Podcasts about robert putnam

I was lucky enough to be asked to co-mc an event recently with my friend Roz.  It was a United Way Perth-Huron workshop called Belonging Matters and it put a frame around some things I think I knew sub-consciously but hadn't quite defined in my mind, mostly that belonging does indeed matter.Much of it was based on a book called “Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam  about the collapse and revival of community and a movie based on the book called “Join or Die.”I'm joined in this episode by my friend Michelle Millar of the United Way to talk about the workshop and what's next.

What happens to innovation, team dynamics, and trust in organizations when a significant portion of employees are emotionally fragile, risk-averse, and struggle with interpersonal interactions? In this episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, I dive into the profound impact of generational shifts on workplace culture, leadership, and customer experience. Drawing insight from the best-selling book, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, my guest Charlie Green and I explore how Gen Z—shaped by overprotective parenting, the rise of social media, and the isolating effects of Covid—are changing the future of professional services firms and beyond. The implications are not just for the workplace, but for entire industries that rely on innovation, adaptability, and trustworthiness from their teams. You need to listen to this episode because Charlie Green is not just an expert on trust—he literally wrote the book on it! As the co-author of The Trusted Advisor and founder of Trusted Advisor Associates, Charlie brings unparalleled authority and hands-on experience to the discussion. If you're responsible for hiring, leading, or influencing teams in any organization, Charlie offers the data, the anecdotes, and the actionable advice you need to spot warning signs and respond effectively. Here are three questions Charlie answers during our conversation: What are the biggest risks facing organizations as Gen Z moves into leadership roles? How can managers recognize and respond to "emotional fragility" and risk-aversion in their teams? What practical strategies can leaders use to build trust, resilience, and effective collaboration in a hybrid, post-pandemic world? Don't miss this timely episode! Listen and subscribe to the Delighted Customers podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify—plus, it's available on all your favorite podcast platforms. Meet Charlie Green Charlie Green is the co-author of The Trusted Advisor and author of Trust-Based Selling. As founder of Trusted Advisor Associates, Charlie has trained, coached, and consulted with thousands of professionals in global firms like Accenture, McKinsey, and the Big Four. His expertise centers on the mechanics of trust, trustworthiness, and how deep human connection drives the best business outcomes. With decades of experience and a powerful network, Charlie is a sought-after advisor, webinar host, and keynote speaker, especially on topics of leadership and organizational culture. Charlie holds credentials in consulting and business development, and he's committed to helping leaders at every level create more resilient, responsive, and trustworthy organizations. Connect with Charlie on LinkedIn here. Show Notes & References The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt (NYT Best Seller) Trusted Advisor Associates: https://trustedadvisor.com Charlie Green's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliegreen/ Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (book reference) Contact Charlie Green: cgreen@trustedadvisor.com Subscribe, listen, and let me know what resonates!

UMass President Marty Meehan joins us in studio to talk about school tuition, federal research cuts and their impact on scientific advancement.Former Assistant Secretary of Transportation, Chris Dempsey, and former Rep. Bill Straus join for a transit panel. Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, discusses growing social isolation and what to do about it.Paul Dama and Cecilia Lizotte of the Roxbury restaurant Suya Joint recap Dama's months-long ICE detention and his eventually successful asylum claim.

I USA har drapet på ukrainske Iryna (22) på et lokaltog i Charlotte, Nord-Carolina, gjort voldsomt inntrykk. Ikke bare selve drapet, men omgivelsenes manglende reaksjon, medpassasjerenes likegyldighet, er hva som skremmer. Hva slags samfunn er dette som står og ser på et annet menneske forblø uten å løfte en finger?Det er mange år siden sosiologen Robert Putnam beskrev virkningene av mangfold på tette lokalsamfunn. Den sosiale tillit forsvant folk trakk hodet mellom skuldrene – de hunkered down. Dette er ca tredve år gammel kunnskap og den har lenge vært relevant for norsk virkelighet, men ingen husker Putnam. Nå som vi trenger ham.Kriminalitetsutviklingen i Norge truer mediene og politikernes virkelighetsbilde. Det lar seg ikke forene med drapsforbund og granater på åpen gate.Disse hendelsene har noe til felles med dronene over Danmark: Ingen vet hvor de kommer fra og hva hensikten er. Derfor tør ingen ansvarlig myndighet gi ordre om å skyte dem ned. Denne usikkerheten gnager på tilliten til politikerne til den er vekk.

