Do We Really Want Power?

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I think it's generally a good thing to be sceptical of power, because that's what counteracts its abuses. So i started researching the breakdown of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism. And my ph d research was about people who rigged elections and e who did awful things to the people below themi. I met with various former despots and so on. Then i also approach the academic literature, trying to figure out what the studies actually say about how power changes your brain,. Whether psychopaths ar better ageting power, all these sorts of questions. But beforeyou start siding the studies and stuff, give us a little bit of background. How does one come to study psychopath

Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? Are entrepreneurs who embezzle and cops who kill the result of poorly designed systems or are they simply bad people? What sort of people aspire to power anyway? Are there individuals among us who should never be given the title of president, or CEO, or PTA leader lest they build their own dictatorship?

Michael Shermer speaks with Brian Klaas, a renowned political scientist, Washington Post columnist and creator of the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, about his long sought answers to the above questions.

In his new book Klaas draws on over 500 interviews with some of the world’s top leaders — from the noblest to the most crooked — including presidents and philanthropists as well as rebels, cultists, and dictators, to get to the root of power and corruption. Klaas dives into how facial appearance determines who we pick as leaders, why narcissists make more money, why some people don’t want power at all and others are drawn to it out of a psychopathic impulse, and why being the “beta” (second in command) may be the optimal place for health and well-being.