Shaping Opinion

This is a 100-minute, moment-by-moment telling of the story of September 11th 2001 “As It Happened” and the days that followed. Over the past three years, we’ve interviewed people who were there in New York, at the Pentagon and on site at that farm field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This year, we’ve talked to more people with their own personal stories of 9/11. Each provides a new perspective on the events that changed America, and their reflections now after 20 years.  This episode is part of our special series, “9/11: A Generation Removed.” This episode was originally released on September 6, 2021 to mark the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America.

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It is September 11th, 2001. All along the East Coast, the weather couldn’t be nicer. Skies pristinely blue. Temperatures are perfect for an early September day.

Millions are back from vacations and summer breaks. America is going back to work. Back to school. Back to a normal routine.

President George W. Bush starts his day at 6:30 a.m. with his daily run. He’s in Sarasota for an appearance he’s scheduled to make at a nearby elementary school at 9 a.m. Dick Keil is a former college runner and now the White House Correspondent for Bloomberg News. He has the chance to join the president on his run this morning. They talk about anything but politics.

What no one knew but would quickly learn is that this would be no normal day. Everything would change in the coming hours.

19 terrorists from the extremist group al-Qaida were already in the midst of executing a plan to hijack four commercial aircraft and crash those planes into strategic targets.

Those targets were the Pentagon, another site in Washington that no one would fully confirm – but most experts tend to presume it was the U.S. Capitol Building – and the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York City.

By 7:30 a.m., all 19 militants are in transit. The airports they will depart from are Logan Airport in Boston, Dulles Airport just outside of Washington, D.C., and Newark Airport. All four flights they will hijack are scheduled to go to California and are packed with enough jet fuel to take them cross-country.

This episode will take you minute by minute through the story of 9/11 through the eyes of eight people who were there, each at a different important location in this moment of history. Along with our eight guests, we include actual recordings of air traffic controllers, dispatchers and the President of the United States from this day. This is a comprehensive narrative of 911: As it Happened.
About 9/11: A Generation Removed
On September 11, 2021, America will mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the country that happened on September 11, 2001. In remembrance of the event, the Shaping Opinion podcast will release a series of nine distinct episodes centered on the 9/11 attacks, starting on Friday, September 3rd and culminating on the 20th Anniversary, September 11, 2021.  The series, entitled, “9/11: A Generation Removed,” will feature six new and original episodes for 2021, and three encore episodes, all based on the personal experiences of guests and stories of people who were there in New York, in Washington, D.C., and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Links

9/11 Interactive Timeline, 9/11 National Memorial website
September 11 Chronology, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
September 11 Timeline, Flight 93 Memorial website

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Dr. Lori Buzzetti joins Tim to talk about one of the most magical stories of all time, one we all think we know, but it’s amazing what we don’t. Lori is a board-certified physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She has served in private practice, and at a large medical center, where she was on the teaching faculty. Today, she is the founder and president of a nonprofit organization that serves expectant mothers called So Big. In this episode we’re going to talk about one of the most basic questions you can think of. What actually happens in those nine months before we meet our babies? This episode was originally released August 16, 2021.

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We all have our own understandings of how babies are made based on what we may have read, or been told, or been taught in health class. And of course, based on our own experience as mothers … and as fathers. Or as family members.

Today, we’re going to assume none of that. We’re going to start with a clean slate, and walk through the most amazing journey on the planet with someone who knows.

We’re going to learn about the baby. Just the baby. Not the mom, not the dad, and not so much the pregnancy per se. Just the baby.
Links

So Big, (Lori’s nonprofit organization website)
LynLeee Hope, Meet the Baby Who Was Born Twice, ‘For Every Mom’ Blog
Extreme Preemie Born at 21 Weeks Young at Emory Decatur Hospital, Fox 5 Atlanta
Pregnancy Week by Week, Mayo Clinic

About this Episode’s Guest Dr. Lori Buzzetti
Dr. Lori Buzzetti is the founder and President of a nonprofit organization called So Big, which serves expectant mothers.

So Big has established one Mountain House maternity home in Indiana with plans to expand in the near future. These homes would help expectant mothers meet their basic needs and connect with other programs that also serve pregnant women in need. Joining forces with others that have similar passion and goals will help us reach the women and children we want to serve and to do it more effectively. In the end it’s about giving hope. It’s about sharing God’s love.

