The Optimistic American

In this episode of The Optimistic American, Paul Johnson is joined by his co-author of the upcoming book Addictive Ideologies: Dr. Emily Bashah.

They talk about the key principles and differences between the Alt-Right and Politically Correct Authoritarians, as well as studies that have covered human psychology in such areas. 

• Paul Johnson sets the stage for the episode by discussing the fact that the alternative right and the politically correct authoritarians represent a minority of people but have a loud voice because of social media and the news focusing on them.
• Paul and Dr. Emily Bashah discuss the fact that what happens on college campuses is affecting the agency, and go over the potential repercussions of the term value.
• Dr. Bashah discusses a study that had been done on a couple hundred students, which identified a link between cognitive distortion and the need for safety. Moreover, she touches upon cognitive distortions, emotional reasoning, and the mental trap they represent.
• People in the so-called “dark triad” fall into one of these categories: Machiavellian, narcissist, and psychopath. Dr. Bashah and Paul Johnson break down each one and go over similarities and differences. 
• Paul brings Dr. Ballinger’s study on Obsessive Ideologies into the conversation. He and Dr. Bashah share the four key aspects of the study.
• Paul has a very clear opinion in regards to Stuart Rhodes, Donald Trump, and the January 6th Capitol Hill attacks: to Rhodes, Trump was just a tool.
• Dr. Bashah and Paul share their thoughts on political correctness, cancel culture, and why some people may decide to remain quiet even when they witness something they don’t like.
• In their book Addictive Ideologies, Paul Johnson and Dr. Emily Bashah talk about seven ideals people should focus on. During their conversation in today’s episode, Paul talks about those that fall into three categories: rationality, finding meaning in life, and the sense of belonging.

Host Paul Johnson welcomes Harvard University Professor and author Steven Pinker. 

They discuss the new wave of enlightenment, what stands in the way of us being more rational, the difference between being an optimist and an optimistic, free speech, cancel culture, and more.

• Paul Johnson and Prof. Steven Pinker discuss the ongoing issue of American people losing faith, which often leads to losing agency and having a problem with identity politics. 
• Prof. Pinker touches upon the fact that several historical trends have gone in a positive direction but that people aren’t aware of this because they get their world’s view from the news.
• Paul Johnson and Prof. Pinker talk about the causes behind this new enlightenment, why the U.S. seems to be behind compared to other Western Countries and the conditions that have created the ongoing enlightenment period.
• Why do ‘progressives hate to see progress?’ Prof. Pinker shares his thoughts and the psychological aspects that he believes may stand behind that line of thinking.
• Prof. Pinker illustrates what he considers things that stand in the way of us becoming more rational.  
• Paul asks Prof. Pinker about his approach that tends to be questioning everything: the values of the left, his own ideas, and himself. 
• Prof. Pinker talks about how, from a psychological standpoint, to help people rationalize and look at things rationally when they are panicking.
• Paul and Prof. Pinker go over amygdala hijacking, and the difference between being an optimist and being optimistic.
• Nowadays, there seems to be a strong streak of authoritarianism by the left and young people seem to be strong supporters of free speech. Paul and Prof. Pinker discuss why that appears to be the case.
• Prof. Pinker shares what he believes gives him the ability to test the norms, even when they could lead to long-term challenges for his career.

In today’s episode of The Optimistic American, Paul Johnson and Dr. Emily Bashah address those questions, as well as points around agency and authoritarianism related to leadership, cognitive behavioral therapy, and the concept of locus of control. 

• In today’s episode of The Optimistic American, Paul Johnson and Dr. Emily Bashah address questions around how agency and authoritarianism relate to leadership, the psychology behind leadership, and tactical things that can make you a better leader.
• Dr. Emily Bashah shares that in her clinical practice she sees people wanting models that are going to inspire them, give them hope and something to look forward to.
• Paul shares how he can be optimistic despite the threat of a potential new Cold War.
• Paul and Dr. Bashah go over their definition of leadership and list the traits they believe a good leader should have.
• Dr. Bashah praises Paul for the approach he has when talking about their book – this leads them into a conversation on ambition, leadership, and legacy.
• Dr. Bashah unpacks the concept of locus of control and the impact it can have on leaders.
• According to Paul Johnson, something “being your fault” isn’t a negative thing, quite the opposite. That’s because, as his father used to say, ‘If it’s your fault, you can fix it.’
• Paul and Dr. Bashah talk about taking ownership, the best place to find agency, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
• Paul believes that you should pick a different type of leadership – such as the servant leader, the coach, and the visionary – for different types of situations.
• Dr. Bashah mentions a study that looked at the power position and shares her advice in regards to making presentations and the importance of listening.
• Through his work, Paul employs and gets to interact with hundreds of millennials. He discusses how he translates some of his teachings to them.

In this episode of The Optimistic American, host Paul Johnson sits down with Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch to discuss what led to the conflict, the current situation, and what potential future scenarios could mean for the U.S. and the rest of the world.

