{"id":1056,"date":"2012-07-09T11:25:32","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T16:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2012-07-09T13:59:49","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T18:59:49","slug":"jurek-evidence-and-identification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/2012\/07\/09\/jurek-evidence-and-identification\/","title":{"rendered":"Jurek, Evidence, and Identification"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo<\/a>Scott\u00a0Jurek\u00a0is a\u00a0badass distance\u00a0runner, but he’s also one\u00a0silver-tongued persuader. The ultramarathoner’s Eat and Run<\/em><\/a> lays out such a compelling case for a plant-based diet that this old-school marathoner suddenly found himself\u00a0devouring baked tofu\u00a0in lieu of his post-run steak n’ eggs. Countless others had suggested I work in a salad from time to time. Why would I ignore years of advice from my doctor but take dietary\u00a0cues from a self-described Minnesota redneck?<\/p>\n

Well, I guess\u00a0Mr. Jurek\u00a0just spoke my language. He begins his story as a “serious carnivore,” who grew up yanking walleye from Lake Mille Lacs.\u00a0A skinny kid, he learned to run and ski cross-country, faring pretty well against the\u00a0“cake eaters” on Duluth’s east side. He was introduced to “‘hippie food” by coaches and a college girlfriend, discovering that he felt stronger and performed better when he\u00a0ate “plant-based”\u00a0food (his diet is clearly vegan, but\u00a0the “plant-based” label seems to come with less baggage).\u00a0Oh, and I almost forgot: he\u00a0regularly runs distances of 100 miles or more faster than anybody on the planet.\u00a0 His recipes are thus interwoven with ripping yarns from some of the world’s toughest races.<\/p>\n

Scott Jurek’s crossover success as a food writer might offer a few lessons\u00a0for social scientists aiming to get people thinking in new ways. As academics, we’re often presenting our research in hopes of changing the hearts and minds (and votes) of politicians, publics, or policy makers. But we forget that\u00a0it takes a lot <\/em>to actually change somebody’s mind.\u00a0In my career,\u00a0it only seems to happen when folks (a) agree that my evidence is\u00a0really powerful; and (b) somehow identify with me as a credible expert who knows and appreciates their own worldview. Mr. Jurek\u00a0nailed me on both counts, overcoming my prejudices with evidence and answering my\u00a0knee-jerk objections in precisely my own language.<\/p>\n

Before I give public talks, I\u00a0ask what\u00a0sorts of evidence\u00a0might\u00a0change my<\/em> mind\u00a0about issues on which\u00a0I’ve developed firm opinions (e.g., gun control, progressive taxation, public education). That’s a pretty high bar for most of us, right? I certainly wouldn’t be talked off my opinion by some dork from the university half-assedly opining on his “reading of the literature.” To get my attention (let alone change my mind), I’d want a supertight smoking-gun\u00a0study along with some sort of richly textured first-hand testimony from people I trusted.\u00a0So when\u00a0I’m testifying, I\u00a0never expect folks to accept my ideas uncritically.\u00a0I might have real authority and legitimacy on the subject of crime, for example, but\u00a0so too does the\u00a0state legislator who served ten years as a district attorney. I’m not going to talk her off her position unless I’ve got something really convincing to say — and I can\u00a0say it in ways\u00a0that resonate with her own experiences.<\/p>\n

Scott Jurek and his editors understand all this implicitly.\u00a0While it is\u00a0certainly\u00a0easier to preach to the converted,\u00a0overcoming disbelievers\u00a0can be a rich and satisfying experience. Sort of like that post-race lentil-mushroom burger<\/a>\u00a0…<\/p>\n

photo by Pete Aylward<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scott\u00a0Jurek\u00a0is a\u00a0badass distance\u00a0runner, but he’s also one\u00a0silver-tongued persuader. The ultramarathoner’s Eat and Run lays out such a compelling case for a plant-based diet that this old-school marathoner suddenly found himself\u00a0devouring baked tofu\u00a0in lieu of his post-run steak n’ eggs. Countless others had suggested I work in a salad from time to time. Why would I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/files\/2012\/07\/jurek.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1056"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1068,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1056\/revisions\/1068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/editors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}