1102: College vs. Trades | Skeptical Sunday

When your stepfather passed away and your mother posted about it on Facebook, an old friend -- a self-described "swami" who claims to be psychically linked to her -- called to reconnect. Now, he seems to be taking advantage of her grief and loneliness to get closer, and based on a number of his wild, unlikely claims, you're worried that his end game may be less than altruistic. What can you do to stop this "swami" from swindling your mommy? We'll tackle this and more here on Feedback Friday! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/547 On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: You worry that your mom's "swami" friend may be trying to take advantage of her grief and vulnerability since your stepfather's recent passing. How can you keep her safe from his less-than-altruistic intentions? You squandered a financial windfall in college on partying and substance abuse, which led to hurting a large number of friends and family along the way. Now you've been sober for years and you want to recover these relationships, but it's clear from attempts to reach out that many of the people you left behind are content to leave those bridges burned. What can you do to move on and let things go? Your brother, who died by suicide, should be remembered for how he lived his life rather than just how it was ended. You want to start a foundation in his name to help your community learn skills as he loved doing, but where do you begin? You worked hard to advance in your career, but a recent merger no longer allows you to work from home and care for your daughter. As a result, you've decided to quit and become a stay-at-home dad, but you eventually want to return to the workforce. How can you network and stay relevant during this time away and ensure your time is spent as productively as possible? You worry that your tendency to procrastinate could cost you your dream job. How can you stop putting things off and causing yourself unnecessary stress and exhaustion? Documentary of the Week: The Dissident Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com! Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger. Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

13 Aug 202147min

Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) of Dilbert fame revisits us to discuss his book Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don't Matter. [Note: This is a previously broadcast episode from the vault that we felt deserved a fresh listen!] What We Discuss with Scott Adams: Is Scott Adams a Trump supporter? People don’t use facts to make decisions. They use emotion. Learn the three types of persuaders and how they operate. See how master persuaders move the topic to things they understand and can dominate (regardless of facts and details). Find out why master persuasion is effective even if the subject or target sees the technique. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/546 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

12 Aug 20211h 2min

Rachel Nuwer (@RachelNuwer) is an award-winning freelance journalist who reports about science, travel, food, and adventure for The New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, and more. Her multi-award-winning first book, Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking, is out now. What We Discuss with Rachel Nuwer: What drives the global demand for resources cruelly derived from endangered wildlife. Why poachers and smugglers are willing to risk their own lives to meet this demand. The pros and cons of solutions proposed to stem the tide of this illicit trade -- from legalizing it for sustainable sourcing to synthesizing alternatives. Why governments are shy to throw the book at the worst offenders, and how the most clever, wealthy, and well-connected usually (but don't always) bypass legal repercussions for their trafficking transgressions. What we can do here and now to promote policies for preserving these species before they vanish forever. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/545 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

10 Aug 20211h 14min

You stopped renting from a violent, paranoid landlord as soon as you saw the warning signs, but you fear a future tenant may not be so lucky. Can you publish some kind of APB as a heads up to potential victims without getting in legal trouble? We'll try to find an answer to this and more here on Feedback Friday! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/544 On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: You stopped renting from a violent, paranoid landlord as soon as you saw the warning signs, but you fear a future tenant may not be so lucky. Can you publish some kind of APB as a heads up to potential victims without getting in legal trouble? [Thanks to Corbin Payne for helping us with this one!] How can you overcome a lifelong tendency to be late for everything that infuriates everyone you know -- most of all you? How can you best encourage your friend get help for her recently developed eating disorder when her own family is not only unsympathetic toward her condition, but actively exacerbating it? You're a paralegal who enjoyed working at Firm A -- until the pandemic hit. So you took a position at Firm B, but find it less than enchanting after just six months. Now there's an opening in your old department at Firm A, but you're worried about being seen as a firm hopper if you apply. Should you go for it anyway? You've kept the stupid tattoo you got on a drunken night of college debauchery secret from your mom for 13 years. But now you're going on vacation together and you're liable to reveal all when you take your shirt off poolside. Is there any way to minimize the inevitable awkwardness of the moment? Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com! Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger. Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi. Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

