The Armen Show

Jacob Soll is professor of history and accounting at the University of Southern California. He received a B.A. from the University of Iowa, a D.E.A. from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, and a Ph.D. from Magdalene College, Cambridge University. He has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes including two NEH Fellowships, the Jacques Barzun Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and, in 2011, the MacArthur Fellowship. Soll’s first book, Publishing “The Prince” (2005), examines how Machiavelli’s work was popularized and influenced modern political thought.  It won the Jacques Barzun Prize from the American Philosophical Society.  In his second book, The Information Master (2009), Soll investigates how Louis XIV’s famous finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert fused financial management and library sciences to create one of the first modern information states.  His most recent book, The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations (2014), presents a sweeping history of accounting and politics, drawing on a wealth of examples from over a millennia of human history to reveal how accounting can used to both build kingdoms, empires and entire civilizations, but also to undermine them.  It explains the origins of our own financial crisis as deeply rooted in a long disconnect between human beings and their attempts to manage financial numbers.  The Reckoning, reviewed in major newspapers and publications around the world, has sold more than 60,000 copies worldwide, and has been translated into five languages. His new books include Free Market: The History of a Dream (Basic Books), an analysis of classical philosophy, natural law, history and contemporary economic culture; a history of libraries and Enlightenment (Yale University Press); and the first English edition of Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s economic writings (Anthem). Soll has been a correspondent for the Boston Globe, and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Politico, the New Republic, PBS, Salon.com and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Soll is currently meeting with political and financial leaders across the globe to promote accounting standards and financial transparency.

Bronwyn Williams is a futurist, economist, and business trends analyst. “Bronwyn, from Johannesburg, South Africa has a background which includes experience in strategic management, trend research and foresight; consulting to clients in the public and private sector across the African continent. Her educational credentials include tertiary qualifications in Marketing Management (University of Johannesburg), Economics (University of London), Foresight (University of Manchester), and Future Studies (University of Stellenbosch). She is currently completing a Masters in Applied Economics from the University of Bath. Today, Bronwyn’s research focuses on how macro socio-economic trends and emerging technologies will impact businesses, industries, and nations in the near and long term future. Part economist, part strategist, Bronwyn’s particular areas of expertise include fintech trends, alternative economic models, and sustainable future design. She is obsessed with understanding how to make and nudge better choices by developing a better understanding of trade offs, incentives and long-run unintended consequences. Bronwyn’s clients include Top 40 JSE listed companies, The South African Reserve Bank, African government departments, and global business leaders. She also guest lectures for leading business schools, such as Duke, GIBS, UCT, and the University of Johannesburg. Bronwyn is a prolific writer, she is the co-author of The Future Starts Now, published by Bloomsbury UK and writes columns for serval business, marketing, corporate and business school publications. She is also a well- known media commentator on future trends and economic trajectories for network channels including CNBC Africa and ENCA News.”

How does one use victimhood for resources, and what qualities does such a person possess? What can we get when scientists of differing viewpoints work together? Can one be motivated to look at free will in others differently based on a view of their moral nature? I discuss these topics and more with returning guest behavioral scientist Dr. Cory Clark on episode 367 of The Armen Show. From her bio, “Cory Clark, Ph.D., is the Executive Director and Co-Founder (along with Professor Philip Tetlock) of The Adversarial Collaboration Research Center at University of Pennsylvania and a Visiting Scholar in the Psychology Department. She received her Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from University of California, Irvine in 2014. Between then and now, she was a Postdoctoral Scholar at University at Buffalo and Florida State University, an Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Durham University in the United Kingdom, and the Director of Academic Engagement for Heterodox Academy. She co-hosts a podcast, Psyphilopod, which has been described as “Ruthlessly truthful and highly insightful conversations on psychology, philosophy, politics, and academic culture.” She considers herself a Moral and Political Psychologist, but she is particularly interested in how people (scientists and non-scientists) interact with information in ways that allow them to maintain and justify their preferred worldviews. Scientists are but mere mortals, and consequently, they are vulnerable to similar biases, errors, motivations, and psychological needs as other people. Although she has great admiration for the scientific method, individual scientific findings warrant scrutiny and skepticism. She hopes her blog reflects that spirit. You can find her CV, which links to most of her work on her website. All of her academic publications are available for free on ResearchGate. And you can follow her on Twitter for brief descriptions and discussions of recent social scientific findings that she finds interesting or perplexing.”