She is married to Dr. Tony Buzzetti, with a daughter, Tessa and a son, Jake. They attend Traders Point Christian Church.

She has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Iowa State University and M.D. from the University of Iowa.

She completed her training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Indiana University Medical Center.

She is Board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a former private practitioner on the south-side of Indianapolis. She is formerly employed by St. Vincent Hospital where she was a member of the teaching faculty and administration for the OBGYN residency program.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Author and historian Tom McMillan joins Tim to talk about his book called, “Our Flag Was Still There – The Star Spangled Banner that Survived the British and 200 Years. And the Armistead Family who saved it.”  Tom is the author of four books centered on stories related to 9/11 and Flight 93; two books about key figures in the Gettysburg battle during the Civil War; and now his latest book that tells the story behind the story of the most famous flag in American history.

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If you’re a regular listener to the Shaping Opinion podcast, you may remember an interview we did before with Tom McMillan. We had a great conversation with him in March of 2019. That was our 58th episode. If you’re keeping track, this one is our 294th episode.

In that earlier episode, Tom told us about five local boys from Gettysburg who came back to fight in an epic battle in their hometown.

Today, we’re going to talk with Tom about a different chapter in American history. The events surrounding the War of 1812, a famous battle at Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, the story behind our National Anthem, and an American family that preserved one of the most sacred artifacts in our nation’s history. One that now rests in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

But there’s more to Tom than just history, and it’s worth knowing that up front.

Tom started his career as a sports writer. He then became a hockey executive until his retirement. But long before he retired, he started his transition into author and historian. How does something like that happen?
About the Book
Our Flag Was Still There details the improbable two-hundred-year journey of the original Star-Spangled Banner—from Fort McHenry in 1814, when Francis Scott Key first saw it, to the Smithsonian in 2023—and the enduring family who defended, kept, hid, and ultimately donated the most famous flag in American history.

Francis Scott Key saw the original Star-Spangled Banner flying over Baltimore’s Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814, following a twenty-five-hour bombardment by the British Navy, inspiring him to write the words to our national anthem. Torn and tattered over the years, reduced in size to appease souvenir-hunters, stuffed away in a New York City vault for the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the flag’s mere existence after two hundred years is an improbable story of dedication, perseverance, patriotism, angst, inner-family squabbles, and, yes, more than a little luck.

For this unlikely feat, we have the Armistead family to thank—led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry, who took it home after the battle in clear defiance of U.S. Army regulations. It is only because of that quiet indiscretion that the flag survives to this day. Armistead’s descendants kept and protected their family heirloom for ninety years. The flag’s first photo was not taken until 1873, almost sixty years after Key saw it waving, and most Americans did not even know of its existence until Armistead’s grandson loaned it to the Smithsonian in 1907.

Tom McMillan tells a story as no one has before. Digging deep into the archives of Fort McHenry and the Smithsonian, accessing never-before-published letters and documents, and presenting rare photos from the private collections of Armistead descendants and other sources, McMillan follows the flag on an often-perilous journey through three centuries. Our Flag Was Still There provides new insight into an intriguing period of U.S. history, offering a “story behind the story” account of one of the country’s most treasured relics.
Links

Our Flag Was Still There, by Tom McMillan (Amazon)
Our Flag Was Still There, by Tom McMillan (Simon & Schuster)
Star-Spangled Banner, Smithsonian
Smithsonian Exhibit of the Star-Spangled Banner, Smithsonian Museum of American History

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College, joins Tim to talk about whatever happened to free play among children. This is a problem in society. The fact that kids aren’t playing in the same ways or as much as they used to. And what it all means. Peter has conducted and published groundbreaking research in the area of play in human evolution.

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If I were to say the word, “play” to you, what would that make you think of?

Would you wonder if I’m talking about playing a game, or playing a sport? Would you think I’m talking about tennis or golf?

What if I were to talk about kids at play? What would that make you think of? Close your eyes. Do you see a group of kids at play? Is there an adult in the picture? Or, are they just playing amongst themselves?

These are critical questions. And believe it or not, play, is a very important topic.

In preparing for today’s episode, our guest, Peter Gray, shared a paper he wrote recently for the Journal of Pediatrics. In it, Peter and his co-authors, dig deep into a problem in society.

There has been a decline in what they call “independent activity” and it’s hurting kids. That “independent activity” is otherwise known as play.

