WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.960 Welcome in. It's really great to have you joining 00:00:02.960 --> 00:00:05.280 us today. Yeah, thanks for being here with us. 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:09.300 So if you have ever stopped and wondered why 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:12.380 you naturally click with certain people. Or how 00:00:12.380 --> 00:00:14.480 your streaming cues might actually be dictating 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:16.920 your social life. Right. In ways you can't even 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:19.780 see, honestly. Well, you are in the exact right 00:00:19.780 --> 00:00:22.879 place for this. You really are. Because our mission 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:28.140 on this deep dive is to unpack the... the invisible 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:30.160 forces that shape our social lives. We're looking 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.960 at everything from the media we consume to the 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:35.380 people we ultimately choose to trust. It's a 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:38.140 really profound topic to explore. I mean, people 00:00:38.140 --> 00:00:41.119 often view their social lives as just a series 00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:43.740 of organic connections or, you know, random encounters. 00:00:44.060 --> 00:00:46.460 Just things that happen to them. Exactly. But 00:00:46.460 --> 00:00:49.219 there is actually a hidden architecture to all 00:00:49.219 --> 00:00:51.500 of those interactions. And to uncover that architecture, 00:00:51.500 --> 00:00:54.380 we're looking at a singular, richly detailed 00:00:54.380 --> 00:00:57.320 source today. Yeah, we are diving into the Wikipedia 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:00.859 page of Omar Lizardo. Now, for anyone not deeply 00:01:00.859 --> 00:01:02.799 embedded in the world of academic sociology, 00:01:03.380 --> 00:01:05.980 that name might be new. Which is fair. But according 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:08.900 to the website Academic Influence, Omar Lizardo 00:01:08.900 --> 00:01:11.560 was ranked as the most influential sociologist 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:15.879 from the period of 2010 to 2020. And that specific 00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:18.819 decade saw massive shifts in how human beings 00:01:18.819 --> 00:01:21.480 interact. Oh, yeah, the explosion of social media. 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:24.280 Right, the explosion of digital networks. Being 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:26.959 at the forefront of analyzing that shift puts 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:29.840 his work in a highly relevant context for anyone, 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:32.439 basically anyone trying to understand modern 00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:35.099 relationships. Before we get into the heavy academic 00:01:35.099 --> 00:01:36.700 theory, though, I want to drop a quick idea into 00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:40.640 your mind. Consider your taste in music or your 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:43.349 favorite films. The common assumption is that 00:01:43.349 --> 00:01:45.310 these preferences are just a byproduct of who 00:01:45.310 --> 00:01:47.989 your friends are. But what if your cultural tastes 00:01:47.989 --> 00:01:51.090 are actually the invisible architecture actively 00:01:51.090 --> 00:01:52.730 creating your friend group in the first place? 00:01:52.969 --> 00:01:55.049 Framing the question that way gets right to the 00:01:55.049 --> 00:01:57.170 heart of Lizardo's work. He operates at this 00:01:57.170 --> 00:02:00.310 incredibly specific intersection. Right. It's 00:02:00.310 --> 00:02:02.469 cognitive science, the sociology of culture, 00:02:02.629 --> 00:02:05.629 and social networks. Exactly. Rather than just 00:02:05.629 --> 00:02:09.050 observing society from a detached macro perspective, 00:02:09.659 --> 00:02:12.419 He looks at how individual human cognition and 00:02:12.419 --> 00:02:15.979 personal cultural consumption map onto those 00:02:15.979 --> 00:02:18.639 massive overarching networks of human connection. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:20.699 I think we need to ground him as a real person 00:02:20.699 --> 00:02:22.699 before we impact those massive networks, though. 