So if you’ve talked to me at all this week, I have most likely mentioned this show I’ve been watching on Hulu called “30 Days.”

This show was created by Morgan Spurlock, the guy who directed the Oscar-nominated “Supersize Me” documentary, as well as “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden” and other documentary films.

The central premise of 30-days is along the lines of “Supersize me”: People (sometimes Spurlock himself) are put into unfamiliar situations for 30 days with rules that compel them to participate in a way that is undoubtedly uncomfortable (generally for the first 14 days) but ultimately enlightening and often life-changing. It’s like “Wifeswap,” except done correctly.

I absolutely adore this show. (You can watch it here , you’ll have to create an account because it’s TV-MA, but it’s free and only takes a second)

What I find most endearing about this show is that there is very real conflict in the beginning — the two oppositely-viewed people (e.g. a Christian living with a Muslim family, or a hunting & meat-loving country boy living with a family of animal rights PETA folks) clash in a realistically irrational manner.

But after that first few days / week, they set aside the conflicting diferences for a moment (often out of exhaustion, it seems) and deal with each other as Human Beings. They connect in other ways,  in one episode,  it’s two mothers that have very different views about religion but can find a common bond in motherhood.

After this process of humanization, the original conflict is re-visited but with more compassion; the two people genuinely want to understand the other side and try to reach some kind of accord. It’s so amazing to witness this transformation, this struggle, that both sides go through in order to relate.

In several episodes, the actual transformation required some serious “walking in their shoes” to catalyze the enlightenment.

One episode featured a “minuteman” border vigilante from southern California that was staying with a family of illegal immigrants. He was vehemently opposed to illegal immigrancy, even though he himself emigrated from Cuba in his childhood years (albeit legally). When he takes a trip to Mexico to see the town and house that the illegal immigrant family came from, as well as meet their extended family, he realizes that if they are sent back to Mexico, they will be sent back to THAT.

This whole notion of absent referrant “illegal immigrant” dehumanizes the people that are actually affected by one’s opinions. But seeing how their life really is, he realizes that perhaps with this issue he shouldn’t be so hard-nosed.

A similar experience was found by a laid-off computer programmer from America, whose job was outsourced to India. He has this opinion of the Indian workers stealing his job as these money-hungry people living it up while he is forced to move from his house into a smaller apartment.

When he actually lives in India for 30 days, however, he realizes that even in spite of the better jobs they are getting (and by better, they mean “Telemarketing”, which is a goldmine over there), they are still living in relative squalor. One fellow he met was a manager of the maintenance crew but was living in a small shack with a dirt floor with SEVERAL other people.

His moment of epiphany was when he realized “I’m complaining about moving from a house to an apartment, but the people that are getting my job are still living in shanties.”

I think my favorite episode so far, however, was one where the hunter/carnivore from West Virginia (I think?) goes to California to live with a family of animal activists, one of whom was a member of PETA.

The PETA people were mostly ineffective (a sentiment that my wife and I share about them) as they were very accusatory and hyperbolic. He simply fortified his position and shrugged them off; they weren’t breaking through.

But then he is taken to a factory farm and witnesses first-hand the mistreatment of calves (less than a year old), sees calf-carcasses strewn about, and sees the confined quarters of these animals. They go on a 3am rescue mission to pick up a calf that acquired a respiratory infection from being cooped up in a tiny cage its whole life, and he helps to nurse it back to health (and names it “Sugar”). Finally, they take him to an animal shelter where dogs and cats are euthanized DAILY due to over-crowding, and he suddenly makes the connection.

It was a complete turnaround for him — his barriers melt down and he finally understands the Animal Rights activists. At the end of the episode he says he still intends to hunt, but feels that animals do deserve to be more humanely treated and not suffer mistreatment at our hands. (A huge difference from his initial opinion that all animals were essentially living objects to be used by men, and some were intended for human consumption.)

Anyways, if you’ve got time, I highly recommend checking out the show. Every episode is online with minimal commercials (see the link above). There are 6 episodes per season and three seasons. It’s worth it.