Peter makes the case that the rise of anxiety and depression among kids of school age, and of teenagers in the U.S. is at an all-time high. They draw a correlation between this trend, and a steady decline in the chance for kids and teens to play in ways their parents did when they were kids. In ways their parents may have taken for granted.

The first thing I wanted to ask Peter was, “What’s the difference between playing on an organized baseball team or a soccer team, and the kind of play that he says is on the decline?”
Links

Peter Gray's Substack - Play Makes Us Human
The Play of Animals, by Karl Groos (Amazon)
The Play of Man, by Karl Groos (Amazon)
Peter Gray TED Talk on Play (YouTube)
Peter Gray, Boston College
Free to Learn, by Peter Gray (Amazon)
It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, by Dana Boyd (Amazon)
Let Grow (website)
Free Range Kids, by Lenore Skenazy (Amazon)
Freedom To Learn, Psychology Today blog, by Peter Gray

About this Episode’s Guest Peter Gray
Psychologist Peter Gray, faculty emeritus, photographed to accompany a story about his new book, "Free to Learn," which concerns the importance of play for children's healthy development and ability to thrive.

Peter Gray is a research professor of psychology at Boston College who has conducted and published research in neuroendocrinology, developmental psychology, anthropology, and education. He is author of an internationally acclaimed introductory psychology textbook, now in its 8th edition, which brings an evolutionary perspective to the entire field. His recent research focuses on the roles of play in human evolution and how children educate themselves, through play and exploration, when they are free to do so. He has expanded on these ideas in his book, Free to Learn (Basic Books). His research includes surveys of grown un-schoolers and graduates of a school designed for Self-Directed Education. He also authors a regular blog called Freedom to Learn, for Psychology Today magazine. His research findings have led him to become an advocate of Self-Directed Education. He is a founding member and president of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Jonathan Noyes joins Tim to talk about why he gave up on atheism and how he came to where he is today. This is a conversation about logic, about reasoning and research, about doubt, and ultimately, about faith. Jonathan is a former atheist who has lived a journey that few have. He’s now a Christian.

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In 2014, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey on a number of topics. One of those topics was faith and religion. According to that survey, atheists comprise roughly three percent of the total U.S. Population. A slightly greater number identified as agnostics.

For our purposes here today, let’s talk about what is an atheist versus and agnostic.

An atheist is someone who does not believe there is a God.

An agnostic is someone who has not decided for themselves whether there is a God or not. They leave open the possibility there could be a higher power, but they tend to reject God as we know Him in our society.

For comparison, let’s look at the numbers for the two most dominant religious faiths in America. Christianity and Judaism.

According to Statista.com, the United States is home to the largest number of Christians in the world. As of 2010, there were roughly 247 million Christians in America. This in a country of 330 million.

In 2020, the Pew Research Center conducted another study to look at Judaism in America. It found that about 5.8 million adults identify as Jewish by religion, and another 1.5 million identify as Jewish with no religion.  This amounts to roughly 2.5 percent of the total U.S. population.

Other religions are represented in smaller numbers in the U.S. population.

These numbers may surprise you. They did me. But, no matter what study you look at, the number o atheists in America is on the rise.

Jonathan Noyes was one of those atheists.
Links

Stand to Reason Bio - Jonathan Noyes
Roman's, Chapter One
C.S. Lewis, Website
New Believer's Bible, NLT, Amazon
Lee Strobel, Website
Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes
William Provine Dies, Cornell Website
Richard Dawkins Foundation, Website
Love Thy Body, by Nancy Pearcey (Amazon)

About this Episode’s Guest Jonathan Noyes
Jonathan has worked as a speaker with Stand to Reason since 2019. A former atheist, Jonathan used to think belief in God was unwarranted and irresponsible. Then, after examining the evidence for Christianity he was faced with the fact that Jesus is who He says He is and the Christian worldview tells the true story of reality. Since then Jon has been passionate about engaging the culture with honest, well thought-out reasons why people should trust the Christian worldview. Jon has developed a series of passionate talks to do just that.

In 2013 Jonathan earned a master’s degree in Christian Apologetics from Biola University, graduating with honors. Jon brings a unique perspective to his audiences and the Stand to Reason team, having more than ten years' experience in the legal field and serving more than five as a pastor in his local church. Jon also serves on the board of directors for Life Without Limbs and at Beacon Hill Classical Academy, where he teaches discipleship.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Leading social psychologist Jerry Burger joins Tim to talk about landmark experiments on human obedience conducted by Stanley Milgram, and how decades later Jerry did a similar study that only validated Milgram’s earlier disturbing findings. Jerry describes his own research project in 2006 that re-affirmed some of the conclusions from a landmark obedience research project from 45 years earlier. Will people do what they’re told even if it harms someone else? We find out.

