But can lead to bigger problems if misunderstood. How do you feel about terms like, We use these terms to describe when we are not ‘being ourselves’ in the presence of other people. This phenomenon reminds me of a quote attributed to comedian Chris Rock: When you meet somebody for the first time, you’re not meeting them, you’re meeting their representative. So this isn’t something I’m making up, it’s in the human vernacular. It is…
Or, how we grow to deserve our planet again. I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues. Dr. Seuss, The Lorax Do you have an opinion about climate change? How about abortion? Or universal basic income? We all have our concerns and our hills that we’ll die on. This week I will use climate change as an example of a polarizing issue and…
Are you a religious person? An atheist? Agnostic? I consider myself to be agnostic. Mostly because I Don’t Know. If I had to choose any belief system to attach to, I would be a Darwinist. Natural Selection is the best explanation of the meaning of life I am aware of. When I think about ‘why we are here’, I can’t help but recognize how life persists through time and changes with each generation. In short, I…
Have you ever felt like scientists were assholes? Or at least super arrogant? I often hear scientists sound this way. And when I was in academia it seemed they surrounded me. Being an academic seemed synonymous with being so arrogant that you turned people off. I think many of us have experienced this and it does academia and science a disservice. It’s like a medical doctor with no bedside manner. If you can’t communicate with…
This episode is inspired by the idea that the USA has the world’s most expensive yet least h care. At least this has been the type of conclusion drawn from many analyses that compare things like GDP, cost of health care, and individual health. The idea is that we have come a long way, but we don’t necessarily have a lot to show for it. Or, maybe it’s about making all of this so-called ‘progress’,…
I spent most of my pre-teen and teenage years terrified of people. I was very shy. I stayed at home on Friday and Saturday nights while I was in high school. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my time. I played a lot of video games on my Commodore 64 computer. I learned to play guitar. I read cool books like the Carlos Castaneda series. I enjoyed my life. But I didn’t interact with…
While I don’t want to perpetuate the ‘capitalism sucks’ argument, I want to spend some time on degrowth. Pretty funny that the spell checkers keep correcting ‘degrowth’ to ‘regrowth’. See? This idea is manifested in everything. Because of capitalism, humans have become obsessed with growth. Mostly in the financial sense. The way our global economy is set up, growth is an essential requirement. Maybe THE MOST essential requirement. When we create money we create debt.…
For the past twenty-some Episodes, I have been trying to figure out how to formulate my current question of interest. Generally, I am trying to make the case that Nature provides a wealth of information. Further, I am pleading with humankind to CONSULT nature when making decisions. Especially decisions that affect our species’ or planets’ health. I have used evolution and natural selection (with DNA being the mechanism) as filters, of sorts, that approve or…
Remember the last time you were at a real life impasse? It’s a cruddy feeling. Especially with someone you love. It’s frustrating to disagree. To reach a moment where you realize there’s no way to resolve the tension in the air. A simple conversation becomes conflict. We understand that the other person is NOT going to see our point of view, NOT going to change their minds, and you are NOT going to walk away…
In the most recent Episodes I shared the capstone of my work thus far on Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom. Episodes 99 and 100 represent the culmination of the preceding 98 Episodes and 30+ interviews. The Uniqueness Imperative and the Evolution Paradox emerged, organically, from two years of podcasting and blogging on KEW and I appreciate your help elucidating those ideas. For the past couple of weeks, (May – June, 2022) I decided to write…