Speaker 1: This is Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews Podcast
Speaker 1: more what You Hear weekday afternoons on the Drive.
Speaker 2: Kat Temp is a writer, comedian, a libertarian commentator, and
Speaker 2: she is currently the co host of gut Field on
Speaker 2: Fox News weeknights at ten. She's written such New York
Speaker 2: Times bestsellers as You Can't Joke About That, Why Everything
Speaker 2: is Funny, Nothing is sacred, and We're all in this together.
Speaker 2: And her newest creation will probably hit home to you
Speaker 2: as well. It's called I Used to Like You Until
Speaker 2: How Binarying? How binary Thinking Divides Us? Cat Temp? Welcome.
Speaker 2: Let's start with just what is binary thinking?
Speaker 3: So it's to us versus them one side or the other,
Speaker 3: left versus right. It's this idea that just because someone
Speaker 3: is in the opposite political party, or maybe even have
Speaker 3: a different view on a single political issue, that that
Speaker 3: means that we have absolutely nothing to have in common
Speaker 3: with that person. We're being conditioned to believe that right now,
Speaker 3: and sadly it's absolutely not accurate, as I show in
Speaker 3: this book, not only for my person you know, research,
Speaker 3: but many of my personal experiences as well.
Speaker 2: So you did do some research on this. I mean,
Speaker 2: I've been doing informal research on it because I work
Speaker 2: in the same line of work as you, and I've
Speaker 2: noticed it steadily on since maybe two thousand and ten
Speaker 2: twenty eleven. To me, I directly attribute it to the
Speaker 2: development and the infiltration of digital technology into our world,
Speaker 2: where it is easier for us to be manipulated. It
Speaker 2: is easier to create perceptions that really aren't there.
Speaker 3: It definitely is easier. And I also think social media
Speaker 3: has a lot to do with it in other ways too,
Speaker 3: where it kind of just takes the humanity away of
Speaker 3: the person you're talking to. And that's why I think
Speaker 3: that in this book I show I tell a lot
Speaker 3: of very personal stories about myself. I'm very vulnerable about
Speaker 3: myself in this book, because I think that vulnerability is
Speaker 3: a huge way to get us out of this mess.
Speaker 3: If we want to be able to see each other's humans,
Speaker 3: show that we're human, we have to show that we're
Speaker 3: human in order to be able to accomplish that, and
Speaker 3: so that's why I do it. I mean, it's easier
Speaker 3: to show compassion when you know maybe what the other
Speaker 3: person's going through.
Speaker 2: It's called I used to like you until dot dot
Speaker 2: dot caat temp is with us. You've seen her on
Speaker 2: many US news shows, including co host of Guttfeld week
Speaker 2: Nights at ten, that, by the way, has really taken
Speaker 2: off that show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really really so very grateful for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So here's the question that I deal with along
Speaker 2: these lines. And it came first of all from none
Speaker 2: other than my priest, who came to me knows that
Speaker 2: I work in this field, and said, look, I'm really
Speaker 2: confused as to how I can how I can better
Speaker 2: communicate in my sermons something that someone may think is
Speaker 2: a liberal tendency because we have a very conservative congregation.
Speaker 2: And I said, just do it. And I said, just
Speaker 2: do it. It doesn't matter if it's liberal or conservative.
Speaker 2: What matters is that we are polite about it. Polite
Speaker 2: discourse is what is missing.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I think if you want to win over
Speaker 3: and connect with someone who's diadment from you, then the
Speaker 3: best way also is to folks on what you have
Speaker 3: in common. First, Like I said, we're really being conditioned
Speaker 3: to believe that if someone is liberal and you're conservative
Speaker 3: or vice versa, you're not going to agree with them
Speaker 3: on anything that's it's not true. And so my book
Speaker 3: is really a guide for people to connect with people
Speaker 3: who may have written them off. I think we've all
Speaker 3: been there or our personal relationships have sadly been affected
Speaker 3: by politics, and I think it's it is very sad.
Speaker 3: I think it's really honestly, it's sad. And you break
Speaker 3: it down that politics makes us fight with people who
Speaker 3: we know in our real lives on behalf of people
Speaker 3: who don't even know we exist, and this book as
Speaker 3: a guide for that. And it's also it's an entertaining
Speaker 3: read because I think also having it be entertaining, people
Speaker 3: want to be entertained, right.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, well if it's not entertaining, don't do it.
