Acting Out Culture

Make Yourself Heard

1   How We Believe:

In what ways does what we know shape our daily actions?

Michael Sandel, Markets and Morals

*Andi Zeisler, The Corridors of Empower

Rewriting the Script: Buy Nothing Christmas

Michael Eric Dyson, Understanding Black Patriotism

Debra J. Dickerson, The Great White Way

Then and Now: Feeling (In)Secure

Amitava Kumar, The Restoration of Faith

*Naomi Klein, One Way or Another, Everything Changes

*Tom Jacobs, It’s Not Easy Being Green—and Manly

Scenes and Un-scenes: Political Protest

Acting Like a Citizen: Re-Scripting Belief

2   How We Watch and Listen:

Does what we see and hear depend on how we’re looking and listening?

Harriet Mcbryde Johnson, Unspeakable Conversations

*Lindy West, Bones

Rewriting the Script: Reality Television

Heather Havrilesky, Some "Girls" Are Better Than Others

*Steve Almond, Is It Immoral to Watch the Super Bowl?

*Amanda Hess, Why Old Men Find Young Women’s Voices So Annoying

*Tiffanie Wen, Inside the Podcast Brain:Why Do Audio Stories Captivate?

Then and Now: Wearing Your Identity on Your Sleeve

*Tom Vanderbilt, How Predictable Is Our Taste?

*Kevin Fallon, Why We Binge-Watch Television

Scenes and Un-scenes: Picturing Climate Change

Acting Like a Citizen: Keeping an Eye Out

3   How We Eat:

Which rules dictate the foods we put in our bodies?

*Kim Bosch, The Things We Eat Alone

*Sophie Egan, Having It Our Way

Rewriting the Script: Organic Food

Nicholas Kristof, Prudence or Cruelty?

*Nathaniel Johnson, Is There a Moral Case for Eating Meat?

Francine Prose, The Wages of Sin

*Harriet Brown, How My Life Changed In One Sentence

Then and Now: How to Make Meatloaf

*Lily Wong, Eating the Hyphen

Brendan Buhler, On Eating Roadkill

Scenes and Un-scenes: Giving Thanks

Acting Like a Citizen: Consumer Profiling

4   How We Learn:

What are our perceptions of knowledge and the ways we should acquire that knowledge?

Alfie Kohn, From Degrading to De-Grading

Kristina Rizga, Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong

Then and Now: Encyclopedic Knowledge

bell hooks, Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class

Jonathan Kozol, Preparing Minds for Markets

*Frank Bruni, Why College Rankings Are a Joke

*Ben Casselman, Shut Up About Harvard

Rewriting the Script: Job Skills in the Classroom

*Aaron Hanlon, The Trigger Warning Myth

* Ferentz Lafargue, Welcome to the "Real World"

Scenes and Un-scenes: Looking at Learning

Acting like a Citizen: Educational Scripts

5   How We Work:

What do our jobs say about us?

Matthew B. Crawford, The Case for Working With Your Hands

Mac McClelland, I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave

Rewriting the Script: Working at Wal-Mart

Barbara Ehrenreich, How the Poor Are Made to Pay for Their Poverty

*Linda Tirado, You Get What You Pay For

*Emily Badger, What Happens When We All Become Our Own Bosses

Catherine Rampell, A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much

Then and Now: Dressing for Success

*Maddie Oatman, The Racist, Twisted History of Tipping

Mike Rose, Blue-Collar Brilliance

Scenes and Un-scenes: A Woman’s Work

Acting Like a Citizen: Working Hard or Hardly Working?

6   How We Connect:

What forces help—and hinder—our relationships with others?

*Navneet Alang, The Comfort of a Digital Confidante

*Mae Wiskin, Can’t Quit the Clicks: The Rise of Social Media Rehab

Rewriting the Script: Political Gridlock

*Bijan Stephen, Get Up, Stand Up: Social Media Helps Black Lives Matter Fight the Power

*Caroline O’Donovan, Nextdoor Rolls Out Product Fix It Hopes Will Stem Racial Profiling

Then and Now: Personal Shopping

*Sherry Turkle, The Public Square

Charles Duhigg, How Companies Learn Your Secrets

Scenes and Un-scenes: "Hello, Neighbor"

Peter Lovenheim, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

*Matthew Desmond, Home and Hope

Acting Like a Citizen: Bridging the Divide

7   How We Identify:

Do the roles we play reflect who we truly are?

*Sarah Mirk, Tuning In: How a Generation is Schooling Itself on Sexuality

*Thomas Page McBee, The Truck Stop

*Rebecca Traister, All the Single Ladies

*Jodi Kantor, Historic Day for Gays, But Twinge for Loss of Outsider Culture

Then and Now: Saying "I Do"

David Brooks, People Like Us

*J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy

Scenes and Un-scenes: Class Dismissed?

*Garnette Cadogan, Black and Blue

*Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

Acting Like a Citizen: Checking I.D.

Index of Authors and Titles