the Preface to his book called, “The Paradox of Choice,” Barry Schwartz sums it up quite well.

The more freedom we have, the more well-being we have. The more choice we have, the more freedom we have.

Freedom is a good thing. Freedom and choice go together.

In America, freedom is considered the “highest good.” the more freedom we all have the better off our society is, so when the government wants to restrict our freedom, we make it work hard to justify the imposition.

As Barry says, “Freedom without choice is completely hollow.”

To be sure, Barry says that people are not perfect “rational choosers.” In other words, we don’t always make the best choices for the best reasons at the best times.

Sometimes, we make bad decisions. Barry believes that having unlimited freedom of choice is not without its problems.

This is a subject he’s researched extensively, written about extensively, and talked about extensively. And for Barry Schwartz, it all started when he wanted to buy a new pair of blue jeans.

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Links

* The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz (Amazon)

* Barry Schwartz Bio, Swarthmore College

About this Episode’s Guest Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is the Dorwin P. Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College.

His work explores the social and psychological effects of free-market economic institutions on moral, social, and civic concerns. In his book The Costs of Living: How Market Freedom Erodes the Best Things in Life, Schwartz finds that market values undermine morals and community-building. More generally, Schwartz is able to discuss the much-cited hostility in public life in America, which he believes is related to the erosion of community-oriented values in the market-obsessed society. In his oft-cited The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, he examines the often-paralyzing effects on consumers of a marketplace offering a bewildering array of choices.

Schwartz, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971, has been awarded several grants by the National Science Foundation over the last three decades. In addition, he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the American Psychological Society, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Amy Herman joins Tim to talk about a one-of-a-kind career she made for herself, all centered on using art to help people see the world differently and better in order to do their jobs better.  Amy is the author of the books, “Visual Intelligence” and “Fixed: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving.” In short, Amy helps people find information and solutions that are hiding in plain sight.

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Amy Herman teaches visual intelligence. She gives lectures, she gives TED talks, she gives tours of art museums, she participates in podcasts like this one. And the common theme is that she helps others see things they may be missing. She helps them develop a skillset or an ability to see details or context that’s right in front of them, but in the normal course of affairs, they just may not see.

Some of her students are police detectives, federal agents, doctors, and many others.

Amy works to help them improve their visual intelligence.

Imagine what it would be like to be given a short period of time to investigate a crime scene – a murder scene. It’s your job to look for patterns, to look for exceptions, to look for details and clues that might tell you when this was done, what the motive might have been, and perhaps who may have done it.

How can you step back and look at the scene with a fresh eye. An unbiased eye. One that picks up things you might not have noticed before?

That’s one of the first questions we asked Amy.

Links

* The Art of Perception (website)

* Visual Intelligence, by Amy Herman (Amazon)

* Fixed: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem Solving, by Amy Herman (Amazon)

* To Master the Art of Solving Crimes, Cops Study Vermeer, Wall Street Journal

About this Episode’s Guest Amy Herman

Amy Herman

Amy Herman is a lawyer and art historian who uses works of art to sharpen observation, analysis, and communication skills. By showing people how to look closely at painting, sculpture, and photography, she helps them hone their visual intelligence to recognize the most pertinent and useful information as well as recognize biases that impede decision making. She developed her Art of Perception seminar in 2000 to improve medical students' observation and communication skills with their patients when she was the Head of Education at The Frick Collection in New York City. She subsequently adapted the program for a wide range of professionals and leads sessions internationally for the New York City Police Department, the FBI, the French National Police, the Department of Defense, Interpol, the State Department, Fortune 500 companies, first responders, the military, and the intelligence community.

In her highly participatory presentation, she demonstrates the relevance of visual literacy across the professional spectrum and how the analysis of works of art affords participants in her program an innovative way to refresh their sense of critical inquiry and reconsider the skills necessary for improved performance and effective leadership. The program has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The CBS Evening News, and Smithsonian Magazine, among others. Her TED talk, A Lesson in Looking, went live in December 2018. Ms. Herman holds an A.B., a J.D., and an M.A. in art history. Her book, Visual Intelligence, was published in May 2016 and was on both the New York Times and Washington Pos...

