Shaping Opinion

Father Leo Patalinghug joins Tim to talk about his unconventional ministry that blends food, faith and fun. Father Leo is a podcast host, a celebrity cook of sorts, a sought-after public speaker and a Catholic priest. He tells about how he connects with people over food where they live.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Food_Faith_and_Fun_auphonic.mp3

By now you’re heard the term personal branding. Usually when you hear the term it’s about how to turn yourself into a business, or at least create a personal identity that makes you more marketable in the job market.

Today, we’re going to talk to Father Leo, a Catholic priest who has deployed nearly every tool in the personal branding toolbox, but not for himself. He’s on a mission. As Dan Akroyd said in the movie classic, the Blues Brothers, he’s on a mission from God.

Where do we start?

Father Leo is involved in many things. He’s a Catholic priest. He’s a renowned chef, an author, a podcast host, a theologian, a relationship expert, an international speaker, an entrepreneur, and he’s even a black belt martial arts instructor.

But don’t let the diversity of all of this fool you. There is a common thread.

No matter what he does, Father Leo’s message is one that he says attempts to unify people.

Links

* Plating Grace

* Shoot the Shiitake Podcast

* See Episode 15: Pot-smoking Fisher of Man as Fr. Leo described in this interview.

* Father Leo Feeds (Twitter)

* Father Leo Feeds (Facebook)

 

Tyler and Hilary Avolia join Tim to talk about the time a spontaneous moment at a hockey game when Tyler was two turned into a meme that is now known around the world. In this episode, we look back to the time a local TV news clip from a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game in 2014, made Tyler’s baby face one of the most shared memes on the Internet. The topic? Meme culture.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Buckle_Up_Baby_auphonic.mp3

It’s 2014 and as the Pittsburgh Penguins liked to say, it was a hockey night in Pitttsburgh.

A two-year old Tyler Avolia was very excited. He was with his mom and dad in the one place he’d want to be, watching hockey.

Hilary says that her son liked hockey for as long as she could remember, but that year, the two-year old took it to a new level when he received hockey equipment for Christmas. Skates and a stick and hockey nets.

Hilary said they tried getting Tyler interested in baseball, but all he cared about was hockey. She said he even learned the words to the National Anthem by watching hockey on TV every time the Penguins played. And he insisted on singing the Anthem before playing any hockey himself.

Tyler’s family were season ticket holders for the Pittsburgh Penguins and went to quite a few games that year. So it was that on one night, after a big goal, the Penguin’s television cameras scanned the arena for crowd reaction and found Tyler sitting on his mom’s lap. The baby-faced toddler had a fierce expression on his face, as he pumped his fists in the air and let out a scream in excitement.

Later in the season, when the Penguins and their star captain Sidney Crosby were battling it out with the Philadelphia Flyers, Crosby scored a goal and the arena went wild.

Tyler and his mom Hilary today.

By then, the video crew in the booth had already cued up that video of young Tyler pumping his fists. Then something unplanned happened.

The Penguins’ announce and former player, Phil Bourque commented on Crosby’s goal by saying, “Buckle up, baby! You gotta be kiddin’ me.”

He said this right when the video of Tyler flashed across the video screen in the arena and on TV. The juxtaposition between Bourque’s words and that video of Tyler went viral almost instantly.

The Penguins even decided to make the words, Buckle Up Baby, their team slogan for the playoff run. But according to Hilary, that was just the beginning.

It’s one thing to have a viral video, and another for your video to become a widely popular GIF and a Meme, which is the case here.

What is Meme Culture?

A meme is a relatable graphic or video clip with text. Memes usually originate as viral videos like the one we’re talking about in this episode. Most memes have lines of text that overlay the video to express a particular message.

You see them on social media messages and in texts. They are used to express a feeling or a gesture.

If you want to thank someone, or congratulate them, or say hi, or wink at someone, or applaud something, there’s a meme for that. In fact, there are many memes for just about any occasion.

People who want to apologize for something and who can’t find the words, may use a GIF of a sad puppy.

The term ‘meme’ was introduced in 1976 by the famous British biologist Richard Dawkins. As memes became more popular, meme culture emerged. Memes have now become so common on social media, they’re replacing words and emoji as a way to communicate in everyday communication.

