"I've often suggested, maybe we should have an anthem. I've tried to write a couple myself at various times and ways" "There is a certain type of person, by the way, who's been on that journey to rome... And they've decided that i'll just give you one last look," he says. 'And it's so obvious to me that r Rome is great' The author has written more than 100 books about his experiences in Italy.
To the Founding Fathers it was free libraries. To the 19th century rationalist philosophers it was a system of public schools. Today it's access to the internet. Since its beginnings, Americans have believed that if facts and information were available to all, a democratic utopia would prevail. But missing from these well-intentioned efforts, says author and journalist David McRaney, is the awareness that people's opinions are unrelated to their knowledge and intelligence. In fact, he explains, the better educated we become, the better we are at rationalizing what we already believe. Listen as the author of How Minds Change speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about why it's so hard to change someone's mind, the best way to make it happen (if you absolutely must), and why teens are hard-wired not to take good advice from older people even if they are actually wiser.