Dr. Megan Bruck Syal joins Tim to talk about something that until now was just the stuff of science fiction and Hollywood movies…defending Earth against deadly collisions with asteroids and comets. Megan is a planetary defense investigator at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She and a large team of scientific experts are actively working to establish ways to prevent an asteroid from making impact with earth and threatening life as we know it.

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If you have Netflix, there’s a chance you’ve seen the movie that stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and a cast of other well-known celebrities called “Don’t Look Up.” The picture takes a satirical look at pop culture and our culture in general, but at the core of its plot is the idea that a comet is about to make impact with earth and destroy life as we know it.

We’re not going to get into any great detail about the movie in this episode since the movie is really not centered on what we really want to talk about today. And that is whether human beings can actually take steps to break up or divert a comet, an asteroid or a meteor from earth.

So, let’s look at what actually has happened in our planet’s history.

One of the last times that we know of where a serious asteroid collided with earth was a little over 100 years ago. That was when in 1908, a small asteroid exploded over Siberia, north of Russia. The asteroid was only about 60 meters in diameter, which is the width of a football field.

That explosion was enough to wipe out 800 square miles of forest, which is as big as the entire Washington, D.C. area.  That’s like a small nuclear blast. And that’s a small asteroid!

If you want to know what a big asteroid can do, consider this.

There was a time that an asteroid that was 7.7 miles in diameter hit the earth. That was 66 million years ago. The speed, power and sheer force of the blast was so strong, it created a scar that was 124 miles wide on the surface of the earth. It was traveling at 27,000 miles per hour and stuck our planet 60 degrees above the horizon.

This angle was deadly and caused unbelievable devastation. It vaporized rock formations. It sent 325 gigatons of sulfur into the atmosphere, along with 435 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

The average temperature in the tropics dropped from 81 degrees Fahrenheit to 41 degrees. The sun was blocked by the clouds and gases. Solar heat and light were diminished. Photosynthesis faded. Plant life died. The food chain on both land and in the planet’s waters died. The dinosaurs and many other species of animals quickly went extinct.

Roughly 75 percent of all known species went extinct.

One rock hitting the earth in just the right place at the right speed changed the world, and scientists say it’s just a matter of time before something like that can happen again.

But the difference is, this time, there’s a chance we will have two advantages. First, there’s a good chance we’ll know about it beforehand. And second, we might just be able to do something about it.

Dr. Megan Bruck Syal is one of the people working on this problem. She’s an investigator in planetary defense. More to the point, she’s with NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, and she’s co-investigator on a mission that just launched in November 2021 called DART. That stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test.

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Historian and author Christopher R. Browning joins Tim to talk about his study of the Holocaust and the “Final Solution” in Poland. In this episode, Christopher discusses his book, “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” and how a group of otherwise average, everyday men turned into one of Hitler’s most prolific killing squads in World War II.

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Long before the world heard the term “Holocaust” in connection with the Second World War, and even before the mass killing started, it all began with an atmosphere in Germany that supported the expelling of Jewish people from territories controlled by Hitler’s Germany.

At some point, instead of expulsion, the movement would turn into the mass executions of millions of Jews in places like Poland.

Historian and author Christopher Browning wrote the landmark book on how such horrific events could take place. It’s called “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.”

To set the stage for the larger story of the book, Browning tells us how it began. This passage is part of the opening chapter that book:

“Pale and nervous, with choking voice and tears in his eyes, (Major) Trapp visibly fought to control himself as he spoke. The battalion, he said plaintively, had to perform a frightfully unpleasant task. This assignment was not to his liking, indeed it was highly regrettable, but the orders came from the highest authorities. If it would make their task any easier, the men should remember that in Germany the bombs were falling on women and children.

