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Inner Propaganda with Owen Fitzpatrick

Inner Propaganda with Owen Fitzpatrick

Owen Fitzpatrick 100 Episodes Oct 12, 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 we need to learn to disagree
Why we need to learn to disagree Oct 12, 2026 23:47 When was the last time you sat down with someone who sees the world very differently and listened to understand them? I believe the biggest problem in the world today is that we are not disagreeing effectively enough. Too often, we decide it is pointless even to try. Polarization, echo chambers, and media that amplify the most extreme voices have convinced many of us that the gap between "us"
Why doing good as an organization pays with Jess Pettitt
Why doing good as an organization pays with Jess Pettitt Oct 5, 2026 37:20 What if your competitors are wrestling with the same dilemma you are, and nobody is brave enough to ask? My friend Jess Pettitt, a Hall of Fame speaker and crisis advisor, believes this fear is keeping good organizations from doing better. In her new book, Doing Good Better, Jess adapts Maslow's hierarchy of needs for organizations. At the top sits outlasting the cycle: surviving recession, d
How to talk back to the voice that hates you
How to talk back to the voice that hates you Sep 28, 2026 32:58 Whenever I feel anxious or down, a voice in my head speaks with complete authority. It tells me I'm a fraud, that I'm broken, that nothing I do matters. I call it the inner dictator, and I have named him Dick. Inner propaganda is how we convince ourselves of the ideas we hold. The stories we sell to ourselves become the beliefs we buy into, and the inner dictator is the voice that sells the da
How to feel good enough
How to feel good enough Sep 21, 2026 24:42 If you have ever felt like you are not a good enough parent, partner, friend, or professional, you have met the inner dictator. It is a voice of absolute certainty that tells you the limits of your potential, and it can sabotage your chances of success. The belief "I am not good enough" is so vague and abstract that it is hard to pin down and easy to accept. It is a form of inner propaganda, a
What makes you persuasive online (ft. LinkedIn's #1 branding creator)
What makes you persuasive online (ft. LinkedIn's #1 branding creator) Sep 14, 2026 52:20 Most people chasing followers are playing the wrong game entirely. In this episode, Howie Chan, founder of the Behavioring Company and LinkedIn's number one branding creator, explains why the visible metrics of likes and reposts often hide the real currency of influence. Howie built his career by switching tribes, moving from stem cell science into brand strategy and eventually into entreprene
The reality behind my book launch
The reality behind my book launch Sep 7, 2026 19:26 A few weeks ago, I posted photos of myself signing books at Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue and at my local bookstore. It looked like a win. What I didn't share was how some stores I visited hadn't stocked the book at all, or had a single copy on order from a friend of mine who had put in the order. There is a story I heard years ago from my friend Philippe about Grigory Potemkin, who supposedl
How to heal polarization
How to heal polarization Aug 31, 2026 13:06 Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness spent decades as sworn enemies in one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern history. Then they became genuine friends, so close the press nicknamed them the Chuckle Brothers. If they could bridge that gap, the divide behind your last political argument may not be as permanent as it feels. In this episode of Inner Propaganda, I explore why disagreement now so of
How influence works
How influence works Aug 24, 2026 19:18 In the early 1980s, Steve Jobs asked an engineer to save 10 seconds off the Macintosh boot-up time. The engineer found 28. His skills never changed. The story he was working inside of did. This episode brings together everything I have taught this summer on logic and story into one complete system I call DELP: Demos, Ethos, Logos, Pathos. It is built on Aristotle's original framework, with the
How to make better decisions
How to make better decisions Aug 17, 2026 17:07 I almost said "pick up the phone" was the wrong call for Stanislav Petrov to make. His training said launch. The screen said launch. He said wait, and that pause is the reason the world is still standing. Most of our decisions will never carry those stakes, but the machinery behind them is identical. Your mind was built to keep you alive, not to get things right, and that single fact explains
How to manage your mental health
How to manage your mental health Aug 10, 2026 19:16 In 2006, I sat on a hillside above Quito and drank ayahuasca with a shaman. For a few hours, my entire reality came apart: dragons, monsters, grudges dissolving into nothing. Not one fact of my life changed that night. My whole experience of it did. That gap between the facts and the story we run on top of them is the idea underneath everything I want to share this week. Your mind works like a
How Inner Propaganda works
How Inner Propaganda works Aug 3, 2026 22:17 For years, a voice in my head told me I was worthless, and it never once sounded like an opinion. It sounded like the truth. It took thirty years and trips to some of the most propaganda-heavy places on earth to understand what that voice actually was. This week my new book, Inner Propaganda, is finally out, and it is built entirely around that discovery. The most convincing propaganda you wi
Maybe no one went crazy. It's your brain.
Maybe no one went crazy. It's your brain. Jul 27, 2026 31:46 Picture the most wrong person you know. Now consider that somewhere out there, someone is just as certain about you. In this episode, I explain why we all feel like the last sane person on Earth, and why that feeling itself might be the actual delusion. Psychologists call it naive realism, the belief that we see reality as it is and anyone who disagrees is misinformed or brainwashed. I wanted

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