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Any student of history knows that during World War II, the Nazis exterminated roughly 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. They did it in a number of horrific ways.  It all started with the creation of a system of concentration camps, staffed by obedient Nazi and German troops.

The horrors that happened in those camps are well documented.

In the post-war interrogations and trials of Nazi officers and other Germans involved in war crimes, one refrain kept coming up. “I was just following orders.” “I just did what I was told.”

No one questioned. No one objected. Everyone obeyed.

In 1961, an American psychologist at Yale named Stanley Milgram pondered a question. Could nations other than Germany conform to authority in the same way?

Would Americans conform to authority in the same way, or would there be differences?

So, he decided to conduct an experiment.

He created a reason for test subjects to participate. The cover story was that this would be a learning project.

He recruited 40 men between the ages of 20 and 50.

Volunteer participants in the study were told that they would be paired up with another participant. They would be assigned to teach the other participant certain things, and then they would question the other participant. If that participant got an answer wrong, the volunteer teacher would deliver punishment in the form of electric shock. That’s what these unsuspecting participants were told.

What they didn’t know was that they were the only ones in the study who didn’t know what was going on. The person they were supposed to be teaching – the learner – was in on it. The volunteer teacher’s fellow instructors were in on it. The only ones who didn’t know that the electric shocks were fake was the person assigned to be the teacher, the person assigned to press the buttons to deliver those electric shocks.

What Milgram wanted to find out was, how long would it be before the teacher in the study would stop and reject orders to punish his fellow participant.

Jerry Burger is a psychologist and researcher who was intrigued by the Milgram experiment and would later conduct a similar one to compare his results with Milgram’s.
Links

Jerry Burger Website
More Shocking Results: New Research Replicates Milgram's Findings, American Psychological Association
Four Decades After Milgram, We're Still Willing to Inflict Pain, New York Times
How Would People Behave in Milgram's Experiment Today?, Behavioral Scientist

About this Episode’s Guest Jerry Burger
Jerry Burger is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Santa Clara University. As a scholar, he is best known for his work on the psychological processes underlying deplorable and inhumane acts like atrocities and genocide. His research in this area was the subject of a New York Times editorial and was featured in a 60-minute broadcast of ABC News’ Primetime and in the Discovery Channel documentary, How Evil Are You? His presentations on this topic include an invited address before the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.

Retirement has allowed Jerry to start what he thinks of as his second career as a fiction writer. His short stories have appeared in several literary magazines, including one selected for the Best American Mystery Stories 2020. He also has published a novel, The Shadows of 1915 (Golden Antelope Press) which examines the generational effects of the 1915 Arm...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Journalist Ken Auletta joins Tim to talk about the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos from the perspective as the reporter who helped introduce the woman and the company to the world.  In December 2014, Ken was one of the first to conduct in-depth interviews with all of the major players at Theranos and their booming start-up company. Little did he or anyone know at the time how the Theranos story would unfold.  Ken talks about his coverage of Elizabeth Holmes in The New Yorker and the story that unfolded.

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If you were to conduct an Internet search of Elizabeth Holmes today, you’d learn that one of the terms that often accompanies the 39-year-old’s name is “disgraced Theranos CEO.” This is the result of the story we are about to tell.

At the moment, she is appealing her federal conviction for fraud that was committed while she led Theranos, that had promised a revolutionary new way to conduct the full range of blood tests.

Her story gave us a glimpse as to some of the inner workings of Silicon Valley.

Homes now has to serve an 11-year prison sentence because a jury found her guilty of four counts of fraud and conspiracy against company investors.

They believed in her promise to change the way blood could be collected and tested, and in turn, transform healthcare.

That’s where we are now. But the story started almost 20 years ago when Holmes dropped out of Stanford University. She was only 19 years old then.

She left Stanford to start Theranos. Almost from the start, the company had attracted lots of money from some extremely influential investors.

Holmes herself had the kind of magnetism the media likes. She was young and smart. She was a really effective speaker and salesperson. And she seemed to have a sense of personal branding long before that became a thing.

