How To Play The Status Game - Will Storr - #374

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Will Storr. He's an award-winning journalist and an author. We are talking about how to play the status game. Status is the original human currency. Prestige, renown, respect and admiration are all sought after because it gave our ancestors better access to mates, safety and resources. Now, the modern era has arrived and the lions are no longer chasing us, but our desire for status is as strong as ever. Today, expect to learn why growing a huge yam can make you the favourite person in your tribe, why tall poppy syndrome really exists, the reason for our conscience, the risks of radically gaining or losing status, the winning qualities to develop if you want to enhance your status, how the status game relates to cancel culture and much more. Honestly, Will's new book, The Status Game, is one of the best things that I've read this year. If you enjoy this episode, then links to go and get it are in the show notes below. It's so interesting and fast-paced. There's tons of stories and it's super relatable. It kind of makes you feel silly, but self-aware and world aware at the same time. It's awesome. I really, really hope that you enjoy this episode. I also want to give a massive thank you to everyone that has been sharing the show over the last couple of weeks. The growth that we're seeing at the moment is insane and it makes me feel so supported and satisfied and happy to continually reach new ears with these interesting, fascinating guests that I find. So if you are one of those people that's sharing the show and showing support, thank you very, very much. I love you long time. But now it's time for the wise and wonderful Will Storr.
Will Storr, welcome to the show.

**Will Storr** (2:08)
Thanks, Chris, we're good to be here.

**Chris Williamson** (2:09)
Dude, I loved your book. It is awesome.

**Will Storr** (2:14)
Thank you. That's really good to hear. Thanks, Chris.

**Chris Williamson** (2:16)
You nailed it, man. So you did all this research about status throughout all of that. What was some of the weirdest status games that you found?

**Will Storr** (2:25)
I think the one that I always go back to is the Yams. In 1948, this anthropologist went to this tiny island in Micronesia out called Pompeii. They had this kind of thing where it was very stratified in Pompeii, life there, like it is everywhere. But it's quite hard to break through to the upper levels of Pompeii society. But you could do it one way, and that one way is by growing a massive yam. They would have these feasts, these chiefly feasts, and the person who brought the biggest yam was declared number one. Literally, that's what they call him, number one.
And, yeah, and, you know, they would be, you know, raised in status. And, you know, what happened, the inevitable consequence of that was that the men of Pompeii just became obsessed with growing the biggest yams. And they'd sneak out of their homes at two in the morning, and, you know, they'd grow their yams in secret, you know, parts of the forest, cover them with branches, and if we could see the yams and tend to them with fertiliser, and, you know, in human ingenuity and human craving for status being what it is, they grew massive yams, yams so big that it would take 12 men to carry them into the feces using a special stretcher on poles, you know, so that's status madness. And you know, as I'll recount in the book, we can direct our craving for status at anything, and we do.

**Chris Williamson** (3:49)
And a yam is among those that we can use.

**Will Storr** (3:51)
Yeah. Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:52)
What is it? Is it like a sweet potato? What the fuck's a yam?

**Will Storr** (3:55)
It's like, well, it's kind of a tuber. But I don't know. I don't actually know what a tuber is.

**Chris Williamson** (3:59)
A pretty unsexy thing to use for status. I'd rather get the Ferrari if that's not it.

**Will Storr** (4:04)
Yes, exactly.

**Chris Williamson** (4:05)
I can't ride my yam down the street.

**Will Storr** (4:08)
Yeah, it seems more fun.
Yeah, just assuming, you know, this is how the status game works, you know, we can use anything as a symbol of status, and it could be a giant yam. It can be, yeah, a Ferrari. It can be a lovely watch. It can be how great an activist we are, you know.

**Chris Williamson** (4:25)
Well, the reason that that example's so funny is that we look at it and think, oh, yams, how ridiculous. But objectively, there's nothing any more or less ridiculous of a yam versus a Ferrari or versus being the best social justice warrior.