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Who actually advantages from distant work? Is it true that politicians need to 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 subject 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 Method to Simplify
Stephanie Bai: Why do you suppose sure narratives can grow to be so entrenched, even when the details don’t assist them? And why are different narratives extra more likely to fade?
Jerusalem Demsas: Narratives are a means of simplifying a very difficult world. Compelling ones observe story buildings that we’re used to seeing: a villain and a hero, a foul developer versus a mom who’s struggling to get her children by means of school. 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 normally those which are extra difficult. There isn’t all the time a clear-cut good man and unhealthy man. Usually we’re simply present in techniques 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 type of complexity shouldn’t be as satisfying.
Stephanie: In your current story about maternal mortality, you speak concerning the doom-and-gloom framing that activists can use to highlight points. What are a few of the counterproductive penalties of that method that individuals may not count on?
Jerusalem: There’s this notion, which could be proper within the quick 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 attempting to get consideration for his or her trigger and the people who find themselves attempting to triage totally different points. As a result of on the finish of the day, there are finite quantities of time and assets. 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 continuously pushing out this narrative that every thing’s on hearth, it impedes coverage makers from making any type of ordering choices. They may attempt to do every thing directly or prioritize the incorrect issues, which may result in chaos.
Stephanie: In your first episode, you talk about a research that discovered that senior girls engineers at an unnamed Fortune 500 firm have been extra productive once 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 need to juggle youngster care and take care of the standard work obligations. As extra analysis will get completed on this matter, what are the subsequent questions in your thoughts on the subject of how distant work impacts girls?
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 pals of their free time? Additionally, although it’s the case that mentorship is uncompensated by most employers, there’s plenty of connection that extra skilled staff derive from that sort of labor. Some individuals have responded to my podcast saying that they miss that side of their work, though they resented not being paid for it.
I feel it’s actually necessary to begin from the query: What do we would like work to do for individuals’s lives? Does that differ by business?
Stephanie: What’s an concept or narrative that sounded good on paper to you however may not warrant a complete podcast episode?
Jerusalem: The concept that cross/fail courses are straightforward and never irritating. I took Mandarin cross/fail my senior 12 months of school, considering it will be a low-stakes means of studying a little bit little bit of an necessary language. I ended up within the horrible center area of devoting sufficient time to the category in order to not fail but not devoting sufficient time to actually choose up a little bit Mandarin. What do I bear in mind? Wǒ bú huì shuō zhōngwén.
Associated:
In the present day’s Information
- Hunter Biden was convicted on three felony prices associated to the acquisition and possession of a handgun.
- Hamas mentioned that it was keen to simply accept the UN Safety Council’s U.S.-backed decision for a everlasting cease-fire in Gaza as the premise for additional negotiations, in line with Reuters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has neither formally accepted nor rejected the proposal.
- The Biden administration introduced a proposal that may stop credit-reporting companies from utilizing medical debt to calculate credit score scores.
Night Learn
The Subsequent Nice American Mega-Style
By Spencer Kornhaber
In case you ask Individuals about their favourite style of music, the highest choose tends to be basic rock. However if you happen to ask them which style is “most consultant of America at the moment,” you get mainly a cut up: 36 % say nation, whereas 37 % say rap/hip-hop, in line with a 2023 ballot from the analysis agency YouGov … These findings would appear to assist numerous preconceptions a couple of 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 basic rock? The thought appears like it will be worthwhile for the document business—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 world cricket match was a shot heard all over the world, Joseph O’Neill writes. Now it simply wants a home viewers.
Watch. Ishana Night time Shyamalan’s debut movie, The Watchers, finds a cautious steadiness between the freaky and the mundane, David Sims writes.
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