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:25.740 Yeah, definitely. His background completely informs 00:02:25.740 --> 00:02:28.599 his approach. So Omar Alcidés -Lazardo was born 00:02:28.599 --> 00:02:32.419 in New York City in 1974. But he spent most of 00:02:32.419 --> 00:02:34.460 his childhood and teenage years in La Romana 00:02:34.460 --> 00:02:36.419 in the Dominican Republic. And then he came back 00:02:36.419 --> 00:02:38.379 to New York. Right. He returned to New York to 00:02:38.379 --> 00:02:40.500 earn a bachelor of science in psychology at Brooklyn 00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:44.580 College in 1997. It was only later that he shifted 00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:47.360 fully into sociology. He got his master's in 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:50.360 2002 and his PhD in 2006 from the University 00:02:50.360 --> 00:02:53.060 of Arizona. And that foundational degree in psychology 00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:55.759 is a crucial piece of the puzzle here. How so? 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:58.860 Well, approaching sociology with a formal background 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:01.039 in individual human cognition means he never 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:03.199 loses sight of the individual mind. Even when 00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:06.300 he's discussing massive societal trends. Precisely. 00:03:06.819 --> 00:03:09.439 His sociological models are fundamentally rooted 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:12.439 in how the human brain actually processes information. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.780 There's also this funny, very human detail on 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:19.060 his Wikipedia page that highlights the reality 00:03:19.060 --> 00:03:22.319 behind all this academic prestige. Oh, the banner. 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:25.129 Yes, the warning banner. Right at the top of 00:03:25.129 --> 00:03:27.469 the article, there's a warning stating the page 00:03:27.469 --> 00:03:30.969 is an autobiography or has been extensively edited 00:03:30.969 --> 00:03:33.530 by the subject or by someone connected to the 00:03:33.530 --> 00:03:36.110 subject. It's a bit ironic, isn't it? Extremely. 00:03:36.629 --> 00:03:39.050 A sociologist who studies how we construct our 00:03:39.050 --> 00:03:41.889 social realities is seemingly caught actively 00:03:41.889 --> 00:03:44.949 curating his own digital presentation. The irony 00:03:44.949 --> 00:03:47.949 is hard to miss. But it serves as a great reminder 00:03:47.949 --> 00:03:50.430 that scholars analyzing human behavior are still 00:03:50.430 --> 00:03:53.110 participants in it. The desire to shape our own 00:03:53.110 --> 00:03:55.669 public narrative is universal, even for the people 00:03:55.669 --> 00:03:58.289 who study that exact phenomenon. That grounded 00:03:58.289 --> 00:04:00.449 humanity shows up in his own words, too. Our 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:03.090 source text includes a quote from a 2024 interview 00:04:03.090 --> 00:04:06.389 that feels unusually candid for someone of his 00:04:06.389 --> 00:04:08.810 academic stature. It really does. Discussing 00:04:08.810 --> 00:04:11.800 his career, he states, I have recently realized 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:15.139 looking at my research trajectory that it is 00:04:15.139 --> 00:04:17.220 essentially purely a function of what I'm teaching 00:04:17.220 --> 00:04:19.600 at the moment and the collaborations I have going. 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:22.949 What's fascinating here is how Completely that 00:04:22.949 --> 00:04:26.009 statement dismantles the myth of the lone genius. 00:04:26.470 --> 00:04:29.769 The guy with the master plan. Exactly. The popular 00:04:29.769 --> 00:04:32.850 romanticized image of a great academic involves 00:04:32.850 --> 00:04:35.529 someone locking themselves in an office for 30 00:04:35.529 --> 00:04:39.670 years with a rigid, predetermined agenda to decode 00:04:39.670 --> 00:04:42.370 society. And Lizardo is just openly acknowledging 00:04:42.370 --> 00:04:44.750 that his groundbreaking trajectory was essentially 00:04:44.750 --> 00:04:47.329 emergent. It was born out of his immediate environment 00:04:47.329 --> 00:04:49.810 and the people around him. Following the breadcrumbs 00:04:49.810 --> 00:04:51.750 of whatever happens to be in front of him rather 00:04:51.750 --> 00:04:54.540 than sticking to a rigid blueprint. Which is 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:56.339 incredibly validating for anyone listening who 