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Inner Propaganda with Owen Fitzpatrick

Inner Propaganda with Owen Fitzpatrick

Owen Fitzpatrick 100 Episodes Jun 29, 2026

Inner Propaganda with Owen Fitzpatrick explores the unconscious beliefs and stories that shape how we think, decide, and lead. Hosted by social psychologist and keynote speaker Owen Fitzpatrick, the podcast draws on his two decades of research into belief systems, including field work in North Korea, Rwanda, and Afghanistan. Each episode unpacks how beliefs form, why they resist change, and what it takes to lead through uncertainty. The show is aimed at leaders, thinkers, and anyone tired of soft-skill clichés.

Episodes

Why most culture change fails (And what works) Jun 29, 2026 16:57 When Louis Gerstner took over a dying IBM in 1993, he told his leadership team the company's last problem was a missing vision. Every expert in the room thought he was wrong. He was not. In this episode of Inner Propaganda, I argue that culture is made of exactly two ingredients: the stories people tell and the behaviors people repeat. Everything else, the values document, the posters, the of
You don't find meaning from life. You build it Jun 22, 2026 18:22 In 1938, a London stockbroker named Nicholas Winton canceled a ski vacation and went to Czechoslovakia instead. Over the following months, he organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children, got them onto trains to Britain, and then went home and told almost nobody for nearly 50 years. What moves a person to do something like that? The answer, I believe, is meaning, and not the kind you find,
Your labels are your limits (with Nir Eyal) Jun 15, 2026 49:37 Why do so many people read the book, understand the advice, and still not change? Nir Eyal started asking that question when readers began calling him to say his books had not worked for them, only to admit they had never actually tried the steps. That reckoning became the foundation of his new book, Beyond Belief. In this conversation, Nir introduces a framework that reframes everything we th
You're a hypocrite. That's the best news you'll hear today Jun 8, 2026 17:01 A coach with decades of experience once told me she knew exactly what she needed to do to stop smoking, but just couldn't do it, because she was a smoker and that was all there was to it. One reframe later, she never touched a cigarette again. What changed was not her knowledge or her willpower but her identity. That story sits at the heart of this episode, because identity is one of the most
Why feelings feel like facts Jun 1, 2026 23:41 I was lying on a wooden floor in the Amazon jungle, convinced I was finally seeing the truth. The colors were sharper. The connections were obvious. Everything made sense. There was just one problem: I am a psychologist who studies how people get tricked into believing things, and right at that moment, I was being tricked. What the ayahuasca did to my perception that night is a more extreme vers
The belief that sabotages every conversation you have (with Tamsen Webster) May 25, 2026 01:24:54 Socrates was executed for it. The ancient Greeks called it parrhesia: the practice of speaking truth openly, even at personal risk. The form of conversation it made possible, genuine dialogue aimed at mutual understanding, has quietly disappeared from the way most of us communicate today. What replaced it was debate. And debate, it turns out, is one of the least effective tools we have for act
The hidden psychology that decides whether your team will fight for you or walk away May 18, 2026 22:45 At 25 years old, Anne Devlin was tortured, thrown into a cell with six inches of sewage on the floor, and offered the equivalent of $90,000 to talk. For three years, she endured it all without saying a single word. The psychology that explains her silence is the same psychology that determines whether the people on your team will give everything for your mission, or quietly walk away. In thi
Your brain has five versions of the truth, and most of them are wrong May 11, 2026 36:50 Nobody thinks they're the one watching propaganda. It's always the other channel. That's naive realism, and it's one of the biggest barriers to meaningful conversation. In this episode of Inner Propaganda, I introduce the Five Types of Truth: past, objective, shared, emotional, and desired. Each one shapes how we think, decide, and relate to others. Each has its own power and its own risks.
How the Emperor created Darth Vader: The psychology behind the dark side May 4, 2026 31:22 This episode of Inner Propaganda is one I have been waiting to make for a long time. In honor of May the 4th, we are going full Star Wars to answer one of the most important questions in movie history: how did Emperor Palpatine turn the galaxy's greatest hero into a mass murderer? And how did Luke Skywalker manage to turn him back? In this episode, I break down how Palpatine engineered the conv
Your brain has a context window, and it's lying to you Apr 27, 2026 25:40 Welcome to the very first episode of Inner Propaganda. In this episode, I open up about the darkest moment of my life, at 14 years old, sitting down to write a goodbye note to my parents, and the one question that stopped me, shifted my beliefs, and ultimately saved my life. That moment became the foundation for everything I've built since. I also explore the fascinating difference between fa
Why Giving Up Can Help You Win Mar 23, 2026 37:51 In this episode of Changing Minds, I sit down with resilience expert Courtney Clark to explore a powerful idea: sometimes the key to winning is knowing when to give up. We dive into why grit alone isn't enough, how flexible goal setting can outperform perseverance, and why letting go of the wrong path can actually move you closer to success. Courtney shares deeply personal stories, from surviving
14 Big Ideas on Selling and Marketing Better Mar 16, 2026 21:39 In this episode of Changing Minds, I walk through 14 powerful ideas that can transform the way you sell, market, and persuade. Drawing on some of the most influential thinkers in psychology, marketing, and negotiation, including Robert Cialdini, Dan Pink, Chris Voss, Seth Godin, Zoe Chance, and Will Storr, I explore the key principles behind effective persuasion. From understanding intrinsic motiv

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