🎧 #89 — Olga Khazan (The Atlantic)

Inside The Newsroom

Hello folks! Happy December and welcome to another episode of Inside The Newsroom, where today’s guest is Olga Khazan! As you might know, The Atlantic is my favourite news outlet of them all, so it was an absolute delight to speak to Olga about covering health, gender and science, what it’s like behind the scenes at one of America’s oldest publications, and we discussed her awesome new book, Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World.

Be sure to check out last week’s content including our podcast with Mr. Hurricane Man Josh Morgerman, as well as Inside The Middle East and Picks of the Week, where we rounded up the reactions to U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s likely last visit to the Middle East, and visited New Zealand where geologists hope to harness heat from volcanoes to fight climate change. Okay, let’s get to today’s newsletter!

Job Corner

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Preview of the job board… 👇

Who is Olga Khazan?

Olga has covered health, gender and science for The Atlantic since 2013, and has also written for the likes of the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Forbes. She was born in Russia and moved to the U.S. with her family when she was just three years old, initially living in Los Angeles before settling in Midland, Texas.

On many occasions, Olga found herself on the outside, unable to fit in with her American counterparts. Her experiences fuelled much of the motivation and content for her new book Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World, which explores the social and psychological concepts behind conforming to new groups and societies. As if that wasn’t enough, Olga recently joined Substack where she posts insights from the book, as well as other smart life advice, which we’ll get onto shortly.

Olga 👇

Long Live The Atlantic

If you’re a frequent reader of this newsletter, you’ll be familiar with my obsession with The Atlantic and know that it’s my favourite newsroom. The way they dissect and explore the most important issues less than 24 hours after an event is unequalled and, as Olga puts it, her and her colleagues tell the “second day story on the first day”.

From its humble Boston roots in 1857, to its many journalists in multiple states in 2020, The Atlantic has blessed the world with some of its most defining articles. Whether it was W. E. B. Du Bois’ “The Strivings of the Negro People” in 1897, which introduced the idea of the African American’s experience of “double consciousness” that’s still talked about today; Helen Keller’s 1932 “Put Your Husband in the Kitchen” where she encouraged men to do more housework way ahead her time; Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “Letter From Birmingham Jail” that would serve as one of the defining texts of the civil-rights movement; or modern-day great Ta-Nehisi Coates who in 2014 wrote “The Case for Reparations”, The Atlantic has been leading public debate for centuries. Long may it continue…

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You’re Weird 🤨

No you’re weird! Shut up Daniel… Weird was released in April and is the finished product of more than five years of research and writing. The book explores the science behind being an outsider and why being culturally, socially, physically or mentally different should be a badge of honor instead of a slur.

Olga isn’t alone. There’s a little weirdness in all of us, but it depends on how brave and willing we are to embrace it, which is why I’m so pleased Olga had the curiosity and courage to explore the psychological links between her upbringing as a Russian immigrant in West Texas, to her struggles and successes in later life. The book also explores why humans crave conformity, the consequences of social rejection and the hidden upsides of being “weird”. Just ask Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga who was bullied in high-school and university for being too eccentric. Or Alan Turing, who was ridiculed at school for his unconventional behaviour but went onto help save the world from Adolf Hitler.

If you’re a fan of this stuff and can’t get enough, both Olga and I strongly recommend Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

Idiosyncrasy Credit

Idiosyncrasy Credit is an old psychological concept that describes how someone’s unusual personality or ideas will be more accepted if that person is first seen as a conformist to a group’s norms. At the most basic level, most people use this technique subconsciously when trying to make new friends. But the concept can be applied to a plethora of scenarios including in the workplace.

For example, when I interviewed for my job at The Guardian and most recently at The Wall Street Journal, I focused on my ability to turn new and unusual ideas into appropriate stories for their respective audiences. When I got the job, instead of heading straight for a new Google doc to brainstorm the wackiest ideas I could think of, I needed to show my colleagues that I could conform to their workflow and help improve their existing ideas. Now that I’ve shown them (I hope) that I’m capable of step one, it’s time to experiment, which means get ready for stories on tornadoes, tornadoes, tornadoes (only half joking).

Another area where idiosyncrasy credits can be used is dating, which friend of the podcast Amy Webb outlined in her book Data, A Love Story: How I Gamed Online Dating To Meet My Match. To help her find the one, Amy scouted her competition on various dating apps by recording the profile bios of hundreds of other women looking to court the attention of men. She found that the average profile description should be between 90 and 100 words, be as common and unspecific as possible, and one that avoids controversy. Once you show these prospective men and women that you’re semi-normal, then you can start to be yourself.

Related Podcasts

That’s all for today, see you Wednesday for some Inside the Middle East fun! 👋

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