Big Stuff With Danielle Colley

You Think You're Honest. You're Not.

Danielle Colley Season 2 Episode 41

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0:00 | 1:06:57

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I’ve always thought of myself as someone who cannot lie. I’m a compulsive truth teller — ask anyone who knows me. But today’s guest made me realise something uncomfortable: that’s also a lie. Everyone lies. The question is whether you know when you’re doing it. And why.

Dominic Thurbon is a behavioural change expert, co-founder of Alchemy Labs, former world top-10 debater, Earnst & Young partner, founder of two businesses he built and sold, and author of books published in fifteen countries. 

His new book To Be Honest is one of the most rigorously researched and genuinely funny books I’ve read on why we lie, how misinformation spreads, and what it actually takes to make truth happen in a world designed to make that very difficult.

In this conversation we go into the Bollywood film Dominic lied his way into at 21 (yes, really), why even the most ethical people lie daily without realising it, the crucial difference between a liar and a bullshitter, and what it means to make truth a verb rather than a value.

 This one didn’t let any of us off the hook. I don’t think it’ll let you off it either.

 

CHAPTERS

00:00  Introduction

03:30  The biggest lie Dominic ever told

13:00  Why we double down on lies

18:30  Them truth, we truth, me truth

24:00  Everyone lies: the main reasons why

31:00  The gender difference in how we lie

34:30  Does my bum look big? 

40:00  Making truth happen

46:30  The misinformation economy and why social media is designed to work against us

53:30  Liars vs bullshitters 

59:30  The debating paradox

64:00  What it would take to change your mind

 

 

RESOURCES & LINKS


 


Mentioned in this episode

•       On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt (Princeton University Press) — the source of the liar vs bullshitter distinction

•       Lying by Sam Harris — the case that there is never a situation where lying is justified

•       Stolen Focus by Johann Hari — on reclaiming attention in a distracted world

•       Brené Brown on “being clear is kind” — from Dare to Lead

•       World Economic Forum Global Risk Report — misinformation ranked the #1 short-term global risk

 


Find more of Danielle Colley

•       Instagram: @daniellecolley

•       Email: bigstuffpod@gmail.com


If this episode got you thinking, share it with one person who needs to hear it. And if you haven’t already, take the burnout quiz at daniellecolley.com.au — it’s free, it’s quick, and it might just tell you something true about yourself that you’ve been