In this episode of F-Stop Collaborate and Listen, host Matt Payne talks with Lucia Rollow, founder of the Bushwick Community Darkroom in Brooklyn, New York. Lucia shares how her personal need for a darkroom evolved into a thriving communal space that fosters creativity, collaboration, and real-world connection in an increasingly digital world. The conversation explores the therapeutic and social aspects of analog photography, how community spaces like hers combat loneliness and bring people together, and the ups and downs of running such a unique business for nearly 15 years. Lucia also delves into the challenges of sustaining a creative community, the importance of shared passion, and offers advice for anyone wanting to build similar spaces or incorporate analog processes into their photography. Throughout, she highlights the value of hands-on, in-person interactions for creative growth and meaningful human connection. Links and Resources: 1. Bushwick Community Darkroom 2. Lucia Rollow's FLM Tripods (use the code HOUSEOFPAYNE for 10% off) 4. Penumbra Foundation (Antique/Alternative Process Workshops) 5. Midwest Center for Photography (Open Calls) 6. Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam—on the importance of social Capital and community in modern life (Affiliate Link) 7. Print LHC, a high-end digital printing lab in Brooklyn led by Lacey Wethersbee 8. Film Camera Recommendation: Pentax K1000 (perfect for beginners and landscape / analog enthusiasts) 9. OK McCausland

Alejandro Salazar es consultor de estrategia empresarial, autor de La estrategia emergente y del recién publicado Colombia Ganadora. 15% de descuento en COLOMBIA GANADORA con el código ATEMPORAL https://buy.stripe.com/4gMdR90YGdt84gUa4Lgfu05CODIGO de DESCUENTO ATEMPORAL para el Latam Fintech Market: https://www.latamfintech.market/Libros mencionados:Delirio Americano - Carlos Granés (https://amzn.to/3UReJPP) Una economista adelantada a su época - Maria Mercedes Cuellar Entrevista al presidente Cesar Gaviria (https://youtu.be/r2qpd0TXIa8)Podcast Alejandro Gaviria https://open.spotify.com/episode/1l53MRv8r0Ger06LqzsJhZ?si=5a9f5fc75f7749c6Bowling alone - Robert Putnam (https://amzn.to/4g2NwDr)Decidí contarlo - Guillermo Perry Capítulos: 00:00 intro 01:22 Los cambios de ciclo institucional y tecnológico19:10 La crisis del cambio de era24:42 El problema demográfico de China31:35 “Colombia va a ser el país norteamericano más al sur”39:48 La estrategia emergente para Colombia: la identidad50:27 ¿Por qué hay que estar integrado al mundo?52:57 ¿Dónde jugar y cómo ganar?55:11 El narcotr4fico y la violencia en el futuro del país01:02:52 “Colombia es una tierra de supermercados y tiendas”01:07:45 La ventaja competitiva y selectiva01:11:58 Programación, inglés, autopistas01:19:06 ¿En qué deberíamos prepararnos?01:26:36 Le buscamos problemas a las soluciones01:28:59 Corregir el mal de la identidad01:31:38 El ciudadano crucial01:41:52 ¿Cómo vamos a construir un país en el que nos queramos quedar?01:48:05 Para hacer diferente hay que organizarse diferente01:56:01 Estamos muy cerca del punto de no retorno02:00:35 Las grandes fuerzas históricas02:04:01 Los tipos de capital02:10:10 Medir el desempeño del presidente02:14:40 Sobrevalorados e infravalorados02:23:02 El libro Colombia Ganadora