Links

* #TBT: Viral Sensation "Buckle Up Baby" Backed the Penguins, NHL.com

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In this special episode, it’s a break from format in response to unfolding developments in the COVID-19 outbreak. As a veteran crisis manager, Tim recently wrote a blog post on how to reduce panic and fear in the wake of recent events. The post has been broadly picked up and shared in the public relations and communications industries. In this episode, Tim shares that content with you in the hopes it can help you become a calming force for those around you.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Reduce_Fear_and_Panic_auphonic.mp3

* Link to Tim's Full Blog Post

* CDC Web Site

* World Health Organization

About Tim O’Brien

Tim O’Brien is an accredited communications strategist and consultant, advising clients from Fortune 100 companies to associations, start-ups and nonprofits. He has provided service to clients across every major sector and has seen programs from conceptualization through planning. He has worked extensively in crisis communications, issues management, professional services marketing, writing and content development, marketing, media relations, message development, and workplace communications.

He formed O’Brien Communications in 2001, a Pittsburgh PR firm, after serving as Communications Director and the Chief Investor Relations Officer at Tollgrade Communications, a telecom firm that played a significant role in the rollout of broadband technology. At Tollgrade, he was a member of the company’s Executive Committee, responsible for all internal and external communications, serving as primary spokesperson.

Before Tollgrade, Tim spent ten years at Ketchum, where he was a Vice President, a member of the Pittsburgh office’s Management Committee, and a leader in Ketchum’s Crisis Communications and Issues Management practice areas. At Ketchum, he managed corporate, employee and media relations, in addition to crisis communications programs, community relations and marketing communications initiatives.

He started his career as a Producer/News Writer at KDKA TV & Radio. Tim earned his bachelor’s degree with majors in Journalism and Speech Communications at Duquesne University.

He was accredited (APR) by Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) in 1990, and he is on PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS). He has served on the PRSA/Pittsburgh Board of Directors.

An experienced PR pro, he has presented at professional and trade functions, including the American Bar Association’s Continuing Legal Education programs. Tim has also lectured at graduate and undergraduate programs at institutions including: Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State University, Chatham University and at other colleges and universities.

He contributed to the PR News Crisis Management Guidebook, the PR News Employee Communications Guidebook, and he was featured in Harvard Business School Press’s The Essentials of Corporate Communications and Public Relations. In 2017, he was honored with the inaugural “Indie Award” from the Public Relations Society of America for his contributions to the national independent PR consultant community. His work has been recognized in several competitions, including receipt of the Bronze Anvil Award of Commendation from PRSA for the Shaping Opinion podcast, PRSA Renaissance Awards, the Association of Business Communicators and the Dalton Pen Communications Award Program for Excellence in Annual Reports, the NFPW Communications Awards, the International Academy of the Visual Arts’ Communicator Awards, and the Pennsylvania Press Club.

Television host and producer Marc Summers joins Tim to talk about the classic Nickelodeon show that put him and the Nickelodeon cable network on the map, Double Dare. Before Double Dare, kids didn’t have their own game show and the Nickelodeon network was not as widely known as it would become after this crazy, messy, green slimy “party” that millions of millennials would rush home after school to watch.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Double_Dare_auphonic.mp3

It was the first game show for kids on the Nickelodeon cable network. It premiered in 1986 with Marc Summers as its host. Double Dare.

In the show, two teams would compete to win money and prizes by answering trivia questions and completing physical challenges that amounted to an organized mess.

The original version of Double Dare ran from 1986 to 1993. Two subsequent versions relaunched in 2000, and then from 2018 to 2019.

Double Dare had more than tripled viewership for Nickelodeon in the afternoon. It was the most popular original daily program on cable television.

Because of that show, Nickelodeon was able to take its place as a major player in cable television, and game shows for kids a thing.

The show remains Nickelodeon's longest-running game show. In January 2001, TV Guide, ranked the show number 29 on its list of 50 Greatest Game Shows.

Links

* Marc Summers

* Double Dare, Nick

* Double Dare, Fandom

* Five Things to Know About the Green Slime on Double Dare, Newsday

About this Episode’s Guest Marc Summers

Marc Summers is a veteran television host and producer, and a comedian. His long list of television credits include: host and producer of Double Dare on Nickelodeon, Unwrapped for the Food Network, and as executive producer of the Food Network’s Dinner: Impossible and Restaurant: Impossible.

Over the year’s he’s hosted other shows, such as the syndicated Couch Potatoes, Nickelodeon’s What Would You Do?, and as a talk show host on the Lifetime network’s Our Home program.

He remains active in new projects across several networks and platforms.

Daniel Di Martino joins Tim to talk about socialism and how it has and continues to affect the people of Venezuela. Daniel was born and raised in Venezuela and fled his homeland in 2016. He is now a freedom activist and economist. Daniel explains socialism’s impact on his homeland’s economy, quality of life, individual freedoms, and how it affected the future for the millennial generation in that country.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Socialism_auphonic.mp3

Not that long ago, Venezuela was the wealthiest country in South America. Contrast that to today where the country’s economy and its socio-economic structure has already crumbled.

