Staying Curious, Embracing Change, and Relating to Media with Michael Krasny

06.12.2023 - By Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Forrest Hanson Play

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Rick and Forrest are joined by award-winning journalist Michael Krasny for an episode focused on how to stay curious, navigate times of transition, and relate to the modern media landscape in healthy ways. They use Michael’s recent experience with “retirement” as a jumping off point to explore how we can embrace change and stay curious before diving into a conversation focused on the modern media landscape. Topics include bothsides-ism, navigating challenging conversations, and finding the balance between what “knowing mind” and “don’t know mind.”

About our Guest: Michael Krasny is the long-time host of the KQED Forum, and has interviewed some of the most prominent figures of the past 50 years, including Maya Angelou, Caesar Chavez, President Jimmy Carter, Carl Sagan, and President Barack Obama. Since retiring from the Forum, Michael has started his own podcast: Grey Matter with Michael Krasny.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

1:45: What’s helped Michael navigate the transition to a new phase of life

3:45: Michael’s shift in identity post-KQED Forum

5:45: Curiosity and ‘usefulness’

8:10: Preparing for interviews

11:10: How Michael became an interviewer

14:10: Shakespeare characters, the anxiety of influence, and corporal punishment

23:10: How the function of media has changed over time

26:05: Bothsidesism and offering balanced viewpoints

30:40: ‘Always don’t know’, and not being captured by our strengths

33:45: Overpreparation, anxiety, and the role of an interviewer

38:20: The value of spacious conversation vs. discourse through sound bytes

40:30: Recap

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