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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 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 here are three new tales from The Atlantic:
A Option to Simplify
Stephanie Bai: Why do you suppose sure narratives can change into so entrenched, even when the information don’t assist them? And why are different narratives extra more likely to fade?
Jerusalem Demsas: Narratives are a approach of simplifying a extremely difficult world. Compelling ones comply with 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 school. These sorts of narratives are compelling as a result of there’s a spark of fact in them, which is that there are energy struggles on the earth; 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 are extra difficult. There isn’t all the time a clear-cut good man and unhealthy man. Usually we’re simply current in programs the place a bunch of individuals act in their very own self-interest; a few of them are attempting to do good, however individuals have completely different conceptions of what good is. Making an attempt to explain a world stuffed with that type of complexity isn’t as satisfying.
Stephanie: In your current story about maternal mortality, you discuss in regards to 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 won’t anticipate?
Jerusalem: There’s this notion, which could be proper within the quick time period, that in case you 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 term, 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 completely 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, that means that one thing else will lose out. So if established organizations or journalists are continuously pushing out this narrative that every part’s on hearth, it impedes coverage makers from making any kind of ordering selections. They may attempt to do every part without delay or prioritize the mistaken issues, which might result in chaos.
Stephanie: In your first episode, you focus on a examine that discovered that senior girls 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 throughout the pandemic is that girls working from house are doubly burdened: They need to juggle little one care and cope with the standard work duties. 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 doable for them to be extra versatile, go decide 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 employees derive from that kind of labor. Some individuals have responded to my podcast saying that they miss that facet of their work, although they resented not being paid for it.
I believe it’s actually essential to begin from the query: What do we wish work to do for individuals’s lives? Does that differ by trade?
Stephanie: What’s an thought or narrative that sounded good on paper to you however won’t warrant an entire podcast episode?
Jerusalem: The concept move/fail courses are straightforward and never anxious. I took Mandarin move/fail my senior 12 months of school, considering it will be a low-stakes approach of studying just a little little bit of an essential 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 decide up just a little Mandarin. What do I bear in mind? Wǒ bú huì shuō zhōngwén.
Associated:
At the moment’s Information
- Hunter Biden was convicted on three felony fees associated to the acquisition and possession of a handgun.
- Hamas stated 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 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 companies from utilizing medical debt to calculate credit score scores.
Night Learn
The Subsequent Nice American Mega-Style
By Spencer Kornhaber
Should you ask Individuals about their favourite style of music, the highest decide tends to be traditional rock. However in case you ask them which style is “most consultant of America at this time,” you get mainly 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 assist varied preconceptions a couple of pink/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 concept seems like it will be worthwhile for the report trade—and it is perhaps what’s occurring now.
Extra From The Atlantic
Tradition Break
Cheer alongside. Workforce USA’s historic win within the present world cricket event was a shot heard around the globe, Joseph O’Neill writes. Now it simply wants a home viewers.
Watch. Ishana Night time Shyamalan’s debut movie, The Watchers, finds a cautious stability between the freaky and the mundane, David Sims writes.
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