6 Aug 202147min

R. Douglas Fields (@RDouglasFields1) is a neuroscientist specializing in the cellular mechanisms of nervous system development, plasticity, and memory, and author of Why We Snap: Understanding the Rage Circuit in Your Brain. [Note: This is a previously broadcast episode from the vault that we felt deserved a fresh listen!] What We Discuss with R. Douglas Fields: What is rage, and what evolutionary purpose does it serve? What makes ordinary people “snap” — that is, react violently when triggered by rage? Can we control our urge to snap when rage overtakes us? Understand the nine triggers of rage. LIFEMORTS: the mnemonic that helps us identify when rage intrudes so we can get a rational handle on it preemptively. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/543 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

5 Aug 202153min

Nicole Perlroth (@nicoleperlroth) is an award-winning cybersecurity journalist for The New York Times and bestselling author of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race. What We Discuss with Nicole Perlroth: The startlingly simple reasons why most nation-states now resort to using cyberwarfare tactics before conventional weaponry in acts of aggression -- to increasingly devastating effect. How industries are so interconnected that there's almost no way for a cyberattack to target one victim without endangering countless others on all sides of a conflict (which is why you may have Putin to blame if there's a Cadbury chocolate egg shortage next Easter). Why leaving the security of 85 percent of its critical infrastructure up to privatization makes the United States especially vulnerable to cyberwarfare attacks. The massive amount of intellectual property that's been lost to hackers -- from the formula for Coca-Cola to information that would allow China and other rival nations to catch up with the United States in the nuclear arms race. What Nicole believes the US should do to push back against these threats and the governments that perpetrate them -- and ensure that it's not inadvertently one of them. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/542 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

3 Aug 20211h 18min

Four years ago, you lost your spouse and child in a tragic car crash that you barely survived. Now, with a supportive partner and a toddler by your side, you're determined to move on with your life. Unfortunately, it's hard to meet new people who can see past what you've endured without pitying you. How can you truly enter your next chapter when well-meaning but oversympathizing strangers keep reminding you of your last one? We'll try to get to the bottom of this and more here on Feedback Friday! And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/541 On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss: Trying to move on from the loss of your family in a car accident years ago is difficult when everyone new you meet wants to throw you a pity party. How can you become more than the suffering sum of your tragic past's parts? You and your fiancé called it quits when she had a hallucinatory episode, wound up in the hospital, and came out with a bipolar disorder diagnosis. But you've each spent the past year coming to terms with who you are and you've considered getting back together. Could this work, or should you consider it a relationship that's sailed? A company hired you for one thing, then it turned out they needed you for something else, and their needs aren’t in alignment with your interests. Should you express your dissatisfaction to your boss, hope your next project is more to your liking, or just start looking for a new job? You've discovered that the work you love to do isn't the same as the subject you loved learning about at university. Should you feel guilty or ashamed for not using your master's degree, even though you absolutely adore your current, but completely unrelated position? How do you invite your parents' best friends to your wedding without them bringing their disruptive, social misfit adult child? Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com! Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger. Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi. Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

30 Jul 202148min

Daryl Davis (@realdaryldavis) is a musician, author, lecturer, host of the Changing Minds podcast, and anti-racism activist featured in the documentary Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America. [This is part two of a two-part episode. Make sure to catch part one here!] What We Discuss with Daryl Davis: How Daryl Davis, a black musician who was once told by a Ku Klux Klansman that he played piano "just like Jerry Lee Lewis," leveraged the encounter into a teachable moment that has led to more than 200 KKK members hanging up their robes for good. Why racism was such an unfathomable concept when Daryl first experienced it as a 10-year-old Cub Scout. How traveling around the world as a child with his diplomat father gave Daryl the tools he needed to sit down and relate to people vastly different from him. Why Daryl considers a missed opportunity for dialogue to be a missed opportunity for conflict resolution. The five values all humans have in common that Daryl uses to positively navigate (almost) any conversation. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/540 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

29 Jul 202148min