This episode, Nomi Morris, who teaches writing and journalism at University of California at Santa Barbara, talks about her experiences closing out the semester at UCSB, the challenges of teaching in a pandemic and how this cohort of 2020 students is being shortchanged of the personal interactions that are critical to a well-rounded education. To that point, she says the young people of today don't think about the future in the same optimistic terms as in the past. No one talks about making something for the 22nd century the way people once talked about the 21st century, "and that says something," Morris says.

We also talk about this tough economy and how many internships and summer jobs have been canceled, but she remains optimistic that having the ability to synthesize complex ideas into a readable format — the basic tenets of journalism training — is a skill that will always have value, even if traditional journalism jobs have nearly vanished. Critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning are important attributes for any job. She talks about how studies show that people with humanities degrees often outearn STEM grads, because of their entrepreneurial instincts and ability to express themselves with clarity and craftsmanship.

Nomi's fabulous career including covering Berlin for five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall for Time Magazine, CBC radio and the San Francisco Chronicle. It was an exciting time in a vibrant city. Nomi also worked for Knight Ridder (the largest in America at the time) in Jerusalem. 

We talk about the European model in which government invests in the arts, and the Canadian entertainment industry, of which the hit show, Schitt's Creek is just one recent example. We talk about growing up in the north, and hiding from our parents in the vast expanses of Toronto's much-missed department store Eaton's.

We talk about how important it is to teach students the basics of media literacy, and being able to evaluate sources. We also discuss how much smarter young people are then they used to be, giving us a hopeful note on which to end our wide-ranging discussion.

We don't talk about the last days of the Ottoman Empire, The 1975's new album or kitesurfing.