The question: should you consider reading This is True 'weird news' stories to your kids? Lots of parents do — or let the kids read it themselves. Here’s why (12-1/3 minutes). Show Page: https://thisistrue.com/podcast28

In This Episode: Not having children myself, this is a topic I find fascinating, so I asked the experts: readers who do have children! The question: should you consider reading This is True to your kids? Lots of parents do — or let the kids read it themselves. Here’s why.

028: Reading TRUE to Kids

Tweet

Jump to Transcript

How to Subscribe and List of All Episodes

Show Notes

* To help support Uncommon Sense, see the Patron’s Page, or the form in the sidebar.

* For those new to the concept (which probably means listeners who aren’t readers), the concept of Zero Tolerance is introduced here, and there is a ridiculously long section of ZT stories in this blog.

Transcript

Not having children myself, this is a topic I find fascinating, so I asked the experts: readers who do have children! The question: should you consider reading This is True to your kids? Lots of parents do — or let the kids read it themselves. Here’s why.

Welcome to Uncommon Sense. I’m Randy Cassingham

One of the topics I promised we’d cover in the podcast is reading This is True stories to kids, and we did that early on. But when I took the first season offline, this is one of the episodes readers said I needed to reissue, so here it is in a tighter exploration that more closely follows the new podcast format.

I believe This is True stories are really instructive for kids. I found out — just by talking about this in the newsletter — that there are a lot of readers who get This is True that either read the stories to their kids, or let their children read the issues themselves and ask questions, or even lead discussions. I asked for parents to send me stories about it, and got too many to feature, but here are a few. Let’s dive right in.

Elizabeth in Detroit writes, “I’ve been reading all of the Zero Tolerance stories to our 10-year-old for a couple of years. I want to highlight the fact that, too often, educators seem incapable of rational behavior and decisions. This unfortunate tendency is also illuminated by our recent readings of the Free Range Kids blog. It’s one of the reasons she attends a small, private, parent-cooperative, multi-age-classroom school where we say that we teach children how to think, not what to think. You might say that being anti-ZT is one of our family values. And sometimes the dumb criminal stories, if they’re age appropriate and if they end in death, sometimes if it’s not too graphic and is a good illustration of a Darwin Award-type example. You know, they’re funny enough that Scholastic publishes tamer ones for school kids. Naturally, I skip stories that detail more sordid circumstances. We’ve gradually been increasing our daughter’s exposure to and awareness of the world, but since we don’t watch network television, except for some sports,

One of the This is True mantras is ‘Think first, react later ...if at all.’ But what does that really mean, and how can we learn something from an example of doing it ‘wrong’? Show Page: https://thisistrue.com/podcast27

In This Episode: One of the This is True mantras is ‘Think first, react later …if at all.’ But what does that really mean, and how can we learn something from an example of doing it ‘wrong’?

027: Think… or React?

Tweet

Jump to Transcript

How to Subscribe and List of All Episodes

Show Notes

* To help support Uncommon Sense, see the Patron’s Page, or the form in the sidebar.

* A comment: the reason I was watching traffic so closely when I was walking downtown is because a couple of years ago, I would see multiple news articles about pedestrians in crosswalks being run down in Denver — and then the driver took off. Sometimes I’d see 2-3 in a week! I finally was able to talk to a Denver cop and ask why. His answer: because the penalty for felony hit-and-run were lighter than for drunk driving resulting in death, so they just took their chances. Yikes!

* This is one of several “Thinking Toolbox” items discussed in various episodes. Others include episode 34, I Have a Scenario For You; and episode 49, Mind Triggers.

Transcript

I just got back from a road trip, and seeing someone in a sort-of road rage incident made me roll my eyes — and consider how it could have been different had that driver taken just a few seconds to think, rather than react.

Welcome to Uncommon Sense. I’m Randy Cassingham

Spending several days in downtown Denver brought some good food, good friends, and bad drivers. Not all of them, of course. In fact, most were fine drivers — I was watching — but it’s the bad ones that stand out, right?