• This episode of The Optimistic American focuses on the Ukraine war and addresses the question, what does the Ukraine war mean for the U.S.?
• Today’s guest is Marie Yovanovitch, who served as an ambassador in Ukraine and who’s the author of Lessons From the Edge.
• Ambassador Yovanovitch talks about why, whether Russia ends up controlling Ukraine or not matters from an American standpoint.
• According to Yovanovitch, the U.S. is supporting Ukraine because it’s in its own national security interest.
• Yovanovitch shares that she has come to take some of the freedoms and American democracy for granted and didn’t realize that institutions are only as strong and as resilient as the people who actually inhabit and work in them.
• Paul believes that the single greatest thing the American Government ever did was empower the individual over itself and that it has contributed to solving big problems of human progress.
• Paul expresses his concern over what’s happening in Russia and in China – and with their respective Governments.
• Quoting CIA’s William Burns, Ambassador Yovanovitch shares the new role of the U.S.: not being a superpower but a pivotal power.
• Paul and Ambassador Yovanovitch discuss whether the U.S. should have or should have not gotten involved in the Ukraine war – and whether the U.S. should give Putin some ability to save face or not.
• Yovanovitch sees Ukraine as currently winning the war. She explains why that’s the case and shares the views some of her military contacts have on the ongoing conflict.
• Paul and Yovanovitch talk about the effect a Ukrainian victory over Russia could have on other authoritative regimes and dictators.
• Ambassador Yovanovitch goes over some of the history of Ukraine, the revolutions that took place, her role in everything, and how we ended up where we are today.
• Ambassador Yovanovitch shares her thoughts on her former colleagues, and where she sees the U.S. going as a country. 

This episode of The Optimistic American kicks off season two – listen to learn about what’s to come, addictive technologies, the history of prosecutions in Iraq’s and their impact on Dr. Emily Bashah, and what to consider and do to avoid falling prey to “amygdala hijacking”.

• This episode discusses what’s to come in season 2, as well as the prosecution of Jews in Iraq and how that impacted – and is still impacting – Dr. Emily Bashah’s family.
• Paul and Dr. Bashah’s upcoming book Addictive Ideologies discusses the fact that genocides don’t happen with just one person nor overnight. They happen with a group of people that begin to fall into a cult-like type of mentality, and when people begin to lose agency.
• Paul and Dr. Bashah talk about what they consider to be the exact altar side of the spectrum from authoritarianism: agency.
• Dr. Bashah shares the connection between agency, the theory of mind, and morality.
• Paul and Dr. Basha touch upon amygdala hijacking, and what you should consider and do to avoid being manipulated.
• Dr. Bashah brings Dr. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment into the conversation. The study aimed at looking at what brings the evil out of people. The results were that people aren’t inherently evil but they do become if you put them into certain circumstances and conditions.
• Paul discusses the book In the Garden of Beasts and the four results from studies on obsessive ideologies.
• Dr. Bashah reads the opening chapter of Addictive Ideologies and talks about the prosecution of Jews in Iraq, how that impacted her family, and the repercussions it still has today.
• Paul and Dr. Bashah touch upon different key moments in the history of Iraq that led and followed what happened to Dr. Bashah’s family and many other members of the Jewish community.
• According to Paul, ideologies are about power. If you want to keep your agency, he says, the best ideology is rationalism. It’s about recognizing that all sides bring benefits and detriments, and about having the ability to sort through the options to figure out what’s best – so long as the rule of law stays in place.

Paul and Dr. Bashah give a sneak-peek of what’s to come in season 2 of The Optimistic American and share the 7 ideals future episodes will revolve around.

Join Dr. Bashah and Paul Johnson as they unearth the origins of idealism. The discussion begins with ancient philosophers describing the power of idealism. Idealism is a common trait of CEOs who create new and innovative products, our founders who used idealism to form a more perfect Union, and the secrets on how you can use idealism to create a better you.

Imagine this: a life full of possibilities and optimism.  One where you can find meaning, joy, love.  A life where you find a better you, and create a better world in the process.  This is not fantasy, this is a choice. 

This is the 7th podcast by Dr. Bashah and Paul Johnson regarding building a life of meaning and agency. The 7 dialogues are designed to help you structure a life of meaning, prosperity and opportunity.

In an age when Americans seem to be divided, Paul Johnson and Dr. Basha, focus on the important idea that, “It’s we, not me.” Service and belonging are connected! They help answer the question, “with all the things I have going on, with everyone else seemingly looking out for themselves, why should I focus on giving anything back? What is it for me?” 

They examine what makes being an American special, and why owning who we are, being proud of our past, and giving back is a key part of your path to owning your own agency. The discussion starts with why the wealth and prosperity in the USA is second to none, then it goes to the individual vs the collective.

The power created when our founders decided to break from the monarchy and to create a “more perfect union”, not promising to create a Utopia, but instead to prioritize the individual. This results in the benefit to the greater good over time.

Individuals have the innate ability to determine their own destiny, however, so many Individuals put the collective over their own interest. Fire fighters, police officers, teachers, people who serve in our military, and ordinary people, who struggle to pay their bills, keep their kids in schools, but who work hard to make ends meet. Lastly, the entrepreneurs who test the standards, who challenge the status quo, who push the thinking to cure cancer, extend human life, and create cars that drive themselves.

