Getting Discomfortable with a Flat Earther: Part 2

The interview I did with Josh, the flat earther in episode 27, generated a lot of discussion in my life and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it over the last few weeks. I think my brain was desperate to make some sense out of this conspiratorial belief system that seems so nonsensical to my way of thinking. Anything that we can’t wrap our heads around becomes threatening in a way, disturbing our comfortable view of reality. Brené Brown talks about the way our brains reward us when we come up with a story to explain things, even if the story isn’t true. In fact, Brené warns that the stories we come up with are very likely to be nothing more than a “shitty first draft”.

And so, if anything, this episode represents my shitty first draft of what I think may be behind the urge to believe in a flat earth, at least as far as my interviewee Josh is concerned. It’s a pet theory that I came up with this week that uses shame theory to explain why such an outlandish and seemingly radical belief may actually be the safest and most comfortable thing for Josh to believe, given his childhood indoctrination into Christianity and his pre-existing bent towards conspiracy. I think in a surprising way, the flat earth theory directly protects Josh’s sense of meaning, purpose, and personal value, and defends him against shame.

Though we can never really know what is going on inside someone else’s head, and it’s admittedly kind of irresponsible to even try, I think this pet theory is at very least useful and interesting as a kind of hypothetical thought experiment. Or anyway, that’s what I’m telling myself to justify it, so I can go on with my life with a satisfying sense that the world makes sense again (which, ironically, is basically the same kind of psychological satisfaction I think the flat earth theory provides for Josh).

The second part of the episode gives a humorous glimpse behind the scenes at the recording process of Discomfortable, and I play a rare unedited clip from the recording session of episode 18, Getting Discomfortable with Spontaneity.