Millions have fled the country in the midst of mass starvation and violence. As hard times took hold, the government enforced a broad range of socialist policies, creating food and medicine shortages, destroying the educational and health systems, seizing private industry and taking away individual freedoms and rights from the people.  You can follow Daniel at @DanielDiMartino on Twitter.

But, how did it get this way?

It started in 1992. That’s when a Venezuelan army officer named Hugo Chavez led several army units in a coup against the government. His initial coup attempt was defeated after over 100 people were killed in the uprising.

To appease the opposition, the government released Chavez from prison after two years.

Not long after that, Chavez became the leader of the opposition movement under the banner of socialism. He went to Cuba and formed an alliance with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Four years later, he ran for the Venezuelan Presidency. He downplayed his radicalism, telling voters he was not for “savage capitalism, nor socialism, nor communism.” At the time, he described his philosophy as a balance between socialism and capitalism.

Using this softer rhetoric, he won the election. But it wouldn’t be long before his hardline methods would emerge.

At first, Chavez did not implement many socialist policies. What he did was re-write the Constitution. He told Venezuela’s Congress in 1999, “The constitution, and with it the ill-fated political system to which it gave birth 40 years ago, has to die. It is going to die, sirs – accept it.”

After that, Chavez did re-write the Constitution that led to government-run healthcare and government-run college, winning 72 percent of the vote.

While the constitution was similar to the one of the United States, Chavez was able to stack his country’s Supreme Court by passing a law that added 12 new justices to the court, assuring that any court case would go his way.

Once Chavez had control of the courts, and then the legislature, he began to more fully implement socialist policies.

By 2006, Chavez ran for election as a socialist, and once he won, he began to more fully seize privately-owned property.

He nationalized the news media. He took control over the news media, the oil industry, private companies, mines, farms, banks and grocery stores. The population become fully dependent on the government for all of the needs of daily living.

Links

* Daniel Di Martino

* Venezuela was my home, and socialism destroyed it. Slowly, it will destroy America, too., by Daniel Di Martino, USA Today

* What Would a Democratic Socialist America Look Like? I can tell you - I'm Venezuelan, by Daniel Di Martino,

Susan Medley joins Tim to talk about new research that revealed that singing is good for you, mentally and physically, and America’s participation in choirs is on the rise. Susan is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Washington & Jefferson College and is the music director of the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale. Today, one in six Americans sing in community choirs.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Singing_Its_Good_for_You_auphonic.mp3

According to an organization called Chorus America, singing is good for you. It’s good for your health, both mentally and physically.

That’s right. When you find yourself singing in the shower or in your car at that red light (as the person in the car to your right watches), you’re doing something good for yourself.

It may not come as a surprise to you that participation in church choirs is on the decline. But overall, more people are participating in community choirs.

More than 17 percent of American adults participate in some sort of choir, which is an increase from 14 percent in 2008. That means one in six American adults not only like to sing, but they’ve done something about it. They joined a choir.

Links

* Chorus America

* Pittsburgh Concert Chorale

* Washington & Jefferson College - Music

* 1 in 6 Americans Sing in a Choir - and their healthier for it, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

About this Episode’s Guest Susan Medley

Susan Medley is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music at Washington & Jefferson College. She joined the W&J faculty in 2004 and conducts the W&J Choir and Camerata Singers, and teaches conducting and music theory. She also serves as the advisor for W&J’s Epsilon Zeta chapter of Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity.

In addition to her duties at W&J, Medley serves as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale. She was Associate Conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh from 2008 to 2012 and Music Director and Conductor of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh from 2009 to 2013. Prior to coming to W&J, she was Associate Director of Education at Carnegie Hall in New York City and founding conductor/clinician of the Carnegie Hall High School Choral Festivals. She also held the position of Music Director of The Central City Chorus, a 60-voice community chorus that performed three annual concerts in midtown Manhattan.

Under Medley’s direction, the W&J Camerata Singers have appeared by invitation at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City, on the Great Artists concert series at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City, at the 2009 MENC Eastern Division Conference, and at the 2010 State Conference of the Pennsylvania Music Education Association. In June 2010, the W&J Camerata Singers became the first winners of The American Prize in Choral Performance, College/University Division. The Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh followed suit in 2011, winning The American Prize in Choral Performance, High School Division.

Medley’s choral work has taken her to Malaysia, where she served as guest conductor of the 2006 Kuala Lumpur Young Singers Choral Festival and led workshops for choirs and conductors throughout the country.