Speaker 2: As evidenced by you and Greg Guttfeldt show, the reason
Speaker 2: it is being watched by more people than ever before
Speaker 2: is because it is entertaining.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, nobody likes to just sit there and be
Speaker 3: preached at, right, So like, if you have some if
Speaker 3: you're able to entertain them as well, then that's something
Speaker 3: people are more likely to want to pay attention to.
Speaker 2: I used to like you until dot dot dot And
Speaker 2: the subtitle is how binary thinking divide just can't tempt
Speaker 2: us with us? Who do you think is doing the conditioning?
Speaker 2: Since we are being conditioned.
Speaker 3: I write a lot about that in the book. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's the media and it's politicians. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: when you take the example of politicians, it's fear and
Speaker 3: division is obviously very lucrative for them in terms of
Speaker 3: their political capital. Saying vote for me is nowhere near
Speaker 3: as effective as saying, if you don't, if the other
Speaker 3: person wins and we're all destroyed and everyone's going to die,
Speaker 3: you know, the country's over, that is a lot more motivating.
Speaker 3: And I you know, there's definitely ways to be attuned
Speaker 3: to the manipulation as it's happening, whether it's in terms
Speaker 3: of elections or it's in terms of trying to get
Speaker 3: through legislation that is taking away our rights. But I
Speaker 3: and I kind of expose a lot of that in
Speaker 3: the book. So if you get read the book, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of ways to see. You know, the media
Speaker 3: does it too, you know, to kind of be attuned
Speaker 3: to how you're being manipulated and how to avoid that,
Speaker 3: and also how to connect with other people who might
Speaker 3: you might see being manipulated as well.
Speaker 2: And you've been through these meetings probably like I have
Speaker 2: with our superiors about Okay, we need to we need
Speaker 2: to increase our digital presence and how many likes and
Speaker 2: how many, how many clicks we're getting. So I think
Speaker 2: that feeds into it as well, because they not only
Speaker 2: want you watching or listening to their content, they want
Speaker 2: you to participate in the content digitally so that they
Speaker 2: can get metrics and numbers that can be sold to advertisers.
Speaker 2: So I'm wondering if a lot of what we're seeing
Speaker 2: is not somewhat of a death knell of the traditional
Speaker 2: media as they try to survive.
Speaker 3: Well, it's also interesting that the you know, the social media,
Speaker 3: a lot of the most extreme voices. It amplifies the
Speaker 3: loudest on social media, so there's often you know that
Speaker 3: there's that motivation there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Cat Temp is with us. I used to like
Speaker 2: you until how binary thinking divides us. Every author I
Speaker 2: speak with has learned something in the process of writing
Speaker 2: their book. What was the thing that you learned most
Speaker 2: once you closed the proofreading and sent the pages off
Speaker 2: to the publisher?
Speaker 3: You know, you know what? I thought that this would
Speaker 3: be an enduring topic, right, And I really learned quickly
Speaker 3: kind of just how right I was about that, because
Speaker 3: I sent this book off in May, and then there
Speaker 3: was the Trump assassination attempt, and then there was Biden
Speaker 3: dropping out of the race and all these things, and
Speaker 3: I worried for a second. I was like, is this
Speaker 3: going to be relevant still? Right?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: But then I reread my book a few times. I mean,
Speaker 3: I wrote every word, but you know, and then I
Speaker 3: reread it over and over again of Prayer for Media,
Speaker 3: and I read the audiobook as well. But it really
Speaker 3: if you read this book, it provides a great explanation
Speaker 3: for how we wound up where we are here today.
Speaker 3: I mean, just for example, with Biden dropping out the
Speaker 3: last minute, how was he able to go on for
Speaker 3: so long? And I think it's because saying, hey, that
Speaker 3: man doesn't look well, let alone, can that man do
Speaker 3: another four years became a sort of republican thing to say.
Speaker 3: So there was only one side of the people's saying again.
Speaker 3: The other people couldn't think that was a republican thing
Speaker 3: to say, so, I you know, I think it honestly,
Speaker 3: I keep going back to my own words that I
Speaker 3: wrote in terms of things I see around me happening
Speaker 3: every day in this election cycle. And then I'm sure.
Speaker 2: Beyond I used to like you until dot dot dot
Speaker 2: how binary thinking divide us. Kat Temp is with us.
Speaker 2: We thank you for the book, for joining us, and
Speaker 2: we'll be watching you on gut Faeld weeknights of ten.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee
Speaker 1: Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live
Speaker 1: weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation