Psychological Mind Games

A Scottish friar's phrase, "consent of the governed," became a political weapon. But did it ever describe reality? The Seven Words Governments Fear: A History of Manufactured Consent This episode explores the surprising journey of a phrase written by a 14th-century friar that became foundational to modern governance. It traces how this powerful idea, intended for theological discourse, evolved into a political concept, raising the question of whether it truly reflects how power operates. Person: John Duns Scotus Date: 1390s Topic: Consent of the governed Event: American Declaration of Independence Author: Edward Bernays - The phrase "consent of the governed" originated in the 1390s within a theological manuscript by Scottish friar John Duns Scotus. - The idea, in a less precise form, appeared earlier in the writings of Tertullian, an early Christian writer defending Christians against Roman prosecution. - By 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath in Scotland became the first formal political document to assert a people's right to resist a king, with scholars tracing its logic to Scotus. - In 1776, the phrase was inscribed in the American Declaration of Independence, justifying the formation of a new nation. - Edward Bernays' 1955 book, "The Engineering of Consent," described how public relations techniques could be used to manufacture consent, acknowledging it undermines legitimate consent.

He Sold Education Like Cars — Then Cloned His Dead Dog for $20M In December of 2007, three dogs were born in a California laboratory, each identical to a dog named Missy, who had been dead for years. The man who spent twenty million dollars and seven years to make that happen had, a few decades earlier, built the largest private university in the United States starting with eight students and no investors. What kind of mind builds both things? In this episode, we trace John Glen Sperling's path from a sharecropper's son in the Missouri Ozarks to the founder of the University of Phoenix, asking what happens when a man treats education, longevity, and even grief as problems to be solved with enough capital and enough time. Person: John Glen Sperling Location: Phoenix, Arizona Date: 1976 Case: the founding of the University of Phoenix and the twenty-million-dollar Missyplicity dog-cloning project Status: university grew into a nearly seven-billion-dollar Nasdaq corporation; the dog clones were born in December 2007, after the company built to produce them had already closed - Sperling founded Apollo Group in 1973 and opened the University of Phoenix in 1976 with a first class of eight students - At its peak, the University of Phoenix enrolled 420,700 undergraduate students and 78,000 graduate students across more than 200 campuses worldwide - By May 2001, Apollo Group's market capitalization reached almost seven billion dollars, trading on Nasdaq under the ticker APOL - Sperling financed the Missyplicity Project through Genetic Savings and Clone in Sausalito, spending twenty million dollars over roughly seven years before the company closed in 2006 - He co-financed medical marijuana decriminalization campaigns with George Soros and Peter Lewis, and, according to Time magazine, had used marijuana himself in the 1960s to manage pain from cancer - John Glen Sperling died on August 22, 2014, at the age of 93

The arrest of Gianni Caracciolo that flipped Neapolitan loyalties A queen's favorite is seized on the king's order in the spring of 1423, and within months the invited heir to Naples finds himself walled up inside his own fortress. The man who ordered the arrest had just been handed a kingdom without a fight — so what did he think would happen when he took its most powerful courtier prisoner? In this episode, we follow the narrative arc from Alfonso's youth in Medina del Campo through his inheritance of Aragon and the Mediterranean claims that consumed him, to the 1423 arrest of Gianni Caracciolo and the military consequence it triggered, asking what Alfonso expected when he had Caracciolo seized, and why that action provoked Joanna to call in Muzio Attendolo Sforza. Person: Gianni Caracciolo Location: Naples Date: May 1423 Case: the arrest of gianni caracciolo, queen joanna's lover and political proxy Status: triggered armed conflict between aragonese and angevin-backed forces - Alfonso was born in 1396 in Medina del Campo. - He married Maria in June 1415 in Valencia, having been betrothed to her at age twelve. - Ferdinand died in April 1416, leaving Alfonso to