Schwarzman Session - Navigating a Post-Truth World with America’s Greatest Showman

Schwarzman Sessions are peer-led gatherings where conversations generate collaborations and move ideas into action. Because seats are limited, registrants will be automatically placed on the waitlist and will be notified via email if they are selected to participate. 

Join Betsy Golden Kellem ’01, a scholar of the unusual, for a discussion about, P.T. Barnum, the post-truth era, and what history can teach us about hope. Lunch is provided!

Consider that in 2016, the Oxford Dictionaries named "post-truth" their Word of the Year. In the wake of Brexit and the U.S. presidential election, the phrase captured a growing public discourse where feelings outweighed facts. With the rise of AI, political distortion, social echo chambers, and the devaluation of expertise, our society has become more obsessed with the breakdown of truth. More than ever, it seems that many of us don’t need to know that something is true, only to feel that it is.   

Kellem, an Emmy and Telly Award winner for her Showman’s Shorts video series on P. T. Barnum, asks us to consider him as a case study. She posits that people like P.T. Barnum, America's "greatest showman," put America on the path to a post-truth society by popularizing hoax and humbug.  

In the 19th century, Americans wondered a lot about truth. They were both fascinated by and fearful of new technologies, skeptical of institutional authority, concerned about national identity, and eager for new forms of entertainment. (Some of us in modern times might understand how they felt.) Many historic entertainers hoped to foster good reasoning and a good time by exploring entertainments like the Fejee Mermaid, fake giants, and spirit photography which blurred the line between truth and production. Others were just happy to make a quick profit.  

Consider the idea that decades of American history contributed to our present environment, a cult of loud voices and sovereign belief. And while P.T. Barnum helped create this cultural moment, his beliefs in curiosity, history, community and joy, might show a way forward. Kellem posits that as much as he loved a good trick, Barnum believed that we all can change our minds, help our communities, know our history, and foster joy.