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David: Ana Kasparian's with us on the phone, of course the co-host of The Young Turks.
Tell me about what's going on. You guys cover some of the same stories we cover, but before
we get to that, I have to ask you, do you read YouTube comments or not?
Ana Kasparian: I read YouTube comments very rarely. In the beginning of my stint with
The Young Turks, I used to read comments religiously because I was interested in the feedback,
but then you start to learn that reading the comments is not good for your self-esteem,
it's not good for your career. Most of the comments are not constructive, so I read very,
very rarely.
David: I'm starting to get into the same thing, because if every other comment is just an
anti-semitic slur about me, you're right, it's not going to make the show that much
better, but at the same time, I feel like if I ignore criticism, that's not... something
about that feels wrong too, you know?
Kasparian: Oh, absolutely. I think the only way to improve is to really listen to constructive
criticism, and I realized that the way that you get constructive criticism is usually
through email. So if I get emails from listeners, I always read them, and I always take their
suggestions into consideration. But YouTube, I feel like that's a completely different
beast. I mean, you get anti-semitic comments, I get comments on my ***.
David: Right.
Kasparian: So yeah, we both get, you know, the downfall of YouTube.
David: I would kind of prefer to get comments on my *** than anti-semitic comments,
though, myself. I don't know.
Kasparian: [Laughs] Right, it's a little better, I guess.
David: We've been doing this story for... it's kind of a long-term story about the fearmongering
and the fear tactics that are used by Republicans. Glenn Beck recently did a whole infomercial
basically talking to people about you should be scared, so you should buy gold coins from
my sponsor.
David: You should be scared that you're not going to have food, so you should buy food
insurance, also from my sponsor. And then actually, it turns out a new study says conservatives
actually have bigger fear centers in their brains, so maybe they actually can't help
being susceptible to this type of thing.
Kasparian: Right. There was a study done by a neurologist from the University College
London, and what he found by doing brain scans on 92 people is that conservatives tend to
have a larger amygdala, and that is the fear center in their brains. Now, this is a really
interesting study, but there are limitations to it.
David: Yeah.
Kasparian: You have to really keep in mind that first of all, it was only done on 92
adults, and there's the whole question of the chicken or the egg. Does their political
beliefs and their political values shape their brain structure, or is it the other way around,
are they born with this, you know, predisposition to be conservative?
David: And this goes back, there's the previous, the liberal gene story, which everybody was
talking about back in October, which was the Harvard and UC San Diego thing. And it said
there's this DRD4 gene, and it predisposes people to being liberal, and... but that's
only if they've had active social lives while they were in high school.
Kasparian: Right.
David: And again, it's also kind of the same question, right? Are we building a genetic
persona of the conservative, or are these just the effects that being conservative has
on your brain?
Kasparian: I mean, it's a great question, and I think that it's a question that's, you
know, better left to scientists to answer.
David: Instead of us, yeah.
Kasparian: But of course, I think that it's a mixture of both nature versus nurture. I
think that, you know, maybe people do have predispositions to certain political beliefs,
but our social lives and, you know, basically the environment that we are raised in really
has an effect on, you know, what type of political ideals we form in the future.
David: I would love for them to expand it beyond the 92 people, though, because it would
just be a lot of fun for shows like The Young Turks and my show and so many others if we
could actually point out and say you know what? There's a medical explanation for why
conservatives find Glenn Beck so compelling.
Kasparian: No, I know, I love it. And you know, what's really funny is when this whole
study by the neurologist came out, a lot of conservative bloggers took it and they twisted
it, and of course, that's not something that we're, you know, we're not... we're used to
that, basically, from conservatives.
David: Yeah.
Kasparian: But what they did is they took this study and they said a-ha! See, liberals?
We have larger brains than you. What about that? But of course, they ignore the fact
of the study that said that conservatives tend to have a smaller anterior cingulate,
which is responsible for courage and optimism. They just completely ignore that. [Laughs]
David: You know, it's funny because if this is, let's just assume that there is something
to this and maybe it's not all nurture, it's not all nature, right, there is something
biological here, at least a little bit. What Glenn Beck is doing is absolutely genius.
