Changing Journalism: Boosting Trust in the News Media. Joy Mayer

"Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone" was a 2008 newspaper column that turned into a national campaign to help parents raise their children with less anxiety while pushing back against our culture that has become obsessed with kids' fragility.Our guest, Lenore Skenazy, founded free-range kids in the years after she first described making the decision to let her son, Izzy, take the New York City subway home alone. Her column resulted in a flood of media coverage and mixed reactions from parents— from accusations of child abuse to fond memories of childhood freedom. She hosted a TV series, "World's Worst Mom".This week, the second edition of her best-selling book, "Free-Range Kids: How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow", is published. In this episode, we discuss how parents and educators can step back so kids step up. We also look at the resilience of children and why the rest of the world is laughing at us scaredy-cat Americans. "There's so much intelligence and cognition building going on when kids are figuring out rules, and trying to figure out who's going to play with them," Lenore tells us. This form of learning about the world "doesn't look like learning because it's playing. We really have a hard time believing that you can be playing and learning at the same time."Lenore believes our kids are stronger and smarter than our society assumes. Her work with the Let Grow Project and Let Grow Play Club is built on the principle that children think and act for themselves when adults don't get involved every step of the way.Recommendation: Richard is watching two seasons of the Israeli TV series, "False Flag" on Hulu. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

18 Kesä 202128min

America's remarkable experiment in a pluralist democracy is under threat from toxic polarization. In this episode, we discuss two current nationwide campaigns to tackle this crisis head-on,America Talks, on Saturday-Sunday, June 12-13, is a powerful conversation event that invites thousands of Americans to connect one-on-one on video across our political divides. By doing so, we remind ourselves that the “other” is – just like us – a person with family, friends, hopes, fears, values, beliefs, and intrinsic worth.The fourth annual National Week of Conversation, June 14-20, organized by #ListenFirst Coalition and over 300 organizations, invites Americans of all views and backgrounds to listen and discover common interests. Sign up for both events at AmericaTalks.us.Our guests are Kristin Hansen, Executive Director of Civic Health Project, Director at AllSides, and 17-year-old Zoë Jenkins, a civic activist who founded DICCE — diversity, inclusion, cultural competency, and equity.Recent polling found that more than 9-in-10 Americans recognize that polarization is a problem, while 7-in-ten say democracy is in danger.This podcast looks at the crisis and the opportunity for changing and strengthening democracy. We also discuss Moral Foundations Theory, Open Mind Platform for schools and workplaces, student-led BridgeUSA, and the work of Bridge Alliance.Recommendation: Jim is watching "Our Planet" on Netflix, narrated by David Attenborough, who recounts his life, and the evolutionary history of life on earth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

9 Kesä 202126min

The word “peacebuilding” evokes a story we’ve all heard over and over: Violence breaks out, foreign nations react, peacekeepers and million-dollar donors come rushing in, warring parties sign a peace agreement, and, sadly, within months the situation is back to where it started—sometimes worse. But peace can grow in the most unlikely circumstances. What are some strategies that work?Our guest is an award-winning researcher and peacebuilder, Séverine Autesserre, author of the new book, "The Frontlines of Peace". She shares success stories — innovative grassroots initiatives led by local people, at times supported by foreigners, often employing methods shunned by the international elite. In this episode, we look at examples of local initiatives that build lasting peace. We examine how they differ from the top-down "Peace Inc." approach that can waste billions of dollars in aid and involve massive international interventions.Séverine shows the radical changes we must take in our approach if we hope to build lasting peace around us—whether we live in Congo, the United States, or elsewhere. We also learn how these approaches could help all of us, and discuss the work of moms in Chicago who work against gun violence in their neighborhoods.Featured sound bite: "Let's say you don't care about the rest of the world and you only care about your own community: The lessons we learn from conflict zones can help us improve the situation around us."Recommendation: Richard is watching comedy as a constructive form of escape. The TV series "Better Things" is an example. On earlier shows we recommended "Never Have I Ever" and "Call My Agent". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 Kesä 202127min

"We should be humble all the time," says Veronique de Rugy of her study of economics. "There's always something I realize that I didn't understand." In this episode, we discuss the rigorous questions economists need to ask themselves when analyzing the likely impacts of public policies: Questions rarely asked by politicians and others in the public square. We look at the perils of cronyism, the shortcomings of the Ex-Im Bank, growing federal budget deficits, and the unfairness of the highly complex U.S. tax system.Veronique is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She writes a syndicated column looking at economics from a free market, libertarian perspective.Featured quote: "People don't go to the barricades to fight for distortions and economic inefficiency but they should go to the barricades to fight unfairness and cronyism that is unfair."Recommendation: Jim is listening to "The Moment", a podcast with interviews about the pivotal moments that fueled fascinating creative careers, hosted by Brian Koppelman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

