Greetings Treat-A-Weekers,
It’s Memorial Day Monday and our family spent two wonderful days with dear friends who came to see us from Houston. Because they were visiting, we had the opportunity to do the Boston tourist thing…we walked the Freedom Trail, viewed some sobering and awe-inspiring monuments commemorating American heroes and historical events, and saw the beautiful tribute pictured above of 37,000 flags put in the ground by 700 people to honor American soldiers lost in combat. When I looked down the hill at all the flags and felt the communal admiration of beauty, sacrifice and pride that all around me shared at that moment, I had the opportunity to reflect. I thought about what our obligations are as Americans and as world citizens to promote the greater good. This blog is about ways to treat oneself, and it may sound counterintuitive, but one of those ways is to continue to learn about the challenges our world faces and how we can do our part to help in some way. I am the queen of escapism, but I make sure to regularly dig in to the tough stuff – to become more aware about the threats and challenges that affect our world, our children and the generations to come. One of the easiest, least daunting ways for me to do this is to listen to podcasts.
It took me years to listen to my first podcast. Of course I had heard about them, but I only took the leap and started listening when my “big brother” from college, Andy, wrote me out of the blue to ask if I had heard the podcast Serial. When I said I hadn’t, he said I had to — that it was riveting and he knew I would get something out of it. I started listening to episodes in the car before and after I dropped my kids off to and from school and activities (NB: this took hours in Houston) and I listened to episodes when I walked, and before I knew it, I had finished listening to all 12 episodes of season 1 of Serial about Adnan Syed and the heinous crime he allegedly, but perhaps falsely, had been convicted of committing. Listening to the Syed-focused Serial, I thought a lot about racial and religious bias, the trials and difficulties teenagers face, the isolation they feel and the secrecy they maintain, the critical importance of open communication between parents and their adolescent kids, the desire for justice, truth, closure and compassion and more. After that, I became a true devotee of the podcast because of the range of things I could learn about and feel while driving, exercising, cleaning or doing some other mundane tasks. Through podcasts, the mindless could be made mindful and the depth and breadth of topics to explore was endless. For me and my life, this discovery was huge! So below, please find two of the podcasts that I have found most engaging in terms of providing me with food for thought. Hope you will check them out and wonder if you will feel the same way too….
Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History – Season 1, Episodes 4 (Carlos Doesn’t Remember), 5 (Food Fight) & 6 (My Little Hundred Million)
Gladwell’s book Outliers fascinated me, so it came as little surprise that these three episodes of his podcast, Revisionist History, wherein he analyzes something from the past that “has been forgotten or misunderstood,” did too. In the three episodes noted above, Gladwell explores what he believes to be the hallmark of a civilized society, capitalization, or the ability of country to provide opportunities for its inhabitants to make the most of their abilities as it relates to America and education. Specifically, Gladwell explores the American belief that our country is good at capitalization, and suggests that this fundamental belief, that if you work hard enough, you can move up in this country, simply may not hold true for many because of the financial barriers stacked against them. When I listened to these three episodes, I really started to question my own beliefs about philanthropy in higher education and wondered how I could ultimately help more Americans make the most of their abilities and not just focus on my hopes and dreams for my own children.
Guy Raz’s The Ted Radio Hour -“Turning Kids Into Grown Ups” and “The Big Five”
So, I was driving to a meeting with my new friend in Boston, Adi, raving about NPR’s The Ted Radio Hour and how much I am learning from it, when she mentioned that she too listens to The Ted Radio Hour. She mentioned that she tuned in at first because her cousin, Guy Raz, is the creator and narrator of it, but then continued listening because the content was really interesting. Hence the reasoning behind recommending it to you all – the topics while important and thought-provoking, are all presented in such digestible, interesting ways by the very bright and personable Raz, that listening to one is one of the easiest ways I’ve ever come across to learn more, in-depth about a variety of important topics. The TED Radio Hour podcast consists of thematically organized episodes that are basically compilations of groundbreaking TED (Technology Entertainment Design) talks delivered at conferences around the world adapted for radio.
The first Ted Radio Hour that I listened to had me at hello. Seriously, it was titled, Turning Kids Into Grown-Ups, and it featured clips of talks from 5 experts in their fields who explored ideas about child rearing and pointed out where we parents are messing up and where the opportunities to self-correct to our children’s benefit lie. Another Ted Radio Hour that I recommend highly is The Big Five which explores the five biggest global challenges we are facing and what we can do about them. Sure, these threats – climate change, human displacement, food scarcity, political instability and poverty, initially seem intractable, but the amazingly hopeful aspect of this Ted Radio Hour is that each speaker proposes a solution. Would it take huge momentum and effort for these solutions to be implemented? Yes, but the fact that solutions to these problems exists makes it incumbent upon all of us to do our best to stop ignoring them and do our best to be a part of the solution. Did you know that more than 760 million people on earth live on less than $1.90 per day, that the costs of poverty are huge and everyone, even the wealthy, pays for them and finally that poverty can actually be eradicated? I am embarrassed to admit that before listening to this podcast, I did not and I should have…if you feel like there are gaps in your knowledge base that could make you a more aware, more proactive problem solver, don’t you think it’s a gift to yourself and to all to start empowering yourself by tuning in? I sure do.
Thanks for reading and I promise to be back with something more frivolous next week. 🙂
Yours truly,
M
