Gakkomom Podcast

During the chaos that the coronavirus pandemic has caused, take this time to reinvent yourself. Listen to my 10-minute podcast as I discuss where this really started and how we can use these lessons to rethink how we do things in the future.

There seems to be a generational gap between boomers and Gen X-Y-Z youth about, well, everything. Instead of sticking our heads in the sand and assuming we're right, listening to what they have to say may help us reinvent ourselves and society as we begin to build the new normal in the wake of the coronavirus. I've interviewed Michael Beck, a recent graduate with a MS in robotics from Carnegie Mellon, about why Gen X-Y-Zers feel disenfranchised, and solutions he sees that I believe boomers will find intriguing. You can listen to this 20-minute podcast here, or find GakkoMom on iTunes, and subscribe to my podcast. Beck's podcast is also embedded here: 

In today's podcast, TEDx speaker Sethumadhav Perumalla talks about his new book "Trumpists: The Art of the Tweet".  It's a great interview that covers a lot ground, including how Generation Z responds to misinformation, and how this affects our democracy and our future.

In today's podcast, I speak with Eagle Scout Eric Wei about how he chose his major in Urban Forestry, and his career interest in Wildland Fire Fighting.

In today's podcast, I talk about how I'm changing my gift-giving habits this year so I can stand behind what I believe and promote a healthy future!  To that end, I'm giving water filters this year!  There are a lot of reasons for this (which are covered in the podcast), but I feel good that my loved ones will be receiving gifts that will help keep them healthy when I'm not around.  I picked water filters because the majority of drinkable water in the United States barely qualifies as "drinkable", because our water sources are poisoned by industrial chemicals, byproducts from fracking, pesticide run-off, and more.  Take a look:

In today's podcast, I speak with Leslie O'Malley, the Waste Reduction Manager for Santa Cruz Public Works.  Figuring out what to do with all the plastic we generate is a big problem, and Leslie is an expert on types of plastics, where we can (and can't) send it, and even simple things like when is plastic considered trash, and what can we do to make sure plastic is actually considered plastic for recycling instead of going into a landfill.  It was a fascinating discussion that everyone should hear!  

In this podcast, I talk about free child care, how to get it, why you'd want it, and my book "The Millennial's Guide to Free Child Care in Your Home".

In this episode, we reflect on the recently concluded TEDxMeritAcademy.

In this short podcast, I explain what a micro community is and what you need to do to set one up.

In this podcast, I interview Chief Steven Hall of Central Fire.  We discuss a wide range of topics, including things we can do to ensure the safety of our homes, and the importance of working with neighbors via the micro-community method to make the entire neighborhood as fire-safe as possible.  We also talk about the recent problems people have been having with fire insurance.  This is a must-listen episode! 

350,000 California homeowners have received cancellation or non-renewal notices based on their high-risk zip codes this year. The insurance companies are in flux themselves as they grapple with which zip codes to cover and which ones to cancel. They’re in the business of making money so offering fire insurance where wildfires have consumed the state is not smart business for them. Over the years, when insurance companies failed, homeowners were rescued by the state at the taxpayers’ expense. When you’ve paid for years (decades) of fire insurance and never had a claim, it seems unethical that the insurance companies can cancel your policies when you need them the most. In this podcast, I talk about the fire insurance problem, and what you can do to KEEP your existing coverage

As California’s Mother of the Year, I’d like to make sure that we’re prepared to protect our homes, families, and pets as we enter FIRE SEASON. Everyone knows that it’s a matter of “WHEN” not “IF” there will be another catastrophic wildfire like had last year when both northern (Paradise Camp Fire) and southern (Woolsey Fire) destroyed almost 20,000 structures, burned almost 250,000 acres, and killed 88 people. So let’s work together to prevent a fire from taking out your homes and neighborhoods.

In this episode, Susan covers several topics, including: College options after May 1st What matters most to students when choosing colleges Human trafficking A story about a student who sued his college for expelling him for cheating The new SAT adversity score and what it means for students