He then turned to the matter at hand. The Jews had instigated the American boycott that had damaged Germany, one policeman remembered Trapp saying. There were Jews in the village of Jozefow who were involved with the partisans, he explained according to two others. The battalion had now been ordered to round up these Jews. The male Jews of working age were to be separated and taken to a work camp. The remaining Jews – the women, children, and elderly – were to be shot on the spot by the battalion. Having explained what awaited his men, Trapp then made an extraordinary offer: if any of the older men among them did not feel up to the task that lay before him, he could step out.”

These were the major’s comments to the battalion of mostly middle-aged men on the morning of July 13, 1942. They weren’t Nazis. They weren’t even members of the German army. They made up a police battalion of working-class men too old to serve in the army.

Those men would round up and shoot 1,500 Jews in that Polish village on that one day.

That battalion would eventually kill upwards of 83,000 captives during the war, making it one of the most efficient German killing squads in the war.

But as the title of Christopher Browning’s book suggests, before the war, he says these were considered Ordinary Men.

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Links

* Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, by Christopher R. Browning (Barnes & Noble)

Storyteller Margot Leitman joins Tim to talk about the art of storytelling, and how you can be a better storyteller.  Margot is an award-winning storyteller, best-selling author, speaker and teacher and a Moth Storytelling “GrandSlam” winner.

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If you’re a regular podcast listener, there is a good chance you heard about a group called The Moth. It’s a nonprofit group based in New York City that’s dedicated to the art and craft of live storytelling.

The organization was founded in 1997 and now hosts storytelling events across the United States. Storytellers are from all walks of life, and each one takes the stage to tell a personal story, and each has a chance to have that story and the performance of telling it ranked.

The Moth has branched out into more than simply live events. The Moth podcast is one of the most popular podcasts in the medium.

Some Moth storytellers can become champion storytellers. Its published books on storytelling, and it hosts other events.

If you have the chance to tell your story on a Moth stage, you could become a Champion. Some of the best storytelling performers are recognized as Moth Grandslam Champions.

Our guest today is one of those champions.

Margot Leitman is an author who has written books about storytelling. She’s written for NBC, Dreamworks TV, the Hallmark Channel and others.

She is a five-time winner of The Moth StorySLAM, and was the Moth GrandSLAM winner in New York City.

Links

* Margot Leitman (website)

* The Moth Radio Hour (website)

* The Moth (official website)

About this Episode’s Guest Margot Leitman

Margot Leitman is the author of the best-selling book LongStory Short: the Only Storytelling Guide You’ll Ever Need, What’s Your Story? & Gawky: Tales of an Extra Long Awkward Phase. She has written for DreamWorks TV, the Hallmark Channel, and the Pixl Network and worked for "This American Life" as the West Coast story scout. She is the founder of the storytelling program at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre and is a five-time winner of the Moth Storyslam and a winner of the Moth Grandslam, receiving the first ever score of a perfect 10. She travels all over the world teaching people to tell their stories.

Author Mark Seal joins Tim to talk with Mark about the subject of his popular new book about the making of The Godfather movie. The book is called, “Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli.” Mark has is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair where he’s covered scandals, history makers and pop culture icons.

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The Godfather was the first of three motion pictures directed by Francis Ford Coppola about the fictional Corleone crime family. The box office hit was released in 1972, and was followed by sequels in 1974 and 1990.

The original Godfather film was inspired by the novel of the same name that was written by Mario Puzo and published in 1969.

All of the films were distributed by Paramount Pictures and generated roughly $512 million worldwide. The film franchise won nine Academy Awards.

This coming March will mark the 50th anniversary of when the Godfather first hit the big screens.

The movie centers on Don Vito Corleone and his family. Marlon Brando plays the Don.

The Don declines an offer to get into the narcotics business with another crime family, which is led by Virgil Sollozzo.

