WEBVTT - Trial by Teenager, Part 1 0:00:15.396 --> 0:00:23.716 Pushkin. Imagine there's a place in our world where the 0:00:23.796 --> 0:00:29.516 known things go. Corridors lined with lockers filled with textbooks 0:00:29.596 --> 0:00:35.676 and backpacks and snacks. That place. This place is a 0:00:35.756 --> 0:00:42.156 high school. Sneakers skidding on freshly waxed linoleum floors, florescent 0:00:42.236 --> 0:00:46.316 lights gleaming overhead, the gabble of gossip flirting in the 0:00:46.316 --> 0:00:51.436 hallway and down this hallway a history class. What is 0:00:51.436 --> 0:00:56.796 a fact? Start there amongst your table, and how do 0:00:56.836 --> 0:01:01.236 you know when something is true? Discuss take a few minutes. 0:01:03.236 --> 0:01:05.716 Welcome to the last archive, the show about how we 0:01:05.756 --> 0:01:08.316 know what we know and why it seems lately hard 0:01:08.356 --> 0:01:12.316 to know anything at all. I'm Jill Lapoor. This episode, 0:01:12.356 --> 0:01:15.236 we're going back to school to learn how to know 0:01:15.796 --> 0:01:20.916 what's true. Tell me be brave? Now, what's a fact? 0:01:21.476 --> 0:01:24.076 Who wants to go first? Start me? What's a fact? 0:01:30.156 --> 0:01:34.076 Benji Cohen teaches world history at Cambridge Ringe in Latin School, 0:01:34.356 --> 0:01:38.916 a public high school in Massachusetts outside Boston. So we're 0:01:38.956 --> 0:01:42.996 gonna watch it, being like three minutes long. You have 0:01:43.196 --> 0:01:46.796 in front of you the transcript of it to use afterwards. 0:01:47.796 --> 0:01:50.516 One day last winter, he started his class by playing 0:01:50.516 --> 0:01:54.476 a campaign ad, actually a spoof of a campaign ad 0:01:54.716 --> 0:01:58.436 in which a generic political candidate says meaningless things over 0:01:58.516 --> 0:02:05.916 stock footage and sappie music. Hello, it's me candidate for president. 0:02:06.716 --> 0:02:10.756 A person with a face, a person whose hand gestures 0:02:10.836 --> 0:02:14.876 are definitely not weird. Here are a bunch of different 0:02:14.916 --> 0:02:19.756 people matched with career signifiers like a helmet, a uniform, 0:02:19.996 --> 0:02:22.756 or a stethoscope on the off chance that you identify 0:02:22.876 --> 0:02:25.276 with one event. And here's a guy with a belly, 0:02:25.476 --> 0:02:28.476 a beer, and a hard hat. I talked to this guy. 0:02:29.036 --> 0:02:32.236 I think the kids in mister Cohen's class thought this 0:02:32.276 --> 0:02:35.116 was pretty funny, laugh out loud funny. They got it 0:02:35.356 --> 0:02:38.916 right away. They'd seen political ads their whole lives, and 0:02:39.036 --> 0:02:43.316 they get oh my god, they so get irony. What 0:02:43.556 --> 0:02:47.596 is this ad arguing? What's it actually say? What aesthetic 0:02:47.676 --> 0:02:50.276 choices stand out to you? What has it revealed to 0:02:50.316 --> 0:02:53.716 you about America politics? And are there any factual claims here? 0:02:53.716 --> 0:02:56.316 And if so, what are they take two minutes talk 0:02:56.356 --> 0:02:59.716 to another? I was there in Benji Cohen's class to 0:02:59.796 --> 0:03:03.116 witness a thought experiment brought to life, an attempt in 0:03:03.196 --> 0:03:07.276 this our season of solutions to confront up close Mano Amato. 0:03:07.476 --> 0:03:11.916 The problem of political missin formation. These kids know their 0:03:11.916 --> 0:03:14.596 country is facing a lot of problems, but a lot 0:03:14.636 --> 0:03:16.796 of the election talk they hear sounds more like a 0:03:16.836 --> 0:03:21.796 fight in the hallway. You lie, No, you lie. Politicians lie, 0:03:21.836 --> 0:03:24.796 They tell big lies. This has been true for as 0:03:24.836 --> 0:03:28.676 long as there have been politicians, and it'll be true forever. Well, 0:03:28.676 --> 0:03:31.876 I'm not a crook. I experimented with marijuana a time 0:03:31.956 --> 0:03:35.556 or two, and I didn't like it and didn't inhale. 