In this GPS special, Fareed examines the growing disconnectedness in our increasingly digital world in interviews with experts Jonathan Haidt, Jean Twenge, Robert Putnam and Alice Evans. Together, they explain how we got here, and how we can reconnect.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

# Our Mission: Making Friends In this first week of our new series on "Our Mission," we explore the profound theme of friendship within the church community. Drawing from biblical narratives, we discuss how the church can address the pervasive loneliness in our world today by fostering genuine friendships. ## Key Biblical Passages - **Job 1:1** - The story of Job, a man of integrity who faced immense suffering. - **Mark 2:1-12** - The account of the paralytic man and his friends who brought him to Jesus. ## The Mission of the Church The mission of the church is to free people from their "grave clothes," symbolizing the vestments of a life bound by sin, and to help them live the victorious life offered by Jesus. This mission is encapsulated in our church's approach: **making friends, meeting needs, and making disciples**. ### Making Friends The concept of a "God-shaped hole" in every human heart is well-known, but Pastor Chris introduces another critical void: the "human-shaped hole." God designed us to be enriched and fulfilled through human relationships, as evidenced in the creation narrative where God declared it "not good for man to be alone" (**Genesis 2:18**). ### The Epidemic of Loneliness Despite being the most connected generation, society suffers from an epidemic of loneliness. Statistics reveal that 30% of people experience extreme loneliness, with young adults aged 18-24 being the loneliest group. This loneliness leads to various societal issues, including lower educational performance and higher crime rates, as noted by Robert Putnam in his book, *Bowling Alone*. ### Friendship in Community Friendship takes on different forms throughout our lives, but true friendship is marked by the ability to call on someone in times of need. The church is called to fill the "human-shaped hole" by being a community where anyone can find friendship and support. ## Lessons from Biblical Friendships ### Job's Friends Initially, Job's friends demonstrated true friendship by simply being present with him in his suffering (**Job 2:11-13**). However, they later failed by offering judgmental sermons instead of compassionate support, focusing on the reasons for Job's suffering rather than seeking resolution. ### The Paralytic's Friends In contrast, the paralytic's friends in **Mark 2:1-12** exemplified true friendship by prioritizing resolution over reasons. They went to great lengths to bring their friend to Jesus, demonstrating faith and compassion without seeking recognition for themselves. ## Maxims of Friendship 1. **Resolution Over Reasons**: Focus on helping rather than analyzing the cause of someone's predicament. 2. **Service Over Sermons**: Offer practical support and understanding rather than judgment. 3. **Compassion Over Comparison**: Show genuine empathy without comparing oneself to others. ## Conclusion The church is entrusted with the mission of making friends to combat loneliness and establish credibility for the gospel message. By embodying these principles, we can point others to Jesus, who fills the deepest needs of the heart. As a church, let us commit to being a community where friendship and support are readily available, fulfilling our mission to make disciples through love and service.

In this episode, we speak with RW Robert Seibold of the Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction about their in-depth research into the Masonic membership challenge. We'll discuss how their findings, influenced by works like Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" and "Join or Die," are providing crucial insights. Bro. Seibold also sheds light on his work with the Grand Lodge of New York's Strategic Planning committee, which is formulating a comprehensive recommendation to the Grand Master on how to navigate this critical issue.Show notes: Join us on Patreon. Start your FREE seven day trial to the Craftsmen Online Podcast and get instant access to our bonus content! Whether it's a one time donation or you become a Patreon Subscriber, we appreciate your support.Visit the Craftsmen Online website to learn more about our next Reading Room event, New York Masonic History and our Masonic Education blog!Follow the Craftsmen Online Podcast on Spotify.Subscribe to the Craftsmen Online Podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow Craftsmen Online on YouTube, hit subscribe and get notified the next time we go LIVE with a podcast recording!Yes, we're on Tik Tok and Instagram.Get our latest announcements and important updates in your inbox with the Craftsmen Online Newsletter.Email the host, RW Michael Arce! Yes, we will read your email and may even reach out to be a guest on a future episode.Sponsor offer: Don't forget to use the promo code CRAFTSMEN to receive free shipping with your first order from Bricks Masons!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/craftsmen-online-podcast--4822031/support.

