The Purple Principle

What makes a stand-up comedian wake up one day and decide comedy needs more science? A road comic for 13 years, Shane Mauss made this enlightened decision 5 years ago in launching his science podcast, Here We Are, and then expanded it by creating Stand Up Science comedy shows, inviting local professors around the country on stage to discuss their research. 

We asked Shane about the origin of his scientific interests, as well as the challenges of doing regular and Stand Up Science shows around our highly partisan nation. The result is that science has a lighter side, and comedy an important edge, on this episode of the Purple Principle, Science Comedy & Partisanship, with featured guest, Shane Mauss. 

Original music composed and created by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/science-comedy-partisanship-shane-mauss-stands-up-and-speaks-out

How much trust can independent-minded voters place in polling this 2020 election season? 

It seems not a day goes by without multiple new poll results blaring from cable networks and rebounding across the Web. But how accurate are these polls? What’s been learned from the 2016 polling fiasco where many polls predicted a large Clinton for President victory? And how much more difficult is election polling in our highly partisan age?

The Purple Principle asks these questions of veteran pollster and Director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, Dr. Andrew Smith. In Episode 10, Dr. Smith details lessons learned from 2016 currently in force for 2020 election polling. He also describes ongoing challenges faced by pollsters such as the “spiral of silence,” when respondents fail to reveal true preferences. And he issues a provocative challenge to American voters this 2020 election. To hear that challenge, tune into Episode 10 of The Purple Principle with Dr. Andrew Smith, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. 

Original music composed and created by Ryan Adair Rooney.

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/2020-election-polling-primer-the-science-psychology-of-polls-in-a-partisan-age

Let’s say, for the sake of Episode 9: The Brain on Partisan Politics, that identical twins are separated at birth and raised in different families, politically speaking: one deep blue, the other deep red. They’re bound to have different political leanings as adults, correct?

Actually, probably not, according to Dr. Jay Van Bavel, NYU Neural Scientist and our featured guest in Episode 9, The Brain on Partisan Politics. Genetics account for nearly half of our political inclinations. 

Then what about the independent brain, you indie listeners out there are asking? We’ll get to that as well. To learn where your gray matter concentrates, tune into Episode 9, The Brain on Partisan Politics, with featured guest Dr. Jay Van Bavel, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU.

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney.

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/the-brain-on-partisan-politics

Ok, Comedians, make America laugh with surprising, original jokes that offend absolutely no one and work equally well in our very blue, very red and very antagonized parts of the country... 

To the Purple Principle team, that seemed a near-impossible challenge in today’s partisan environment. 

With Episode 8, The Purple Principle begins a series of related discussions with comedians starting with Myq Kaplan, who has performed on Conan, The Tonight Show, The Late Show and put out 7 solo comedy albums, including his latest, AKA. 

Can stand-up comedy survive the triple threat of polarization, political correctness and cancel culture? Myq Kaplan asserts that comedy is up to the challenge and deftly destroys our carefully constructed hypotheses. Tune in to learn, laugh and appreciate the art of comedy in a challenging age.

Original music composed and created by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/comedy-partisanship-the-transcendent-laugh-with-special-guest-myq-kaplan

Did you hear the one about bipartisanship? Two opposing congressmen walk into a town hall…and civil discussion breaks out. 

Hard to believe in the current climate, but former three-term Congressman Jason Altmire recounts the origin and unfortunate demise of these bipartisan town halls in Episode 7, Congress and Partisanship. Author of Dead Center: How Political Polarization Divided America, Altmire was rated the most centrist member of the U.S. Congress during his three terms, 2007-2013. The Purple Principle discusses a range of issues with Hon. Jason Altmire, including the 2020 election, the Trump presidency, the role of partisan media in both parties, and the deep-rooted psychology underlying polarization.

Original music composed and created by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/congress-and-partisanship-the-outlook-from-dead-center-with-former-us-congressman-jason-altmire

How do social media algorithms feed us news, entertainment, advertisements, even suggesting friends and lovers? By grossly simplifying human nature, according to featured guest Dr. Robert Elliott Smith, Research Fellow in Computer Science at University College London and author of Rage Inside the Machine: How to Prevent the Internet from Making Bigots of Us All. 

