David Beckemeyer

Outrage Overload: Rethinking politics, division, and media

Science EN ↓ 157 episodes

If politics and media leave you feeling angry, overwhelmed, or exhausted, Outrage Overload is for you. In about 30 minutes every few weeks, we explore how outrage spreads, how hyper-partisanship distorts perception, and how media and technology amplify emotional extremes. Through conversations with leading scientists, researchers, and authors, we unpack the psychology, incentives, and systems shaping today’s political climate — and offer practical tools to think clearly, stay grounded, and respond constructively. Outrage Overload helps listeners with critical questions about outrage culture, p...

Author

David Beckemeyer

Episodes

4. We've Met the Enemy. And it's Us. - Sean Evans 11.01.2023 32:24

I sit down with Sean Evans, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Union University, to nerd-out on outrage and political science. We talk about how the parties have changed over the past fifty years, third parties and ranked-choice voting, accountability of our elected officials, and, yes, even some optimism. Episode 004 Text me your feedback and leave...

BONUS - ChatGPT weighs in on outrage porn 28.12.2022 30:34

I’m almost certain that you’ve heard of ChatGPT by now. It’s a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) chat bot that is taking the internet by storm, as they say. It’s free to use during a test period. Within days of launching, it soared to over one million users and now has several million - I don’t know how many at this point. People are posting all kinds of things produced by the bot, from answers to...

3. It Just Said "See Incivility" - Russ Charvonia 21.12.2022 39:24

Episode 003 In this episode, we speak with Russ Charvonia, author of the book The Civility Mosaic and President of the Worldwide Civility Council. Civility is not just about being nice. It’s about mutual respect and more. Civility is also not an end in itself but rather we need to look at it as a means through which we can have the discourse we need to have. Text me your feedback and leave your c...

BONUS - Outrage porn's impact on the midterms - Sean Evans 08.12.2022 35:19

In this episode, we catch up with political scientist Sean Evans to discuss what role "outrage porn" and "angertainment" played in the 2022 midterms. Text me your feedback and leave your contact info if you'd like a reply (this is a one-way text). Thanks, David Support the show Show Notes: https://outrageoverload.net/ Contact me, David Beckemeyer by email outrageoverload@gm...

2. Political Sectarianism: The Role of Outrage Porn - Peter Ditto - Part Two 08.12.2022 33:14

How democracy runs counter to almost all of our evolutionary tendencies In this episode we conclude our interview with Professor Peter H. Ditto, where we continue our discussion of political polarization and "outrage porn" including how we overestimate the extremism of the other side and their hatred of us and various other distortions that get in the way of productive dialogue, as well...

1. Political Sectarianism: The Role of Outrage Porn - Peter Ditto - Part One 08.12.2022 29:49

How liberals and conservatives behave more like Sunnis and Shias than they do political parties and why that’s a problem We speak with Peter H. Ditto , Professor of Psychological Science at UC Irvine, whose research sheds light on the forces driving political bias and the rise of media-driven outrage . Professor Ditto has been at the forefront of studying motivated reasoning , especially how it fu...

Outrage Overload Trailer 08.10.2022 1:43

Do you feel like outrage is everywhere? Do you ever feel like everything is designed to make you angry? The news, political campaigns, social media feeds — outrage is everywhere. I’m David Beckemeyer, and this is Outrage Overload — a podcast about our unhealthy relationship with the outrage industry. We go beyond the noise to unpack how outrage is used to manipulate us — and what it’s doing to our...