Here's A Thought

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If you pay attention to all the slogans and memes, you should be very worried, or guilty, or ashamed, if you spend even a second in your comfort zone. Slacker! Couch potato! Taker up of valuable space on the planet!

I'm calling shenanigans. Here's what I have to say about the comfort zone.

This is the final episode of Season Three of Here's A Thought -- have a wonderful, just-comfortable-enough summer!

Intro Music by TheoJT from Pixabay

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Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

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"Second childhood" is a term with unfortunate connotations. But if you look at it a different way, it sounds kind of wonderful. Let' give it a think.

Intro Music by Jerome Chauvel from Pixabay

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Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

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When the girls need a new house because their old one's wearing out . . . attention must be paid 

So let's talk about the one article of clothing for which I really, truly hate to shop. I bet I'm not the only one.

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Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

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The recent news that presidential candidate RFK Jr. has disclosed that doctors discovered a (dead) worm in his brain has me overthinking about . . . things that want to eat our brains.

Real things, not zombies. Turns out it's not just worms. Join me for an introduction to some of the beasties that really want to get in your head.

Sources:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/rfk-jr-says-his-brain-was-partially-eaten-by-a-worm-that-crawled-inside-and-died-everything-you-need-to-know

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/well/live/brain-worm-parasites-rfk-jr.html
https://www.nytimes.com/by/dana-smith
https://www.nytimes.com/by/dani-blum

https://biosci.unl.edu/scott-gardner

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/cysticercosis/index.html

https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/infectious-diseases/cestodes-tapeworms/taenia-solium-pork-tapeworm-infection-and-cysticercosis

https://theconversation.com/finding-a-live-brain-worm-is-rare-4-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-more-common-parasites-212437

https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1777167553317703852

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In which I follow another writer's clever writing prompt -- and get in touch with my inner Princess.

Want to play along? Check out Karen Schwartz  and her This or That challenges  on Medium.com!

How do you feel about treating yourself, and what's your favorite (decently shareable) way to do it? Text me below -- and if you have an idea for an upcoming episode, please do share it (and let me know if I can thank you on air)! 

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Do you have comments to share or an idea for an upcoming episode? Need something overthought? I'd love to hear from you!

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Or, contact me on my website at www.JanMFlynn.net
Or, DM me on Twitter: @JanMFlynnAuthor

Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

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"House-proud" is how my mother's generation used to describe someone (always a woman) who was fussy and vain about how her house looked -- or, somebody whose home someone like my mother might worry was nicer than hers.

It's an old-fashioned term. But the feeling is still pervasive? Do you cringe when someone drops by unannounced and you're suddenly aware of the dust bunnies in the corners?

I have a solution. Listen and learn . . .

Starting this week, you can send a text to Here's a Thought right from the podcast app on your phone. Keep scrolling and you'll see the button. I'd love your feedback, and/or your suggestions for a topic to overthink on an upcoming episode! Let me know if it's okay to acknowledge you by name.

Sound Effect from Pixabay

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Do you have comments to share or an idea for an upcoming episode? Need something overthought? I'd love to hear from you!

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Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

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Going to see the movie Civil War, the 2024 release written and directed by Alex Garland, isn't like seeing most movies. You walk out of the theater with a lot to think about -- and maybe you walk out changed.

What the experience has done for me is to help me embrace a philosophy proposed by Viktor Frankl, the 20th Century psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust and developed Logotherapy, based on the premise that a basic drive of humankind is to find meaning in life — no matter what the conditions of someone's life may be.

His most famous work is the book Man’s Search for Meaning -- published in English in 1959, an immediate best-seller and, in 1991, called by the Library of Congress one of the ten most influential books in the U.S.

If the term "tragic optimism" sounds contradictory to you, stick with me for a few minutes. You might find it as bracing, helpful -- and hopeful -- as I do.

Opening Music by Oleg Kyrylkovv from Pixabay

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In which I witness a semiannual Idaho tradition — when sheep take over a major roadway on their way to greener pastures. It's an Idaho thing.

Want to learn more? Helpful links:

Andy Little, the “Idaho Sheep King"

Idaho sheep ranchers Frank Shirts and Henry Etcheverry

Boise's Basque Block -- where you can find funky, cozy Bar Gernika  and enjoy the once-every-five-years cultural Basque cultural festival, Jaialdi 


A few more fun quotations about sheep (that aren't insulting to sheep):
We’re a nation of sheep. If you go out and look up at the sky, people around you will start looking up at the sky. — Alan Abel

Ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats. — Sue Grafton

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. — Mark Twain

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same. — Stendhal

If Someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists. –Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Sheep sound effects courtesy Pixabay Sound

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Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

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This week, we give thought to how much of us is really "us" — turns out it's way less than we thought. You really do contain multitudes.

Pardon a few technical glitches this week, thanks to a crabby audio system and a very tight schedule due to travel. Or just pretend I have hiccups.

Resource links:

First complete human genome sequence

"Dr. Martin Blaser on sacred cows, ear infections and the nature of science"
by Ashton Applewhite, American Museum of Natural History magazine

Archaea (they're not bacteria!)

Really cool if slightly horrifying PBS video on Demodex

Support the show

Do you have comments to share or an idea for an upcoming episode? Need something overthought? I'd love to hear from you!

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The Jonestown Massacre happened 46 years ago. But to me, it feels way too close — because one of the people who died there was a girl I went to school with.  She was a quiet, shy girl, the daughter of a pastor when I knew her. For years I thought of her as a duped, innocent victim. But it turns out she was one of the leaders, and an architect of the plan to have everyone drink the poison. Is there a way to make any of this make sense?

Content warning: suicide, murder, cults, sexual abuse, child murder

Reference links:

Jonestown, basic background from Brittanica: https://www.britannica.com/event/Jonestown

Maria Katsaris, Wikipedia entry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Katsaris

Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre documentary film
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8020376/

"revolutionary suicide"
https://inthesetimes.com/article/jonestown-mass-revolutionary-suicide-socialist

"Moonies" (Unification Church)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church

Scientology/Church of Scientology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology#:~:text=Scientology%20is%20a%20set%20of,or%20a%20new%20religious%20movement.

Baghwan Shree Rajneesh
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2018/spring/feature/rajneeshpuram-was-more-utopia-desert-it-was-mirror#:~:text=Named%20after%20the%20iconoclastic%20Indian,utopia%20in%20the%20Oregon%20desert.

Jonestown 45th anniversary article, Daily Journal:
https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/45-years-later-peoples-temple-and-the-peninsula/article_3b001bee-85cc-11ee-aa8d-579b5c0b7b99.html

Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple
https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/
-transcript of Charles Garry's interview with Maria Katsaris re: sexual abuse by father
https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=125494

Charles Garry, Wikipedia entry

Support the show

Do you have comments to share or an idea for an upcoming episode? Need something overthought? I'd love to hear from you!

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Or, contact me on my website at www.JanMFlynn.net
Or, DM me on Twitter: @JanMFlynnAuthor

Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music