In the early 2000's, Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone sparked a conversation about the growing sense of loneliness and isolation in America. We feel the longing for deeper relationships, for community, for friendship. This week, the writers of the book of Proverbs will show us where this longing comes from and why it's good. The wisdom of the sages won't surprise us: the good news is that not only is friendship possible, but in Christ, it's already ours.

THIS EPISODE BROUGHT TO YOU BY: You'll notice that there's no sponsor in this episode.  We'd love it if you'd consider supporting on Patreon.   PATREON - patreon.com/nodumbquestions  NDQ EMAIL LIST - https://www.nodumbquestions.fm/email-list  STUFF IN THIS EPISODE: Sony Mavica Frontline - The Merchants of Cool Robert D. Putnam - Bowling Alone Viacom Mastering Rembrandt Lighting CONNECT WITH NO DUMB QUESTIONS: Support No Dumb Questions on Patreon if that sounds good to you Discuss this episode here NDQ Subreddit Our podcast YouTube channel Our website is nodumbquestions.fm No Dumb Questions Twitter Matt's Twitter Destin's Twitter SUBSCRIBE LINKS: Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe on Android OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS ARE ALSO FUN: Matt's YouTube Channel (The Ten Minute Bible Hour) Destin's YouTube Channel (Smarter Every Day)

What does it really mean to flourish — not just as individuals, but as communities, cultures and societies? In this episode of Today's Conversation, Byron Johnson, distinguished professor of social sciences at Baylor University and co–director of the Global Flourishing Study, expands our vision of human flourishing to a global scale.Byron Johnson joins NAE President Walter Kim to unpack surprising and hopeful findings emergingfrom the Global Flourishing Study, a groundbreaking international research project he leads in collaboration with Harvard University and others. Together, they explore how flourishing is being measured across the world and why it matters now more than ever — for people of faith, for the Church and for the future of society. In their conversation, they explore: What makes the Global Flourishing Study a truly unprecedented effort;  Why flourishing is about more than just health and wealth — it's also about purpose, relationships and faith; How the Church plays a vital role in shaping holistic well-being; and How the Bible offers a compelling vision of what it means to thrive. ResourcesFull conversation with Byron Johnson on YouTube  For further study, see Ezekiel 47, John 7 and Revelation 22 Global Flourishing Study “More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters and How it Could Matter More,” by Byron Johnson “The Faith Factor and Social Welfare: Evidence, Practice, Policy,” by Byron Johnson (coming in December 2025) Moving Society From “Me” to “We,” NAE podcast with Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett  “Faith That Flourishes,” by Walter Kim in Evangelicals magazine 

In this insightful and often humorous episode, host Corey Nathan welcomes political satirist, author, and podcast host Andrew Heaton for a wide-ranging conversation about his latest book, Tribalism Is Dumb. Heaton, known for his podcast The Political Orphanage, brings his signature blend of wit, intellect, and candor to explore why politics has become so viciously tribal—and how we can fix it. Drawing from personal stories, deep research, and evolutionary psychology, Heaton discusses the roots of human division, the impact of media and technology, and the path to a more thoughtful public discourse. What We Discuss: Why tribalism is hardwired into human nature—and how it gets misapplied in modern politics How Heaton's upbringing influenced his commitment to civility and intellectual rigor The role of media, social media, and political leadership in fostering division Practical tools for having productive, respectful political conversations What we can do—personally and societally—to resist toxic partisanship Episode Highlights: [00:01:00] Intro to Andrew Heaton and his new book [00:02:30] The story behind the dedication to Heaton's father [00:06:45] Heaton's early political influences [00:10:15] How Heaton preps for his many podcasts [00:21:00] The evolutionary roots of tribalism [00:34:00] Protestant vs. Catholic soccer rivalry in Scotland [00:36:30] What changed in the last few decades [00:55:00] Tools for better political conversations Featured Quotes: "There are lots of people that we share this country with that are good and intelligent people. The fact that we disagree with them is not a negation of their humanity." – Andrew Heaton "The need for an enemy precipitates the existence of the enemy." – Andrew Heaton "Tribalism is not just about community. It's about the reflexive urge to find a ‘them' to define the ‘us.'" – Andrew Heaton "I just try to remember: we're not arguing about whether you're a good person. I already believe you are." – Andrew Heaton Resources Mentioned: The Political Orphanage podcast: https://mightyheaton.com/the-political-orphanage Tribalism Is Dumb by Andrew Heaton: https://mightyheaton.com/books Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bowling-Alone/Robert-D-Putnam/9780743203043 How to Have Impossible Conversations by Peter Boghossian: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/peter-boghossian/how-to-have-impossible-conversations/9780738285344/

