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Episode 1: Larry Nassar — When Authority Became a Shield · The food files

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  Speaker 1: Welcome, everyone. Today we're going to be looking at when
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  Speaker 1: authority became a shield. Imagine yourself being a young elite gymnast.
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  Speaker 1: Pain is normal. Authority is everywhere. Coaches decide whether you
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  Speaker 1: compete or not. Administrators control opportunities. And doctors decide whether
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  Speaker 1: you're healthy enough to continue to compete. And one particular
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  Speaker 1: doctor had enormous credibility. His name is Larry Nassar. For years,
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  Speaker 1: Nassar worked with elite gymnasts through USA Gymnastics while also
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  Speaker 1: working at Michigan State University. The structure surrounding him, though,
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  Speaker 1: began collapsing. In 2016, former gymnasts publicly described sexual abuse
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  Speaker 1: committed under the guise of medical treatment. Soon, survivors came
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  Speaker 1: forward in the dozens. Eventually, hundreds reported abuse. Nassar was
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  Speaker 1: criminally prosecuted and convicted, while investigations expanded beyond the perpetrator
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  Speaker 1: toward the organizations around him. Because the central question had changed,
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  Speaker 1: how could this continue for so long, one answer involves authorities.
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  Speaker 1: Medicine already contains an enormous authority gradient. Patients routinely allow
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  Speaker 1: physicians to perform examinations they would never permit another person
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  Speaker 1: to conduct because medical credentials transform how behavior is interpreted.
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  Speaker 1: Now add an elite sport. Young athletes learn to tolerate pain,
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  Speaker 1: follow instructions, and trust adults who supposedly understand what their
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  Speaker 1: bodies need. That doesn't mean authority causes abuse. It means
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  Speaker 1: authority can make misconduct harder to recognize and challenge. How
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  Speaker 1: about the institutional fragmentation? A warning received by one person
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  Speaker 1: may appear isolated. A concern reported to another department may
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  Speaker 1: be treated as someone else's responsibility. Psychologists call a related
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  Speaker 1: phenomenon diffusion of responsibility. When responsibility belongs vaguely to everyone,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes nobody behaves as though it belongs specifically to them.
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  Speaker 1: But in the Nassar case, subsequent investigations documented more concrete
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  Speaker 1: failures in simple psychology. A bipartisan Senate investigation examined systemic
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  Speaker 1: failures involving USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Michigan
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  Speaker 1: State University. There were also failures after allegations reached federal
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  Speaker 1: law enforcement. The Justice Department and Inspector General Review found
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  Speaker 1: serious problems with the FBI's handling of the allegations. Survivors
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  Speaker 1: later testified before the Senate about those failures, and this
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  Speaker 1: is what makes institutional cases different from ordinary criminal cases.
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  Speaker 1: Finding the offender isn't enough. You have to examine the
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  Speaker 1: environment and navigate it. Who received the information? Who passed
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  Speaker 1: authority to act? Were complaints connected? Did institutional incentives favor reputation,
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  Speaker 1: competitive success, or organizational self-protection? And what happened to people
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  Speaker 1: who spoke up? The Nassar scandal eventually produced criminal convictions, resignations,
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  Speaker 1: civil litigation, and others. But perhaps its most important lesson
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  Speaker 1: is simpler. Organizations frequently design safeguards around external threats, locks,
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  Speaker 1: background checks, credentials, and sometimes the dangerous person already possesses
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  Speaker 1: the credential. He has the office, the institutional approval, and
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  Speaker 1: everyone has been taught to trust him. That's when an
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  Speaker 1: institution's greatest strength, trust, can also become its greatest vulnerability.
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  Speaker 1: Hope you enjoyed today's episode. Make sure to share and
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  Speaker 1: subscribe for future ones.