Ep. 49: David Beckmeyer on Outrage Overload, Tech, Media, and Tribalism

About this episode

The episode features an interview with David Beckmeyer discussing the impact of political outrage on relationships and society.

On the We Made This Political podcast, hosts Lura Forcum and Lauren Hall interview David Beckmeyer, creator of Outrage Overload, about how constant political conflict shapes emotions, behavior, and relationships. Beckmeyer explains he began the project after seeing post-2016 and COVID-era outrage break friendships and families, and after recognizing his own role in online pile-ons. They discuss how outrage can feel rewarding through shared social judgment, how misinformation and especially framing distort public understanding, and how social media enables people to form insulated bubbles at global scale—even without algorithms. The conversation emphasizes complexity, trade-offs, and opportunity costs in policy debates, urging curiosity, practical “scripts” like “tell me more,” boundaries when needed, and more local, relationship-based engagement to reduce polarization. 00:00 Online Bubbles Begin 00:28 Podcast And Guest Intro 01:54 Why Outrage Overload 04:17 The Reward Of Outrage 06:09 Lessons From 125 Experts 08:40 Tech Algorithms And Misinformation 13:20 Framing And Media Funnels 16:29 Local Community Reality Check 19:04 Landscape And Ecosystem Thinking 22:51 Tradeoffs Over…

People in this episode

Hosts: Lura Forcum, Lauren Hall

Guest: David Beckmeyer

Topics covered

• political conflict
• outrage
• social media
• polarization
• relationships
• misinformation

Keywords

• outrage
• political conflict
• social media
• tribalism
• relationships
• misinformation
• community engagement

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Outrage Overload

More episodes of We Made This Political Podcast

• Ep. 54: Nathan Smolensky on Independent Voters and Finding Common Ground · June 8, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Ep. 53: Ben Appel on Gender Heresy and Belonging · June 1, 2026 · 1h 16m
• Ep. 52: Corey Nathan on Religion, Politics, and Living Together · May 26, 2026 · 1h 3m
• Ep. 50: Leah Sargent on the Dignity of Dependence · May 19, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Ep. 48: Colleen Shogan on Public History, Polarization, and the Future of the National Archives · May 4, 2026 · 1h 4m
• Ep. 47: Joshua Bandoch on Persuasion, Emotional Intelligence and Positive Politics · April 26, 2026 · 56 min