-
Outrage BONUS – One-year Anniversary Special – Peter Ditto
David Beckemeyer
In this one-year anniversary episode of the Outrage Overload podcast, we reflect on the past year of diving deep into the outrage machine and searching for ways to lower the temperature. We’re thrilled to welcome back Dr. Peter Ditto, our very first guest, as we reexamine the ongoing challenges of political polarization and the erosion…
-
Outrage 25 – How Crowdsourcing Identified Effective Strategies to Reduce Political Polarization – Jan Voelkel
In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that Americans are deeply divided along political lines. Democrats and Republicans often perceive each other as more extreme and different than they actually are, leading to a range of harmful consequences for our democracy. The Strengthening Democracy Challenge (SDC) seeks to address this issue by identifying short,…
-
Outrage 24 – How Recognizing Fear and Pain Can Heal Our Divided Society – Phyllis Leavitt
Americans are genuinely hurting, and they are looking for someone to speak to them and for them. In this episode of the Outrage Overload podcast, we speak with psychotherapist and author Phyllis Leavitt. We discuss her new book, “America in Therapy” in which she describes the anger and division in American society, the importance of…
-
Outrage 22 – How the Dignity Index Offers Hope for More Productive Political Discourse – Tami Pyfer
David Beckemeyer
Join us as we explore the disconnect between the pleas for civil dialogue and the ever-growing divisiveness in political conversations. From social media clashes to fiery exchanges on the news, it’s clear that something went awry. Our guest, Tami Pyfer, a leading voice in the quest for a more dignified discourse, shares insights from their…
-
Outrage 013 – How moral misinformation uses emotion to generate outrage – Ritsaart Reimann
David Beckemeyer
There’s been a drum beat, suggesting that social media and information silos, echo chambers, are a driving force behind our divisiveness and polarization. New research suggests this may be overstated. It may have more to do with the very nature of how we come to know or believe things in the political realm. In this…
-
Outrage 011 – Put your oxygen mask on first – Alex Korb
David Beckemeyer
achieve, actions, alexcorbphd, anxiety, autopilot, bestsellingauthor, complexworld, control, controllable, distinguish, divisiveness, effort, emotionalcontrol, emotions, focus, goal, lowerthetemperature, mood, neuroscience, nextstep, otherpeoplesreactions, OutrageOverload, politicalpolarization, smalllifechanges, stress, theupwardspiralapproach, thoughts, tribalismThis is part-two of a two-part series on “The Neuroscience of Outrage Porn.” We’re talking with Dr. Alex Korb, a neuroscientist and best-selling author. If you haven’t listened to part-one yet, it’s time to go listen because you don’t want to miss it. In part one, we learned about some of the brain systems involved…
-
Outrage 009 – How social media gives us what captures our attention rather than what we actually want – Steven Rathje
David Beckemeyer
This is part-two of a two-part series with Dr. Steven Rathje discussing research that found that social media creates incentives for out-group animosity, which can be a factor in increasing polarization. It is also harmful for mental health and society. In this episode, we also talk about the increasing problem of transparency of social media…
-
Outrage 008 – How social media creates incentives for out-group animosity – Steven Rathje
David Beckemeyer
We introduced the podcast with a two-part series with Dr. Peter H. Ditto, Professor of Psychology & Social Behavior, telling us about “Political Sectarianism” explaining how our divide goes beyond policy preferences and ideas, arguing that American political partisans are bonded by something that looks more like religious faith where “our” side is morally superior…
-
Outrage 004 – Why political parties in America cater less to moderate and independent voters – Sean Evans
David Beckemeyer
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 podcast, such as political…
-
Outrage 002 – How democracy runs counter to almost all of our evolutionary tendencies – Peter Ditto
David Beckemeyer
In this episode we conclude our interview with Professor Peter H. Ditto, where we continue our discussion of political polarization and “outrage porn” including how we overestimate the extremism of the other side and their hatred of us and various other distortions that get in the way of productive dialogue, as well as things like…
About

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.