Do Psychics Really Believe They Have These Powers?

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In the book, i talk about power corrupting. One of the quintessential examples i cite is a woman named maanan shila who was the sort of right hand woman to bagwan shirajnish,. The cult leader who took over a town in oregon and tried to rig a county level election by poisoning a thousand people with salmonella. She then serves four years in prison and is deported. And now this is where i met her - she runs a care home for vulnerable people in switzerland. I will say that when i interviewed her and she offered me water, i politely declined. So ias been a little bit careful there, in case you poisony

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.