What to do when the truth isn’t enough to be believed (w/ Dina Nayeri)

当真相不足以令人相信时该怎么办(w/ Dina Nayeri)

How to Be a Better Human

自我完善

2024-03-11

36 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Stories are such a powerful human invention that even the fictional ones can feel completely true. Dina Nayeri is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work highlights just how influential the stories we tell can be – and what is at risk when the truth isn’t valued. Dina speaks from her experience as a storyteller and former refugee about the importance of shaping a society that is thoughtful about language, history, culture, and truth. Then, she suggests frameworks anyone can use to think critically about what they think they know -- and questions why certain stories are more likely to be believed. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

单集文稿 ...

  • TED audio collective.

  • You'Re listening to how.

  • To be a better human.

  • I'm your host, Chris Duffy.

  • Who do you believe and why do you believe them?

  • They're relatively simple questions to ask, and yet figuring out and understanding your answers to them is incredibly complex work.

  • We've seen how crucial this is on a global level when it comes to things like widespread denial of climate change or vaccine conspiracy or so many other issues.

  • Questions of believability are often life or death when it comes to national policies around immigration, incarceration or war.

  • But theyre also personal questions, too, questions that get at the core of who we see ourselves as being and who we trust.

  • Todays guest, Dina Nayari, is the author of two nonfiction books, the ungrateful refugee and who gets believed.

  • Dina writes and speaks about these issues, and she thinks so deeply about our answers to them.

  • Were going to be talking with her about those answers today.

  • But first, heres a clip from Dinas TEd Talk, where she explains how she first came to this work.

  • So I was born in Iran just after a big revolution that changed the country into the islamic republic.

  • Before that, Iran had been secular.

  • And after the islamic republic came to power, there was a big war with Iraq.

  • So suddenly things were very dangerous.

  • My family were christian converts, and so it was especially dangerous for us.

  • And soon after, I guess when I was eight, we ran, we ran westward and we became refugees.

  • So, you know, when I had lived in Iran those eight years, I remember always thinking it felt as if the men never really listened, like really listened to women.