0:03:35.916 --> 0:03:40.036 Campaign ads are full of misrepresentations. Attack ads are the worst, 0:03:40.356 --> 0:03:44.556 but even straight up pro candidate ads can be outrageously deceptive, 0:03:44.996 --> 0:03:48.716 and entire political campaigns, even campaigns for the White House, 0:03:49.076 --> 0:03:52.756 can be lost over these ads. Considered the time in 0:03:52.916 --> 0:03:57.156 nineteen eighty eight when supporters of George hw Bush aired 0:03:57.196 --> 0:04:01.156 an ad attacking Massachusetts Governor Michael Ducaucus for being weak 0:04:01.236 --> 0:04:04.756 on crime. Duconcas not only opposers of the death penalty, 0:04:04.916 --> 0:04:08.196 he allowed first degree murderers to have weekend passes from prison. 0:04:09.356 --> 0:04:13.276 Was Willie Horton. The ad was deceptive, but it was 0:04:13.316 --> 0:04:17.036 also effective. It's often cited as a major contributing factor 0:04:17.116 --> 0:04:21.516 for Ducaucus losing his election. Or think about how in 0:04:21.556 --> 0:04:24.356 two thousand and four, when one ad all but accused 0:04:24.476 --> 0:04:28.196 Vietnam veteran John Kerry of treason. He betrayed us in 0:04:28.236 --> 0:04:30.796 the past, how could we be loyal to him now? 0:04:31.876 --> 0:04:35.436 This was not true, but it helped sink Carry's campaign. 0:04:37.076 --> 0:04:38.636 To say that this has been going on for a 0:04:38.676 --> 0:04:41.836 long time, isn't to say that it isn't especially terrible 0:04:41.956 --> 0:04:45.516 right now, because it is terrible. There's no real way 0:04:45.556 --> 0:04:49.556 to answer lies and misrepresentations, and political ads no effective 0:04:49.596 --> 0:04:53.236 way to fact check them. In the broadcast era of 0:04:53.316 --> 0:04:56.956 broadcast radio and television, the FCC created a set of 0:04:57.036 --> 0:05:01.516 rules for political ads. Those rules mean that broadcasters just 0:05:01.636 --> 0:05:04.676 can't cannot refuse to air a political ad if it's 0:05:04.676 --> 0:05:08.356 been made by the candidate's own campaign. You might remember 0:05:08.436 --> 0:05:10.516 last season when we had a whole episode about a 0:05:10.516 --> 0:05:14.796 thing called the Fairness Doctrine, an FCC rule that made 0:05:14.796 --> 0:05:18.156 it so television and radio stations had to reflect all 0:05:18.236 --> 0:05:21.756 points of view. But that rule ended in nineteen eighty 0:05:21.756 --> 0:05:24.476 seven with the end of the Fairness Doctrine and the 0:05:24.596 --> 0:05:27.956 rise of talk radio and partisan cable television, an era 0:05:28.076 --> 0:05:31.436 where you get stuff like this and I rescue feminazis 0:05:31.476 --> 0:05:34.556 here's the deal. What I have Here is a copy 0:05:34.596 --> 0:05:37.196 of Donald Trump's tax returns. We have his federal tracks 0:05:37.276 --> 0:05:40.756 return for one year, for two thousand and five. What 0:05:40.876 --> 0:05:44.396 we have are these two pages. People have tried to 0:05:44.396 --> 0:05:47.476 bring back the fairness doctrine, but it never works. It's 0:05:47.516 --> 0:05:50.156 not coming back. And even though this is a season 0:05:50.196 --> 0:05:53.916 of solutions, I have to be honest broadcast television and radio, 0:05:53.996 --> 0:05:56.876 cable television, I don't see a solution there when it 0:05:56.876 --> 0:06:00.316 comes to horrible political ads. The real fight, and the 0:06:00.356 --> 0:06:07.316 real possibility too, is with social media. The FCC doesn't 0:06:07.316 --> 0:06:11.836 control political advertisements on social media, No central governing body does. 0:06:12.396 --> 0:06:15.356 There are no rules except the ones social media companies 0:06:15.436 --> 0:06:19.036 make for themselves. Wild West to all that, and usually 0:06:19.076 --> 0:06:21.236 I would say this is a bad thing. The Internet. 0:06:21.276 --> 0:06:25.276 It loves lies, It thrives on lies, conspiracies, Lies get clicks, 0:06:25.316 --> 0:06:28.556 Clicks make money. You know all about it. The thing 0:06:28.596 --> 0:06:31.836 about these companies is they can still change how they work. 0:06:32.316 --> 0:06:35.436 They could still change how they handle political ads. They 0:06:35.436 --> 0:06:38.036 could make a new version of the fairness doctrine something better, 0:06:38.236 --> 0:06:42.516 not a doctrine, but a practice. That's how I ended 0:06:42.596 --> 0:06:46.116 up in Benji Cohen's history classroom at Cambridge Ringe and Latin, 0:06:46.956 --> 0:06:52.196 because who knows social media better than teenagers. Also, I'd 0:06:52.196 --> 0:06:55.796 come across an idea that I thought maybe could fix 0:06:55.876 --> 0:07:02.036 this whole mess while back, when the days were cold 0:07:02.036 --> 0:07:04.396 and short and COVID was in one of its peaks. 