
Principle of Charity
Are you ready to burst your filter bubble? To hit pause on righteous anger? Principle of Charity injects curiosity and generosity back into difficult conversations, bringing together two expert guests with opposing views on big social issues.But here’s the twist: as well as passionately advocating their own views, each guest is challenged to present the best, most generous version of the other’s argument.This unique format comes from an ancient idea - the principle of charity - which tells us to seek the truth, not to win the fight; to truly understand the other before we instinctively reject them.The podcast is hosted by Emile Sherman and Lloyd Vogelman. Emile is an Academy and Emmy Award-winning film & TV producer who’s obsessively curious about ideas and holds onto the naïve belief that a generous conversion is still the best way to get to the truth. Lloyd has a doctorate in psychology, spent years as a leader in the fight against apartheid before building reconciliation in South Africa, and describes himself as a recovering extremist who’s passionate about the potential to change our minds.@PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram.You can find Emile at: @EmileSherman on Twitter, @EmileSherman on Linkedin, You can find Lloyd at: @Lloydvogelman on Linkedin~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Producers: Jonah Primo - Find at Jonahprimo.com or @Jonahprimo on Instagram Bronwen Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Latest episodes

Apr 17, 2023 • 38min
Who has it Harder: Women or Men? Pt. 2 On the Couch
With guests, Caroline Lambert and Matt TylerIn Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity. ~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 10, 2023 • 60min
Who has it Harder: Women or Men?
Women have, by and large, lived under the yoke of patriarchy, in various forms, for as long as… well, certainly as long as civilisations have existed. So it’s with some trepidation, and a little bit of cheekiness, that we’re airing the headwinds that face women alongside those that face men. There’s the danger of moral equivalence, where two views are put side by side, giving the impression that they’re both of equal weight, when they’re clearly not. And if our lens was the world as a whole, then there’s no doubt that you can’t compare the headwinds facing women with those of men, as there is still legally sanctioned sex discrimination against women in many countries. But in this episode we focus in on the west where formal discrimination ended on the tailwind of second wave feminism in the 70s and where there’s a more nuanced and complicated story to tell.There are now a whole range of areas in which men fare worse than women. From the basics of life expectancy, to drug addiction, to suicide rates, to a job market where traditional female jobs are growing faster than traditional male jobs, there’s real concern for the future of our boys. In a world that rightly wants to open up all opportunities to everyone, regardless of gender is there a way for masculinity to define itself, to find solid ground, without excluding women? And on the other side, why does the feminist goal of true equality still seem out of reach in so many spheres? How do we root out unconscious bias and structural sexism? GuestsDr Caroline LambertCaroline has worked in gender equality and social change for over 35 years, holding senior roles as the executive director of YWCA Australia, and as the director of research, policy and advocacy at the International Women’s Development Agency. She is a former board chair Women’s Housing, Victoria, former Vice President Amnesty International Australia, director Arts Access, Victoria and current director YWCA Australia. She currently consults to feminist and human rights organisations globally and in Australia. Matt Tyler Matt Tyler is Executive Director of The Men’s Project at Jesuit Social Services, working with a team committed to providing leadership on the reduction of violence and other harmful behaviours prevalent among boys and men. Prior to joining Jesuit Social Services, Matt worked as a Fellow for Harvard’s Government Performance Lab, an economist on Australia’s foreign aid program focused on South-East Asia, a policy adviser to the Australian Labor Party, a strategy consultant for Australia’s largest companies, and a researcher on an Australian Research Council grant seeking to improve Indigenous Australian men’s health. He holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School, Honours in Economics (University Medal) from Monash University, and a B.A (Psychology) / B.Comm (Finance) from the University of Melbourne.You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 20, 2023 • 33min
On Creativity Pt. 2 On the Couch with Jane Campion
In Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity. ~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 12, 2023 • 51min
Oscar Special: Spotlight with Jane Campion - On Creativity
