Year in Review: Featuring our most popular newsletters from 2023
Issue 99: Our most popular newsletters from 2023, plus a couple of hidden gems
Thanks for a wonderful 2023! We started this newsletter a little under three years ago to soft-launch our book, The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony, and this year, our newsletter experienced a ton of growth. We had over 110,000 people read our newsletters and now have nearly 3,300 subscribers!
Because there are so many new people, we decided to highlight our most popular posts from the past year, plus a couple of hidden gems from when we were a smaller community. Whether you’re an old subscriber who missed one of these or a new subscriber who needs a place to start reading, these previous newsletters will offer useful insights and spark curiosity.
Here are our biggest hits of 2023:
#5 - Fighting Misinformation with Science
This issue covers misinformation's impact on public health and society. We summarize a new report by experts from the American Psychological Association and Center for Disease Control. The report emphasizes the challenge of correcting false beliefs tied to people's identities and offers up some strategies.
While some solutions are actions that individuals can take, others require systemic changes across platforms, industries, and governments. Recognizing the problem and working together with informed strategies can help curb the harmful effects of misinformation.
#4 - How to Survive a Polarizing Thanksgiving
In our Thanksgiving Survival Guide, we address the tension often experienced at politically polarized family gatherings. We offer insights for how to navigate these tough situations, with five practical tips for any dinner gathering.
Research reveals that politically diverse Thanksgiving dinners tend to be notably shorter than those where guests share similar political views. The atmosphere at politically diverse gatherings often leads to shorter interactions due to the discomfort associated with differing opinions. To help ease these tense moments, check out our guide!
#3 - The Secret to a Long Life
In this issue, we explored the link between social connections and longevity. The Netflix series "Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones" highlighted communities where long life is common, attributing it to cultural factors rather than individual habits like exercise or diet. Research backs this, showing a 50% increase in longevity for people with strong social ties.
Our societal shift towards individualism and technology contributes to loneliness, affecting mental and physical health. This contrasts with our evolutionary need for social connections in small groups.
#2 - The Corrosive Effects of Bullshit
Perhaps this issue was popular because of the colorful language in its title. We delve into the impact of bullshit on groups and organizations, a concept dissected by philosopher Harry Frankfurt. He distinguished bullshit from lies, highlighting its indifference to truth. Bullshit involves making claims solely to impress or persuade, without any regard for accuracy. It infiltrates politics, advertising, academia, and everyday conversations, corroding trust and causing disarray.
To counteract this, fostering a culture of intellectual honesty, promoting critical thinking, and exhibiting honest leadership can mitigate the influence of bullshit. We also share a Bullshit Receptivity Test to gauge your susceptibility to such misleading rhetoric.
#1 - The Power of Us Course
Slightly more popular than our bullshit newsletter, was our free syllabus for the Power of Us course! This issue was designed as a free resource for educators who would like to use the Power of Us as a guide for teaching a course on identity and groups.
The course syllabus is ideal for college students, but can easily be adapted for book clubs (e.g., by focusing on on the book and excluding any assignments), organizations (e.g., by making the original research articles optional and including case studies or practical activities) or academic seminars (e.g., by focusing on the original research articles and requiring an original research project).
The syllabus is filled with videos, activities, and suggested supplementary readings, and we are happy to share all the educational content we have developed (including slides and test questions) for free to anyone who assigns our book! Visit this link to request our teaching materials and visit our #1 newsletter below to see if for yourself.
Plus two Hidden Gems from our early days…
Dom’s favorite: We Eat What We Are
The holidays are a time of food and fellowship. In this blast from the past, we discussed the fascinating relationships between our identities and how we eat. As Anthony Bourdain put it, “Food is everything we are. It's an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It's inseparable from those from the get-go.”
Jay’s favorite: Lessons in Leadership from Ukraine
This year, Putin pushed the world to the precipice of a nuclear war and initiated one of the most violent conflicts in Europe since WWII. To almost everyone’s surprise, Ukrainians not only defended their country from the much larger Russian military, but pushed them back. Very early in the conflict, we noticed that President Zelensky was embodying a form of identity leadership that we had written about in our book. When we wrote the column, we discussed the possibility that he was in mortal danger and might be killed within days or even hours. But his inspiring example helped Ukraine maintain resistance and serves as a case study of compelling leadership.
Learn more about THE POWER OF US
If you like our newsletter, we encourage you to check out our award-winning book “The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony”. You can learn more about the book or order it from the links on our website (here or scan the QR code below). We keep the newsletter free, and are extremely grateful if you check out our book!
Catch up on the last one…
Last week, we (Jay, Dom, and our editor, Yvonne) shared some of our favorite books, podcasts, essays, and bits of pop culture from 2023…