This creates problems. Don Corleone becomes a marked man. Don Corleone’s oldest boy is Sonny Corleone. He’s played by James Caan. Sonny takes over the crime family while his father recovers.

Meanwhile, Sonny’s little brother Michael – who is played by Al Pacino – is recruited to exact revenge on Sollozzo.

As the gang wars heat up, Michael is sent to Sicily to lay low for a while. That’s where he meets his first wife. The violence follows him there when his young bride is killed.

Back in New York, Michael’s older brother Sonny is killed in an ambush attack.

By now, Don Vito Corleone has recovered from the assassination attempt on his life, but he decides to turn over the control of the family business to Michael.

There are plots and sub-plots, but through it all, Michael emerges as a force to be reckoned with, and Al Pacino goes from a relative unknown to a Hollywood super star.

Mark Seal first wrote about the making of The Godfather years ago in his work for Vanity Fair Magazine. Eventually, that work would lead to his new book entitled, “Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli.”

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Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

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Links

* Mark Seal (website)

* Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, by Mark Seal (Barnes & Noble)

About this Episode’s Guest Mark Seal

Veteran author and journalist Mark Seal joined Vanity Fair as a contributing editor in 2003, covering stories as varied as the Bernie Madoff scandal, Ghislaine Maxwell, Tiger Woods, the fall of Olympian Oscar Pistorius, the making of classic films such as Pulp Fiction, and many more.

He has twice been a National Magazine Awards finalist. His 2016 Vanity Fair article “The Over the Hill Gang,” about a gang of retired thieves who pulled off the biggest jewel heist in British history, was the basis of the 2018 film, King of Thieves,

Carl Neuss joins Tim to talk about the growing movement among alumni groups across the country to defend free speech on the college campus and why he decided to help lead the charge at his alma mater for freedom of speech.

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The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a graduate of Cornell University. Here’s what she had to say about free speech: “The right to speak my mind out, that’s America…The right to think, speak and write as we believe without fear that Big Brother will retaliate against us because we don’t tow the party line.”

It would be interesting to hear her thoughts today about a new organization called the Cornell Free Speech Alliance, which is one of a number of similar alumni groups at colleges across the country that have emerged in recent years.

The Cornell Free Speech Alliance, and other similar groups, have been launched to defend free speech on America’s college campus.

Carl Neuss

Another similar group called Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse is made up of alumni and others from Davidson College North Carolina. Alumni from Washington and Lee University in Virginia started a similar group.

And the list is growing. Because of this many of these groups have joined together to create a national organization called the Alumni Free Speech Alliance.

While they have opinions of their own on free speech, they also have leverage.  College alumni are the largest group of donors to America’s colleges and universities.

Carl Neuss graduated from Cornell University in 1976. The university recently wanted him to make a donation in the seven figures. He was considering doing so and so he made a visit to the Ivy League college’s campus in Ithaca, New York.

Please Thank Our Sponsors

Please remember to thank our sponsors, without whom the Shaping Opinion podcast would not exist.  If you have the need, please support these organizations that have the same taste in podcasts that you do:

* BlueHost Premium Web Hosting

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Links

* Cornell Free Speech Alliance (website)

* Alumni Free Speech Alliance (website)

* Alumni Withhold Donations, Demand Colleges Enforce Free Speech, The Wall Street Journal

* Deep-Pocketed Alumni Are Holding Back Donations to Major Universities in Effort to Protect Free Speech on Campus, The Daily Caller

* The Coddling of the American Mind, by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (Barnes & Noble)

* Rules for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky (Barnes & Noble)

Alexis McCrossen, a professor at SMU and an expert on how cultures have marked time in history, Joins Tim to talk about our New Year’s Eve traditions with a special focus on the story behind that Times Square Ball Drop. This episode was first released on December 24, 2018.

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If you plan to watch the Times Square ball-drop at Midnight on New Year’s Eve, you’re not alone.  New York City expects to play host to over 2 million people for the festivities.