The recipient of the 2011 PMEA District 1 Citation of Excellence Award, Medley holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting with a cognate in music theory from the University of Cincinnati ...

Author and cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier joins Tim to talk about an article he wrote for the Wall Street Journal where he sheds light on research that answers the question: “Do political campaigns change voters’ minds?” Hugo is the author of, “Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe.”

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Do_campaigns_change_minds_-_auphonic.mp3

It’s 2020 and election season is in full swing. No matter where you live in America, you’re starting to see the ads, the debates, the door-to-door canvassers, the political signs, the rallies and the protests.

While some of what you see may be genuine and spontaneous, much of what you will see is crafted as part of a political campaign designed to change your mind.

Hugo Mercier is a cognitive scientist at the Jean Nicod Institute in Paris. He recently wrote the book, “Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe.”

But it was something he wrote for the Wall Street Journal recently that prompted us to each out to him to have him speak with us. He wrote a column posing the question: Do political campaigns change voters’ minds?

In 2020 at least $6 billion will be spent on political campaigns in the U.S. Over $2 billion will be spent on the presidential race.

This means: TV ads, cold calling, mailings, social media and more sophisticated technology that uses big data to target ads.

For almost 20 years, political scientists have studied the effectiveness of political campaigns. They wanted to find out whether a campaign strategy actually works. They conducted randomized control trials. In other words, you can randomly select certain neighborhoods to receive a campaign mailing supporting one candidate.

Alan Gerber of Yale University did one of the first studies like this. Published in the journal American Behavioral Sciences (2004).

Nearly 100,000 households received mailings in favor of a congressional candidate. Gerber found that the voters in this area were only 0.2% more likely to vote for the candidate. This is statistically insignificant.

Gerber has done other studies. He found that campaign mailings did have an effect on votes, but that had a smaller sample size results were contradictory. One study found mailings seem to make people less likely to vote for a candidate.

Hugo says the best way to arrive at some level of truth is to pool all of those studies and other research. So he pointed to a later test that aggregated multiple test results to see if any robust patterns emerge.

Links

* Do Political Campaigns Change Voters' Minds?, by Hugo Mercier, Wall Street Journal

* Hugo Mercier

* Jean Nicod Institute

* Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe, by Hugo Mercier (Amazon)

About this Episode’s Guest Hugo Mercier

Hugo Mercier is a cognitive scientist working at the Jean Nicod Institute in Paris. He studies human reasoning and communication, as well as cultural evolution. He is the co-author, with Dan Sperber, of The Enigma of Reason, and the author of Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who we Trust and What we Believe.

The founder of the band Wild Cherry and the creator of the iconic song “Play that Funky Music,” Rob Parissi, joins Tim to do an anatomy of a funky song. That funky song, which has been named one of the top 100-performing songs of all time. Rob tells stories and gives a hint why new generations are embracing it even today.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Funky_Music_auphonic.mp3

The song is one of the best known of the disco era by one of the best-known bands of the disco era. But while so many other songs have faded along with the entire genre of disco music, this song continues to endure.

The song Play that Funky Music continues to find new fans decades after it was written.

Rob Parissi, one of the founders of the band Wild Cherry, and who wrote many of the band’s songs, tells us what it was like at the peak of the disco era and what it was like to write that one disco song that has stood the test of time.

Links

* Play That Funky Music - Songfacts.com

* Play That Funky Music - SeventiesMusic.com

* The Number Ones: Play That Funky Music - Stereogums

* Wild Cherry - AllMusic.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8-oFWAVu9I

About this Episode’s Guest Rob Parissi

Robert "Rob" Parissi is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, perhaps best known as frontman for the American funk group Wild Cherry, best known for their 1976 Parissi-penned chart-topper "Play That Funky Music". He was born in 1950 and raised in the steel mill town of Mingo Junction, Ohio. He graduated from Mingo High School in 1968. Rob formed the band Wild Cherry in 1970 in Steubenville, Ohio, one mile north of Mingo Junction along the Ohio River.

The band played the Ohio Valley region, Wheeling, West Virginia and the rest of the Northern West Virginia panhandle, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After Wild Cherry disbanded in 1979 without another major hit, Parissi became a producer and dedicated himself to adult contemporary music. In 2017, he retired from the music industry, but continues to manage the properties he created during his career.

Brian Rosenwald joins Tim to talk about the rise of Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio. Brian is the co-editor of a daily Washington Post history blog called “Made by History.” He’s a Scholar in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s also the author of a new book called: “Talk Radio’s America: how an industry took over a political party that took over the United States.”

