Jeet This Week: trigger warnings and the paradox of safety

This week, q cultural critic Jeet Heer joins Shad to explore two contrasting trends: the rise of trigger warnings online and in universities, while popular shows like Game of Thrones push the envelope with extremely violent scenes. 

He also sheds light on "the paradox of safety" and why a lack of danger can create an urge for thrills but also an increased sensitivity to charged images.

Jeet's references

• Columbia students asking for trigger warnings in Ovid's The Metamorphosis and other works of Greek mythology
• Oberlin College (and other schools) including including trigger warnings in works like The Great Gatsby (TW: "suicide," "domestic abuse" and "graphic violence")
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder's roots in the Vietnam war and shifting frameworks of war psychology
• Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker
• The controversy surrounding the recent Game of Thrones rape scene
• The invisibility of Star Trek characters Kirk and Spock as compared to casual mortality of the "redshirts"