0:07:04.716 --> 0:07:07.676 I went to visit a colleague of mine, Jonathan Zittrain. 0:07:08.196 --> 0:07:10.356 He teaches at Harvard Law School and he's the co 0:07:10.476 --> 0:07:13.716 founder of the Berkman Client Center for Internet and Society. 0:07:14.436 --> 0:07:16.716 I had a hunch one of ZiT Traine's ideas would 0:07:16.756 --> 0:07:21.756 be perfect for my season of solutions. Everyone calls Jonathan 0:07:21.876 --> 0:07:25.636 ZiT Train jay z Okay, not jay Z as in 0:07:25.796 --> 0:07:29.076 Jay Z and Beyonce jay Z as in Jay Z 0:07:29.316 --> 0:07:32.276 the legal scholar. He might not be a multi platinum 0:07:32.276 --> 0:07:35.436 Grammy winner, but jay Z is the man. He got 0:07:35.436 --> 0:07:38.116 into computers as a siss up on a CompuServe forum 0:07:38.276 --> 0:07:42.076 for people who love Texas instruments. That's computer speak for 0:07:42.276 --> 0:07:45.756 moderator on a discussion board. He was in sixth grade. 0:07:46.596 --> 0:07:49.876 He's still got that anarchic early web energy and faith. 0:07:50.476 --> 0:07:53.316 He's always got these ideas that are so crazy they 0:07:53.396 --> 0:07:59.636 just might work. This idea was really, to myself, just 0:07:59.756 --> 0:08:02.676 met as a thought experiment that was clearly goofy. But 0:08:02.756 --> 0:08:04.956 I was just going to think it through and see 0:08:04.996 --> 0:08:07.476 where it led. And as time has gone on, it 0:08:07.516 --> 0:08:09.716 has seemed less and less goofy. Or maybe it's that 0:08:09.796 --> 0:08:12.476 everything else has seemed more and more so, so it's 0:08:12.516 --> 0:08:17.116 the last plan standing. Citrian said, I know how to 0:08:17.116 --> 0:08:20.956 solve political misinformation and campaign ads, or at least he said, 0:08:21.156 --> 0:08:25.076 I have a pretty darn good idea for how to try. Imagine, 0:08:25.196 --> 0:08:28.116 in every Civics or US History classroom in every public 0:08:28.236 --> 0:08:31.996 high school across the country, students gathering, say for one 0:08:32.036 --> 0:08:35.916 class period a week to decide what political ads should 0:08:35.956 --> 0:08:40.956 be allowed on the internet trial by teenager. If we 0:08:41.076 --> 0:08:44.756 ask those students to have a look at the ads 0:08:44.956 --> 0:08:48.276 as they are proposed to be run on a platform 0:08:48.276 --> 0:08:52.876 like Facebook, and take a moment and see if they 0:08:53.556 --> 0:09:01.676 pass some threshold of disinformation, of lying outright, of inaccuracy, 0:09:02.436 --> 0:09:06.676 deliberate in whatever small groups they might form from among 0:09:07.076 --> 0:09:10.596 a single classroom, and see if they can come to 0:09:10.636 --> 0:09:14.676 consensus or if necessary, a vote on whether the ad 0:09:14.836 --> 0:09:19.876 meets a minimum standard of truthfulness. And if the students 0:09:19.916 --> 0:09:23.236 decide that it fails, to their decision sticks and that 0:09:23.316 --> 0:09:29.556 ad will not run. And there you have it high 0:09:29.636 --> 0:09:34.916 school students, they decide. Not only would you, turns out, 0:09:34.996 --> 0:09:39.196 have enough high school students to actually manage the scale 0:09:39.196 --> 0:09:42.076 of the number of ads being lodged, but maybe you'd 0:09:42.076 --> 0:09:45.596 be in a position both to have their decisions respect it, 0:09:45.676 --> 0:09:49.876 and you might be helping them exercise a muscle from 0:09:49.916 --> 0:09:53.756 the vantage of playing the role of an arbiter that 0:09:53.796 --> 0:09:57.036 could come in handy as they in turn become voters 0:09:57.076 --> 0:10:00.356 a year or two after these exercises. Yeah, I love 0:10:00.396 --> 0:10:02.476 that sort of two for quality about it. Right that 0:10:02.516 --> 0:10:06.076 it both resolves the question of should these ads be 0:10:06.196 --> 0:10:10.876 made available to the public and how high school students 0:10:10.876 --> 0:10:14.796 can learn skills as citizens in a democracy. It also 0:10:14.916 --> 0:10:18.036 because as I understood your proposal, you'd be grouping together 0:10:18.076 --> 0:10:21.676 students from different communities kind of anti polarization or check 0:10:21.716 --> 0:10:26.036 against polarization. Is also maybe the piece of I think 0:10:26.036 --> 0:10:29.436 that's right for now, and you would get the value 0:10:29.836 --> 0:10:33.236 of both the deliberations, and this is something you don't 0:10:33.276 --> 0:10:36.476 much get on a jury. Asking the students to craft 0:10:36.516 --> 0:10:39.076 their reasoning, and it might be that some students would 0:10:39.116 --> 0:10:42.156 write in dissent and that that could be very nice. Yeah, Yeah, 0:10:42.156 --> 0:10:45.556 there could be like a Minority report exactly. Now. I 0:10:45.596 --> 0:10:48.556 think this is a fascinating idea and a really promising one, 0:10:49.036 --> 0:10:51.356 but I want to be very clear about what it's not. 0:10:52.196 --> 0:10:56.996 It's not a lark, it's not idle speculation or armchair quarterbacking. 0:10:57.556 --> 0:11:00.476 It comes from Jay Z's very careful analysis of the 0:11:00.556 --> 0:11:04.436 problem with the Internet and society. He described for me 0:11:04.716 --> 0:11:08.196 three different eras in that history, and the first era 0:11:08.436 --> 0:11:13.116 was one of what i'd call the rights era. Era one, 0:11:13.436 --> 0:11:17.876 the rights era where anything goes free speech. That era 0:11:17.996 --> 0:11:20.356 lasts through the early years of the Internet and even 0:11:20.396 --> 0:11:23.156 the start of social media, and that era you could 0:11:23.196 --> 0:11:25.796 say anything you wanted, there are no limits. A lot 0:11:25.876 --> 0:11:29.636 of people hoped expected even that the Internet with strengthen 0:11:29.716 --> 0:11:33.916 democracy by democratizing publishing, and as you know, this isn't 0:11:33.956 --> 0:11:37.076 quite what happened. People started to revolt against this idea 0:11:37.076 --> 0:11:40.316 of free speech, and so Era too started around the 0:11:40.396 --> 0:11:43.476 year twenty ten, jay Z says, and he calls Era 0:11:43.556 --> 0:11:47.396 too the public health era. It's then that some kinds 0:11:47.396 --> 0:11:50.236 of speech came to be understood as harm, as if 0:11:50.356 --> 0:11:53.876 bad ideas are viruses. But a problem with the public 0:11:53.876 --> 0:11:57.316 health era is this, who decides which speech is harmful. 0:11:58.196 --> 0:12:01.116 The problem is that we don't even trust our public institutions, 0:12:01.116 --> 0:12:03.676 and it's not like we're trusting Facebook or Twitter these 0:12:03.756 --> 0:12:08.676 days so much so, whom would we want to wield 0:12:08.716 --> 0:12:11.276 the power or to shape what we can and can't see. 0:12:11.876 --> 0:12:14.636 And that led to me thinking it might be a 0:12:14.676 --> 0:12:16.796 third era in the making, which is the era of 0:12:16.876 --> 0:12:22.596 legitimacy or process Era three? The process or a legitimacy era, 0:12:23.236 --> 0:12:25.596 I think maybe it needs a better name. But jay 0:12:25.676 --> 0:12:27.796 Z's point is that in the era we're now in, 0:12:28.276 --> 0:12:31.156 we need to find a process, one that people respect 0:12:31.236 --> 0:12:35.116 as legitimate, that can start to reconcile the tension between 0:12:35.276 --> 0:12:40.156 rights arguments and public health arguments. And so he says, 0:12:40.276 --> 0:12:45.876 what process to people still respect? Trial by jury? You say, gosh, 0:12:45.956 --> 0:12:48.396 what that jury decided doesn't seem like what I would 0:12:48.436 --> 0:12:51.036 decide from what little I followed that case. But they 0:12:51.036 --> 0:12:54.956 were there, they know, and that person who was judged 0:12:54.956 --> 0:12:57.236 by that jury got a fair spin. Would be the 0:12:57.316 --> 0:13:03.156 idea of an ideal process. From there, jay Z came 0:13:03.236 --> 0:13:05.036 up with the idea of having a jury of high 0:13:05.036 --> 0:13:08.796 school students decide what political ads can and cannot get 0:13:09.156 --> 0:13:12.756 stood on social media. For jay Z, this scheme began 0:13:12.796 --> 0:13:15.116 as a thought experiment. I mean, I think it also 0:13:15.156 --> 0:13:17.356 came out of the fact that he was moderating content 0:13:17.436 --> 0:13:20.396 online when he was in sixth grade. But some of 0:13:20.436 --> 0:13:23.196 the best things ever invented started out as thought experiments. 