00:04:56.339 --> 00:04:58.300 feels like they're just figuring things out as 00:04:58.300 --> 00:05:00.160 they go. Yeah, I think we all feel like that 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:02.920 sometimes. Generating profound insights does 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:06.279 not require a flawless 30 year plan. It requires 00:05:06.279 --> 00:05:09.339 remaining curious, being adaptable, and maintaining 00:05:09.339 --> 00:05:12.379 an openness to collaboration. His brilliance 00:05:12.379 --> 00:05:15.660 lies in being highly responsive to the people 00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:18.720 and ideas in his immediate orbit at any given 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:21.519 moment. Absolutely. OK, let's unpack this specific 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:24.529 idea that really put him on the map in that regard. 00:05:25.069 --> 00:05:28.790 We need to look at his 2006 paper published in 00:05:28.790 --> 00:05:31.689 the American Sociological Review. The one titled, 00:05:32.149 --> 00:05:35.569 How Cultural Tastes Shape Social Networks. That's 00:05:35.569 --> 00:05:38.250 the one. And this is the work that eventually 00:05:38.250 --> 00:05:41.490 won him the Clifford Geertz Prize for best article 00:05:41.490 --> 00:05:44.490 in 2008. Up until that paper was published, the 00:05:44.490 --> 00:05:46.990 traditional sociological model operated on a 00:05:46.990 --> 00:05:49.170 fairly straightforward one -way street. Which 00:05:49.170 --> 00:05:51.389 was what? Your social networks determine your 00:05:51.389 --> 00:05:54.490 cultural tastes. Oh, okay. The prevailing assumption 00:05:54.490 --> 00:05:57.430 was rooted in homophily and peer pressure. If 00:05:57.430 --> 00:05:59.370 you spend time with a certain group of people, 00:05:59.829 --> 00:06:01.829 their influence will eventually dictate the kind 00:06:01.829 --> 00:06:04.209 of music you listen to, the art you appreciate, 00:06:04.350 --> 00:06:06.310 and the clothes you wear. Meaning your friends 00:06:06.310 --> 00:06:09.149 create your tastes. Right. But Lizardo looked 00:06:09.149 --> 00:06:12.730 at that model and proposed the reverse. He asked 00:06:12.730 --> 00:06:14.949 if our cultural tastes have an independent effect 00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:17.439 on our social structure. Does a person's love 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:20.699 for a specific genre of music actively build 00:06:20.699 --> 00:06:23.339 the network of relations around them? To answer 00:06:23.339 --> 00:06:26.199 that, he developed a framework that can be summarized 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:30.120 with two concepts, bridges and fences. It's an 00:06:30.120 --> 00:06:32.319 elegant way to visualize the mechanics of social 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:35.660 dynamics. Starting with bridges, Lizardo's research 00:06:35.660 --> 00:06:38.500 indicated that popular culture things like blockbuster 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:41.899 movies, Top 40 music, viral television shows, 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:45.100 acts as a bridge. Because pop culture has such 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:48.000 wide appeal and requires very little specialized 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:50.980 knowledge to consume. Right. It allows us to 00:06:50.980 --> 00:06:54.019 form weak ties with acquaintances. Think about 00:06:54.019 --> 00:06:56.220 standing in the break room at a new job. You 00:06:56.220 --> 00:06:58.360 probably won't initiate a conversation about 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:01.779 a highly obscure experimental 19th century novel. 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:04.160 No, definitely not. You will likely ask your 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:06.319 new co -worker if they watched the big sporting 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:08.420 event or the popular streaming show that weekend. 