The idea of self made men is a myth.  No one has made it alone. How do we repay these great debts? By being kind to other Americans! We pay it back through service in our jobs, to our friends, families, to our customers.

This episode explains why gut-wrenching poverty exists, which leaves 1.29 billion people in the developing world struggling to live on less than $1.25 a day.  And in what could be a depressing subject, Professor James Robinson, gives a very hopeful, ambitious prognosis on how the US is leading the world moving forward the human condition. 

The interview is based on the two internationally acclaimed, masterpiece books, “Why Nations Fail” and “The Narrow Corridor,” written by him and MIT Professor, Daron Acemoglu, both widely respected development scholars.  The books start with how, even in today’s economic climate, the average American is seven times as prosperous as the average Mexican, 10 times as prosperous as the average Peruvian, about 20 times as prosperous as the average inhabitant of sub-Saharan Africa and about 40 times as prosperous as the average citizen of such particularly desperate African countries as Mali, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. 

What explains such wild disparities?  The books take you on a journey, with nations today, and throughout history, showing not only why Nations Fail, but why they prosper.  A journey based on facts and data. The interview gives a wonderful recap of the basic conditions for why we are so successful and what we need to do to stay successful. 

Professor Robinson argues that when you combine rotten regimes, exploitative elites, “vampire capitalists” and self-serving institutions with frail, decentralized states, you have something close to a prescription for poverty, conflict and even outright failure. “Nations fail,” the authors write, “when they have extractive economic institutions, supported by extractive political institutions that impede and even block economic growth.”

This hopeful interview, by experts who have studied most major economies on the planet, and a number that are long gone, give Americans reasons to be grateful, and other nations the information regarding the stuff that can make them prosperous.

To learn more about Why Nations Fail, find it on Amazon today!

We are The Optimistic American, and we are in the business of promoting what is going right in our country. Every day, there is tremendous progress being made in America — across technology, public policy, science and medicine, and much more — that will set current and future generations up for success. Our goal is to highlight these advancements and tilt the scale of news and information from pessimism towards optimism. This episode reflects the best themes of The Optimistic American, that our best days lie ahead.

Join Dr. Bashah and Paul Johnson, in this 5th of 7 episodes regarding addictive ideologies and how love and loneliness affect your sense of agency. How finding optimism can help you see the world clearly, and give you the ability to benefit from its opportunities. 

This episode begins with a discussion of how even very successful people can find themselves alone and driven by the real need to be connected to others. Paul and Dr. Bashah, discusses a current event regarding Elon Musk and his father, and how a  lack of parental love and connection can play a role in what drives us and finding our sense of meaning.

The episode helps the listener better understand love, and the genesis of the concept and word.  A prior episode focused on meaning over happiness, outlined how love is one of the 3 areas where we find meaning. Love is so important to the concept of meaning, that this episode further expands our understanding of the differing types of love. Lessons on romance, family and friends, and even love for people you don’t know, helps provide the listener with insight and mindset necessary for love and meaning. 

We hope if you enjoy the episode you will share this with others and like, follow, or subscribe to the podcast so we can continue our work.

Robert Robb & Paul Johnson discuss Communism, Socialism and benefits of American Capitalism. The discussion covers how American Capitalism has done more to improve the quality of life and improve the human condition than any other system in the history of the world.   If you hate capitalism, you might want to skip this one, but if you are open to the idea that free markets have actually made the world better, there is much to learn here. 

The discussion begins with Robbs recent articles, regarding Kyrsten Sinema, a United States Senator from Arizona, one of the few pro business senators left in either party, and how her revisions to the draconian tax increases may have saved the country from a deep recession.  The discussion is a full throated defense of prioritizing the individual above the collective and also covers economic theory, time both presenters spent in communist countries, and predictions of the future of capitalism.

The Wall Street Journal once called Robb the “dean of Arizona political journalists.” He has been published by the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, RealClearPolitics.com, and other Gannett newspapers across the country. In 2000, Robb was a media fellow with the Hoover Institution. In 2009, he was awarded a fellowship for study in Japan by the Foreign Press Center Japan. Robb has been a guest on PBS’s The NewsHour, MSNBC, BBC Worldwide, CNN’s American Morning, C-Span, and several shows on Fox News. Robb served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, he placed second in the Bastiat Prize, an international competition for economic writing sponsored by the Reason Foundation.

Robert Robb writes about politics and public policy at the links below:

robertrobb.com 

robertrobb.substack.com 

We are The Optimistic American, and we are in the business of promoting what is going right in our country. Every day, there is tremendous progress being made in America — across technology, public policy, science and medicine, and much more — that will set current and future generations up for success. Our goal is to highlight these advancements and tilt the scale of news and information from pessimism towards optimism.

This interview reflects the best themes of The Optimistic American, that our best days lie ahead.

Learn more about The Optimistic American by checking out our website! https://www.optimisticamerican.com