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Who actually advantages from distant work? Is it true that politicians must be anti-immigration to win elections? Every episode of Good on Paper, the brand new podcast hosted by my colleague Jerusalem Demsas, delves right into a misunderstood coverage problem that deserves extra nuanced evaluation. I spoke with Jerusalem about how some narratives get lodged within the public’s thoughts and the risks of tales that really feel true however aren’t.
First, listed below are three new tales from The Atlantic:
A Solution to Simplify
Stephanie Bai: Why do you assume sure narratives can turn into so entrenched, even when the information don’t help them? And why are different narratives extra more likely to fade?
Jerusalem Demsas: Narratives are a method of simplifying a very sophisticated world. Compelling ones comply with story constructions that we’re used to seeing: a villain and a hero, a nasty developer versus a mom who’s struggling to get her children by faculty. These sorts of narratives are compelling as a result of there’s a spark of reality in them, which is that there are energy struggles on this planet; there are winners and losers. Many narratives stick as a result of they reaffirm our personal opinions and views, however that may be actually harmful: Simply because one thing feels true doesn’t imply that it’s.
The narratives that don’t stick are often those which can be extra sophisticated. There isn’t all the time a clear-cut good man and dangerous man. Usually we’re simply present in methods the place a bunch of individuals act in their very own self-interest; a few of them try to do good, however individuals have totally different conceptions of what good is. Making an attempt to explain a world filled with that form of complexity isn’t as satisfying.
Stephanie: In your current story about maternal mortality, you discuss concerning the doom-and-gloom framing that activists can use to highlight points. What are a few of the counterproductive penalties of that strategy that individuals won’t anticipate?
Jerusalem: There’s this notion, which will be proper within the brief time period, that if you happen to say, “A bridge goes to break down,” it’s going to get extra consideration than a report that claims there are some structural deficiencies in America’s infrastructure.
However in the long run, that first framing actually erodes belief between the people who find themselves making an attempt to get consideration for his or her trigger and the people who find themselves making an attempt to triage totally different points. As a result of on the finish of the day, there are finite quantities of time and sources. Coverage makers have to decide on which issues to prioritize, which means that one thing else will lose out. So if established organizations or journalists are continually pushing out this narrative that all the pieces’s on fireplace, it impedes coverage makers from making any type of ordering choices. They may attempt to do all the pieces without delay or prioritize the improper issues, which may result in chaos.
Stephanie: In your first episode, you focus on a examine that discovered that senior ladies engineers at an unnamed Fortune 500 firm have been extra productive after they labored remotely as a result of they have been spending much less time on mentorship and giving suggestions. However a prevailing narrative that took off in the course of the pandemic is that ladies working from house are doubly burdened: They must juggle baby care and take care of the same old work tasks. As extra analysis will get executed on this matter, what are the subsequent questions in your thoughts in relation to how distant work impacts ladies?
Jerusalem: Once we ask, Is distant work working for ladies?, we’re additionally asking, Are they fulfilled? Is it true that distant work is making it attainable for them to be extra versatile, go choose their children up from college, or hang around with their mates of their free time? Additionally, although it’s the case that mentorship is uncompensated by most employers, there’s quite a lot of connection that extra skilled employees derive from that kind of labor. Some individuals have responded to my podcast saying that they miss that side of their work, regardless that they resented not being paid for it.
I feel it’s actually essential to start out from the query: What do we wish work to do for individuals’s lives? Does that differ by trade?
Stephanie: What’s an concept or narrative that sounded good on paper to you however won’t warrant a complete podcast episode?
Jerusalem: The concept move/fail lessons are simple and never traumatic. I took Mandarin move/fail my senior yr of faculty, pondering it will be a low-stakes method of studying just a little little bit of an essential language. I ended up within the horrible center house of devoting sufficient time to the category in order to not fail but not devoting sufficient time to really choose up just a little Mandarin. What do I bear in mind? Wǒ bú huì shuō zhōngwén.
Associated:
At this time’s Information
- Hunter Biden was convicted on three felony fees associated to the acquisition and possession of a handgun.
- Hamas mentioned that it was prepared to just accept the UN Safety Council’s U.S.-backed decision for a everlasting cease-fire in Gaza as the idea for additional negotiations, in accordance with Reuters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has neither formally accepted nor rejected the proposal.
- The Biden administration introduced a proposal that may forestall credit-reporting businesses from utilizing medical debt to calculate credit score scores.
Night Learn
The Subsequent Nice American Mega-Style
By Spencer Kornhaber
In the event you ask People about their favourite style of music, the highest choose tends to be traditional rock. However if you happen to ask them which style is “most consultant of America in the present day,” you get principally a break up: 36 % say nation, whereas 37 % say rap/hip-hop, in accordance with a 2023 ballot from the analysis agency YouGov … These findings would appear to help varied preconceptions a few crimson/rural America and a blue/city America, united solely in affection for “Don’t Cease Believin’.”
However what if these genres needn’t be all that separate? What if hip-hop and nation merged into one thing that felt like traditional rock? The thought appears like it will be worthwhile for the file trade—and it is likely to be what’s taking place now.
Extra From The Atlantic
Tradition Break
Cheer alongside. Workforce USA’s historic win within the present international cricket match was a shot heard world wide, Joseph O’Neill writes. Now it simply wants a home viewers.
Watch. Ishana Evening Shyamalan’s debut movie, The Watchers, finds a cautious stability between the freaky and the mundane, David Sims writes.
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