00:07:08.860 --> 00:07:11.160 The pop culture serves as a bridge. And it is 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:13.819 a low -stakes cultural artifact. It allows you 00:07:13.819 --> 00:07:16.019 to span a gap between yourself and someone you 00:07:16.019 --> 00:07:18.560 don't know very well. Facilitating that initial 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:21.500 connection without requiring deep vulnerability 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:23.720 or shared niche interests. On the other side 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:26.860 of that dynamic, we have fences. Lizardo argues 00:07:26.860 --> 00:07:29.579 that hybrid culture, which is more exclusive, 00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:32.699 less accessible, or requires specialized knowledge, 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:36.430 serves as a fence. An offense is utilized to 00:07:36.430 --> 00:07:40.050 strengthen close, exclusive ties. If you and 00:07:40.050 --> 00:07:42.350 three close friends share an obsession with a 00:07:42.350 --> 00:07:45.050 very niche subgenre of independent documentary 00:07:45.050 --> 00:07:48.689 filmmaking, that shared exclusive knowledge acts 00:07:48.689 --> 00:07:51.129 as a boundary. It keeps the group tight -knit. 00:07:51.310 --> 00:07:53.889 Right. It signals to each member that they belong 00:07:53.889 --> 00:07:56.449 to the same specific tribe. If you connect this 00:07:56.449 --> 00:07:58.670 to the bigger picture, consider how this applies 00:07:58.670 --> 00:08:01.430 to your own life as you listen to this. This 00:08:01.430 --> 00:08:04.449 framework transforms seemingly passive cultural 00:08:04.449 --> 00:08:07.870 consumption into a highly active tool. How so? 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:09.899 When you scroll through a streaming service and 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:12.180 select a universally beloved sitcom, you are 00:08:12.180 --> 00:08:14.060 effectively gathering bridge -building material 00:08:14.060 --> 00:08:16.220 for casual conversations the next day. Oh, that 00:08:16.220 --> 00:08:18.339 makes total sense. Conversely, when you spend 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:20.899 hours diving into a highly specialized podcast 00:08:20.899 --> 00:08:23.240 or reading an obscure piece of literature, you 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:25.699 are stockpiling fence -building material to deepen 00:08:25.699 --> 00:08:28.459 the bonds with your inner circle. It really reframes 00:08:28.459 --> 00:08:31.100 how we view our entertainment choices. A Netflix 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:33.100 subscription is not just a source of passive 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:35.730 media. No, it provides the literal construction 00:08:35.730 --> 00:08:38.129 supplies for a person's social reality. You are 00:08:38.129 --> 00:08:41.289 actively architecting your social life through 00:08:41.289 --> 00:08:44.149 the specific cultural tastes you choose to cultivate 00:08:44.149 --> 00:08:46.649 and deploy. That is the core takeaway. Here's 00:08:46.649 --> 00:08:49.090 where it gets really interesting, though. Lizardo's 00:08:49.090 --> 00:08:51.769 work extends far beyond pop culture and immediate 00:08:51.769 --> 00:08:54.870 friend groups. The source material outlines a 00:08:54.870 --> 00:08:57.210 staggering breadth of research. He covers an 00:08:57.210 --> 00:08:59.870 amazing amount of ground. In 2014, for instance, 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:02.799 He and Robert Fishman won the Charles Tilly Best 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:06.860 Article Award for a paper titled, How Macro -Historical 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:11.259 Change Shapes Cultural Taste, Legacies of Democratization 00:09:11.259 --> 00:09:14.480 in Spain and Portugal. That paper perfectly demonstrates 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:17.019 his ability to scale his analysis. The title 00:09:17.019 --> 00:09:20.240 sounds incredibly dense. It does, but the concept 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:23.179 is profound. When a country like Spain transitions 00:09:23.179 --> 00:09:26.059 from a dictatorship to a democracy, it is not 00:09:26.059 --> 00:09:28.320 just the voting laws that change. Right, everything 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:31.399 changes. The sudden influx of previously banned 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:34.539 international media, music, and art floods the 00:09:34.539 --> 00:09:37.899 culture. Lizardo traces how that massive political 00:09:37.899 --> 00:09:41.220 shockwave crickles all the way down to reorganize 00:09:41.220 --> 00:09:43.960 how young people form their subcultures and personal 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:46.419 identities. He connects the macro history of 00:09:46.419 --> 00:09:49.600 an entire nation to the micro level of a teenager's 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:51.940 record collection. Precisely. He also reverses 00:09:51.940 --> 00:09:55.600 that lens entirely. Look at his 2013 paper co 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:58.299 -authored with Jessica Klatt titled Embarrassment 00:09:58.299 --> 00:10:01.139 and Social Organization, a multiple identities 00:10:01.139 --> 00:10:03.879 model. That is a fascinating one. Here he takes 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:06.779 something deeply intimate, the physical, internal 00:10:06.779 --> 00:10:09.360 feeling of embarrassment, and maps out how it 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:11.720 dictates societal organization. The multiple 00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:13.639 identities model suggests that we all juggle 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:16.100 different roles. You are professional work, a 00:10:16.100 --> 00:10:17.820 casual friend on the weekends, maybe a parent 00:10:17.820 --> 00:10:20.360 at home. Right. And when those worlds collide 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:22.879 or the wires get crossed, say, your boss runs 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:25.600 into you at a loud, rowdy concert embarrassment 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:27.580 occurs. Just thinking about it makes me cringe. 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:31.299 Exactly. You feel it physically. Lizardo's research 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:33.980 posits that embarrassment is not just a personal 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:37.059 failing. It is the social friction that alerts 00:10:37.059 --> 00:10:39.340 us that a boundary has been crossed. Helping 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:42.100 us recalibrate and maintain those distinct social 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:45.100 structures. The feeling itself enforces the organization 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:47.440 of society. He breaks down deterministic views 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:50.299 in other areas as well, like in his 2005 paper 00:10:50.299 --> 00:10:53.379 also with Collette called Why Biology is Not 00:10:53.379 --> 00:10:55.710 Religious Destiny. He consistently challenges 00:10:55.710 --> 00:10:58.570 the idea that human behavior is locked into a 00:10:58.570 --> 00:11:01.659 rigid, predetermined track. But what seems to 00:11:01.659 --> 00:11:04.799 elevate his influence is his dedication to proving 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:08.320 these theories with rigorous quantitative measurement. 00:11:08.679 --> 00:11:10.639 Theoretical sociology can sometimes struggle 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:13.200 with empirical proof. Our sources highlight his 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:15.639 involvement in significant data projects to combat 00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:18.019 exactly that. Like the National Science Foundation 00:11:18.019 --> 00:11:20.419 -funded NetSense project. Yes, as well as the 00:11:20.419 --> 00:11:22.379 National Institutes of Health -funded NetHealth 00:11:22.379 --> 00:11:24.679 project. How do those projects actually capture 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:27.399 the data needed for these massive theories? Studying 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:29.639 pervasive networking sounds incredibly abstract. 00:11:29.820 --> 00:11:32.500 Well, historically, sociologists relied heavily 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:35.559 on self -reported surveys to map networks. They 00:11:35.559 --> 00:11:37.700 would simply ask people, who are your friends? 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:40.539 Who do you spend time with? The problem is that 00:11:40.539 --> 00:11:43.580 people forget. They forget, or they lie, or they 00:11:43.580 --> 00:11:45.919 present an idealized version of their social 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:47.799 lives. Right. Everyone wants to seem more social 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:50.279 than they actually might be. Exactly. Projects 00:11:50.279 --> 00:11:52.840 like NetSense and NetHealth utilize smartphone 00:11:52.840 --> 00:11:56.700 sensors, Bluetooth proximity logs, and communication 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:59.299 metadata to track who is actually spending time 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:02.460 together and for how long. Oh. They map the physical 00:12:02.460 --> 00:12:05.139 and digital reality of human connection, turning 00:12:05.139 --> 00:12:07.840 abstract behaviors into hard, trackable data 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:10.440 points. That desire to track the untrackable 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:13.179 is also the focus of his 2020 collaborative book, 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:16.320 Measuring Culture. Culture is notoriously nebulous. 