Spotlight with Jane Campion: can creativity help us leap outside ourselves?Multiple academy award winning writer and director Jane Campion (The Piano The Power of the Dog) joins Emile and Lloyd for a fascinating conversation on creativity and how it can change and enhance our understanding of each other. Jane explains her creative practices and in particular her use of dream therapy to tap into the subconscious and write characters like Phil Burbank, the protagonist in The Power of the Dog, her 2022 Academy Award-winning film.Emile and Jane have worked closely together on television series and films. Emile, an Academy Award winning producer (The King’s Speech) describes creativity as an extraordinary movement towards the lives of others. “It’s an incredibly powerful muscle that forces you outside of yourself and into the most generous version of other experiences, as you can’t create rich and believable characters unless you know them from the inside out. “I was excited to get on someone on the podcast who can talk to us in a deep way about creativity, and what it might offer for better understanding points of view we disagree with. And by far the best person I could think of is Jane.”Guest: Jane CampionJane Campion was born in New Zealand and has directed many feature films including THE PIANO, for which she won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, becoming the first woman to receive this award. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including nominations for Campion for Best Director & Best Original Screenplay, the latter of which she won.Her most recent film, THE POWER OF THE DOG (2022) received 12 Academy Award nominations including for Best Director which Jane won. The film also won Best Film at the BAFTA. Her other films include AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE which won 7 prizes at the 47th Venice Film Festival, including the Silver Lion; THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY which closed the 53rd Venice Film Festival and won the Francesco Pasinetti Award; and HOLY SMOKE which was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 56th Venice Film Festival and won the Elvira Notari Prize. The two season limited-series TOP OF THE LAKE which Campion created, co-wrote, executive produced and directed 5 of the 12 episodes, received 8 Emmy Award nominations and premiered at Sundance, Berlin and Cannes Film Festivals.Jane was President of the Jury at 54th Venice Film Festival and returned in 2008 as a Jury Member.~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 27, 2023 • 22min
Nature VS Nurture Pt 4: On the Couch with Michele Borba
In Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity. ~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 20, 2023 • 48min
Nature Vs Nurture Pt 3: The Alternate View on Moulding Kids with Michele Borba
Thirty years talking to kids, parents and teachers and analyzing data from across the globe, has led US educator Michele Borba to a categoric conclusion: parents can indeed shape those character strengths of their children that will ultimately determine how successful they are in life. So what are the character traits that can be moulded and how should parents go about doing it in ways that a child will respond to? Can you teach resilience and optimism? Emile and Lloyd discuss with Michele the dilemmas for parents awash with advice and pressure on how to raise their kids. Michele BorbaDr Michele Borba is an internationally recognised parenting and child development expert. She has a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of San Francisco and began her professional life as a specialist teacher to children with learning disabilities.Her guide to raising children focuses on strengthening children’s character, resilience and ‘moral intelligence’ and her evidence-based advocacy for cultivating empathy in children has captured the attention of governments, corporations and educators across the globe.She was named Honorary Chairperson for Self-Esteem in Hong Kong, consultant for the Character Education and Civic Engagement for the U.S. Dept of Education, Disney Influencer, and Goodwill Ambassador for M.I.T.’s One Laptop per Child project. Michele is also an author. Her books have been translated into 19 languages. Among her most popular titles is Parents Do Make A Difference, How to Raise Kids with Solid Character, Strong Minds and Caring Hearts. Her most recent book Thrivers: Surprising Reasons Why Some Kids Struggle and Others Shine is a best-seller.A frequent guest on the US “Today” Show, Michele has received numerous awards including the National Educator Award (presented by the National Council of Self-Esteem), Outstanding Contribution to the Educational Profession by the Bureau of Education and Research and a 2016 SHORTY nominee for “Best Social Media Influencer in Parenting.”She’s also a parent to three sons.~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com or @JonahPrimo on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 6, 2023 • 32min
Nature VS Nurture Pt 2: On the Couch with Robert Plomin
In Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity. ~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 30, 2023 • 1h 1min
Nature VS Nurture Pt 1: Can We Mould Our Kids With Geneticist Robert Plomin
Behavioural geneticist Robert Plomin’s book Blueprint, How DNA Makes Us Who We Are has changed lives. Robert is arguably the leading figure in behavioural genetics, working across the field for many decades. In his book Blueprint, he shows us the extraordinary evidence for our genetic nature being the absolutely dominant force in predicting who we are and will become. In fact about 50% of everything we care about is predicted by our genes. Not just our weight and height, but schizophrenia, anxiety and depression, to personality traits like agreeableness, grit, and love of learning, through to general intelligence and even university success. Emile and Lloyd probe Robert for the implications his research has for how we approach parenting. Outside of loving and protecting our children, Robert says parents can let go a bit of that inner panic that tells them that their role is to mould their kids, that their actions are crucial determinants in their children growing up to be smart, resilient, growth