This week we’re re-releasing 5 episodes around a theme of politics, government, and involvement. Here’s why…

It’s the week of the Fourth of July in the United States of America. While some years it’s a fairly straightforward holiday of stars and stripes, BBQs, and celebrating by blowing things up… this year the holiday feels different. I’m one of the millions of Americans watching with horror and fear as the dark underbelly of our country that has always existed, is now being embraced with open arms by many of those in leadership positions.

I try to not view the world with rose-colored glasses. I know that, judged by history, the US of A was founded on genocide of native peoples, grew by the oppression of others, has always had a slightly-more-than complicated relationship with race, and has a habit of giving second chances to Nazis. We’ve often been the bully of the world, and more than occasionally go back on our word to the world. As far as political experience goes, our little grand experiment in democracy is barely to the sullen teenager stage.

At the same time, the USA that I know is also a country that, for all of our teenage ennui, is a country of hope. Of promise. A country that, more often than not, can take halting steps forward. A country that lives on the promise of more. That has, in the past, embraced giving a helping hand up to their fellow humans. That has enshrined in its founding documents liberties to think, worship, speak, and communicate differently. That believes that all humans are created equal — and with a goodly amount of fighting — decided that equality belonged to more than just rich  white landowners who espoused the ideal.

Lately, I’ve found myself at a loss. And in doing so, I’ve been returning to my comfort zone, which is ironically also a space of challenge. Asking questions. Not only how can this happen, how can you think like that, why do you believe that it’s OK to follow orders when orders demand that you rip families apart, why can’t one of the more wealthy countries in the world manage to rebuild its own territory devastated by natural disaster….

But also the kinds of questions that go one step deeper. The questions that truly investigate the feelings, responses, responsibility, and conversations that have far too long been avoided. I don’t know if conversation and questions alone are the way out of this mess — and, let’s be honest — it will likely not be any one thing. I do know that personally, fighting off the feeling of powerlessness starts with conversations internal and external. What do I have the ability to do? Have I asked hard questions of those who claim to represent me? Am I caring for myself in a way that allows me to run whatever very tiny leg of this marathon of creating communities that serve us all that I can? Why am I staying silent?

In other words, questions create an invitation to conversation. Conversation, just maybe, can create a little bit more understanding, even if that understanding is one that you simply cannot support someone or something any longer. If we create an environment where it’s OK to ask questions, and OK to change our minds, then maybe… just maybe… we can create an environment where growth as human beings is embraced by just enough people to tip the scales.

In that vein, this week, we’re re-releasing five episodes about government, involvement, and dreams this week. Having these conversations can be, at the very best, difficult, but in the week of a holiday intended to embrace all that t

Sitting all day could be killing you, screams the headlines. If you sit for more than a few hours a day, you could be risking a long list of medical problems, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and premature death.

Youch. That’s not good, especially for those that work all day sitting down, and then doubly so for those with hobbies that include even more sitting. It’s a properly scary proposition — so standing desks have become a lot more popular. But – as Alex Hutchinson put in Runner’s World:

On the circle of health hype, what was bad becomes good, then it becomes overrated, then it becomes bad again. That’s what happened to barefoot running and multivitamins, and it’s where the purported dangers of “too much sitting” seem to be headed. But, like all hype cycles, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle rather than on the peaks or in the valleys. With that in mind, it’s worth looking at an interesting study just published in the American Journal of Epidemiology that finds jobs that require a lot of standing to be much worse for your health than jobs that require mostly sitting.

Yet there is a significant body of research that standing desks could improve productivity, improve health, and even improve mood. So what gives?

Digging deeper into many of the studies, I discovered what several others have also pointed out. There’s two very different types of standing desks. One is a quote-unquote true standing desk, which requires you to stand all day. The other is a “standing capable” desk, which is very different. These desks, also called sit-stand desks, allow the users to transition between the two throughout the day. The jury is out, however, on if that’s any better or worse than anything else. As was written in Popular Science:

In the midst of all this sitting and standing, don’t forget to get up and walk around regardless of your cubicle set-up. Of course, there’s already got a money-making gadget for that solution: A treadmill desk. For around $4,000 a piece.[…]  sometimes you just need to sit and focus. And that’s okay. Sitting down is okay. The important thing is that you remember to get up and take a walk once you’ve completed your task.

Looking for something to listen to this weekend?

