Today it is great to have Chloé Valdary on the podcast. After spending a year as a Bartley Fellow at the Wall Street Journal, Chloé developed the Theory of Enchantment, an innovative framework for socioemotional learning, character development and interpersonal growth that uses pop culture as an educational tool in the classroom and beyond. Chloé has trained around the world including in South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany and Israel. Her clients have included high school and college students, government agencies, business teams and many more. She has also lectured in universities across America including Harvard and Georgetown. Her work has been covered in Psychology Today magazine and her writings have appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Time Stamps
[01:24] Defining the Theory of Enchantment
[02:53] Chloé’s background and interest in education
[05:38] The relationship between Chloé’s theory & humanistic psychology
[06:45] Socioemotional learning
[07:57] Anti-racism via developmental psychology and the study of foundational texts
[11:48] Building transformational relationships with others
[15:39] Chloé’s thoughts on ‘wokeness’
[20:46] Why our fight against racial injustice must be rooted in love
[24:17] How we tend to deny the complexity of human beings
[26:04] Why the Black Lives Matter movement might involve unhelpful caricatures of human beings
[28:21] Transcendence and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C.
[30:22] Zero-sum policies versus seeking out the well-being of all
[33:30] Chloé’s view on Marxism & reductionist views that increase polarization
[35:20] How Chloé navigates the stress of maintaining a presence on social media
[37:55] Chloé’s thoughts on Candace Owens’ comments about George Floyd
[41:26] The influence of religion on Chloé’s philosophy
[43:36] How we prefer our mythological heroes to be morally ambiguous, but demand moral purity in our brothers and sisters
[44:55] Twitter comments for Chloé