She patterned herself after Apple founder and tech pioneer Steve Jobs. She wore black turtlenecks, almost exclusively. She adopted a slow, deliberate and deep speaking style that at times was almost hypnotic.

She created a media persona that had others characterizing her as the female Steve Jobs. This was no coincidence, of course. It was all calculated.

She was rewarded with an avalanche of positive media coverage. Elizabeth Holmes graced just about every major business magazine cover. She was billed as “the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire.”

She was said to be worth $4.5 billion. Her company – Theranos – at its peak, was valued at $10 billion.

Some of its well-known investors were Larry Ellison, who founded Oracle Corporation, and media titan Rupert Murdoch. Her advisors and board of directors were the stuff of envy for any company. Names like Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. Secretary of State. John Mattis, the decorated and now retired U.S. Marine general. George Schultz, another revered former U.S. Secretary of State. William Perry, a former U.S. Secretary of Defense, and others.

So, how could a company so well positioned for success fail? And not only fail, but for the reasons it did?

One person who’s given these questions more thought than most is journalist Ken Auletta. He wrote one of the most comprehensive stories about Homes for The New Yorker in December 2014.
Links

Blood, Simpler, By Ken Auletta, The New Yorker
Hot Startup Theranos Has Struggled With Its Blood-Test Technology, by John Carreryrou, Wall Street Journal
Elizabeth Holmes: The hyptnoic tale of the rise and fall of Theranos, New Scientist
How Theranos Misled Me, Fortune
Elizabeth Holmes sentenced: how politics, celebrity and big pharma collided in trial of the century, Yahoo! News
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, HBO

About this Episode’s Guest Ken Auletta
Ken Auletta launched the Annals of Communications column for The New Yorker magazine in 1992. He is the author of twelve books,

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

The Civil Liberties Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), David Greene, joins Tim to talk about current efforts to ban the social media app TikTok from American users. The EFF describes itself as the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF says its “mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world.”  In this episode, David talks about current legislation in the U.S. to ban the popular social media app called TikTok, but it has more far-reaching impacts than just TikTok.

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TikTok is a short-form video hosting platform owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance. TikTok users create their own videos and submit them to the platform. Some videos can be as short as a few seconds, while others can be as long as 10 minutes.

TikTok started in China under a different name, and continues in that country under its original brand. The social media app made its international debut in September of 2017.

To date, the TikTok app has been downloaded more than 150 million times in the United States and has how surpassed 2 billion downloads globally.

If you have kids, especially teenagers, you probably don’t need me to tell you how popular the app is, but it’s not limited to teenagers. Videos on TikTok are well known for going viral. This causes them to jump onto other platforms like Twitter and Instagram, where for some, their reach penetrates America’s national consciousness.

Sometimes a TikTok video will go viral to the extent that America’s traditional media will pick up the story.

But the TikTok story is more than that of just a popular app. That 150 million download number means that the app is installed on roughly 150 million American smart devices. This gives the social media platform access to data and information on those 150 million users.

What complicates this is that ByteDance is a Chinese-owned company. And despite assurances from the company, a common fear is that the government of China is using this access to spy on Americans.
Links

Electronic Frontier Foundation
"Patriot Act on Steroids:" Left and Right Unite Against Fear-mongering TikTok Ban, MSN
TikTok Ban Faces Obscure Hurdle: The Berman Amendments, The Wall Street Journal
Could the RESTRICT Act Criminalize the Use of VPNs?, Reason

About this Episode’s Guest David Greene
David Greene, Senior Staff Attorney and Civil Liberties Director, has significant experience litigating First Amendment issues in state and federal trial and appellate courts. David currently serves on the steering committee of the Free Expression Network, the governing committee of the ABA Forum on Communications Law, and on advisory boards for several arts and free speech organizations across the country.

David is also an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where he teaches classes in First Amendment and media law and was formerly an instructor in the journalism department at San Francisco State University. He has written and lectured extensively on many areas of First Amendment Law, including as a contributor to the International Encyclopedia of Censorship. Before joining EFF, David was for twelve years the Executive Director and Lead Staff Counsel for First Amendment Project, where he worked with EFF on numerous cases including Bunner v. DVDCCA. David also previously served as program director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression where he was the principal contributor and general editor of the NCFE Quarterly and the principal author of the NCFE Handbook to Understanding, Preparing for and Responding to Challenges to your Freedom of Artistic Expression.

