Transcript
David Helfand (0:06)
This podcast is part of the Democracy group.
Sam (0:14)
Welcome to Outrage Overload, a science podcast about outrage and lowering the temperature. This is episode 87.
Sydney Pines (0:27)
I got really involved and so then it I really knew larger forces. I'm like some something big happened. I think everybody in the world knows that corruption is everywhere. I didn't realize just how big it was and how long it's been going on for. And that's what made me start documenting. And never in a million years did I think it would get published. It was intended for my family, but that's what made me and then one thing literally leads you to another.
Sam (1:01)
On this show we spend a lot of time talking with researchers and academics, but today we're doing something a little different. We're going to show examples of how these high level concepts actually manifest in the real world. Today's guest is Sydney Pines. Sydney is an author who reached out to me because she shares a lot of the same values we talk about here. She's tired of the division. She values civil discourse and she believes in in the importance of being open to different views. In many ways, she represents exactly the kind of bridge building spirit we advocate for. However, as you'll hear in our conversation, Sydney's journey also provides a fascinating and at times startling look at how easily we can slip into alternative realities. As we talk, I'll be interjecting to point out specific moments where various human tendencies we talk about on the show show up in real life. We'll look at how we can find ourselves in unique kinds of information silos and how the very act of doing your own research can sometimes lead us further away from shared facts if we don't have the right toolkit. I want to be clear, my goal isn't to disrespect Sydney. In fact, I'm grateful for her honesty and her willingness to sit down with someone who doesn't share her worldview. But by looking closely at this conversation, I think we can better understand the architecture of the outrage industry and how it maps onto the way we process truth in our current media environment. One of the most common things I hear from people who have moved toward alternative media is a profound sense of dissatisfaction with the mainstream. They feel the news has become performative, sensational, or simply focused on the wrong things. Sydney describes such a moment that acted as a catalyst for her the news
Sydney Pines (2:35)
is only a half hour long. I kid you not. They spent because I timed it because I was so again, flabbergasted. They spent 12 minutes talking about all three of them at the desk, talking about how horrible it was that when he exited the plane, he didn't hold Melania's hand. And I, I felt like I was in a Saturday Night Live skit. And I'm like, this doesn't even make sense. They are literally criticizing the possible President of the United States for not holding someone's hand. So I started digging. I came, came across a lot of stuff. Yes, a lot of it is, oh, oh my Lord, I don't. There's no way this could be true. But then, years later, it did show up to be true.
