Inner Propaganda with Owen Fitzpatrick

I was lying on a wooden floor in the Amazon jungle, convinced I was finally seeing the truth. The colors were sharper. The connections were obvious. Everything made sense. There was just one problem: I am a psychologist who studies how people get tricked into believing things, and right at that moment, I was being tricked. What the ayahuasca did to my perception that night is a more extreme version of what is happening to every one of us every single day.
Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett calls it affective realism. Your feelings do not just shape what you think. They construct what you see. In 2021, an ecologist named Martin Scheffer tracked emotional versus rational language in books and newspapers from 1850 to the present and found that we are living in the most emotionally engineered information environment in modern history. Most of us have no framework for navigating it.
In this episode of Inner Propaganda, I explore how emotions work as constructions rather than reactions, what the body budget is, and why your physical state determines what you perceive as threatening, and how a 2007 research study revealed that simply naming an emotion precisely is enough to reduce its intensity. I also share the story of Robert Piché, a Canadian pilot who, in 2001, glided a powerless aircraft 120 kilometers over the Atlantic with 306 people on board and landed safely, because he had learned years earlier in a prison cell that fear does not have to steer you in the wrong direction.
What you will discover:
Why the emotional state you are in does not just color your mood but determines the version of reality you actually perceive
How a 2021 study tracking 170 years of language reveals that emotional engineering in media and politics is not accidental, it is systematic
Why modern neuroscience suggests emotions are constructions your brain builds in real time from your senses, your body, and your memories, not reactions to the world around you
What the body budget is and why being tired, hungry, or stressed makes threats appear more real and more serious than they actually are
A practical three-part framework for working with your emotions in any high-stakes moment: Label it, Use it, Change it
Pre-order Inner Propaganda: https://innerpropaganda.com/
Visit: https://owenfitzpatrick.com/ 
#InnerPropaganda #Feelings #Emotions

Socrates was executed for it. The ancient Greeks called it parrhesia: the practice of speaking truth openly, even at personal risk. The form of conversation it made possible, genuine dialogue aimed at mutual understanding, has quietly disappeared from the way most of us communicate today.
What replaced it was debate. And debate, it turns out, is one of the least effective tools we have for actually changing minds.
In this episode of Inner Propaganda, I sit down with Tamsen Webster, design expert, persuasion researcher, and doctoral candidate, to explore what it actually takes to change minds ethically and durably. Drawing on Habermas, sense-making and sense-giving theory, Bayesian probability, and the ancient Greek concept of parrhesia, we get into the real mechanics of how beliefs shift and what that means for anyone trying to communicate, lead, or connect.
What you will discover:
Why debate, discussion, and dialogue are three completely different tools with three completely different goals, and why entering the wrong one makes genuine understanding impossible
How carrying a persuasive intent into a conversation can be the very thing that prevents persuasion from happening
The two-word phrase that can shift how you experience disagreement in real time
Why the if-then structure underpins all human understanding, and what that means for anyone trying to land a new idea
The one belief Tamsen thinks too many people carry, and why it may be the single biggest obstacle to genuine connection
Pre-order Inner Propaganda: https://innerpropaganda.com/ 
Visit: https://owenfitzpatrick.com/
Follow Tamsen Webster: https://tamsenwebster.com/
 
#InnerPropaganda #Persuasion #Psychology #Beliefs

At 25 years old, Anne Devlin was tortured, thrown into a cell with six inches of sewage on the floor, and offered the equivalent of $90,000 to talk. For three years, she endured it all without saying a single word.
The psychology that explains her silence is the same psychology that determines whether the people on your team will give everything for your mission, or quietly walk away.
In this episode of Inner Propaganda, I explore the three forces that drive deep commitment in any group, organization, or movement: labeling, belonging, and becoming. Drawing on Henry Tajfel's social identity theory, Solomon Asch's conformity studies, and Stanley Milgram's sidewalk experiment, I walk through exactly how identity shapes belief, and what leaders can do with that understanding.
What you will discover:
Why the labels we assign to people do not just describe identity, they create it
Why social exclusion registers neurologically the same way physical pain does
How identity fusion explains the most extraordinary acts of commitment and sacrifice
What the science of belonging means for building teams that truly believe in what they are doing
The dangers of groupthink, and how to protect against it
Pre-order Inner Propaganda: https://innerpropaganda.com/
Visit: https://owenfitzpatrick.com/
 
#InnerPropaganda #Leadership #Psychology #Belonging

Nobody thinks they're the one watching propaganda. It's always the other channel. That's naive realism, and it's one of the biggest barriers to meaningful conversation.
In this episode of Inner Propaganda, I introduce the Five Types of Truth: past, objective, shared, emotional, and desired. Each one shapes how we think, decide, and relate to others. Each has its own power and its own risks.
I also share a practical framework for using this model when you're trying to influence someone else, including a step-by-step example around helping someone move past their fear of artificial intelligence.
What you'll discover:
–       Why naive realism shuts down real conversation
–       The five types of truth, with real-world examples for each
–       Why belief is often the admission fee for belonging to a group
–       How to communicate more effectively by understanding which truth someone is operating from
 
Pre-order Inner Propaganda: https://innerpropaganda.com/
Visit: https://owenfitzpatrick.com/

This episode of Inner Propaganda is one I have been waiting to make for a long time. In honor of May the 4th, we are going full Star Wars to answer one of the most important questions in movie history: how did Emperor Palpatine turn the galaxy's greatest hero into a mass murderer? And how did Luke Skywalker manage to turn him back?
In this episode, I break down how Palpatine engineered the conversion of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, and how Luke Skywalker reversed it at the very end. This is not just a Star Wars deep dive. It is a masterclass in how beliefs are built and identities are hijacked.
In this episode, you will discover:
The real psychology behind Jedi mind tricks
The three-part framework behind every major belief change: feels right, fits in, makes sense
How fear and anger have been used to manipulate populations throughout history
How Luke used belief and connection to bring his father back from the dark side
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