# How to maintain your individuality in a crowd

An episode of [Afternoons](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/175135505), 20 Oct 2026, 22 min.

Audio: https://flex.acast.com/podcast.radionz.co.nz/aft/aft-20261020-1552-how_to_maintain_your_individuality_in_a_crowd-128.mp3

Ask any New Zealand sheep farmer and they'll tell you, there's always that one sheep that will not follow the flock. That impulse may not be great for the farmer, but it can be good for people. Far too often our values and priorities are shaped by what the flock is doing... what we see on social media. The great crisis of our time goes beyond polarisation and loneliness. It's the struggle to think for ourselves and develop a strong sense of self when we're constantly influenced by the crowd says professor Luke Burgis from The Catholic University of America. In his new book, he explains why we need to learn how to be part of a tribe without losing our identity. The book is called The One and the Ninety-Nine Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion. \[picture id="4JGGSYF_luke_birgis_jpeg" crop="16x10" layout="full"\]

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