polarization Archives - Outrage Overload

Outrage 83 – Can Dinner Fix a Divided Society? – Tim Jones

Episodes

March 4, 2026

David Beckemeyer

belonging, bridge building, Bridge-Building, civic life, community building, depolarization, dialogue, human connection, loneliness, outrage culture, polarization, psychology, social cohesion, social media, social trust, ways to connect

Aired Mar 4, 2026 Political polarization, social division, and declining trust are often blamed on media, algorithms, and social networks. But what if the problem is simpler, (but also more difficult), than that? What if we’ve forgotten how to sit down with people who aren’t like us? In this episode of Outrage Overload, we talk…
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Outrage 80 – The Quiet Choices That Shape History – Luke Berryman

Episodes

January 21, 2026

David Beckemeyer

anti democratic movements, Authoritarianism, bystander behavior, civic norms, civic responsibility, democracy, extremism, far right movements, historical memory, history and politics, holocaust education, ideology, moral courage, nazism, polarization, political psychology, political violence, resistance, small acts of resistance, social compliance, Special Focus / Current Events

Aired Jan 21, 2026 Resistance is often imagined as dramatic, heroic, and rare. But history tells a more complicated—and more unsettling—story. In this episode of Outrage Overload, we’re joined by historian and educator Dr. Luke Berryman, author of Resisting Nazism: True stories of resistance to the world’s most dangerous ideology from 1920 to the present.…
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Outrage 79 – When We Stop Sharing the Same Reality – Stephen Maher

Episodes

January 7, 2026

David Beckemeyer

Canada politics, civic culture, democracy, Democracy & Civic Life, local journalism, Media & Technology, Media Trust, misinformation, Misinformation & Critical Thinking, news ecosystem, polarization, social media algorithms, Stephen Maher, U.S. politics

Aired Jan 7, 2026 What happens to a democracy when people no longer share the same set of facts?In this episode of Outrage Overload, veteran Canadian journalist Stephen Maher joins us to explore one of the biggest—and least understood—drivers of modern polarization: the collapse of local news and the rise of the algorithmic public square.…
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Outrage Bonus – The Congresspeople You’ve Never Heard Of Might Save Democracy – Brad Porteus

Episodes

December 17, 2025

David Beckemeyer

bipartisan cooperation, Bridge-Building, civic reform, Congress, Democracy & Civic Life, polarization

Aired Dec 17, 2025 While cable news and social media spotlight the loudest voices in Congress, the real work of governing often happens quietly — in backrooms, bipartisan committees, and unglamorous negotiations you’ll never see trending on X or TikTok. Most Americans believe Congress is too divided to solve its problems. But what if the…
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Outrage 77 – Issue Salience Polarization: Why We Disagree About What Matters – Adrienne Kafka & Troy Campbell

Episodes

November 26, 2025

David Beckemeyer

outrage, polarization, politics, psychology, Psychology & Neuroscience, social science, solution aversion

Aired Nov 26, 2025 What if our biggest disagreements aren’t about what we believe—but about what deserves our attention? In this episode of Outrage Overload, we explore a fascinating new concept in political psychology: issue salience polarization — the idea that we’re not only divided by ideology or values, but by which problems we think…
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Outrage 66 – What It Really Takes to Fix the Division in America – Rich Harwood

Episodes

June 11, 2025

David Beckemeyer

Bridge-Building, bridging divides, civic engagement, civic renewal, community building, democracy reform, depolarization, grassroots action, healing America, local change, outrage culture, polarization, political division, rebuilding trust, Rich Harwood, social trust, The Harwood Institute, The New Civic Path, turning outward

Aired Jun 11 2025 Are you tired of the division in America? Wondering how we can start fixing things instead of just fighting all the time? In this episode of Outrage Overload, host David Beckemeyer welcomes back Rich Harwood, founder of The Harwood Institute and author of the new book The New Civic Path: Restoring…
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Outrage 53 – How Social Media Hostility Impacts Democracy – Ariel Hasell

Episodes

December 4, 2024

David Beckemeyer

polarization, politicalpolarization, politics, Psychology & Neuroscience, research, socialmedia

Aired Dec 4, 2024 In this episode of the Outrage Overload Podcast, we examine the fascinating and troubling world of social media hostility and its effects on our political attitudes. Social media platforms are rife with political attacks, but what do these posts really do to us? How do they shape our emotions, fuel political…
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Outrage BONUS – Could we have done better to avoid the politicization of COVID? – Kevin Bass

Episodes

March 28, 2023

David Beckemeyer

COVID19, mitigation, modeling, pandemic, polarization, politicization, publichealth, science, socialmedia, Special Focus / Current Events, trust, vaccine

Aired Mar 29, 2023 Kevin Bass, an M.D./Ph.D. student, recently wrote an opinion piece for Newsweek titled It’s Time for the Scientific Community to Admit We Were Wrong About COVID and It Cost Lives. He says: the scientific community from the CDC to the WHO to the FDA and their representatives, repeatedly overstated the evidence…
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Outrage 004 – Why political parties in America cater less to moderate and independent voters – Sean Evans

Episodes

January 6, 2023

David Beckemeyer

mediabias, outrage, outragemedia, polarization, Political Science, politicalanalysis, politicalcartoons, politicalcommentary, politicalhumor, politicalmemes, politicalnews, politicalphilosophy, politicalpolarization, politicalscience, politicaltheory, politics

Aired Jan 25, 2023 I first reached out to Sean Evans because he wrote an article about Ways to Stay Out of the Culture of Outrage. However, when we met I got interested in hearing from a political scientist to get the political science perspective regarding some of the themes we often discuss on the…
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Outrage Overload is a podcast about the outrage industry, my journey to discover what it is, how it affects us, and what we can do about it.

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Tag: polarization

Outrage Bonus – The Congresspeople You’ve Never Heard Of Might Save Democracy – Brad Porteus

Outrage 53 – How Social Media Hostility Impacts Democracy – Ariel Hasell

Outrage BONUS – Could we have done better to avoid the politicization of COVID? – Kevin Bass

Outrage 004 – Why political parties in America cater less to moderate and independent voters – Sean Evans

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