ficar de bode, enjoar, pegar antipatia, ou birra, peguei ar. tem certas pessoas que despertam aversão de cara, ou um tipo de raiva, desprezo e até repulsa. às vezes você sabe muito bem por quais razões isso acontece, mas em alguns casos você não faz a menor ideia. e no meio dessa ciranda de afetos, uma certeza parece inabalável e irreversível: você pegou ranço. a palavra "ranço" vem do latim “rancidus”, que significa "gordura ou manteiga estragada" — ou seja, é aquela coisa que passou do ponto, oxidou, e começou a exalar um cheiro forte e desagradável. ranço definitivamente não é indiferença, e persiste com o tempo.enquanto a rixa até parece que tem explicação, o bode pode vir de uma pessoa que basicamente não te fez nada, ou que você nem conhece direito — ela só é quem ela é. o jeito irrita, a presença incomoda, dá até preguiça de conviver ou chegar perto pra conhecer.é basicamente uma sensação de querer eliminar pessoas do nosso círculo social ou mesmo do nosso campo de visão. será que a gente anda tendo menos tolerância para lidar com os outros? e o que podemos fazer com essas rixas e ranços que nos atravessam?para expandir a nossa escuta sobre esse tema, convidamos a escritora, podcaster e fundadora da plataforma Obvious, Marcela Ceribelli.para mais VIBES, acesse os perfis da float:  InstagramTikTokassine nossa newsletter no ⁠Substack⁠.faça parte do nosso grupo no ⁠Telegram⁠.e se vc quiser ajudar a manter esse podcast no ar, eliminar os breaks comerciais e ainda receber conteúdos exclusivos, pode nos apoiar através do ⁠apoia.se⁠.pesquisa, roteiro e apresentação: André Alves e Lucas Liedkeprodução: Fernanda Ogasawaraedição e montagem: Jessica Correaarte: Gustavo Jácomerefs.Introdução à obra de Melanie Klein — Hannah SegalBom dia, obvious — Intimidade Sintética (com André Alves)Why you're lonely — Robert Putnam (entrevista New York Times) 

Today, we're so excited to share something brand new with you—the very first episode of a new podcast we're launching here at Faith Matters. It's called Article 13.This new narrative podcast brings together cutting-edge research and spiritual wisdom to explore creative paths toward a more connected and compassionate world. As our society grows increasingly divided along political and cultural lines, Article 13—hosted by Zachary Davis—offers a hopeful and constructive alternative. Through deep dives into vital social issues, extraordinary guests, and beautiful sound design, the show models the kind of thoughtful, intelligent discourse our country needs—and offers practical ways each of us can make a difference, starting right where we are.Today, we're honored to share Episode 1 of Article 13 with you—it's titled What We Owe Each Other.In this episode, Zach is joined by voices like Cornel West, Shaylyn Romney Garrett, and Robert Putnam to explore what rebuilding trust really looks like—and why it matters now. They propose that real renewal begins from the inside out, as we recommit to the people we serve in the institutions we're already part of—our families, schools, churches, and communities. When we view these roles as shared responsibilities, not personal platforms, we can begin to restore the trust and connection that hold us together.It's a thoughtful, timely conversation—and we're so excited to share it with you. You can find Article 13 wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listen to part one of this conversation here! Featuring Jenna, David Robison of Social Lights and Rebecca Leland, this edition of Self Evident concludes our conversation regarding the science and studies of community benefits. This segment goes into Robert Putnam’s research on social capital and what broke the American community apart in the ’60s, and pushing out of your comfort zone to find true, in person community. Resources Podcast Article: A Three Stranded Cord | Social Lights Article: The Friendship Fix | bekindpeopleproject.org… Continue Reading

