The Art of Charm

Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) is the founder of Skeptic magazine and several books on the nature of belief. He's the Director of The Skeptics Society, a non-profit dedicated to the promotion of science, reason, and critical thinking. He joins us to discuss why people believe weird things. The Cheat Sheet: How do beliefs form in our brains and persist even when we know they're wrong? Why do skeptics (and restaurant owners) scowl at the mention of Uri Geller? Why are smart people even more susceptible to faulty beliefs? How do our genes influence our political and religious beliefs? What's the difference between a skeptic and a cynic? And so much more... Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/michael-shermer-believe-weird-things-episode-531/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the 10th episode of Minisode Monday! We keep finding so many useful tactics and tips that we want to share with you, but they don't fit into the format of a regular show -- hence, Minisode Monday. Ego Is the Enemy author and recent guest Ryan Holiday joins us to talk about keeping our own egos in check when we're dealing with people who we -- for whatever reason -- can't stand. The Cheat Sheet: What does Always Love by Nada Surf have to teach us about the uneven relationship between the hater and the hated? "I have decided to stick with love...Hate is too great a burden to bear." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If Socrates was right in saying that no one does wrong knowingly, someone who has caused you grief probably didn't set out to do it on purpose. The aspects that turn us off to someone's character are probably already causing that person some degree of suffering. Try to find gratitude toward those who have done wrong by you early in a relationship -- at least they didn't wait longer to make it worse for you. "The mind can contort itself in all different ways," says Ryan. "You might as well contort it in some way that makes you feel less bad than continuing to contort it in a way that makes you feel more miserable." To learn more social dynamics hacks like this one, take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text CHARMED to 33444. Let us know about how you put today's Minisode Monday into practice! Leave a comment below, tweet with @TheArtofCharm in your response, or write to Jordan directly: jordan@theartofcharm.com (he reads everything)! Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/minisode-monday-10-compassion-for-cretins/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time for Fan Mail Friday, where we'll be answering your questions and dropping some knowledge and feedback to help you kick the weekend off right. Let's cut to it! In this episode: If your significant other voices negative opinions about people who have plastic surgery, should you tell them you had a nose job six years ago? How do you learn to trust your instincts to become a better judge of character? How can someone highlight the unconscious conditioning at the root of their problems to ask the real questions they need answered? A listener writes to let us know he enjoyed our episode with Neil Pasricha, and wonders if paying for the full tab on a first date (or casual meeting) makes the man come off too strong? Another listener lets us know how Kim Seltzer's advice in a past Fan Mail Friday helped him gain clarity about his life's direction. Thanks to Victor Mizrahi for being a hardcore AoC fan. It means a lot to us! Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@theartofcharm.com! Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/fan-mail-friday-71-like-a-neckbeard-champion/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jo Marchant (@JoMarchant) is a science journalist and author -- her new book is Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind over Body. The Cheat Sheet: Understand the power of placebos. Learn how your immune system can be trained. Find out why stress kills and how to beat it. Realize the importance of social relationships and how to boost them. Does believing in God make you live longer? And so much more... Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/jo-marchant-cure-episode-530/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonah Berger (@j1berger) has spent over 15 years studying how social influence works and how it drives products and ideas to catch on. He's a marketing professor and author; his new book is Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior. The Cheat Sheet: We like to believe we're so special that our choices are driven by personal preferences and opinions; the fact of the matter: other people have an influence over almost everything we do. Rather than seeing influence as negative and manipulative, we should understand how to use it as a toolkit for making better decisions. Sometimes we allow our social groups or cultural upbringing to influence us toward underachievement. Learn the one trick that allows negotiators to be five times more successful. How do we protect ourselves from undesired influence? And so much more... Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/jonah-berger-invisible-influence-episode-529/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the ninth episode of Minisode Monday! We keep finding so many useful tactics and tips that we want to share with you, but they don't fit into the format of a regular show -- hence, Minisode Monday. If You're so Smart, Why Aren't You Happy? author and recent guest Raj Raghunathan joins us to talk about when we should go with our gut instinct to make a decision and when we should turn it over to our mind. The Cheat Sheet: Many smart and successful people think you can arrive at a better solution to any challenge or problem faced by thinking a little more about it. This leads to what Raj calls the sin of "mind addiction." When we succumb to this mind addiction, we tend to overanalyze and get into analysis paralysis -- unable to remove ourselves from a self-feeding loop that actually stops us from making a decision at all (or, in the best case, an inferior decision). Our instinct -- our gut -- packs a lot more information than we give it credit for. Evolution has given us this intrinsic command center we often ignore in favor of waiting for further, external information that may or may not exist. This