mindset, kind, enthusiastic, healthy, non-anxious or depressed, adults. Parents are just not that important, except in the genes they’ve passed on. Most radically of all, Plomin entreats us to focus on enjoying our time with our children, saying that parenting matters most just through the quality of our experiences together. Robert PlominRobert Plomin is Professor of Behavioural Genetics in the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre at The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. His research brings together genetic and environmental strategies to investigate the developmental interplay between nature and nurture. In 1994 when he came to the UK from the US, he launched the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), which continues to thrive. He has published more than 900 papers and a dozen books, which have been cited more than 130,000 times. His latest book is Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are (Penguin, 2019).After 50 years of research, Robert has come to the view that inherited DNA differences are the major systematic force that makes us who we are as individuals – our mental health and illness, our personality and our cognitive abilities and disabilities. The environment is important, but it works completely different from the way we thought it worked. The DNA revolution has made it possible to use DNA to predict our psychological problems and promise from birth. These advances in genetic research call for a radical rethink about what makes us who we are, with sweeping, and no doubt controversial, implications for the way we think about parenting, education and the events that shape our lives.~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 23, 2023 • 34min
Should we Move Towards or Away from Triggers? Pt 2. On the Couch
with guests Victoria Bridgland and Nicole Bedera,In Principle of Charity on the Couch, Lloyd has an unfiltered conversation with the guest, throws them curveballs, and gets into the personal side of Principle of Charity. ~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen Reid Find Jonah at jonahprimo.com & @JonahPrimo on Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 16, 2023 • 1h 2min
TRIGGER WARNING!: Should we Move Towards or Away from Triggers?
Trigger warnings have become common practice these days, not just in university campuses, but across the media landscape, in film, television, online and social media. They warn us that the material we’re about to see or hear might trigger distress. But what actually is a trigger? And what’s it meant to protect us from?Trigger warnings were originally linked with post traumatic stress disorder - the idea being that those who have been through a traumatic event, for example sexual violence, and who then suffer from PTSD, can be triggered into re-experiencing that distress when exposed to related content. These days, however, trigger warnings seem to capture any sort of potentially distressing content, and are aimed at everyone, whether we have clinical PTSD or not. The idea is that we should be (or maybe even we have the right to be) warned about distressing content in advance.But do trigger warnings work effectively? Do people in practice avoid content that may be triggering and if they choose to watch, are people able to prepare themselves emotionally, to reduce the impact of the material. Or, does the opposite happen - is there an ‘anticipatory effect’ where people get more distressed as they wait for and brace for the traumatic content. Our guests on this podcast bring two different views to the table. Victoria Bridgland is a psychologist who has done detailed data based research into trigger warnings and has concluded not only that they don’t work, but that they are likely to exacerbate distress. Sociologist Nicole Bedera sees trigger warnings as important but not enough. She believes we need institutions that do much more to support those who’ve been through trauma, particularly sexual assault, otherwise they’re at risk of a secondary trauma caused by ‘institutional betrayal’.Guests:Nicole Bedera, Ph.D. is a sociologist at the University of Michigan and author of the forthcoming book On the Wrong Side: How Universities Betray Survivors to Protect Perpetrators of Sexual Assault. Her research broadly focuses on how our social structures contribute to survivors’ trauma and make sexual violence more likely to occur in the future. Her scholarship has influenced sexual violence prevention programming across the United States, including for Planned Parenthood, and her work has featured in media including The New York Times, NPR, and the BBC.Victoria BridglandVictoria graduated with a research PhD in 2021 from Flinders University. Victoria’s research interests include expectancy effects, emotional regulation, and memory for traumatic events. Her main body of work concerns trigger warnings, and what benefit – if any – they have for people encountering negative material. Victoria currently serves on the Student Caucus Executive board for the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. In 2019 Victoria won a South Australian Postgraduate Fulbright Scholarship. Victoria is currently at Harvard, with her research focussing on trigger warnings in art spaces.~~ You can be part of the discussion @PofCharity on Twitter, @PrincipleofCharity on Facebook and @PrincipleofCharityPodcast on Instagram. Your hosts are Lloyd Vogelman and Emile Sherman. Find Lloyd @LloydVogelman on Linked in Find Emile @EmileSherman on Linked In and Twitter. This Podcast is Produced by Jonah Primo and Bronwen ReidFind Jonah at jonahprimo.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.