I mean, he has the perfect audience to be pulled in by getting scared about, I mean,
literally everything. The dollar is not going to be worth anything, your food is-- you're
not going to be able to get food, you know, it's just, the long list of laundry things...
he's a genius in a way.
Kasparian: No, you're absolutely correct, he is a genius. And look, we've seen this
used, this tactic used by conservatives and Republicans time and time again. I mean, what
is the main reason why George Bush and *** Cheney had widespread support when they wanted
to invade the Middle East? It's because people were scared. And the fearmongering is such
a successful tactic by them, it's incredible. So it's interesting to see that, you know,
according to these brain scans, they have a part of their brain, the fear center, that's
larger compared to, you know, the brains of liberals. It's really fascinating information.
And as you said, yeah, it's definitely a successful tactic used by people like Glenn Beck and
Rush Limbaugh.
There was another study done that showed that if people already believe something, regardless
of how much information you throw at them, how much truth and fact you throw at them,
they are very unlikely to change what their opinions already are. So I mean, all of these
studies are super interesting because it really lets you know what the psychology is behind
all of these political values and these political ideals.
David: That explains what happens every time I interview Shirley Phelps-Roper from the
God Hates *** church. She's just... she's probably just, it's been too many years of
the God Hates *** stuff, I'm just not going to be able to convince her otherwise.
Kasparian: Oh, absolutely not. People like that are so extreme in their views it doesn't
matter what type of information you throw at them, they're very unlikely to change because
their views have now become their identity, and it's really hard to change that. It's
like letting go of who they are.
David: Yeah, I mean, essentially, without God Hates *** signs, Shirley Phelps-Roper
doesn't exist as a person. You're absolutely right.
Kasparian: Yes.
David: Hey, last thing. What goes on during breaks at The Young Turks in the studio? People
always ask us what goes on here, and literally nothing goes on. I mean, we check our email,
and it's like the most boring thing. Does anything good go on there?
Kasparian: You know, it's funny you ask that question. Oh, actually, we have pretty eventful
breaks most of the time. Usually, Cenk is such a colorful guy, he's so much fun, so
you know, one time, it was funny, our mics were left on during the break on accident,
and I guess Cenk got hungry and he said that he needed a fruit injection, and that means
he needs like someone to get him like a piece of fruit so he doesn't lose focus during the
show. And like we always have fun. We joke around. We usually talk about what we're going
to do in the next segment. We definitely check our emails, we check Twitter just to see what
the feedback is. So they're usually eventful, they're usually fun. Sometimes we don't talk
at all because we're so wrapped up in our email or whatever, but...
David: It's funny you mention the mics being left on. I never mentioned this, but a few
weeks ago... we do this live Ustream feed during the show, and we've started... we used
to start it like 10 minutes early, I just thought it was cool people could see what
goes on in the studio, and my producer who, he, I don't know what he was thinking. The
mics were just on, and I was just railing about a listener who's been like stalking
me on Twitter, Facebook, sending me emails, and we were like hold on a second, are the
mics on?
Kasparian: Oh, no!
David: Fortunately, that person, who normally is watching those 10 minutes before the show
starts, that day was tied up doing something and didn't know the better of it, but it was
a close call, you know?
Kasparian: Oh, that's awesome. Do you podcast your show by any chance?
David: Yeah, we do. We're on iTunes and all that stuff, yeah.
Kasparian: Oh, wow. Well, you're lucky that he or she didn't listen to the podcast from
that day.
David: Oh, no, we cut that out, you'd better believe that. There was no evidence of that.
We did like a forensic cleaning of it. There was no evidence that ever took place.
Kasparian: Oh, wow, that's incredible. [Laughs]
David: All right. Ana Kasparian, co-host of The Young Turks for three years already, I
have to say, joining us on the phone. Thanks so much. We'll have you back soon.
Kasparian: Thank you.
Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham. For transcription, translation, captions, and
subtitles, contact Alex at directtranslation@gmail.com.