264. Show Your Receipts: Communicating in a Post-Truth World

Hi. Matt here. I am so excited that so many people around the world have tried our AI Coach Matt tool. For Valentine's Day, we've got a gift for you. When you share Coach Matt with a friend, colleague, or loved one, you'll get extra minutes as our thank you. Go to fastersmarter.io/learning and click on the pop up. While you're there, sign up for our think fast talk smart learning community, where you'll get access to video lessons, learning quests, discussion boards, and book club opportunities. Again, that's fastersmarter.io/learning. Now a word from one of our sponsors. Their support allows us to bring you quality content free of charge. Hi. Matt here. Career coaching often comes through our workplaces, which can be a great starting point. But sometimes you want space to focus on your priorities, not your organization's. That's where strawberry.me comes in. It's career coaching you choose for yourself. You answer a few quick questions, get matched with a vetted coach, and in many cases, you can start within twenty four hours. You choose the coach, you decide the goal, and you get to talk honestly about what actually matters, whether that's a promotion, a pivot, burnout, or even leaving. There's no HR involved, no performance review lens. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch coaches. What I appreciate is the sense of agency. When you're feeling stuck, waiting rarely helps. If you've been thinking something needs to change, you don't need permission to explore that. Go to strawberry.me/tfts. It's coaching focused on you. Think of it as therapy for your career. The best way to connect and truly communicate is to be curious and respectful. My name is Matt Abrahams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Today, I'm really excited to speak with Fareed Zakaria. Fareed is the host of CNN's flagship international affairs program, Fareed Zakaria GPS, and he's a weekly columnist for The Washington Post. He specializes in translating complex geopolitical trends for a broad audience. His insightful book, Age of Revolutions, is out now in paperback. Welcome, Fareed. I have benefited so much from what you do on television and in your writing. Thanks so much for being here. It's a pleasure to do this. Shall we get started? Absolutely. You argue we're living in one of the most revolutionary periods in all of history. What specific forces are leading you to make this claim? So if you look at the base of change, particularly along the kind of key drivers that have tended to produce this kind of sense of society being upended, They tend to be technology in the first instance, almost always. You know, in my book, The Age of Revolutions, I talk about how starting with the Dutch and the invention of the kind of technology that allowed The Netherlands to become rich. You know? This was water management, then financial management. They …