As I was waiting to cross a street, I saw the light for the traffic go yellow, and a driver decided to stop a little sharply. She might have made it into the intersection before it went red, but stopped instead.

But she wasn’t the bad driver: the guy behind her was. He not only thought the first car could have gotten through, he thought he could have blown through too! If he had, he definitely would have gone through a red light. But that isn’t where it ended. As he screeched to a halt pretty much right in front of me, I heard him yelling, “Oh come ON!” — he was mad at the first car for stopping; I could hear him clearly because his window was down. And then for good measure he flipped off the driver who stopped. And then the piece de resistance: a little more quietly, he said, “god damned women!” — and that told me a lot.

“You are the problem here,” I said to the guy, “not her.” I purposefully made eye contact and, once that was accomplished, I turned away as I got to the far side of the crosswalk. I couldn’t see him flip me off, but I did hear him curse me. I didn’t react at all, I just kept walking, and his light went green and he took off.

The other thing I noticed is that his car had sever...

It’s easier for young children to learn basic sign language than to speak, and what a head start they can get on learning! Proof of concept: a gorilla. Show Page: https://thisistrue.com/podcast26

In This Episode: It’s easier for young children to learn basic sign language than to speak, and what a head start they can get on learning! Proof of concept: a gorilla, which in part shows that thinking is not limited to humans.

026: What a Talking Ape Can Teach Humans

Tweet

Jump to Transcript

How to Subscribe and List of All Episodes

Show Notes

* To help support Uncommon Sense, see the Patron’s Page, or the form in the sidebar.

* An interesting article on the history and structure of American Sign Language.

* If you haven’t seen it already, check out the fascinating Honorary Unsubscribe for Koko the gorilla, which includes a video of Koko interacting with a special friend: Robin Williams.

* Using an online ASL video dictionary, you can see the signs for all and for ball — and note the facial aspect, especially during the former sign. And, you can see they don’t look at all alike.

Transcript

It’s easier for young children to learn basic sign language than to speak, and what a head start they can get on learning! Proof of concept: a gorilla, which in part shows that thinking is not limited to humans …especially when you compare such animals to some humans who don’t seem to think at all!

Welcome to Uncommon Sense, I’m Randy Cassingham.

This is a retake on a popular episode from season one, which was prompted by something in the news. And it happens to be something my wife and I coincidentally both have experience with. Plus, it’s a fantastic tool to help kids learn and communicate at a much earlier age than thought possible a generation or two ago. And that’s sign language, specifically in this case, American Sign Language, because yes, different countries have different sign languages.

And by the way, there are even different dialects of American Sign Language. You might think, well that sure makes sign language harder to learn. Maybe, but what I call “soda pop,” those in the south call “coke” — you know, like “orange coke” and “root beer coke.” British English is different too: their cars have boots where ours have trunks. French Canadian is a bit different than French in France. So different dialects are clearly a common factor in languages in general, not just sign language.

Most people seem to think that sign language is some sort of gestural system for deaf people. But it’s far more complex than that: it is a true language, with its own syntax and grammar that are very different from English, and it’s a very useful tool for hearing people too. That’s what we’ll be exploring a bit here.

In college, I majored in Journalism to learn to research and write quickly.

Some know their life's purpose and mission. Others don't know how to apply them to their lives. Here's how to get clarity on both, even if you're retired. Show Page: https://thisistrue.com/podcast25

In This Episode: Some know their life’s purpose and mission. Others don’t know how to apply them to their lives. Here’s how to get clarity on both, even if you’re retired.

025: Finding Your Purpose and Mission

Tweet

Jump to Transcript

How to Subscribe and List of All Episodes

Show Notes

* To help support Uncommon Sense, see the Patron’s Page, or the form in the sidebar.

* I mention my wife. Her web site is LiveInFocusedEnergy.com.

* Star Trek: The Next Generation Executive Producer Michael Piller, who was also EP (and co-creator) for Star Trek: Deep Space 9, died several years later — in 2005, at 57 — from head and neck cancer.