* Over 175 million across the United States will watch the ball drop on TV.

* And around the world, over 1 billion people will watch.

* 103 million said they will travel 30 miles or more to celebrate

* 93.6 million will drive

When we think of New Year’s Eve, we often think of Times Square and parties at organized events, bars and restaurants, but I have some interesting statistics, thanks to WalletHub from last year:

* 49% celebrate the holiday at home

* 9% at a bar, restaurant, or organized event

* 23% don’t celebrate New Year’s Eve

* 30% said they fall asleep before Midnight

* 61% said they say a prayer on New Year’s Eve.

Rankings

* Christmas 78%

* Thanksgiving 74%

* Independence Day 47%

* New Year’s Eve 41%

Most Popular New Year’s Eve Destinations

* Las Vegas

* Orlando

* New York City

More Times Square Stats

* 7,000 police officers in Times Square

* 1.5 tons of confetti dropped

* 280 sanitation workers will clean up 40-50 tons of trash.

* The ball itself – Waterford Crystal Triangles – 11,875 pounds

That’s today. Let’s talk about the history:

* For 4,000 years people have marked a New Year

* Public bells would herald the New Year since the Middle Ages

* Theaters, taverns and other places would be very busy on the night

* Rituals meant to augur good fortune.

* 1900 or so, the moment of Midnight became the focus because cities were illuminated with gas and electric lights. (Times Square)

* Installation of public clocks and bells

The Countdown

* 1907/08 was the first year to drop an illuminated time ball at the moment of the New Year’s arrival.

* Uses a flag pole atop One Times Square.

* First one was made of iron and wood and had 25-watt light bulbs. 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds.

* When radio and television media emerged, New Year’s Eve was a made for broadcast media event. Live coverage.

Links

* Counting Down to a New Year: The History of Our Joyful Celebration, We’re History

* For Better or Worse, The New Year is Time’s Touchstone, Dallas Morning News

* A Ball of a Time: A History of the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop, The New Yorker

* How Times Square Became the Home of New Year’s Eve, History.com

About this Episode’s Guest Alexis McCrossen

Alexis McCrossen is a professor of history at Southern Methodist University and has devoted her career as a cultural historian to studying how Americans observe the passage of time. She is the author of 

Author Gerry Bowler joins Tim to discuss the story of Santa Claus. Gerry is the author of the book entitled, “Santa Claus: A Biography.” He talks about everything from Santa Claus’s birth and evolution over the centuries, to his role in modern day culture. Santa Claus the philanthropist, Santa Claus the gift giver, and Santa Claus the ad man. This episode was originally released on December 17, 2018.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/shapingopinion/Encore_Santa_Claus.mp3

In his book Gerry details the birth of Santa Claus and his” character development.” Santa is described him as an advocate, an adman, a warrior, and of course his role in entertainment, from movies, television shows and in music, books and literature.

St. Nicholas died in December 343 AD. By 1100, he was the most powerful saint on the Catholic Church’s calendar.

The St. Nicholas legend: One father who was down and out couldn’t provide for his three daughters, so he decides to sell them into slavery. So, Nicholas would sneak bags of gold through the father’s window, saving the girls from a live of oppression.

By the Middle Ages, with gift-giving a part of the Christmas season, different customs emerged. One that grew in popularity was the legend of St. Nicholas coming through a window or down a chimney to leave gifts in stockings and shoes by the fire, by a window or by a bed.

By the 16th century, protestant reformers depicted medieval cult of saints. They did not readily embrace St. Nicholas.

There was tension between the Protestant and Catholic sects and St. Nicholas was at the center of it. The controversies usually centered over how the communities marked Christmas.

St. Nicholas was venerated throughout Europe but debate on whether he ever made it across the Atlantic to North America with gusto.

The Feast of St. Nicholas is December 6, most notably marked by the Dutch, which paves the way for the modern celebration of Christmas.

