Episode 93: The Milgram and Zimbardo Experiments

May 25, 2016

“The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.”

— Stanley Milgram

“I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures. Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?”

— Philip Zimbardo

In the mid-twentieth century, social psychologists Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo conducted very influential and prominent experiments in the field which have had long lasting implications in our understanding of morality, independent decision making and perceptions of power over others. Though dated, each experiment lends to a discussion of dehumanization, which is rather common in our world today. This week, we welcome Naomi Ali to discuss some of the conclusions of both studies and how they might not be as black-and-white as some people might believe. How might the data be misinterpreted? What role did bias play in either experiment? Are people as helplessly suggestible as the studies might conclude?

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Episode 92: "Yesterday, I Graduated"

May 22, 2016

“I can see, too, despite the illusion in the mirror that I am singular, the composite of souls who have had a hand in mine. I am not the solitary figure reflected back at me, I am penned and shaped by all of them, by you. The people who have not only written my story but those who have helped me to tell it. They have given me the words and the feelings behind them. They have given me everything. My home has not been a place or a time but the people who have kept me.”

— Kip Clark

With my graduation yesterday, there are some thoughts I feel compelled to share. What I have learned, what the past four years have given me and the role they will play in the greater scope of my life. These are words to myself, for those who have given me the feelings and thoughts to express them. - Kip Clark

To the Sounds of Marching Feet

Episode 91: "Today, We Graduate"

May 21, 2016

“Old Kenyon, we are like Kokosing,
Obedient to some strange spell,
Which urges us from all reposing;
Farewell, Old Kenyon,
Fare thee well.

And yet we are not like Kokosing,
Which beareth naught upon its swell
But foam of motion’s own composing;
Farewell, Old Kenyon,
Fare thee well.”

— An excerpt from the Kokosing Farewell, one of Kenyon's traditional songs.

Today, as we graduate, we say goodbye to Kenyon College, where this podcast began and where so many voices and thoughts have been recorded in the past two years. To honor our graduating class and to demonstrate the variety of experiences and perspectives, we asked for written submissions from our fellow seniors, which we read aloud. As this episode posts, we are walking across the stage, receiving our diplomas and swimming in the endless tides of memories, feelings and thoughts both nostalgic and forward-looking. Our thanks to our wonderful listeners, as well as to those who contributed to this composite of narratives. To the graduating Class of 2016: Congratulations! - Kip and Caroline

Our thanks to Alex Piper, Thomas Loughney, Chace Beech, Lucy Evert, Marie Laube, Timmy Broderick, Jinexa Nuñez, Gabe Brison-Trezise, Sam Whipple, Katy Santa Maria, Annaliese Milano, Lucy Iselin and Anna Yukevich for their submissions.

Episode 90: "Tomorrow, I Graduate"

May 20, 2016

“It took me a long time to feel enough. Doubts still loom, big doubts, but, I understand now that insecurity and uncertainty are things to be embraced. How humbling it is to be so young and to be incomplete, how hopeful and exciting and promising that is.”

— Caroline Borders

It's hard to put leaving anywhere into words. As many of us prepare to graduate tomorrow, I tried my best at putting some thoughts together. It certainly doesn't say it all, but I've tried to capture the aspects of my time at Kenyon College that were most impactful. This place, its people, its rhythm, its trees, has changed me and I can only attempt to bless it before I go. - Caroline

Episode 89: "This Is Water"

May 18, 2016

“But if you’ve really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars-compassion, love, the sub-surface unity of all things. Not that that mystical stuff’s necessarily true: The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re going to try to see it. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship...”

— David Foster Wallace

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default-setting, the “rat race”-the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.”

— David Foster Wallace

As we prepare to graduate in three days, we felt it appropriate to examine and analyze another commencement address. This time, we chose to look at a well-known speech from our alma mater (Kenyon College) by David Foster Wallace. In this beloved address, often referred to as "This Is Water," Wallace examines the values of a liberal arts education. He emphasizes the mundane, soul-crushing and depressing realities of adult life, the daily battles and chores which face all of us in adulthood. He adds, however, that he feels the value of a liberal arts education lies in how one learns to think. He discusses the conscious choices one can make in perceiving the environment, social situations and the beautiful freedom in pursuing one's own beliefs through critical thought.

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