Armchair Expert episode 860
Rebecca Lemov (on brainwashing)
Rebecca Lemov (The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion) is a historian of science, author, and professor at Harvard. Rebecca joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the meet cute with her husband at the cafe where she was struggling to write her dissertation, how she fell under a romantic spell with anthropology as well as opioids, and the relationship between addiction and brainwashing. Rebecca and Dax talk about how Patty Hearst used brainwashing as a defense for her actions, why it's such an effective mind control tactic to strip someone of their name, and how Korean War soldiers' health and wellness bounce back after trauma hid evidence of their suffering. Rebecca explains normalization of the brutal torture training of troops, that cult leaders intuitively act out a guidebook of hierarchical dynamics of desire and power, and Facebook's experiment on emotional contagion as an example of soft brainwashing.
Explore episode 860 with AIEpisode overview
Rebecca Lemov (The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion) is a historian of science, author, and professor at Harvard. Rebecca joins the Armchair Expert to discuss the meet cute with her husband at the cafe where she was struggling to write her dissertation, how she fell under a romantic spell with anthropology as well as opioids, and the relationship between addiction and brainwashing. Rebecca and Dax talk about how Patty Hearst used brainwashing as a defense for her actions, why it's such an effective mind control tactic to strip someone of their name, and how Korean War soldiers' health and wellness bounce back after trauma hid evidence of their suffering. Rebecca explains normalization of the brutal torture training of troops, that cult leaders intuitively act out a guidebook of hierarchical dynamics of desire and power, and Facebook's experiment on emotional contagion as an example of soft brainwashing.
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- Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, experts on expert. I'm Dan Rather and I'm joined by Leslie Stall
- really mean to do this and we were like no we we didn't even know what it meant but you What did it mean?...
- Anyway, that's all very interesting. Yeah. Okay, that's it. All right. Love you.