May I suggest Limetown? When I was traveling for work recently, I downloaded and binge-listened to the entire season. It’s one of the very few audio dramas I’ve listened to that managed to make me wonder, 30,000 feet in the air and disconnected from all wifi, if I’d entered a universe where this story actually really was the case. It’s like NPR, the creators of Serial and S-Town, and Welcome to Night Vale all had a wild night and this was the unexpected love child. It was originally released in 2015, but still holds

By my count of Wikipedia, there are about 85 countries in the world that require some kind of national identity card or document, and another several that have an optional national identification document. There are also a number of countries that do not have a national ID system. It’s a hotly debated issue in may areas, for a number of reasons.

When discussing the idea of a national ID system in the USA, the American Civil Liberties Union outlines five reasons they do not support the idea. Specifically:

Yet, as Mother Jones author Kevin Drum pointed out,

Most of us already have picture IDs in the form of driver licenses. And nearly all of us have a permanent ID number in the form of a Social Security number. So like it or not, if you’re worried about having tons of information about yourself collected into computerized databases — well, that ship sailed a long time ago. It’s already happened.

Yet just because there IS a social security number equivalent to a national identification number in the United States, does that mean a National ID card is a foregone conclusion? In Forbes, contributor Tarun Wadhwa points out that:

the problems with our broken outdated identity systems run deeply; they cannot be fixed with the “Band-Aid” approach that Washington is so fond of using.  The foundation of our system is built on top of a numbering scheme that was created in the 1930s for an entirely different purpose. Adding strict requirements for a new identity document on top of an already dysfunctional system wouldn’t be anything more than a superficial, political solution. Instead of spending the money to create new government departments to manage, protect, and update the records of over 300 million people, we’d be far better served by modernizing, cleaning, and standardizing the systems and databases that are already in use.

This script may vary from the actual episode transcript.

So you’ve left something… and then realized that maybe going back wouldn’t be the worst thing. It happens more often than you might think — but now there’s a clever name and a bunch of corporate articles about it. Called “comeback kids” or “boomerang employees”

In 2016, a LinkedIn’s VP wrote for Business Insider:

New research shows that the winds are changing favorably for boomerangs. A recent survey by Workplace Trends revealed that “nearly half of HR pros said their organization previously had a policy against rehiring former employees — even if the employee left in good standing — but 76% said that they are more accepting of hiring boomerang employees than in the past.”

Looking deeper into that study, completed in 2015, it found:

46 percent of Millennials would consider returning to their former employer, compared to 33 percent of Gen Xers and 29 percent of Baby Boomers.

That study also found that when employees and employers part on good terms, there’s a much higher likelihood that the employee would consider coming back to the company when there is a better position, better pay, or simply better experience is available.

Now, jobs aren’t the only projects that we get involved in. No matter what type of project you do get involved in, there is a lot to be said for going out and having new experiences that can reinvigorate your experience and perspective. Assuming, of course, that you actually want to return.

This script may vary from the actual episode transcript.

Stories are powerful. Family stories can be even more powerful, no matter how you define family. It’s the kind of statement that can be intuitively understood — after all, storytelling has an impact on our own view of ourselves, how we operate in the world, and even how we think. The importance of family storytelling is also a fact that research has looked quite deeply in to in the last few decades.

As the New York Times put it:

Drs Sara and Marshall Duke, along with a colleague, Robyn Fivush developed a measure called the “Do You Know?” scale that asked children to answer 20 questions.

Examples included: Do you know where your grandparents grew up? Do you know where your mom and dad went to high school? Do you know where your parents met? Do you know an illness or something really terrible that happened in your family? Do you know the story of your birth?

Dr. Duke and Dr. Fivush asked those questions of four dozen families in the summer of 2001, and taped several of their dinner table conversations. They then compared the children’s results to a battery of psychological tests the children had taken, and reached an overwhelming conclusion. The more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believed their families functioned. The “Do You Know?” scale turned out to be the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness.

The article goes on to specify the three categories these stories will often fall in to — ascending, descending, and oscillating. Oscillating stories — that tell both the ups and the downs of experience through generations — are the ones that help create a strong sense of self and understanding. As was written in The Atlantic:

For instance, experimental studies show that when parents learn to reminisce about everyday events with their preschool children in more detailed ways, their children tell richer, more complete narratives to other adults one to two years later compared to children whose parents didn’t learn the new reminiscing techniques. Children of the parents who learned new ways to reminisce also demonstrate better understanding of other people’s thoughts and emotions.

In other words, a story of family is as important as the story we tell ourselves. And while these studies all focus on children, I would venture a statement that family stories have an impact no matter your age — and that’s the case no matter how you define family. There’s an entire field of study called sense-making, which is how groups of any type and any size preserve a core identity and create a place to grow from.

This script may vary from the actual episode transcript.