0:13:23.836 --> 0:13:26.636 This high school thing, it had started as a thought experiment. 0:13:26.756 --> 0:13:29.036 But I told jay Z I wanted to actually do it, 0:13:29.476 --> 0:13:31.756 and then we both got excited because jay Z will 0:13:31.996 --> 0:13:34.956 he thought that if it worked, it might actually become 0:13:34.956 --> 0:13:38.516 a thing. If Mark Zuckerberg woke up on morning or 0:13:38.676 --> 0:13:40.476 one of his primary deputies and said this would be 0:13:40.516 --> 0:13:43.796 a great idea, you could like suddenly have a nationwide 0:13:43.796 --> 0:13:49.356 implementation rather quickly. That makes it very high stakes. That 0:13:49.436 --> 0:13:51.996 brings us back to our experiment. I put together a 0:13:52.076 --> 0:13:55.036 lesson plan and I went to Ringe to test it 0:13:55.036 --> 0:14:00.396 out to Benji Cohen's class back to school right after 0:14:00.436 --> 0:14:14.636 the bill. For those who can't see, my room is 0:14:14.676 --> 0:14:17.596 small and has no windows, and so when I moved in, 0:14:17.756 --> 0:14:20.116 I was like, these walls are going to become tattooed. 0:14:20.916 --> 0:14:26.236 Benji mister Cohen, mister c at age thirty two, He's 0:14:26.276 --> 0:14:30.956 already a legend Cohen's Lean. He's a runner in winter. 0:14:31.076 --> 0:14:35.756 He wears Chuck's All Stars otherwise Sandals. He is killer 0:14:35.796 --> 0:14:39.516 at Ultimate Frisbee, also tennis. He tells the students they 0:14:39.516 --> 0:14:43.516 can gamble their grade on his serve one serve. If 0:14:43.516 --> 0:14:46.076 they can return it, he'll give them an A plus. 0:14:46.316 --> 0:14:50.076 Otherwise they flunk his class his first year teaching, one 0:14:50.156 --> 0:14:52.316 kid who was already getting an F took him up 0:14:52.356 --> 0:14:55.476 on it. The whole class went outside their tennis courts 0:14:55.476 --> 0:14:59.436 out front. Mister Cohen aced him. The kids f stood. 0:15:00.636 --> 0:15:03.836 That was four years ago. No one has challenged him since. 0:15:05.236 --> 0:15:07.636 The walls of his classroom are covered. There's a giant 0:15:07.636 --> 0:15:10.996 poster that reads are you public education is a civil right? 0:15:11.476 --> 0:15:14.276 There's a photo of James Baldwin, and paste it on 0:15:14.316 --> 0:15:18.956 all four walls. Our student projects. Some highlights include the 0:15:18.956 --> 0:15:21.996 Pizza Gate board game. I teach a class about American 0:15:21.996 --> 0:15:25.036 politics and current events, and we do a unit on 0:15:25.156 --> 0:15:29.516 like conspiracy thinking and the infiltration of that into politics, 0:15:29.876 --> 0:15:34.396 and so we examine pizza Gate and some students decided 0:15:34.436 --> 0:15:38.236 to turn it into a game. This school, Cambridge Ringe 0:15:38.236 --> 0:15:40.836 in Latin School, a Ringe, as everyone calls it, is 0:15:40.836 --> 0:15:44.316 a big citywide public school. My kids all went to Ringe. 0:15:46.116 --> 0:15:52.996 Come on school, has nearly two thousand students. More than 0:15:53.076 --> 0:15:55.836 half of them are students of color. Kids at Range 0:15:55.836 --> 0:15:59.196 are native speakers of more than twenty languages. At graduation, 0:15:59.276 --> 0:16:02.516 they welcome the audience in each of those languages. I've 0:16:02.556 --> 0:16:05.156 attended that ceremony, and I can tell you everyone cries 0:16:05.196 --> 0:16:08.076 when that part happens. If you live in Cambridge, you 0:16:08.116 --> 0:16:11.156 heard about the famous people Blue went to Ryne, Patrick Ewing, 0:16:11.636 --> 0:16:15.356 Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck build a Blasio, 0:16:15.996 --> 0:16:20.116 NPRS car talk guys. They went to Rynch too, Benji Cohen, 0:16:20.636 --> 0:16:25.356 he went to Ryne. Anyway, it's a fantastic, amazing, hubbubby school. 