On The Knife's Edge

刀锋上

Hidden Brain

社会科学

2020-01-07

26 分钟
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单集简介 ...

What would drive someone to take another person's life? When researchers at the University of Chicago asked that question, the answer was a laundry list of slights: a stolen jacket, or a carelessly lobbed insult. It made them wonder whether crime rates could be driven down by teaching young men to pause, take a deep breath, and think before they act. In this 2017 episode, we go inside a program that teaches Chicago teens to do just that. We also explore what research has found about whether this approach actually works.
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单集文稿 ...

  • Hey there.

  • Shankar here.

  • A few weeks ago, we were finishing up an episode called in the Heat of the moment.

  • It's about hot and cold emotional states and how certain situations can cause us to become strangers to ourselves.

  • If you haven't heard it yet, check it out.

  • We're really proud of it.

  • Working on it also got us thinking about another episode we did a few years ago.

  • It's about teenagers in Chicago and a program that tries to keep kids from acting in anger, from making mistakes that could affect the course of their lives.

  • In other words, its trying to help kids pull back from the brink when theyre in a hot state.

  • We thought that episode was worth another listen, so were bringing it to you today.

  • Hope you enjoy it.

  • The fight was over a pair of gym shoes at night on the south side of Chicago.

  • And this is what came of it.

  • One teenager faces years in prison.

  • Another, a boy of just 15, is dead.

  • The incident might not have even made the news, except the victim was the grandson of a long serving congressman.

  • At a press conference, that congressman Danny Davis did something unusual.

  • He grieved not just for his own grandson, but for his grandson's killer.

  • I grieve for my family.

  • I grieve for the young men who pulled the trigger.