Things got so raucous at the 10th Republican primary debate that at one point, the closed captions couldn't keep up and simply read "unintelligible yelling". Today, a seasoned debate moderator on how to keep onstage arguments civil.
Plus, searches for how to move to Canada spiked 350% on Super Tuesday. We'll find where Americans threatening to leave if Trump wins would go.
And later in the show: are human beings wired to be swindled? We'll explore the psychology of con artists and why people fall for them over and over again.
Listen to the full show.
The Art of Moderating
During last week’s GOP debate, the candidate exchanges were so raucous that, at one point, the closed captions simply read "unintelligible yelling". Reviews of moderator Wolf Blitzer were less than kind...New York Times Dave Itzkoff tweeted “very intrigued by Wolf Blitzer’s moderating strategy of ‘do absolutely nothing at any time’.” But what does it take to be an effective moderator?
Here with a firsthand account is John Donvan, host and moderator of the debate series Intelligence Squared US.
Very intrigued by Wolf Blitzer's moderating strategy of "do absolutely nothing at any time"
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 26, 2016
Political "Immigrants"
Threatening to flee the country when your candidate loses is nothing new, but not on the scale seen after yesterday’s primaries. When Donald Trump's support started gaining in the fall, the digital analytics firm Luminoso analyzed 4.5 Trump-related tweets to find out where people thought they'd go. Denise Christie is a client insights consultant at Luminoso, which initiated the Trump tracker.
Why Doing the Boston Accent is Wicked Hard
New Hampshire native Seth Meyers, host of Late Night with Seth Meyers, recently tapped into his New England roots with a faux-trailer for a movie called Boston Accent - it parodies films like The Departed, Black Mass, and The Town.
While Seth Meyers has mastered the Boston accent, not every actor has - even great actors get tripped up by it, but why? Eric Molinsky investigates this wicked awesome story.
Listen to this story again at PRX.org.
The Confidence Game
Human beings are wired to be swindled. We are instinctively trusting, love a good story, and feel like we are a little smarter and more deserving than others. So, we're easy marks for the frauds, grifters, clairvoyants, imposters, data embellishers, and spinners of elegant or sad tales that persuade us to trust con artists - the "aristocrats of crime".
Maria Konnikovais a writer and blogger on issues related to popular psychology. Her book, The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It...Every Time explores the psychology of con artist and the people who fall for them.