Rhetoric Is Not a Dirty Word: How an Ancient Art Can Help You Think for Yourself in a Polarized World

The discipline of rhetoric was the keystone of Western education for over two thousand years. We stopped teaching it. And it shows.

When most people hear the word "rhetoric" today, they use it as a synonym for manipulation; empty political speech, dishonest framing, words designed to obscure rather than illuminate. And in dismissing it that way, we've lost access to the most powerful intellectual tool we ever had for protecting ourselves from exactly that.

In this episode of Good Is In The Details, Gwendolyn Dolske and Rudy Salo sit down with Dr. Robin Reames, associate professor of English at the University of Illinois Chicago, specializing in rhetorical theory and the history of ideas, and author of The Ancient Art of Thinking For Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times, named a New York Times Editors' Choice, recommended by the Wall Street Journal, and described by Kirkus as "required reading for any thinking person" in a starred review.

Dr. Reames's central argument is as urgent as it is counterintuitive: rhetoric doesn't teach us what to think. It teaches us how to think, allowing us to understand our own ideological commitments, and those of others, in a way that nothing else can. In a world of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and political acrimony, that is not an academic luxury. It is a survival skill.

What we explore in this episode:

• What rhetoric actually is — and why the field that was the foundation of Western education for millennia became a word we use to mean "lies"
• How the ancient Greek Sophists exploited language to manipulate public opinion in Athenian democracy — and why those exact techniques are being used against us right now
• The problem of bias and self-protection: why we do everything in our power to shield our existing beliefs from challenge — and what that costs us individually and collectively
• Aristotle's three modes of persuasion — ethos, pathos, and logos — and how recognizing them in the wild changes the way you receive every argument, speech, and news story you encounter
• How rhetoric connects to the history of democracy — what happened to Athens when it lost its rhetorical tradition, and what that parallel means for us
• The difference between rhetoric as manipulation and rhetoric as a tool of genuine understanding — and why that distinction is the whole ballgame
• What it actually means to think for yourself — not just to hold opinions independently, but to understand where your beliefs come from and how they were constructed
• How Dr. Reames used her understanding of rhetoric to try to bridge the political divide with her own conservative father — and what she learned from the attempt
• What the Socratic method has to do with all of this — and why Gwendolyn Dolske, Ph.D. found this episode among the most personally revelatory she's recorded

Learning rhetoric, Dr. Reames argues, is about becoming a clearer thinker, one who can see how language is shaping their beliefs before it has already done so.

This is the episode for anyone who has ever lost a friendship over politics, consumed a news story and felt something was off but couldn't name it, or wondered how an entire country can look at the same facts and come to opposite conclusions.

The ancient Greeks had the same problem. And they found an answer.

Guest: Dr. Robin Reames — associate professor of English, University of Illinois Chicago. Author of The Ancient Art of Thinking For Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times (Basic Books). New York Times Editors' Choice. Wall Street Journal recommendation. Kirkus starred review.

Learn more about Professor Reames and get her book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/robin-reames/?lens=basic-books

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