Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds

(Hardback)

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We live in a time when political consensus is on the verge of collapse, and our public life is so damaged that the very foundations of democracy seem to be under threat. Whether you are on the right or the left, one thing is clear we cant go on like this.

How to Talk About Politics teaches us a new way to communicate with each other that will effect social change, in effect, how to talk about politics with your family, friends and colleagues without falling into the same anger and divisiveness that characterises our age. Drawing on pioneering psychological research and grounded in her academic background as a political communicator and psychologist, Sarah Stein Lubrano unpacks the problems at the root of fake news, cancel culture, echo chambers and polarisation. She illustrates convincingly how the idea of politics as a war and debate as the answer is doomed to fail us as a society. She shows why and echo chambers are so tempting, and what we can do to break through them. Her chapter on her own latest research which shows how we feel physical pain when subjected to opposing ideas will resonate widely.

This is an uplifting, positive vision for progress based in practical and powerful ideas at the cutting edge of communication research. Its extremely intelligent, but practical and accessible. In short this book has exceptional potential in the bestselling categories of political and philosophical books.

Reviews

A very timely book indeed, full of wise, hopeful, sometimes sad, sometimes funny truths, about how we have reached the place we are in. It asks to put aside so much of what we think we know in the name of a more realistic assessment of how politics, language, communities and beliefs really work. Eye opening and necessary. * Alain de Botton, author of The Consolations of Philosophy and Essays in Love *
A timely and hopeful critique of todays political culture, Sarah Stein Lubrano challenges us to rethink politics placing interpersonal activism and community-building above performative outrage. * Alice Cappelle, author of Collapse Feminism: The Online Battle for Feminism's Future *
A rare combination of cognitive science and critical theory, Dont Talk About Politics gets nitty-gritty about political friendship, community trust, anticapitalist social infrastructure, the limits of protest or persuasion, and possibilities for normalising a kind of collective reasoning capable of engineering a more livable world. Sarah Stein Lubrano is an exceptionally erudite and thoughtful veteran activist. She always challenges peoples liberalism in the gentlest and most effective way possible, even as she insists that books are rarely the thing (primarily) that changes peoples mindsrather, its the experience of acting together. A skillful, meticulous dismantling of debate culture. * Sophie Lewis, author of Abolish the Family and Enemy Feminisms *
Don't Talk about Politics will reshape the way you think about political communication. Stein Lubrano makes a compelling, and extremely well-researched case, for ending 'debate culture' and instead learning how to engage with new audiences with open minds and open hearts. This book changed the way I talk about politics. * Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism *
[A] thought-provoking debut work. * Daily Mail *

Author Bio

Sarah Stein Lubrano is spokesperson and researcher at Alain de Bottons The School of Life, where she gives monthly live talks, radio and podcast interviews, and television appearances discussing big ideas, from the rise of the Protestant work ethic to the problem of living with self-hatred. Sarah is a frequent talking head on outlets like The Times Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and BBC Radio 4, including Womens Hour and The Moral Maze. In 2022 she appeared as a regular guest on Derren Browns Audible podcast, Bootcamp for Life, speaking about the psychological challenges of modern life. Prior to this, she was the Head of Content at the School of Life for many years.

Sarahs research on politics, communication and activism began at Harvard (where she won an award for being in the top ten percent of undergraduate research theses), Cambridge University (where her dissertation obtained a distinction) and Oxford University (where she is currently in the last year of her DPhil/PhD programme. Her academic work focuses on cognitive dissonance, a psychological phenomenon where people experience discomfort when faced with a contradiction between two or more of their beliefs or actions.

In addition, Sarah is Research Director at Future Narratives Lab, a nonprofit that works to define and analyse the underlying cultural models that shape the debates around key challenges of our time, and to design alternative approaches that create better outcomes.

Sarahs writing has been published in Aeon Magazine, the Guardian, and more. She has over 13,000 Twitter followers, and the number continues to grow.