0:16:26.356 --> 0:16:38.836 What's the morning? We went to Ryne just after MLK Day. 0:16:38.996 --> 0:16:43.476 The kids tramped in winter coats, face masks, backpacks, looking 0:16:43.516 --> 0:16:46.476 a little sleepy. They slouched into those chairs, you know, 0:16:46.516 --> 0:16:48.916 the ones with the tennis balls on the feet. They 0:16:48.996 --> 0:16:52.676 checked TikTok, and then mister Cohen got started. All right, 0:16:52.676 --> 0:16:57.596 everyone put your welcome. Um, here's what we're gonna do today. 0:16:58.996 --> 0:17:02.116 Our guests are gonna introduce themselves and then we're just 0:17:02.156 --> 0:17:04.876 gonna jump right in. Sound like a plaid. All right, 0:17:04.956 --> 0:17:08.556 rock on, let's do it all right, Good morning everybody. Um, 0:17:08.556 --> 0:17:11.236 mister cos I told you were working out on a podcast, 0:17:11.596 --> 0:17:13.916 and the podcast is about how people know things and 0:17:14.036 --> 0:17:17.436 know whether things are true. Something one. There's a piece 0:17:17.476 --> 0:17:20.356 of paper at your desks. You can use it or 0:17:20.436 --> 0:17:22.596 you cannot. The first thing I want you to think 0:17:22.596 --> 0:17:25.116 about as a collective, just talk to each other. You 0:17:25.116 --> 0:17:27.236 could write notes if you want, is what is a 0:17:27.276 --> 0:17:30.876 fact and how do you know when something is true? 0:17:31.476 --> 0:17:35.196 We wanted to figure out how kids thought about facts, opinions, beliefs. 0:17:35.876 --> 0:17:39.316 Twenty or so students, mostly juniors, divided into four groups 0:17:39.596 --> 0:17:42.876 and sat huddled around tables, pushed together, trying to write 0:17:42.916 --> 0:17:45.916 a definition for the word fact. It was a kind 0:17:45.956 --> 0:17:53.796 of beautiful chaos. That is like something that I feel 0:17:53.836 --> 0:17:58.396 like people getting back to a beliefs like Ruth is 0:17:58.396 --> 0:18:01.196 a junior, plays on the basketball team. She's also part 0:18:01.196 --> 0:18:03.196 of a student run project at Ringe whose aim is 0:18:03.236 --> 0:18:06.276 to integrate more of the black past into the history curriculum. 0:18:06.996 --> 0:18:09.556 She seemed like a classic go getter for the room. 0:18:09.636 --> 0:18:13.596 Hand raised kind of kid. Mister Cohen nodded along, encouraging them. 0:18:14.316 --> 0:18:16.756 Then he called on a ninth grader, Oh, yes, start, 0:18:16.916 --> 0:18:20.196 what's a fact. So a fact is something that can 0:18:20.236 --> 0:18:24.756 be like proven. You have a statement that's been said, 0:18:24.836 --> 0:18:30.556 like um Benji was born on July twenty second, July 0:18:30.636 --> 0:18:35.116 twenty second, nineteen ninety two or whatever I wish um 0:18:35.356 --> 0:18:38.156 and to prove that he would have like a birth 0:18:38.156 --> 0:18:40.596 certificate to prove it, which would mean like, you know, 0:18:40.916 --> 0:18:44.556 that's that, that's the fact. And but like I think 0:18:44.596 --> 0:18:47.476 that's what happened. As sounds what you're saying you need 0:18:47.516 --> 0:18:52.076 like a primary source. Yeah, ok yeah, that okay, great, 0:18:52.196 --> 0:18:55.836 good start. But then what mister Cohen kept pushing them. 0:18:55.876 --> 0:18:58.036 And what's striking here I hope you can hear it 0:18:58.076 --> 0:19:00.876 because it blew my ears right off my head is 0:19:00.876 --> 0:19:03.556 the seriousness with which the students are taking all of this. 0:19:04.196 --> 0:19:06.756 Sure they're messing around, but there's a real sense of 0:19:06.796 --> 0:19:12.036 solemn responsibility that this civic exercise. Maybe it matters maybe 0:19:12.036 --> 0:19:14.196 to their great okay, and maybe to their relationship to 0:19:14.236 --> 0:19:17.876 mister Cohen, whom they all adore, but also their relationship 0:19:17.916 --> 0:19:20.916 to one another and to themselves. They care, they really 0:19:20.956 --> 0:19:23.996 care about getting this right. From the start, they cared 0:19:23.996 --> 0:19:27.036 about that, they cared about doing it well. Mister Cohen 0:19:27.116 --> 0:19:29.716 has this way of urging his students on. It just 0:19:29.836 --> 0:19:33.356 knocked me out. Be brave, He'll say, go for it. 0:19:33.956 --> 0:19:37.516 Rock on, We're gonna rock with an example. Get it 0:19:37.516 --> 0:19:39.316 from the back. I want to hear what everyone has 0:19:39.316 --> 0:19:42.476 to say. Okay, so Robbie, Robbie trying to make trouble 0:19:42.836 --> 0:19:46.596 Soren in the morning. So here's the question. You're ready, 0:19:46.716 --> 0:19:51.196 you're ready? Is it a fact that on January sixth, 0:19:51.516 --> 0:19:54.116 Trump supporters went into the United States Capital? Is that 0:19:54.516 --> 0:19:57.756 an established fact? And if so, how do you know? 0:19:58.196 --> 0:20:00.636 Go ahead? Oh, yes, it is. So there's two parts 0:20:00.636 --> 0:20:02.596 of this. There's the went into the Capitol part and 0:20:02.636 --> 0:20:05.276 the Trump supporters part. After the went into the Capitol part. 0:20:05.316 --> 0:20:07.196 We have video have it enjoying the people were in 0:20:07.236 --> 0:20:09.756 the Capitol, and we also know from the um and 0:20:09.756 --> 0:20:13.596 it's so people appeared to be Trump supporters. It's a fact, Isaac. 0:20:13.716 --> 0:20:16.156 You just heard Isaac. He's a junior, remember the school 0:20:16.236 --> 0:20:19.036 debate team. He was sitting next to Robbie, who started 0:20:19.076 --> 0:20:22.836 the school hiking club. Robbie piped up next, I'm under 0:20:22.876 --> 0:20:26.356 the belief that, I mean, there's like a one true fact. 0:20:26.396 --> 0:20:29.636 It's just whether we know it or not. And me 0:20:29.796 --> 0:20:32.196 personally I'm ninety nine percent sure that it actually was 0:20:32.276 --> 0:20:37.396 Trump supporters, but there's always, like, there's always a possibility 0:20:37.396 --> 0:20:40.356 that it's something completely different. I think at this point 0:20:40.436 --> 0:20:43.036 it's not even whether or not you know it, it's 0:20:43.076 --> 0:20:46.316 whether or not you believe it. Robbie and Isaac and Zach, 0:20:46.676 --> 0:20:49.196 boys in the back of the room kept ramping it up. 0:20:49.796 --> 0:20:52.596 In the mythology of the big city public school classroom, 0:20:52.796 --> 0:20:54.316 the boys in the back of the room would be 0:20:54.356 --> 0:20:57.516 leaning their chairs back, chewing gum, throwing wads of paper 0:20:57.556 --> 0:21:01.836 at the front. But mister Cohen knows these kids are smart, 0:21:02.756 --> 0:21:05.916 so is a fact just about belief? He was just 0:21:05.996 --> 0:21:10.636 accepting it. I'm on tea team that they must be this. 0:21:11.116 --> 0:21:13.596 And that's where it's true. Any of the understandings of 0:21:13.636 --> 0:21:16.956 a fact separate from that example, what else makes a 0:21:16.956 --> 0:21:20.596 fact affect alight? Go for it alor he's a senior, 0:21:20.796 --> 0:21:24.236 he's in the school musical Well, like I really liked um, 0:21:24.436 --> 0:21:28.156 Like George Ryals nineteen eighty four when he when he 0:21:28.236 --> 0:21:31.516 was talking about like whether the truth really matters? And 0:21:31.596 --> 0:21:35.276 of course it does matter to all of the characters, right, 0:21:35.356 --> 0:21:37.716 Like the final thing that they ask you to dismisses 0:21:37.756 --> 0:21:40.996 the truth of your eyes and ears fact actually about 0:21:41.836 --> 0:21:46.716 like what majority accepted. Is that what makes a fact 0:21:46.716 --> 0:21:51.116 a fact? No, because that goes directly contrary to like 0:21:51.156 --> 0:21:53.756 the definition of facts that we've talked about before, which 0:21:53.796 --> 0:21:55.956 is a fact is something that can be basically verified 0:21:56.196 --> 0:22:01.276 correct evidence. All right. That leaves us in a good place, yep, 0:22:01.716 --> 0:22:04.916 a good place with a working definition of a fact, 0:22:05.196 --> 0:22:08.996 and ready to apply that definition to some political ads, mister, 0:22:09.276 --> 0:22:11.556 and moved to that. Next, we're gonna watch two ads. 0:22:12.156 --> 0:22:17.356 These are we'll see what actually happens. I think the 0:22:17.476 --> 0:22:21.836 Republican incumbent, meaning the guy who's currently the Republican senator 0:22:21.836 --> 0:22:26.276 at Wisconsin. It's his reelection ad. His name is Ron Johnson, 0:22:26.956 --> 0:22:31.236 and I think fair to saying maybe the Democratic front 0:22:31.316 --> 0:22:34.276 runner to challenge him. So you're gonna watch two ads 0:22:34.276 --> 0:22:37.396 in a row, mister Cohen, students were ready to be 0:22:37.436 --> 0:22:40.916 called to the jury. They'd be evaluating two internet ads 0:22:41.076 --> 0:22:44.036 from the same race for a Senate seat in Wisconsin. 