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Rise_of_Rush_Limbaugh_and_Talk_Radio_auphonic.mp3

Talk radio didn’t begin in the late 1980s. The earliest radio talk shows that had an impact were hosted by broadcasters named Joe Pyne, Bob Grant and Larry King.

But the talk radio we know today, the one that has created a sea change in the nation’s political dialogue, can trace its roots back to the 1980s when a number of factors came to a head at about the same time.

The 1980s marked a resurgence of the Republican Party in Washington with the wave of national support that swept Ronald Reagan into the White House.

During those same years, the AM radio format started to decline, losing music listeners to the clean and clear signals of FM stations.

To carve out a niche and compete with FM, AM radio discovered that talk radio didn’t require the same sound quality to attract an audience. Increasingly, AM radio programmed talk and news content on their schedules.

In 1987, the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine was repealed. The Fairness Doctrine had put restrictive guidelines on how radio stations could air political speech. With the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, radio stations were free to air news and talk programming that catered to specific audiences and specific points of view, regardless of political leanings.

During this same period came the advent of less expensive satellite technology and cell phones.

All of this opened the door to innovators who would figure out how to make political speech entertaining enough to attract an audience, and more importantly, to attract advertising revenue to those failing AM radio stations. One innovator, Rush Lumbaugh, in particular would lead the way.

In the end, both the media and the political landscapes would be transformed.

Links

* Talk Radio’s America: how an industry took over a political party that took over the United States, by Brian Rosenwald (Harvard University Press)

* Brian Rosenwald, Website

* Rush Limbaugh (official site)

* Fairness Doctrine, Britannica

About this Episode's Guest Brian Rosenwald

Brian Rosenwald is the Coeditor-in-Chief of “Made by History,” a daily Washington Post history blog, and a historical consultant for the Slate podcast Whistlestop. He has written for the Washington Post, CNN.com, Politico, and The Week, among others. He has discussed contemporary politics on CNN, NPR and the Sirius XM Radio channel POTUS: Politics of the United States.

Rosenwald is Scholar in Residence at the Partnership for Effective Public Administration and Leadership (PEPAL) program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bill Isler joins Tim to talk about his friend and colleague and Fred Rogers and the film “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” starring Tom Hanks and where Bill serves as an important character in the movie. Bill sheds light on  Fred Rogers the man, his philosophy and his unquestionable legacy.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Bill_Isler_auphonic.mp3

 

There’s a good chance that sometime in the past year, you sat down and watched a documentary or a movie about Fred Rogers, the man known to millions as Mister Rogers.

And there’s an even better chance that during the course of your life or if you’ve raised children that you’ve watched Mister Rogers on your PBS station, or on video.

Fred Rogers’ contributions may have been understated and under-appreciated at the time, but by the time Mister Rogers ceased production, the program’s and the man’s contributions to television, to education and to generations of viewers was unchallenged.

Because of this, we’re not going to attempt to tell the whole story of Fred Rogers in this episode. Today, we’re going to talk to someone who knew Fred Rogers in a way few others did.

Bill Isler oversaw operations Family Communications, Inc., the organization behind the Mister Rogers program. After Fred Rogers retired from producing new shows, Bill would transition to become the head of the Fred Rogers Company, where he was responsible for carrying on the legacy of Mister Rogers, bringing those iconic characters to new generations.

If you saw the movie, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” you may have remembered the performance of Enrico Colantoni. He played Bill Isler in that movie.

Links and Mentions

* Mister Rogers Neighborhood

* Fred Rogers Co.

* "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", film

* Can You Say Hero?, by Tom Junod, Esquire

* My Friend, Mister Rogers, by Tom Junod, The Atlantic

* Enrico Colantoni, IMDB

* Tom Hanks, IMDB

* Ernest Boyer, Messiah College

* PBS

* Sesame Street

About this Episode's Guest Bill Isler

William Isler is the former Executive Director of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media and the president of Family Communications, Inc. Prior to joining Family Communications, Inc. in 1984, Bill served for eight years in the Pennsylvania Department of Education as Executive Assistant to the Secretary of Education, Commissioner of Basic Education and Senior Program Advisor for Early Childhood Education.

An active member of his community, Mr. Isler serves on the Boards of the Pittsburgh Public Schools, Saint Vincent College, Family Health Council of Southwestern PA, the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, The Grable Foundation, and the Pittsburgh Arts Collaborative. Bill has been an elementary school teacher, day-care teacher, and administrator of a multi-service program for children. He completed his undergraduate studies at Saint Vincent College and graduate Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VLEPhfEN2M