On the Media - The Psychology of Sticking Your Head in the Sand. Plus, Ep. 2 of American Emergency.

About this episode

The episode discusses the disconnect between the stock market and reality amidst a global energy crisis, and examines FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina.

This week, the S&P 500 hit an all-time high, despite a deepening global energy crisis. On this week’s On the Media, the mismatch between the stock market and reality. Plus, to understand how FEMA became so distrusted, we look at its response to Hurricane Katrina – and how it stained the agency’s reputation forever. [01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Bryan Walsh , senior editorial director at Vox overseeing the Future Perfect and climate teams, about the phenomenon of “economic blindness,” which explains why the stock market hit an all-time high this week despite the oil crisis unspooling across the globe due to Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Plus, how human evolution may play a role in this cognitive dissonance. [13:38] Host Micah Loewinger presents the second part of our investigation American Emergency: The Movement to Kill FEMA . This week, we look at the event that shaped FEMA’s reputation perhaps more than any other: Hurricane Katrina, one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history. Experts had warned about this kind of storm for years, but when it hit the agency only had one staffer on the ground–a PR guy named Marty Bahamonde. We also hear…

People in this episode

Hosts: Brooke Gladstone, Micah Loewinger

Guest: Bryan Walsh

Topics covered

• stock market
• economic blindness
• FEMA
• Hurricane Katrina
• cognitive dissonance
• energy crisis

Keywords

• S&P 500
• economic blindness
• FEMA
• Hurricane Katrina
• cognitive dissonance
• energy crisis
• Iran
• Strait of Hormuz

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vox

Books & works: Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security

Places: Iran, Strait of Hormuz

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