It almost doesn’t need saying – music has a big impact on our brains. There’s an entire field of study called neuro-musicology that studies that impact that music can have on us, our brains, our emotions, and even our unconscious reactions. There’s a huge body of research about how music can impact people — far more than I could possibly ever review in just a few minutes.

Part of that is because, as Norman M. Weinberger explained in a 2006 Scientific American article, the impact music has on each of us varies according to a number of factors. How much training you’ve had with music, how many personal experiences you’ve had with that particular piece of music — or music in general — can impact your experiences. So can the type and style of music itself.

No matter what your experience level in general with music, listening to it can often help you focus and get things done. Depending on the study you read, the type of music that’s most effective can vary. One study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in 1994, found that when a surgeon listens to music, they tend to be more successful in surgery. It’s more effective when the surgeon gets to choose the music, but is effective even if they don’t.

The type of music can also have a big impact on what you are trying to do. For repetitive and monotonous tasks, music with lyrics might just have the biggest impact, because it helps your brain avoid boredom. For tasks where more focus is required, more ambient music with no lyrics may be better. And if you want to identify numbers or do better with math, very driving rock music may be the best.

In shot, it’s incredibly individual thing, as music often is. So what do you listen to when you really need to dig in and get something done?

This script may vary from the actual episode transcript.

Learning can be tough. No matter how much you love learning, taking the step out of your comfort zone to stretch and learn something new. Being a beginner can be both fun – and intimidating. So being able to learn something new to the point that you feel comfortable having conversations about it could be even more so.

As Leta Kene, a teacher at the Turing Institute wrote:

Being surrounded by Experts can be tough when you’re in a learning environment, because there’s a certain breed of Expert that really hates to admit that they don’t know absolutely everything about everything. Whether you yourself are an Expert, or if you’re surrounded by them, the net result is the same: you’re too afraid to ask for help or admit that you don’t understand something. What I’ve seen from my students is that the Experts in class don’t like feeling like rookies. They learn until they get the concept, and then they stop, secure again. But the students who don’t really care about being Experts are comfortable knowing how much they don’t know. The Rookies keep pushing. They get a concept, and then they test the limits of their understanding. They keep trying to poke holes in their knowhow, trying to expose their own ignorance so they can learn even more. They’re not afraid to look foolish, or to sound stupid — they know that asking questions will lead to more answers.

And asking those questions of one another can be one of the ways to build your expertise. As David Weinburger wrote in 2006 about his visit with the CIA:

And the CIA, typical of most knowledge organizations, draws lines around people, confining experts to their areas of expertise. This assumes knowledge is a property of experts. But better knowledge is a property of conversations. An expert’s ideas and knowledge can only be improved by being put out in public (well, the closed public of those in the agency with the proper clearances) to be debated and augmented. Mistakes of fact and limitations of viewpoint inevitably emerge.

Instead of thinking that topical knowledge exists in the heads of experts, we now have the ability to go back to the original meaning of topic: topos, or place. By creating intranet places where experts can share and debate what they know, new, better and more timely knowledge emerges.

So perhaps it’s not that you need to be an expert to talk about a topic, it may be that you just need to be curious and willing to learn and never be quite satisfied. And, of course, a willingness to ask questions.

Looking for something to listen to this weekend?

May I suggest The Brain Junk Podcast? I’ve got a bit of a personal connection to Trace and Amy, creators of this podcast. They took the Podcasting 101 class that Jeremiah and I taught in December of 2017, and they’ve now officially launched a show that I have to say I’m very proud of them for! It’s a show that explores all of the things you might want to know about a particular topic, in a way that I’m thoroughl

Structurally, systems in the United States and a number of other countries all preference and value marriages and the long-term committed relationships that marriage is used as an indicator of. As Maura Kelly wrote in the Daily Beast, quote:

The U.S. tax system privileges married people in a variety of ways,” says Lily Kahng, a professor at Seattle University School of Law. In “One Is the Loneliest Number: The Single Taxpayer in a Joint Return World,” a paper recently published in the Hastings Law Journal, Kahng points out that married workers are able to transfer wealth and property to spouses—and others—tax-free, while the unmarried can’t; she concludes that the joint return penalizes single people and should be abolished.

That same article also outlines there are structural benefits in rental applications, insurance, and even home purchasing. There are also studies have shown that singles are often paid less than married people, even if they share the same title, responsibilities, and years of experience.

