2023-2024 Go Big Read Keynote Event with David McRaney
On November 7th, Go Big Read author David McRaney joined UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin on Memorial Union’s Shannon Hall stage to discuss the 2023-2024 common read book, How Minds Change. Audience members made up of students, alumni, campus staff, faculty, and people of the Madison community gathered to hear from McRaney and to discuss the surprising science of belief, opinion, and persuasion.
The event amassed both an in-person and virtual audience, with approximately 300 in-person attendees and 250 virtual ones tuning in online. Chancellor Mnookin kicked off the event with a brief introduction of McRaney and his book before the floor was turned over to McRaney himself. He began by warming up the audience with exciting examples of mind-changing phenomena. McRaney presented additional visual elements to enrich the audience’s understanding of concepts or experiments he covered in various chapters of the book. McRaney also shared his experiences traveling around the United States discovering how specific individuals and organizations are changing the minds of others.
He explored concepts like “deep canvassing” and “confirmation bias” to illustrate the many ways in which we can change each other’s minds, and why changing other people’s minds often fails. He also connected many of the ideas in his book to current-day events affecting people in the greater Madison area and all around the world. McRaney took time at the end of the event to field questions from members of the audience about any points of confusion they encountered whilst reading.
Before the event, the Go Big Read program fulfilled over 600 requests for How Minds Change, resulting in over 6,000 copies of the book being mailed. The book is being integrated into over 40 course curriculums campus-wide at UW-Madison. Go Big Read has moved onto the selection process for the 2024-2025 book pick. Much like McRaney’s How Minds Change, the next Go Big Read will encompass open-mindedness and foster discussions from people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
Blog by: Jewell Marie Petrowitz