By: Jeff Styer on March 31, 2025
As I read Pragya Agarwal, Sway, Unravelling Unconscious Bias, many of the books we read since starting this program came to mind; this made it hard to decide which direction to go in writing this post.[1] For this post, I am going to define some key terms related to bias, then I am going to…
By: Ryan Thorson on March 31, 2025
“Did you really write this?” During my college humanities class on “Fairy Tales,” the professor posed this question to me. I was taking her class as part of my English Literature degree, but I had to request an extension on a paper due to an upcoming collegiate football game I was traveling for and had…
By: Glyn Barrett on March 31, 2025
“Sway, Unravelling Unconscious Bias”[1] by Dr Praya Agarwal, a British Indian behavioural and data scientist, author, and consultant, offers the expected “research-based” narrative on a contemporary issue of the day. Although much of her research was based prior[2] to the watershed race relations issues, which climaxed in 2020 with the killing of George Floyd, the…
By: David Weston on March 30, 2025
The older I get, the more I realize how wrong I can really be. There, I said it. Coming face to face with our humanness can sometimes feel like a punch in the face. Bobby Duffy, in his book Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding [1], does a fantastic job…
By: Noel Liemam on March 30, 2025
Introduction “Sway: Unraveling Unconscious Bias,” by Dr. Agarwal [1] in which she talked about ‘unconscious biases’ and how it has affected the how we communicate, how decision is made, and even how we think. She talked about how it is instilled, or ‘hardwire’ within each individual, and how it is encouraged by our surroundings, and…
By: Elysse Burns on March 27, 2025
Bias is a deeply human experience. In Sway, Pragya Agarwal explores how bias, when misdirected, can lead to prejudice and discrimination against certain groups or communities.[1] She specifically examines implicit, or unconscious, bias, distinguishing it from explicit bias, while acknowledging that both can manifest in similar ways through discrimination and injustice. Her goal is to…
By: Noel Liemam on March 23, 2025
Introduction. What is postmodernism? Postmodernism covers a broad range of topics from architecture to philosophy. In fact, it is described as, “Postmodernism is the late 20th century movement in Western philosophy marked by skepticism, subjectivism, and relativism. It challenges the idea of objective truth and emphasizes the role of ideology in shaping in shaping political…
By: Michael Hansen on March 22, 2025
On a recent phone call with a family member, I was reminded how the mind could lead someone to remember the facts incredibly wrong. This time, the topic was vehicular accidents on the interstate and road safety. Our conversation became circular. Seeking to close, I finally asked, “What leads you to believe there are more…
By: Rich on March 22, 2025
This week, I read Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything by Bobby Duffy.[1] I will give a brief overview of the book, provide a self-deprecating example, and then apply the framework to the contemporary if not dry subject of federal taxation and spending. This book focuses on why people are often deluded about everyday political…
By: Debbie Owen on March 22, 2025
We arrived in Old Havana on a Saturday evening, only to find the city gripped by a nationwide power outage that had begun the previous day. The streets—full of rubble and trash, as always—were (we were told) unusually quiet, with none of the regular bustling activity you would expect in a city on a Saturday…
By: Ivan Ostrovsky on March 21, 2025
Before leaving for school, I would always ask my mom for some cash so I could buy myself a snack. I loved eating flavored crackers. I would watch my classmates eating all kinds of junk food, and I figured — if they were doing it, it must be okay for me too. This was back…
By: Kari on March 21, 2025
“We used their banana trees,” I responded to whether we had found a place to “faire les besoins.”[1] Our medical evangelical team was caravaning back to the city after a week in the interior. A few vehicles were delayed, so we pulled over and took advantage of the jungle around us. We had stopped in…
By: Linda Mendez on March 20, 2025
It was an unbearably hot and humid Sabbath morning in the peak of summer in El Salvador, and my father was preparing to take the pulpit. Dressed in a full suit and tie, I could only think how crazy he was for doing so. He stepped up to the pulpit and began his sermon. As…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on March 20, 2025
For nearly a year, I’ve been inviting those in my faith community to (re)examine where we root our identity and what it looks like if we miss-place it in something that isn’t meant to uphold that weight. Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything demonstrates that one of the ways to chase truth and avoid resistance…
By: Shela Sullivan on March 20, 2025
Introduction In a world where reason and truth are under constant scrutiny, Postmodernism emerges as both a critic and a challenger to the Enlightenment’s legacy.[1] In Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, Stephen R.C. Hicks debates that Postmodernism developed as a reaction to the failures of earlier ideas like the Enlightenment and…
By: Alex Mwaura on March 20, 2025
Some Kenyan history Following Kenya’s independence in 1963, a section of political leaders took over government after years of fighting for freedom. They were now charged with the difficult job of uniting and healing the country, keeping the nation safe and growing the economy. For a young nation, this was an arduous task. So, the…
By: Daren Jaime on March 20, 2025
In college, I remember the anxiety surrounding two semesters of philosophy and how many times I wanted to drop out of the course with the quickness. The problem, what I labored intently to retain, fell to the ground with expediency shortly after grasping the content. Despite my endless excavation into the subject matter and a…
By: Diane Tuttle on March 20, 2025
Before even getting to page one, philosophy professor, Stephen Hicks, Ph.D. let his reader know his thesis: The failure of epistemology made postmodernism possible, and the failure of socialism made postmodernism necessary[1]. Knowing that, I anticipated the reading of this book to be a clear and flowing experience. It was anything but that. Philosophy has…
By: Chad Warren on March 20, 2025
To quote blues musician Elmore James, we are “standing at the crossroads.” On one side, defenders of reason and individual freedom argue that the achievements of the Enlightenment—scientific progress, human rights, and democratic governance—are under threat. Conversely, a growing chorus claims these ideals have undermined community life, fostering alienation, moral relativism, and social decay. Two…
By: Jess Bashioum on March 20, 2025
As I read through Bobby Duffy’s Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything, I would ask myself, my husband and sons the questions from the surveys and was pleasantly surprised that our estimates where closer to the actual numbers than the average reply. This clearly shows that my family is the exception to the rule, and…