28 Touko 202138min

It's tempting to believe that our current moment is the most urgent of all. Yet despite the catastrophic pandemic, and threats from other urgent problems, humankind has faced worse calamities in the past— from global wars and plagues to economic collapse.In this episode, we look at age-old lessons from philosophy and discover how ancient wisdom can be our guide in modern times.Best-selling author, traveler, and former NPR foreign correspondent, Eric Weiner is our guide. He's the author of the recent book, "The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers".This episode is a fun ride, as we follow in the footsteps of history’s greatest thinkers—from Epicurus to Nietzsche, Thoreau to Gandhi— who show us practical and spiritual lessons for today’s unsettled times. Philosophy helps us during our struggle with disturbing questions raised by the pandemic: How can we remain calm in an uncertain age? How do we endure tough times? There are no easy answers, but philosophy can help us gain a wise sense of perspective, and ask better questions. The age-old lesson from philosophers, says Eric, is that "you can put down your iPhone and close your laptop, and stop acquiring more bits of data."Recommendation: Richard has just finished reading the remarkable novel, "Hamnet" by Maggie O'Farrell. Set in England in 1596, The book is an exploration of grief, marriage, and family life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

21 Touko 202124min

She lived in Seattle and covered science, climate change, and the environment for NPR for more than a decade. Most of her friends and colleagues were liberals or progressives. Then in 2018, journalist Ashley Ahearn made a big jump, moving with her husband to one of the most conservative counties in rural Washington State. What did this public radio reporter learn from her dramatic change in lifestyle? In this episode, we learn about the profound rural-urban divide in America, and what Ashley discovered about her new neighbors and herself when she switched from the city to the country, now living on a 20-acre property with a horse and a pickup truck. We also discuss how politics and views of the land and climate differ greatly according to where people live.Recently, Ashley Ahearn launched her remarkable 8-part podcast series, Grouse, which looks at life in rural America through the lens of the most controversial bird in the West — the greater sage-grouse. This podcast series is also our recommendation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

14 Touko 202130min

Too often in our fierce and narrow political debates, we suffer from a poverty of imagination. Seeing a crisis through a narrow lens of "us versus them" is a barrier to creative solutions and vital changes needed to save lives, protect the planet, and grow prosperity.In this episode we discuss the enormous power and potential of framing: mental models that enable us to see patterns, predict how things will unfold, and understand new situations.Our guests are Kenneth Cukier, a senior editor at The Economist in London, and Francis de Véricourt, professor of management science at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin. They are two of the co-authors of the new book, "Framers. Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil."Real-world examples of how framers changed the world include: The rapid rise of #MeToo, which went viral on Twitter after the actress Alyssa Milano tweeted a request to her followers: “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.”; Successful responses to Covid-19 by the governments of New Zealand, Taiwan, and Australia, and the framing of U.S. Constitution in the late 18th Century.We also learn why the advice to "think outside the box" is useless, and how to understand the role of mental models in our own daily lives.Recommendation: Jim suggests a puzzle: The New York Times "pangram", Spelling Bee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

7 Touko 202127min

In the months after George Floyd’s murder, colleges, universities, non-profits, and large corporations across the country embraced anti-racism and diversity training as a way to promote inclusion and racial justice.But do these programs actually work to change minds and achieve their goals? Our guest, associate professor of History at Carleton College, Amna Khalid, argues that while training can improve customer service and knowledge of CPR and Excel spreadsheets, it’s woefully inadequate when confronting complex social problems such as poverty, inequality, discrimination, and racism. Amna grew up under several military dictatorships in Pakistan and came to the U.S. with a passionate commitment to free speech and belief in the power of education to promote curiosity, understanding, and imagination."Through all my journeys what I've come to realize is that people are individuals more than any category that you can put them into," Amna tells us. "If we really begin to engage with people as individuals then we will do a far better job of diversity and inclusion."While critical race theory (CRT) can be one useful tool in our conversations about race, this episode includes criticism of efforts to promote one all-encompassing view of diversity. Recommendation: Richard enjoyed watching "Soul", which won the Oscar this year for best animated feature movie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

30 Huhti 202133min