What can we learn about different species that exist on the planet, and the world that they live in? What kinds of senses do they make use of, and what do we share with our fellow species? I discuss some of what is covered on the Species podcast, along with the topics of female infidelity and more, on episode 366 of the show with Macken Murphy. Macken Murphy is a writer and science educator. He hosts a weekly podcast about animals, Species, recommended by both Apple and BBC’s Wildlife magazine. He has currently studied anthropology at the University of Oxford. Macken has also co-written a book titled Animal Sidekicks: Amazing Stories of Symbiosis in Animals and Plants, which is a children’s book in the category of animal and plant symbiosis. Links: Species | Twitter | Animal Sidekicks on Amazon

How can we best navigate our social world to make a good impression and not err in showcasing our good qualities? What does it take to identify what the mistakes are in this category, and what kind of analysis should we do of the feedback that people give us? Professor Övül Sezer joins on episode 365 of the show to guide us in understanding impression mis-management and more. Professor Övül Sezer is Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at Cornell University. She received her BA in Applied Math and PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard University. She teaches courses in managerial decision-making and negotiations. When it comes to her research, she applies the same observational tools that she also uses in doing stand-up routines at comedy clubs, which is identifying a “particular human behavior that strikes me as odd, interesting, or confusing, and either study it in-depth using experiments or describe it with humor.” Most people think they know how to make a positive impression and can easily spot the mistakes others make, but when it comes to their own missteps, they tend to be oblivious. She identifies these mistakes and investigate how to better navigate our social world. She explores: How can we signal that we are both competent and likable? How can we brag wisely? How can we give valuable feedback in a way that strengthens our relationships rather than harming them? How can we network less awkwardly? Her research identifies useful strategies for making better impressions. Dr. Sezer’s work has been published in leading academic journals including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. It also has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, Forbes, Financial Times and Scientific American. She was honored as one the “Top 40 Business School Professors under 40” by Poets & Quants.

Can the history of a country be looked at differently through analysis of what was left behind and how things actually may have occurred? Are we able to see events more clearly with some space of time and a calmer moment in place. On episode 364, I speak with UC Irvine’s Professor Nicole Iturriaga on these topics in relation to the records of Spain during and after the Franco regime, as described in her book Exhuming Violent Histories: Forensics, Memory, and Rewriting Spain’s Past. “Many years after the fall of Franco’s regime, Spanish human rights activists have turned to new methods to keep the memory of state terror alive. By excavating mass graves, exhuming remains, and employing forensic analysis and DNA testing, they seek to provide direct evidence of repression and break through the silence about the dictatorship’s atrocities that persisted well into Spain’s transition to democracy. Nicole Iturriaga offers an ethnographic examination of how Spanish human rights activists use forensic methods to challenge dominant histories, reshape collective memory, and create new forms of transitional justice. She argues that by grounding their claims in science, activists can present themselves as credible and impartial, helping them intervene in fraught public disputes about the remembrance of the past. The perceived legitimacy and authenticity of scientific techniques allows their users to contest the state’s historical claims and offer new narratives of violence in pursuit of long-delayed justice. Iturriaga draws on interviews with technicians and forensics experts and provides a detailed case study of Spain’s best-known forensic human rights organization, the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory. She also considers how the tools and tactics used in Spain can be adopted by human rights and civil society groups pursuing transitional justice in other parts of the world. An ethnographically rich account, Exhuming Violent Histories sheds new light on how science and technology intersect with human rights and collective memory.” Nicole Iturriaga is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine, and was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute Center on Religious and Cultural Diversity. Links: Nicole’s Personal Website | Twitter | Research | Exhuming Violent Histories

What can we learn about free will? What layers are there to understand regarding the discussion between determinism and free will? I speak on these topics with Professor Alfred Mele of Philosophy at Florida State University on episode 363 of the show. He is the author of Free Will: An Opinionated Guide. Alfred Remen Mele is an American philosopher and the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is also the past Director of the Philosophy and Science of Self-Control Project and the Big Questions in Free Will Project.