* And the photo I mentioned at the end, capturing what I saw just as I was finishing up this episode. The peak on the right is Mt. Sneffels (14,150 ft / 4,312 m), named after the volcano Snæfell in Iceland:

Transcript

Do you know your Purpose in life? A clear understanding of the core of who you are, your essence as a human being? Or a Mission that will guide what you do in each phase of your life that serves your Purpose? Most of us had some sort of dream as a child, but most of us end up doing what’s expedient to make a living. No matter how old you are, you can still align to your Purpose, and this episode explores one way to make your path crystal clear.

Welcome to Uncommon Sense. I’m Randy Cassingham.

A few lucky people seem to be born with a clear and compelling Purpose in their lives, and work their Mission to fulfill that Purpose every day. Yet most of us flounder most of the time. And if we do figure out our Purpose, it often feels like it’s “too late”: we’re already busy with a job, a partner, a family — you know, a life!

It might seem like your Purpose in life is to work long hours, not get paid enough, come home and try to catch up with cooking, cleaning, and laundry, fall into bed exhausted, and then catch up with email on your phone when you wake up in the middle of the night. And start over again the next day. Weekends? That’s when you catch up with the cooking, cleaning, and laundry you didn’t get done during the week.

Doesn’t that seem to describe most people? Almost everyone struggles with this! But a few don’t. So how do they do it? The ones who seem to have it all together, with a clear path in life. We all know, or at least know of, people like that. Are they gifted in a way we are not?

I don’t think so. I really do believe it’s a matter of (yeah) Uncommon Sense.

Some treat the words Purpose and Mission as the same thing. I don’t, so let’s define our terms. To me, “Purpose” is the core of who we are, your fundamental identity that drives what you do.

Thinking about thinking that might occur in machines — for the betterment of humanity. Show Page: https://thisistrue.com/podcast24

In This Episode: Thinking about thinking that might occur in machines — for the betterment of humanity.

024: Extending Thinking Beyond Humans

Tweet

Jump to Transcript

How to Subscribe and List of All Episodes

Show Notes

* To help support Uncommon Sense, see the Patron’s Page, or the form in the sidebar.

* Notice that the sources which follow are both recent, and in multiple countries.

* Shortages in the Healthcare Profession: “New Research Shows Increasing Physician Shortages in Both Primary and Specialty Care” (Association of American Medical Colleges, April 2018) and “Global Health Workforce Shortage to Reach 12.9 Million in Coming Decades” (WHO, November 2013)

* Oregon Tetanus Case: “Notes from the Field: Tetanus in an Unvaccinated Child — Oregon, 2017” (Centers for Disease Control, March 2019)

* AI in Lung Disease: “AI Improves Doctors’ Ability to Correctly Interpret Tests and Diagnose Lung Disease” (Medical Xpress, September 2018)

* AI in Brain Tumors: “China Focus: AI Beats Human Doctors in Neuroimaging Recognition Contest” (Xinhua, June 2018)

* Diagnosing by Voice: “Looking to Technology to Avoid Doctors’ Offices and Emergency Rooms” (New York Times, February 2019)

* EMPaSchiz: “Towards Artificial Intelligence in Mental Health by Improving Schizophrenia Prediction with Multiple Brain Parcellation Ensemble-learning” (Nature, January 2019)

* New AI Research Centers in the U.K.: “How Artificial Intelligence Is Revolutionising Medical Diagnostics” (The Engineer, February 2019)

* I thought there should also be a source for “there are six different outbreaks of measles” currently in the U.S., and found out I was wrong! There are now eleven — in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington. (CDC, February 28, 2019 [which page is subject to periodic updates].)

* No episode next week: I’ll be on travel.

Transcript

Driving home from the theater with friends Friday night, my wife started a conversation about how difficult it is for modern medicine to diagnose thyroid problems. Both she and her friend in the back seat have that to differing degrees, and neither one of them has received a real diagnosis. And then I,