The Off-Ramp Project
The Off-Ramp Project
Podcast Description
How do we create (and survive) drastic changes? How do we leave unhealthy relationships, groups, belief systems, or entire identities? How do we take off-ramps when the crowd is pushing us forward, and how can we learn to create off-ramps for others -- especially when we've been taught to see them as our enemies? These questions are crucial in a time when so many of us have been drawn into polarized belief systems and conspiracy theories that are tearing apart families, friendships, political parties, and the foundations of American governance itself. But change and reclamation are possible at any time. Researcher, author, emotions and empathy expert, and cult survivor Karla McLaren, M.Ed. explores how we can reclaim ourselves and provide support for others. We all need off-ramps when we're being separated from each other, and when we're being taught to see enemies in anyone not like us. With personal stories, extensive research, emotional genius, empathic badassery, and humor, we explore how and why this bold American experiment has become a tragic powder keg, and how we can reclaim our good hearts, our good minds, and our good souls. We can imagine, build, and maintain off-ramps for ourselves and each other. Welcome to the Off-Ramp Project.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast centers around themes of personal transformation, emotional awareness, and the dangers of rigid belief systems. Notable episodes explore topics like navigating unhealthy relationships and groups, the psychological effects of marketing on emotions, and the principles of healthy versus unhealthy transcendent beliefs, with examples drawn from cults and contemporary social dynamics.
How do we create (and survive) drastic changes? How do we leave unhealthy relationships, groups, belief systems, or entire identities? How do we take off-ramps when the crowd is pushing us forward, and how can we learn to create off-ramps for others — especially when we’ve been taught to see them as our enemies?
These questions are crucial in a time when so many of us have been drawn into polarized belief systems and conspiracy theories that are tearing apart families, friendships, political parties, and the foundations of American governance itself.
But change and reclamation are possible at any time. Researcher, author, emotions and empathy expert, and cult survivor Karla McLaren, M.Ed. explores how we can reclaim ourselves and provide support for others.
We all need off-ramps when we’re being separated from each other, and when we’re being taught to see enemies in anyone not like us.
With personal stories, extensive research, emotional genius, empathic badassery, and humor, we explore how and why this bold American experiment has become a tragic powder keg, and how we can reclaim our good hearts, our good minds, and our good souls.
We can imagine, build, and maintain off-ramps for ourselves and each other.
Welcome to the Off-Ramp Project.
Knowing the deeper story — in a time when the stories we’re told tend to be shallow and manipulative — is a way to reclaim your humanity, your emotions, your empathy, your attention, and your power.
It’s also a way to reclaim your humanity and the humanity of the people who have been set against you — as you have been set against them — as a way for the people in power to control us all.
Well, sorry neither! There is a deeper story here that needs to be told so that we can reclaim ourselves, each other, and our communities again.
In this episode:
Braver Angels: https://braverangels.org/our-mission/
Books mentioned in this episode:https://bookshop.org/lists/the-off-ramp-project
The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
The Power of Emotions at Work: Accessing the Vital Intelligence in Your Workplace by Karla McLaren: https://bookshop.org/lists/karla-mclaren-s-books
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