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The Coddling of the American Mind, How to Become Intellectually Antifragile, & More | Jonathan Haidt



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Resources from this episode: https://tim.blog/2022/12/21/jonathan-haidt/

Jonathan Haidt (@JonHaidt) is a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Jonathan received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. His research examines the intuitive foundations of morality and how morality varies across cultural and political divisions. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis and the New York Times bestsellers The Righteous Mind and The Coddling of the American Mind (with Greg Lukianoff).

He has given four TED Talks, and in 2019 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 2018 Jonathan has been studying the contributions of social media to the decline of teen mental health and the rise of political dysfunction. He is currently writing two books: Kids in Space: Why Teen Mental Health Is Collapsing and Life after Babel: Adapting to a World We Can No Longer Share.

Please enjoy!

00:00 Start
01:33 Richard Shweder.
03:44 Making sense of assertions in anthropology.
09:03 Why I invited Jon on the show.
10:17 Moral relativism.
17:04 How an emergentist views human rights violations.
19:42 A turning point: why Jon almost never gets angry anymore.
22:37 Taking LSD for the first time.
27:40 My own transformative experience was happening simultaneously.
30:59 Were my politics influenced or altered by this experience?
35:43 What being a Jewish atheist means to Jon.
41:02 From feud to friendship with Sam Harris.
46:01 He’s a very, very smart cookieComplex dynamical system.
50:42 How safe spaces and character cancellation took over colleges.
57:32 Why did the University of Chicago initially resist this trend?
1:00:24 What makes businesses more resilient against this trend than colleges?
1:04:16 The University of Austin: a catalyst for academic reform?
1:08:31 The aim of Jon’s Heterodox Academy.
1:13:07 Distilling John Stuart Mill — the patron saint of viewpoint diversity.
1:15:02 Aging out of anger and the disarming power of Daryl Davis.
1:18:21 How to get smarter, stronger, and more sociable.
1:20:52 After Babbel.
1:22:53 What the holy and hitched can impart about happiness for the secular and single.
1:27:29 What’s happening to Gen Z?
1:31:02 Jon and his wife’s free-range parenting style for fostering independence.
1:36:33 Group sports vs. individualist sports.
1:39:53 A tough coach or teacher tests limits and taps potential.
1:46:06 Developing intellectual antifragility.
1:49:11 Jon’s billboard.
1:51:52 Revisiting practical philosophies when times get tough.
1:57:35 Parting thoughts.

About Tim Ferriss:
Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 800 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running.

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31 Comments

  3. Gabe Freeman

    If he does indeed dye his eyebrows it would sort of bring validation to that old Hitler adage about lying… Something about the most effective lies being done in plain sight. Well touche, Mr. Haidt.. you've got my attention

  6. Jim Roth

    Excellent content! Bravo! Love the work of Jonathan Haidt! One of my favorute podcasts the last months I think! 👌👌 Thank you Tim & Jonathan!!

  9. John Brown

    45:00 Sam Harris is not a partisan? Literally the exact opposite of that is the case. Sam Harris, on the triggerometry podcast, proclaimed that it was his moral duty to lie and mislead the public so that his tribe may have victories. Sam Harris is an eloquent man, but he is also extremely partisan and dishonest.

  10. Integrative Psychonautics

    @32:00 Re Tim being apolitical until 10 years ago: this is definitely a generational thing. I'm about Tim's age, and not only did I have the same experience, but I notice that most people around our age and raised in the culture as it existed in the 80s & 90s trend toward either being apolitical, or so skeptical of politics and politicians that it seems absurd to subscribe to a left / right paradigm. At least, it did in the US.

  11. sparkleinCO

    I have the quote from the 3rd Zen Patriarch on my notebook cover. But this is the translation I have and like.:The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. However your translation would be more palatable to the general populace.
    Great talk

  12. madeline cutting

    I identify as a Christian, but the way I see the nature of God is not the one that I was raised to understand within a fundamentalist church, very rigid, so I think that when one answers the question about a religious identity, the next question is about how we see the nature of God. I believe I see the human spirit operating around me, and through that, connection. I also see the energy and intelligence of the natural world around me and that we are part of the natural world. To me, God is the sum total of all that, of existence. I like where that leads me; but does that make me not a Christian? I have no Church now, because they ask me to make statements about my belief I can’t make, so my spiritual growth is a DIY project. 😊

  13. Kimberly Greenland

    The fact that both of you refrain from criticizing Harris made me turn off the video. Also, morality "emerges" out of never forcing, never stealing. All crimes, even murder, are theft. Force against anyone at any time is immoral.

  17. steve steve

    division of labour not happening is nonsense…., and it DOES go on and these left wing nuts DON'T have a problem with it, only when it suits themselves…

  23. John McConnell

    that morning routine reading stoicism/budishm/philosophy is exactly what I do before doing anything else at all. amazing. Im so happy this episode made it into the world.

  24. Jzen

    I too view the world from a more detached perspective. I view my interaction with the world as one long continuous anthropological, sociological, psychological case study on human behavior as a scientist would observe animals in the wild. I also view the world as a complex video game with certain cause/effect parameters.

  26. Cody Red

    I wish he clearly defined “woke” politics because this word has become a dog whistle.

    But love the podcast, been listening consistently for 4 years!

  27. Bill Lets

    Wow, Probably the most ignorant podcast yet. Accepting cultural female mutilation helps you become less intellectually fragile? Is morality a real thing—you poor people.

  31. B, Samuel R

    J. Haidt is an astute caring observer of current social behavioural trends who deeply cares about making a real difference to enable clear and honest dialogue between generations alongside helping parents, driven by pragmatic and insightful actionable ideas. Thanks for airing his ideas @timferriss
    You might enjoy talking to Robert Sapolsky, Francis Fukuyama, Karl Deisseroth and Iain McGilchrist

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