isn't to say all decisions should unquestioningly be handled by the gut. Stock market investing, for instance, is a job for the brain. But making a spreadsheet to weigh the pros and cons of dating one person over another is being overanalytical of a job best handled by the gut. What is the eventual benefit you seek? Is it an emotional/experiential one, or is it a functional/practical/utilitarian one? If it's the former, go with your gut. If it's the latter, it may be worth letting your mind give it more careful thought. Do you need to justify your choice to other people? It's probably a job for your mind. If it's something for which you are only accountable to yourself, the gut may be your better option. To learn more about making decisions with the right part of your body, take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text CHARMED to 33444. Let us know about how you put today's Minisode Monday into practice! Leave a comment below, tweet with @TheArtofCharm in your response, or write to Jordan directly: jordan@theartofcharm.com (he reads everything)! Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/minisode-monday-9-gut-decision-vs-making-up-your-mind/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time for Fan Mail Friday, where we'll be answering your questions and dropping some knowledge and feedback to help you kick the weekend off right. Let's cut to it! In this episode:   A lonely expat wonders if he's really cut out for living abroad, but worries about reverse culture shock if he returns home. Will the social problems he faces now just follow him wherever he decides to go? Are you conceited if accepting praise and accolades makes you feel awkward? A wife, mother, and psychology honors student weighs in on advice we gave to the couple with the mismatched libidos in Fan Mail Friday #67. Where should you go to meet a career-oriented significant other who's actually significant enough to take to the next level? A listener shares a great metaphor for explaining how self-limiting beliefs really work (and why overcoming them can seem like magic to people who are only used to seeing walls). Thanks to Melanie Curtis for letting us know The Art of Charm is her favorite podcast! Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@theartofcharm.com! Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/fan-mail-friday-70-reverse-culture-shock/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Lederman (@mtlederman) rejoins the show to discuss her recent book Nail the Interview, Land the Job: A Step-by-Step Guide for What to Do Before, During and After the Interview. The Cheat Sheet: Learn how to prepare for a job interview. Understand why you're better off presenting your best, authentic self during a job interview instead of trying to come off as the person you think the potential employer is looking for. Learn how to present your best self. Learn how to handle tricky questions. Learn how to follow up after the interview. And so much more... Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/michelle-lederman-nail-interview-episode-528/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the eighth episode of Minisode Monday! We keep finding so many useful tactics and tips that we want to share with you, but they don't fit into the format of a regular show -- hence, Minisode Monday. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World author and recent guest Adam Grant joins us to talk about how we can argue against ourselves in order to make our arguments more convincing. The Cheat Sheet: We can lead with our weaknesses, not just our strengths. Adam tells us how serial entrepreneur Rufus Griscom convinced investors to fund parenting website Babble by providing three reasons not to. By arguing against ourselves and being forthright with our faults, we show the capacity to be self-critical, balanced, and not delusional enough to believe our own ideas are flawless. By listing these problems off the bat, Griscom made it harder for the potential investors to think of problems themselves. "The harder it is to think about something, the less you think it's a real issue," says Adam. "If you really struggle -- if you have to work -- to come up with some real reasons not to invest in this company, you're like, 'This company must not be so bad!'" People like to show off how intelligent they are. Since Griscom had already pointed out the problems with his business, it put the investors in the position of demonstrating this intelligence by finding ways to solve these problems -- rather than sniffing out further faults. This turned what could have been a conversation focused on the negative into one that gravitated toward the positive. Griscom later used these same tactics with Disney ("five reasons you should not buy Babble"); Disney then bought the company for $40 million. To learn more social dynamics hacks like this one, take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text CHARMED to 33444. Let us know about how you put today's Minisode Monday into practice! Leave a comment below, tweet with @TheArtofCharm in your response, or write to Jordan directly: jordan@theartofcharm.com (he reads everything)! Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/minisode-monday-8-forthright-with-faults/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time for Fan Mail Friday, where we'll be answering your questions and dropping some knowledge and feedback to help you kick the weekend off right. Let's cut to it! In this episode: In the thick of it, high school seems like a waste of time when you've got bigger dreams for your future. But how bright is that future for a high school dropout? A listener offers additional sage advice to an answer we gave in Fan Mail Friday 67 regarding the balance of self-improvement and family drama. Why isn't Jordan on Snapchat? While convalescing from an illness that induces chronic fatigue, how do you deal with the FOMO (fear of missing out) and frustration caused by not being able to operate at the high level to which you're accustomed? Let's be honest: isn't brushing up on social dynamics skills really just a way to manipulate others? Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@theartofcharm.com! Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/fan-mail-friday-69-are-schools-for-fools/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices