Ilana Redstone is an Associate Professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of the Certainty Trap (out in September 2024). The Certainty Trap refers to the contempt that arises from an unwillingness or an inability to: consider the possibility that we might be wrong or might not be right in the way we think; consider the downsides to our preferred policy; make our principles, values, and assumptions clear and explicit; or allow those principles, values, and assumptions to be challenged or criticized. It has powerful consequences for how we think and talk about heated issues, as well as for democracy itself. Ilana has a joint Ph.D. in demography and sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. More about her work is at www.ilanaredstone.com.
