Exciting news: How To!, the Ambie Award-nominated “Best Personal Growth Podcast,” is back with a new host, the award-winning journalist Mike Pesca! How To tackles listeners' question with help from experts. Think of it as eavesdropping on someone else's therapy session. link.mgln.ai/M2tX4M
It is very cold outside. So what can we learn about staying warm, sane and happy from the world's coldest countries? A new newsletter!
www.scienceofbetter.net/posts/how-do...
10. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what Democrats and Republicans are doing well – and what they ought to steal from each other. You can find the entire article here:
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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9. Other groups doing similar work are ISAIAH in Minnesota and Hoosier Action in Indiana. But these kinds of groups don’t receive even a fraction of the money from bigtime Democrat donors.
8. There are some Democrat groups doing good work: Down Home North Carolina is a perfect example of what can be accomplished when organizers focus on building communities of leaders – and those communities end up supporting progressive issues, even if they self-identify as MAGA.
downhomenc.org
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7. Democrats, in contrast, sponsor large protests – but after the protest is over there is no new sense of connection to fellow protestors. And so swing voters – who might have attended the protest! – don’t turn out on election day, or don’t vote for the Democrat candidate.
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6. MAGA builds communities of people devoted to each other. Even if people disagree about issues, they feel connected to their neighbors – and to the organization that brought them all together. And so when those neighbors and that organization says “Vote for Trump!” the people say “Sure, why not?”
5. Democrats, by and large, adopted a different strategy: “mobilizing”, getting people into the streets. However, mobilizing without also organizing is nearly pointless. One study found that protests had basically no effect on “public opinion and electoral behavior.”
www.nber.org/papers/w32342
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4.Faith and Freedom has become a massive army that MAGA, and Republicans, can rely on come election day. Within studies of social movements, this is known as “organizing” – building local leaders and communities that are devoted to each other. Turning Point USA is another example of MAGA organizing.
3. Among the most powerful MAGA organization is The Faith and Freedom Coalition, headed by Ralph Reed. FFC has 3.1 million members, who urged people to vote for Donald Trump 80 million times. That’s three times larger than Obama’s record-setting effort.
www.ffcoalition.com
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2. MAGA has succeeded because of a strategy that was inspired by the Obama campaign of 2008: MAGA has quietly built tens of thousands of small groups that aren’t ostensibly political, but social. Then, when an election arrives, the leaders of this strategy can turn out millions of voters.
1. Over the last six months, I’ve been studying MAGA, and trying to understand why it has been so successful – and what the Democrats ought to learn from that success. The results were published in the New Yorker magazine this week. Here’s what I learned: (a 🧵)
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Last week the wonderful @amnanawaz.bsky.social and her colleagues @pbsnews.org had me on the show and podcast to talk about the Power of Habit. If you have a moment, check it out! It was a wonderful conversation.
www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
How to stay happy when it's insanely cold outside. A new newsletter with advice from science!
charlesduhigg.substack.com/p/what-to-do...
How do we stick with New Year's Resolutions when the thrill of the New Year wears off? A new newsletter with answers from science! www.scienceofbetter.net/posts/i-m-no...
A new newsletter asking if Santa inspired by psychedelic shrooms and the worst Christmas presents of all time!
charlesduhigg.substack.com/p/seven-chri...
Congratulations to @nxthompson.bsky.social on today's publication of his wonderful book, The Running Ground. You should absolutely buy it.
Congratulations to @andrewrsorkin.bsky.social on the publication of 1929 today! If you haven't already, go buy a copy!
www.amazon.com/1929-Inside-...
I want to make the world a better place (so how, exactly, do I do that?) A new substack!
charlesduhigg.substack.com/p/i-want-to-...
Supercommunicators, my book about how to connect with anyone, is now out in paperback. Over the last 18 months, it has sold over 1 million copies globally and was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 40 weeks - and I have you, readers, to thank.
www.amazon.com/Supercommuni...
A few years ago, we endowed a prize with BINC to give grants to booksellers working on a book. It's a chance to finish that manuscript. Today, the winners were announced! Such an amazing group of finalists.
bincfoundation.org/kamil-winner...
How do we overcome the polarization we're experiencing? Science has some thoughts. A new substack.
charlesduhigg.substack.com/p/how-do-we-...
A new substack on the science of what to eat, how to exercise and who to spend time with if you want to be healthy forever!
charlesduhigg.substack.com/p/so-you-wan...
Many thanks to the wonderful judges at @LoebAwards who chose my New Yorker story about the influence of crypto in politics as a finalist. To be among such great other finalists is a huge honor.
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
A new substack with recommendations on things to read, things to listen to (podcasts! music!) and gadgets that might tickle your fancy.
Mastering communication comes down to knowing when to speak and when to listen. (And listening should usually happen twice as frequently.)