Dr. Smith details how the same Artificial Intelligence (AI) that reaps engineering benefits has disastrous consequences for civil society. Raised in Birmingham Alabama in the 1960’s, he knows something about polarized situations. That upbringing, and his 30-year career in AI, informs Dr. Smith’s warnings about polarizing algorithms and advice on how to mitigate that damage.  

Original music composed and created by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/social-media-partisanship-polarizing-algorithms-and-a-blind-date-with-dividends-featuring-dr-robert-elliott-smith

What the heck happened to broadcast news in recent decades?

That is the burning question we ask of Dr. Dominik Stecula, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University and expert on broadcast media trends in the US over the past fives decades. Dr. Stecula contrasts the more fact-based, consolidated and regulated broadcast news industry of the 1970’s and 80’s with the highly fragmented, largely partisan news environment of today. 

And what’s an independent-minded American to do for objective news content these days? Tune into this bonus episode (Ep 5) for insights on these and other polarizing elements in US politics, society and just plain daily life.

Original music composed and created by Ryan Adair Rooney. 

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/broadcast-media-andpartisanship

In this interview-based episode, Dr. Marsh explains the centrality of fear in human behavior, which motivates any social species (whether musk ox or democrats or republicans) to cluster together against perceived threats. The unfortunate result is the formation of tribes, demonization of others, and the filtering of information leading to stark, unhealthy divisions.  

In Part I of the interview, staff reporter Emily Crocetti queries Dr. Marsh on how the US became so partisan. In response, Dr. Marsh emphasizes the importance of social situations in determining emotions and behavior. And she points to the substantial sorting of US citizens along political lines in recent decades as a major factor.  

In Part II, Dr. Marsh discusses methods by which Americans might become less partisan, pointing to seminal psychology studies and methods used in her own classes. Here, students with opposing viewpoints are guided through civil discussions on hot topics of the day. 

In Part III, Dr. Marsh emphasizes she is not a political scientist yet offers great insights into whether independent-minded Americans can help bridge the political divide. She proposes that independents are better able to deal with the cognitive complexity of different life experiences and viewpoints. As a result, independents might be able to have the sensitive, trust-based conversations on political issues sorely lacking in the US today.

Original music composed and created by Ryan Adair Rooney.

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/heard-from-the-herd-psychology-and-partisanship-featuring-dr-abigail-marsh-author-of-the-fear-factor-professor-of-psychology-neuroscience-georgetown-university

By most measures, the US has over 40 million independent or unaffiliated voters representing a third or more of the electorate. Yet despite large and growing numbers, independents are often missing from the national conversation.  

Independents have no cable channel or national newspaper. You rarely encounter independent viewpoints on major networks or opinion pages. And there’s a surprising lack of scholarship on independents as well.  

Who are American’s prominent, politically-engaged political independents? We’ll meet four in Episode 3: 

Laura Sibilia, a three-term independent legislator in the Vermont Assembly; John Opdycke, President of Open Primaries; Thom Reilly, Chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education; and Jacqueline Salit, President of Independentvoting.org.

Original Music by Ryan Adair Rooney

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/americas-independent-voters-and-voices

Our Episode 2 guests include a former Republican speechwriter, a former centrist Democratic congressional candidate, a former Economist Magazine correspondent, a current Professor of Public Policy (Dartmouth College) and the founder of the non-partisan group, Unite America, working to bridge our partisan divide. 

Lots of voices for one podcast? In fact, each of these perspectives come from a single featured guest this episode, Dr. Dr. Charles Wheelan (a.k.a. all of the above), who has been working to overcome partisanship and legislative gridlock in the U.S. for three decades. 

Tune in for an expertly guided tour along the Front Lines of Partisanship with Charles Wheelan.

Original music composed by Ryan Adair Rooney.

Episode Guest

Dr. Charles Wheelan, Founder & Co-Chair, Unite America

Guest Books

The Centrist Manifesto; Naked Statistics; Naked Economics, (W.W. Norton & Company)

For show notes and transcript, please visit our website: www.fluentknowledge.com/shows/the-purple-principle/episode-2-is-live