00:12:16.679 --> 00:12:19.039 Putting a hard metric on a cultural trend or 00:12:19.039 --> 00:12:21.500 a shared belief seems nearly impossible. It's 00:12:21.500 --> 00:12:23.779 a massive challenge for the field. The book provided 00:12:23.779 --> 00:12:27.080 a methodological roadmap. Rather than just guessing 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:29.559 what a specific demographic value is based on 00:12:29.559 --> 00:12:32.700 intuition, sociologists can now use computational 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:35.840 text analysis to process millions of public posts 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:38.799 or emails. They can run sentiment analysis to 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:40.980 see exactly how language and cultural values 00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:43.620 shift over time. Lizardo's work in this book 00:12:43.620 --> 00:12:45.980 helped equip the discipline with the tools to 00:12:45.980 --> 00:12:49.700 translate subjective cultural vibes into objective, 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:52.600 measurable numbers. That kind of methodological 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:55.690 contribution really explains his massive footprint 00:12:55.690 --> 00:12:59.129 on the institutions of sociology itself. From 00:12:59.129 --> 00:13:02.190 2006 to 2018, he was at the University of Notre 00:13:02.190 --> 00:13:04.950 Dame. Serving as a full professor and a key part 00:13:04.950 --> 00:13:06.730 of their interdisciplinary center for network 00:13:06.730 --> 00:13:09.330 science and applications. He then moved to UCLA 00:13:09.330 --> 00:13:12.470 in 2018 to become the Leroy Nieman term chair 00:13:12.470 --> 00:13:15.009 professor of sociology. His influence extends 00:13:15.009 --> 00:13:17.590 into the editorial side of the sciences as well. 00:13:17.769 --> 00:13:20.269 Serving as a co -editor of the American Sociological 00:13:20.269 --> 00:13:22.610 Review, put him at the helm of the disciplines 00:13:22.610 --> 00:13:25.509 flagship journal. Furthermore, joining the board 00:13:25.509 --> 00:13:28.029 of reviewing editors for science in 2020 placed 00:13:28.029 --> 00:13:30.730 him in a fascinating position. He is actively 00:13:30.730 --> 00:13:32.889 helping to define the boundaries of what the 00:13:32.889 --> 00:13:35.570 broader scientific community considers groundbreaking 00:13:35.570 --> 00:13:37.970 research. While he's shaping the future of the 00:13:37.970 --> 00:13:40.809 discipline, he also maintains a strong tether 00:13:40.809 --> 00:13:44.830 to its past. In 2021, he co -edited the Handbook 00:13:44.830 --> 00:13:47.450 of Classical Sociological Theory. Updating the 00:13:47.450 --> 00:13:49.389 foundational theories of the field to remain 00:13:49.389 --> 00:13:52.070 relevant for modern complexities. Having that 00:13:52.070 --> 00:13:54.789 firm grasp on the historical giants of sociology 00:13:54.789 --> 00:13:58.129 sets the perfect stage for his most recent conceptual 00:13:58.129 --> 00:14:01.049 work, which directly challenges how some of those 00:14:01.049 --> 00:14:03.429 classical theories are applied today. Yes, it 00:14:03.429 --> 00:14:06.129 really does. Since today is March 5th, 2026, 00:14:06.549 --> 00:14:09.470 we can look at his latest major project. The 00:14:09.470 --> 00:14:11.350 source text mentions a book co -authored with 00:14:11.350 --> 00:14:14.820 Michael Strand titled Orienting to Chance. The 00:14:14.820 --> 00:14:17.100 Wikipedia page notes it was slated for publication 00:14:17.100 --> 00:14:20.000 in the summer of 2025 by the University of Chicago 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:23.000 Press. So it is now out and tackling some deep 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.539 theoretical waters. The core concept of orienting 00:14:25.539 --> 00:14:28.419 to chance is recovering the role of probabilism 00:14:28.419 --> 00:14:30.919 in social theory. Probabilism, break that down 00:14:30.919 --> 00:14:33.700 for us. When sociologists analyze classical figures 00:14:33.700 --> 00:14:36.580 like Max Weber or Pierre Bourdieu, there is a 00:14:36.580 --> 00:14:39.580 temptation to extract rigid deterministic rules 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:42.659 about society. Determinism operates almost like 00:14:42.659 --> 00:14:46.419 a train schedule. If A happens, for example, 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:49.159 if a person grows up in a specific economic bracket, 00:14:49.779 --> 00:14:53.120 then B must be the outcome. It treats human society 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:56.100 like a simple physics equation. Which is precisely 00:14:56.100 --> 00:14:58.340 the issue Lizardo and Strand are addressing. 