Carrie James and Emily Weinstein are the authors of “Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing). How are teens navigating a networked world? What are they doing on their smartphones, and what does their response say about the current moment? Is there something more than addiction to screens and connectivity going on? On episode 362, I discuss these topics with Dr. Emily Weinstein and Dr. Carrie James, co-authors of Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing). Dr. Emily Weinstein is a senior researcher at Project Zero and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Weinstein studies the intersections of networked technologies with the social, emotional, and civic lives of adolescents and emerging adults. Her research on digital technologies draws on a variety of methodological approaches, including digital post analyses, interviews, surveys, focus groups, and experiments. Dr. Weinstein’s published work appears in interdisciplinary journals, including New Media & Society, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Adolescent Research, and International Journal of Communication. In Spring 2022, she is teaching the new course, Digital Dilemmas: Adolescents Behind Their Screens (T510A). Outside of her academic research, Emily regularly works with schools and families to reimagine supports for digital life. She is also a longtime collaborator of Common Sense Education, where she has worked on the development of free programs and resources related to digital citizenship. She holds a Master’s degree (Ed.M.) in Prevention Science and Practice and a Doctorate (Ed.D.) in Human Development and Education, both from Harvard University, and a B.S. from Cornell University. Carrie James is a Research Associate and Principal Investigator at Project Zero. A sociologist by training, her research explores young people’s digital, moral, and civic lives. Over the past decade plus, Carrie has led research and educational initiatives focused on ethical issues in digital life, civic engagement and participatory politics in a connected age, and cross-cultural online learning experiences.  For many years, Carrie worked closely with Howard Gardner and colleagues, conducting research on digital ethics. Past projects include: The Good Play Project, a MacArthur Foundation-Funded initiative focused on digital ethics and the Good Participation Project, a MacArthur Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network study of youth civic participation and civic education in a networked age. Carrie co-directs Digital Dilemmas and Reimagining Digital Well-Being With and For Youth with Emily Weinstein. These initiatives emphasize approaches that center teens’ perspectives and experiences, and involve them as co-designers of interventions to support their digital well-being. In collaboration with Common Sense Education, we have produced new classroom resources, including a core set of thinking routines and dilemmas for digital life. Carrie’s publications also include Disconnected: Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap (The MIT Press, 2014), and numerous articles in peer-reviewed education and media journals. She holds a M.A. (1996) and a Ph.D. (2003) in Sociology from New York University. Links: Carrie’s Bio | Emily’s Bio | Behind Their Screens

How are hierarchies formed, maintained and challenged? My guest on the topic of hierarchies, as well as the categories of dominance and prestige, is Dr. Kaylene McClanahan, postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She joins on episode 361 of The Armen Show. Kaylene McClanahan is a social scientist who researches social hierarchies. She received her PhD from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. Kaylene is a proponent of reproducible science and an avid R user. She also posts about R, hierarchy research, and academic life on Twitter. Kaylene has taught Negotiations to MBA and executive audiences. Links: Personal website | Twitter | Research on Google Scholar

Jennifer Jacquet is an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Director of XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement at NYU. She is also deputy director of NYU’s Center for Environmental and Animal Protection. Her research focuses on animals and the environment, Agnotology, and attribution and responsibility in the Anthropocene. She is author of The Playbook: How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World, a work of ‘epistolary non-fiction’ that makes the business case for scientific denial. She also wrote Is Shame Necessary about the evolution, function, and future of the use of social disapproval in a globalized, digitized world. She is the recipient of a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship and a 2016 Pew fellowship in marine conservation. Links: Jennifer’s Website | Twitter | The Playbook