He also practiced with the firms Bryan Cave LLP and Hancock, Rothert & Bunshoft. Way back in 1998, he was a founding member,

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Professor Ken Brown joins Tim to talk about a psychological phenomenon you see any time you log on to social media and no one is helping a victim of harassment or violence. It’s called the bystander effect. Ken teaches organizational psychology at the University of Iowa, and is perhaps best known for a TED talk he gave on the bystander effect. Why don’t people step forward and help when someone is in need? That answer may not be what you think.

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On March 13th, 1964, a 28-year-old woman named Kitty Genovese was coming home from her late-night shift as a manager at Ev’s Eleventh Hour Bar in Queens, New York. She lived in a second-floor apartment in a building next to the Long Island Railroad in Queens. That was when she was brutally stabbed to death.

The story of Kitty’s murder made headlines for the shear brutality of it, but that wasn’t all. When Kitty arrived at her apartment and parked her car around 3:15 a.m., a man named Winston Moseley attacked Kitty with a hunting knife.

Police would later learn that he was wandering the city looking for a random victim. When he spotted Kitty in her own car, he decided to follow her home.

When Moseley parked his car and approached Kitty, she ran towards her apartment building. That’s when the man stabbed her twice in the back.

At that hour of the morning, most people nearby were asleep. But some people were awake, and others were awakened by Kitty’s cries for help.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Kitty had made it back to her feet and collapsed in the lobby of her apartment building at the base of the stairs.

Mosely had fled the scene right after Kitty’s initial cries for help, but 10 minutes later, he came back. He found Kitty almost unconscious in a hallway near the rear of the building. This is where he raped her, stole $49 and inflicted her fatal stab wounds.

The entire crime persisted for 30 minutes.

At the time, the New York Times reported that no one had done anything to save Kitty. This was the headline from that front-page story: “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police; Apathy at Stabbing of Queens Woman Shocks Inspector.”

Later it would be learned that the story wasn’t completely right. The number of witnesses was less than 37, and a few people did phone police. But that wasn’t enough to save her life.

That case – the case of the murder of Kitty Genovese – remains relevant today because it was the first to shed light on a psychological phenomenon now known as the “bystander effect.”
Links

Ken Brown, University of Ioway (website)
Kitty Genovese, The History Channel
If You're in Danger, Will Bystanders Help?, Greater Good Magazine
The 'bystander effect' is real - but research shows that when more people witness violence, it's more likely someone will step up and intervene, The Conversation
The Vulture and the Little Girl, Rare Historical Photos

About this Episode’s Guest Ken Brown
Ken Brown, Ph.D., is the Tippie Children Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at the Tippie College of Management at the University of Iowa. And he’s a professor of Educational Policy and Leadership Studies.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.shapingopinion.com

Author and actress Elizabeth Gilpin joins Tim to talk about the story behind her bestselling book called Stolen: A Memoir. The story starts with how one night when she was 15 years old, she was pulled from her bedroom in the middle of the night and placed into what is best called the system for troubled teens. That was the beginning of the nightmarish life she would endure in a burgeoning and unregulated industry for troubled teens.

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The story we’re going to tell today is not unusual, at least the start of that story. Who doesn’t know someone or a family where they had an out-of-control teenager who hasn’t responded to anything the parents tried to do to help them turn things around?

Elizabeth Gilpin was one of those teens. She came from a good family. She had parents who cared about and loved her. But she suffered from depression and that manifested itself in troubled behaviors.

Her parents felt they tried everything, but nothing was working. So, when Elizabeth was 15 years old, her mother and father turned to a relatively new type of treatment field called the “troubled teen industry” or TTI.

And that’s where Elizabeth’s story goes from common to unusual. And perhaps from the unusual to the disturbing.
Links

Stolen: A Memoir, by Elizabeth Gilpin (Amazon)
Stolen: Harrowing Memoir Exposes Abusive Boarding School Industry, USA Today
Stolen, Grand Central Publishing
Child Mind Institute

About this Episode’s Guest Elizabeth Gilpin
Elizabeth Gilpin is an actress, writer, and producer. She starred in and produced Life Boat, a short film directed by Lorraine Nicholson which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for Live Action Short Film at AFI Fest and won the Audience Award at the Napa Valley Film Festival.  Elizabeth also starred in Endings, Inc. and Guerra. Stolen is her first book. Elizabeth currently splits her time between Los Angeles and Nashville.

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