“There’s one statistic I came across that suggested that 90% of people think they're more objective than average. And I wouldn't you know, I put myself in that category.” (With Jessica Nordell, author of The End of Bias)
So you’re thinking about your place in larger political systems and wondering how your own biases are showing up in your work. What do you do?
For Jessica Nordell, a journalist who has extensively covered the fallout of our political and social biases, the answer was the dig into how they’re formed, how they impact our lives, and how we can change our minds and the minds of others. Her book, The End of Bias, forced her to confront not only our larger cultural biases, but her personal biases as well. She delivers into the research regarding how to make change by starting with the very thing that prompts us to try: our minds.
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Credits:
To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat.
Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.
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Jessica Nordell
Jessica Nordell is an award-winning author and science writer known for blending rigorous science with compassionate humanity. Her first book, The End of Bias: A Beginning, shortlisted for the 2022 Columbia Journalism/Lukas Prize for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2022 NYPL Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize, is the culmination of fifteen years of reporting and writing on the subject of bias and discrimination and how to solve it, for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the New Republic. The End of Bias was named a Best Book of the Year by the World Economic Forum, Greater Good, AARP, and Inc and is currently being used by organizations from newsrooms and startups to universities, healthcare organizations, and faith communities to solve some of their biggest cultural challenges.
Deeply engaged with connecting across differences to expand and heal the human experience, Nordell's own early-career experience with workplace bias inspired her passion for tackling discrimination. With degrees in physics from Harvard and poetry from the University of Wisconsin, Nordell often collaborates across disciplines; her work with computer scientists to simulate the real-world impact of workplace bias became a 2021 viral NYT story. Nordell has been a visiting scholar at MIT and is the recipient of a Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television, was named a Best New Poet by Tracy K. Smith, and was a 2022 featured speaker at SXSW. She is a direct descendent of the last woman t… Read More
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