0:22:44.876 --> 0:22:47.996 We picked Wisconsin sort of randomly, but this looked like 0:22:47.996 --> 0:22:50.596 an interesting race, and the goal of the first experiment 0:22:51.076 --> 0:22:52.876 was just to see how the kids thought about truth 0:22:52.916 --> 0:22:55.516 in advertising. See if they'd even be interested in this. 0:22:56.156 --> 0:22:58.556 So for this version of the experiment, we wanted to 0:22:58.556 --> 0:23:02.436 ask high schoolers to consider candidates from another state campaigns 0:23:02.476 --> 0:23:06.116 they'd probably not followed or even heard of. First, the 0:23:06.196 --> 0:23:11.116 Democrat Mandela Barnes excuses are nothing but a dead end 0:23:11.556 --> 0:23:15.916 into expectations are something to be shattered. You can't see it. 0:23:15.956 --> 0:23:18.796 So I'll just tell you this whole ad. Basically, Barnes 0:23:18.916 --> 0:23:22.636 is running, literally running in track shoes and short way. 0:23:23.076 --> 0:23:27.276 There are no idle hands here, no low we haven't carried, 0:23:27.996 --> 0:23:30.916 no one waiting for a handout. We were free pass. 0:23:31.756 --> 0:23:33.836 But that hard work isn't paying off like it used to. 0:23:34.436 --> 0:23:37.036 My mom takes school for thirty years. My dad worked 0:23:37.036 --> 0:23:39.436 third shift at the factory. When I think about their 0:23:39.436 --> 0:23:43.116 hard work, about everything that wisconstant, families have on the line. 0:23:43.436 --> 0:23:46.756 There's no option to tap out, no tie to throw in. 0:23:46.756 --> 0:23:49.756 Instead of changing our dreams, we got to change the game. 0:23:50.476 --> 0:23:55.116 That's America had his court in this state, our state. 0:23:55.716 --> 0:23:58.116 We were the first to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment giving 0:23:58.116 --> 0:24:00.116 women the right to vote. We were the first to 0:24:00.156 --> 0:24:05.516 protect the rights of the LGBTQ community. We are game. Okay, 0:24:05.556 --> 0:24:12.596 that's number one is number two. Remember the task of 0:24:12.636 --> 0:24:15.236 this jury is to watch and listen and look for 0:24:15.316 --> 0:24:18.996 assertions of fact, because afterward they'll have to check them. 0:24:19.636 --> 0:24:22.716 So next we all watch the Republican incumbent sad this 0:24:22.756 --> 0:24:27.076 guy's running for reelection as Wisconsin Senator. Our country is 0:24:27.076 --> 0:24:32.156 in troubled. Democrat policies have been disastrous for America, opened 0:24:32.156 --> 0:24:35.356 borders in a flood of illegal immigrants, the twenty twenty 0:24:35.356 --> 0:24:40.396 summer Ryans defunding the police, glowering bail, and not prosecuting criminals. 0:24:40.876 --> 0:24:46.476 The result more crime, human and sex trafficking, record, drug overdoses, 0:24:46.876 --> 0:24:50.436 Kenosha set on fire, a growing number of murders in Milwaukee, 0:24:50.996 --> 0:24:54.636 and the walk Shop Christmas Parade turned into a terrible tragedy. 0:24:55.236 --> 0:24:58.236 It feels like our country is being torn apart. That's 0:24:58.236 --> 0:25:00.716 not how it felt when I ran in twenty sixteen. 0:25:01.316 --> 0:25:03.476 Back then, I intended to serve a second term and 0:25:03.596 --> 0:25:07.036 go home. But now with the Democrats in total control, 0:25:07.396 --> 0:25:10.516 our nation's on a very dangerous path. If you're in 0:25:10.556 --> 0:25:12.996 a position to help make our country safer and stronger, 0:25:13.436 --> 0:25:17.756 would you just walk away? I've decided I can't. I'll 0:25:17.756 --> 0:25:20.716 stand and fight for freedom I'm Ron Johnson, and I've 0:25:20.756 --> 0:25:23.956