The Paradox of Authenticity - Thomas de Zengotita

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy

Mediated Series - Part 7: Published in 2005, Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live In It, became Bridget's bible for understanding the changing media landsc ape and how it is affecting our society and behavior. Now she sits down with author Thomas de Zengotita for a multi-part series discussing the book chapter by chapter.

Thomas de Zengotita returns to continue the discussion about his book Mediated. This week he and Bridget cover the paradox of authenticity, how you can't be self-conscious about who you are and still be authentic, how we're all essentially performing our "true selves," and how the only real thing in today's mediated culture is an accident. They cover the amount of time we spend in between the screen world and the real world, choosing between the versions of yourself that you’re constantly playing, being busy is a way of being “somebody,” why the ultimate form of mediation is language itself, why progressives who are always right are phony progressives, how people are less likely to be depressed or anxious when they’re absolutely certain of stuff, when the absence of stimulation causes panic, the difference between witnessing & rubbernecking, and what it means to live a life of doubt.

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Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment.

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