In short, short-term relationships don’t come with the same social benefits as long-term relationships. But that doesn’t mean that they are less valuable. As Sky Jordan wrote in the State Press, a college newspaper:

It is important to carefully consider what kind of dating and relationships feel healthiest and most fulfilling to you. This varies from person to person. Any relationship can be positive as long as we foster an attitude the validates and celebrates each different experience. Short term relationships can also highlight what qualities we value in our love-lives. By experiencing different relationships, we gain insight into what we look for in a partner.

“Every kind relationship we enter into has something to teach us. Many of these (relationships) teach us what we value and what we want. They often teach us more about ourselves than about our partners,” said Whitney Linscott, managing member of Bracket Dating LLC.

There can be some great power in short-term connection, as was written in the Australian paper Daily Life:

In the age of disposable online dating, finding a genuine connection is hard. I was surprised I’d found one at all, and even more that it unfolded in the way that it did. Despite the brevity of our time together, we made emotional progress that I had been unable to in much longer previous relationships.

The world conditions us to believe that anything less than ‘happily ever after’ constitutes a failed relationship – that, to paraphrase Dan Savage, the mark of a successful one is being together until one person dies. But I don’t consider my short-term relationship a failure, because it taught me so much about myself, other people and love. I came out the other side kno

Full disclosure – I’m a college graduate with a 4-year degree (even though that’s a much longer-and-more-complex story than most want to hear.) For the last 30 years, the so-called Degree Premium has been used to market the value of a college degree. Quoting from the Washington Post:

That’s how much more a typical bachelor’s degree recipient earns compared with a high school graduate. And since the 1980s, the gap in earnings between the two has been getting wider as college graduates pull away from those with just a high school diploma.

But a new study of the degree premium, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, finds that its growth has flattened in recent years. Since 2010, however, the premium has largely remained unchanged, said the report’s author, Robert G. Valletta of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. The “patterns indicate that the factors propelling earlier increases in the returns to higher education have dissipated,” Valletta wrote.

In September of 2017, the Wall Street Journal published a poll about college education, finding, quote:

Overall, a slim plurality of Americans, 49%, believes earning a four-year degree will lead to a good job and higher lifetime earnings, compared with 47% who don’t, according to the poll of 1,200 people taken Aug. 5-9. That two-point margin narrowed from 13 points when the same question was asked four years earlier.

There’s a fundamental conflict in the discussion of college education that seems to consistently come up  — what the purpose of a college education is. Some argue that the purpose is intellectual exploration and personal growth, a chance to explore and discover. Others measure the value of these choices in economic impact.

That economic impact also varies quite widely based on what kind of field and measure you’re looking at. A study by Georgetown University found that, quote:

At the low end, median earnings for Early Childhood Education majors are $36,000, while Petroleum Engineering majors see median earnings of $120,000.

That same study also found that there’s still a huge differential for women and individuals who are not white.

Then again, there’s more options than a high school degree and a four-year college degree. Harvard’s Joe Fuller and Burning Glass’s Matthew Sigelman authored a report on apprenticeships, finding that, quote:

20 percent to 80 percent of job postings ask for candidates with bachelor’s degrees, depending on the occupation, bu

Challenges are a part of life, and a part of existing. After all, with absolutely no challenges, there’s no opportunities to grow, learn, expand, or change. It can also be very easy for challenges to become overwhelming, no matter how resilient or thoughtful you are as a person. So how to face that fear and keep moving forward?

One theory says that the way to do it is consistently review what successes you’ve had. In May of 2011 in the Harvard Business Review, Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer wrote:

Through exhaustive analysis of diaries kept by knowledge workers, we discovered the progress principle: Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.

And the more frequently people experience that sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run. Whether they are trying to solve a major scientific mystery or simply produce a high-quality product or service, everyday progress—even a small win—can make all the difference in how they feel and perform.

That progress principle is a powerful one, because it recognizes that, even when you are in the middle of a very large project, recognizing steps forward can reinvigorate the energy for the next step.

Of course, while you’re doing that, it’s also important to keep in mind how those successes can change you reactions. In October of 2015, Shankar Vedantam of the Hidden Brain podcast went on NPR to talk about this effect. Quote:

Rachel Ruttan, Loran Nordgren and Mary-Hunter McDonnell find that people who endure emotionally distressing events often show less compassion for others who are struggling with the same event compared to people who haven’t been through such an event. The researchers also find something very interesting. Compared to people who’ve never been unemployed, those who’ve experienced unemployment show less compassion to people currently dealing with unemployment. It’s not so much, I think, you’re less likely to care. You’re more likely to think, if I can get through this and I can find a job, so can you.

So yes, considering what you’ve overcome can be very helpful. Just keep in mind how that may also impact your interactions with others.

This script may vary from the actual episode transcript.