00:14:58.580 --> 00:15:01.080 They argue that we need to embrace probabilism. 00:15:01.289 --> 00:15:04.009 Think of probabilism less like a train schedule 00:15:04.009 --> 00:15:06.750 and more like a weather forecast. Economic conditions 00:15:06.750 --> 00:15:09.009 or social structures might make a certain outcome 00:15:09.009 --> 00:15:11.850 highly likely. Just as certain atmospheric conditions 00:15:11.850 --> 00:15:15.490 make rain likely. However, chance, randomness, 00:15:15.889 --> 00:15:18.250 and unpredictable encounters are fundamental 00:15:18.250 --> 00:15:20.690 features of the social fabric. Embracing the 00:15:20.690 --> 00:15:23.850 role of random chance actually improves our ability 00:15:23.850 --> 00:15:26.669 to analyze the messy, unpredictable reality of 00:15:26.669 --> 00:15:29.190 how human lives actually unfold. Absolutely. 00:15:29.559 --> 00:15:32.100 So what does this all mean? Taking a step back 00:15:32.100 --> 00:15:34.879 to view the entirety of Omar Lozardo's career, 00:15:35.340 --> 00:15:37.360 a clear narrative emerges for anyone listening. 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:39.940 Society is not just a rigid structure that you 00:15:39.940 --> 00:15:42.419 are passively enduring. Through the seemingly 00:15:42.419 --> 00:15:45.700 trivial pop culture you consume, through your 00:15:45.700 --> 00:15:48.960 openness to chance collaborations, and even through 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:52.000 your internal moments of embarrassment, you are 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.259 actively participating in the construction of 00:15:54.259 --> 00:15:56.840 your world. You are the architect of your social 00:15:56.840 --> 00:15:59.990 reality. It shifts the perspective from passive 00:15:59.990 --> 00:16:02.769 observation to active participation. It really 00:16:02.769 --> 00:16:04.909 does. To build on that, I want to leave you with 00:16:04.909 --> 00:16:07.990 one final thought to explore on your own. It 00:16:07.990 --> 00:16:11.149 stems from a paper, Lizardo, published in 2015 00:16:11.149 --> 00:16:15.490 called Beyond World Images, Belief as Embodied 00:16:15.490 --> 00:16:18.389 Action in the World. That paper won an honorable 00:16:18.389 --> 00:16:22.250 mention for the Theory Prize in 2017. Embodied 00:16:22.250 --> 00:16:24.149 action in the world is a phrase that requires 00:16:24.149 --> 00:16:26.570 a bit of unpacking, though. It means that a belief 00:16:26.570 --> 00:16:28.970 is not just an invisible idea floating in your 00:16:28.970 --> 00:16:31.529 head. If you believe in being a supportive friend, 00:16:31.750 --> 00:16:34.090 that belief only truly exists in the physical 00:16:34.090 --> 00:16:36.370 act of showing up for them. If you hold a belief 00:16:36.370 --> 00:16:38.690 about environmentalism, the belief is embodied 00:16:38.690 --> 00:16:41.230 in the physical action of recycling or conserving 00:16:41.230 --> 00:16:43.950 resources. Lozano writes about belief as the 00:16:43.950 --> 00:16:45.929 physical actions you take. We've learned today 00:16:45.929 --> 00:16:48.269 that your cultural tastes build the fences and 00:16:48.269 --> 00:16:50.570 bridges of your social life. But this raises 00:16:50.570 --> 00:16:53.600 an important question for you to mull over. If 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:56.240 your deeply held beliefs are entirely defined 00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:58.620 by the physical actions you take every single 00:16:58.620 --> 00:17:01.799 day, what kind of social architecture are those 00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:04.160 actions unknowingly building for your future? 00:17:04.619 --> 00:17:06.640 That is a question worth carrying with you. Thank 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:09.039 you for joining us on this deep dive into the 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:11.720 fascinating world of Omar Lizardo and the hidden 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:13.680 structures of our social lives. It's been a great 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:15.880 conversation. Keep questioning the invisible 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:18.299 forces around you and we will catch you next 00:17:18.299 --> 00:17:18.519 time.