The earliest mention of Santa Claus was 1773 in Rivington’s Gazetteer, a New York Newspaper.

* On December 15, 1810, the New York Spectator published a poem about Sancte Claus – a good holy man who brings gifts to good children.

* The first picture of Santa Claus was published in 1821 when William Gilley of New York published a book of lithographed images with one of Santa Claus. “The Children’s Friend: a New Year’s Present, to Little Ones from Five to Twelve.”

* In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore was credited for authoring the classic poem, “The Night Before Christmas.”

Other topics we discuss:

* Santa Claus in Books and Literature

* Santa Claus in Music

* Santa Claus in Advertising (We address the Coca-Cola Santa myth)

* Santa Claus in Motion Pictures and Television

Links

* Santa Claus: A Biography, by Gerry Bowler (Amazon)

* A Visit from Saint Nicholas (Night Before Christmas), Clement Clarke Moore

* Saint Nicholas, Biography.com

* Coca-Cola and Santa Claus, Coca-Cola Company

* Saturday Evening Post and Santa Claus, Saturday Evening Post

* Miracle on 34th Street Motion Picture, IMDb

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Historian and author Terri Crocker joins Tim to talk about the still remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914 at the outset of the First World War. Terri wrote the book, “The Christmas Truce: Myth, memory and the First World War.” In this episode, we look at the Western Front where against all odds and their commanding officers, German and British troops, and others stepped out into no man’s land on Christmas Day for a day of peace. This episode was originally released on December 23, 2019.

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It was the first Christmas since the start of the First World War in 1914. The bloodshed had already been enormous.

The front lines of the war along the Western Front were close enough to hear what was happening in the trenches on the other side. In between was known as no man’s land, where nothing could survive the steady sniping and bombardment between the armies.

The trenches were cold, muddy and wet, and sometimes, cold, frozen and wet. The troops on both sides thought the war would be over by Christmas, and here it was Christmas Eve.

Silence, and then as Terri Crocker tells it, the sound of music would break the silence.

A young farmer’s son in the Queen’s Westminster regiment by the name of Edgar Aplin starts to sing. He’s apparently a good tenor, and he sings the song Tommy Lad.

After a few verses, he hears a voice from the German trenches shout, “Sing it again Englander. Sing Tommy Lad again.”

So, Edgar sings the song again, and then events started to unfold.  Private Aplin would send letters to his relatives and there is documentary evidence of this.

“We had been out of the trenches for four days’ rest, and returned on the 23rd of December, to relieve some regular troops. On Christmas Eve, the usual war methods went on all day, sniping, etc., until evening, when we started a few carols and the old home songs.”

Immediately, our pals over the way began to cheer, and eventually we got shouting across to the Germans. Those opposite our front can mostly speak English.

“Soon after dark, we suggested that if they would send one man halfway between the trenches (300 yards), we would do the same, and both agreed not to fire.

“So, advancing towards each other, each carrying a torch, when they met, they exchanged cigarettes and lit up. Cheering on both sides was tremendous, and I shall never forget it. After a little while, several others went out, and a pal of mine met an officer who said that if we did not shoot for 48 hours, they wouldn’t. And they were good as their word, too. On Christmas Day, we were nearly all out of the trenches. It was almost impossible to describe the day as it appeared to us here and I can tell you, we all enjoyed the peaceful time.”

The family had said that Private Aplin would survive the war. He was sounded in the legs in March 1915 and went back to Britain where he recovered and would train new officers.

After the war, he was a “milk man” and owned some “tea rooms.”

The Cause of War

World War I began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and lasted until 1918.

During the war, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) faced off against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers).

Because of new military technologies and trench warfare, the First World War killed more than 16 million people.

Before the Truce

The sides had negotiated cease fires for body retrieval for burial. But during the day, soldiers were ordered “over the top” for charges. Their bodies were left stranded in “no-man’s land.”

In the dark,