EP 144: “Our Search for Belonging: How Our Need to Connect Is Tearing Us Apart" with Howard Ross

“If you’re treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person. If certain things are described to you as being real they’re real for you whether they’re real or not.” — James Baldwin

We are living in a time of mounting political segregation that threatens to tear us apart as a unified society. The result is that we are becoming increasingly tribal, and the narratives of life that we get exposed to on a daily basis have become echo chambers in which we hear our beliefs reinforced and others' beliefs demonised. 

At the core of tribalism exists a paradox: as humans, we are hardwired with the need to belong, which ends up making us deeply connected with some yet deeply divided from others. 

When these tribes are formed out of fear of the "other," on topics such as race, immigration status, religion, or partisan politics, we resort to an "us versus them" attitude. 

Especially in the digital age, when we are all interconnected in one way or another, these tensions seep into our daily lives and we become secluded with our self-identified tribes. 

Today's guest explores how our human need to belong is the driving force behind the increasing division of our world. 

Drawing upon decades of leadership experience, he probes the depth of tribalism, examines the role of social media in exacerbating it, and offers tactics for how to combat it. 

Filled with tested practices for opening safe and honest dialogue in the workplace and challenges to confront our own tendencies to bond with those who are like us, his book “Our Search for Belonging” is a powerful statement of hope in a disquieting time.

We welcome diversity and inclusion expert and author of “Our Search for Belonging: How Our Need to Connect Is Tearing Us Apart” Howard J. Ross

We talk:

• Bias
• Polarisation
• Why we tend to form tribes
• Race and Gender
• Politics
• The brain
• White Privilege
• Empathy
• Media
• The Toilet Assumption

More about Howard here:

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Search-Belonging-Connect-Tearing/dp/1523095032

http://everydaybias.com/

https://twitter.com/HowardJRoss