Join a club and save democracy. 30 years ago, political scientist Robert Putnam published research explaining that people were becoming increasingly disconnected from each other and disengaged with their communities because they stopped joining clubs, going to church or participating in school groups. Pete Davis was one of Putnam's students. His sister Rebecca was a producer at NBC news. Together they tracked Putnam down and put together a documentary about the decline in community and connection called Join or Die.

In this episode of #DefenceDeconstructed, David Perry sit down with the Founder, Chair and CEO of Abacus Data, David Coletto. The pair discuss key features of the Canadian elections campaign, the impact of the international issues and Donald Trump on the campaign, and a recent Abacus survey focused on international issues. // Guest bios: David Coletto is the Founder, Chair and CEO of Abacus Data. He is one of Canada's best known and most respected public opinion analysts, pollsters, and social researchers. He's a member of the Board of Directors of the Ottawa Board of Trade and Ottawa Riverkeeper and on the policy committee of Imagine Canada. // Host bio: David Perry is President and CEO of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute // Recommended Readings: - "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" by Robert Putnam. // Defence Deconstructed was brought to you by Irving Shipbuilding. // Music Credit: Drew Phillips | Producer: Jordyn Carroll Release date: 11 April 2025

In 2000, the social scientist Robert Putnam wrote the book “Bowling Alone.” It was a warning about the collapse of the American community. Why? Declining participation in neighborhood networks and civic clubs.

In this episode of the Tyler's PlacePodcast, Maynard Edwards, 33°, sits down with the sibling filmmaker duo Pete and Rebecca Davis — co-directors of the powerful new Netflix documentary Join or Die. This thought-provoking film explores the urgent need for Americans to re-engage with civic and fraternal organizations, like Freemasonry, to rebuild the social fabric of our communities.Inspired by the groundbreaking work of Harvard professor Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone), Join or Die makes the compelling case that the health of our democracy depends on participation in clubs, lodges, congregations, and community groups. Learn why fraternal organizations matter more than ever — and how they can spark a grassroots revival of connection, purpose, and civic responsibility.

This year's keynote speaker is world-renowned political scientist Robert D. Putnam, author of the groundbreaking work Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, which has shaped global conversations on the importance of communal ties and social capital.Robert Putnam will be speaking to us about the vital role of social connections in combating the deepening crises of social isolation, political polarization, and economic inequality, drawing on insights from his latest work The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again.Divisions can be healed, he argues. Our fraying social fabric rewoven. By focusing on rebuilding society's relational foundations, we can create a future where everyone has the connections they need to thrive.Following his keynote address, Professor Putnam will be joined in conversation by RSA CEO Andy Haldane, and partners from the first-of-its-kind Revealing Social Capital research programme, which is exploring how connectedness impacts life outcomes and opportunities across the UK, from social mobility to health and education.Chair:Andy Haldane, RSA CEOSpeakers:Sir Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs, MetaRobert D. Putnam, Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy, Harvard UniversityMarnie Freeman, co-founder and director, Neighbourly LabSarah Hemminger, co-founder and CEO, ThreadBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/ueembFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thersaorg/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theRSAorgDonate to the RSA: https://thersa.co/3XPiI1kLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theRSAorg/Listen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYUJoin our Fellowship: https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/join

Hvorfor trenger vi å leke? De siste årene har dette spørsmålet blitt stadig mer diskutert, og mange av oss har kanskje innsett at vi i lengre tid har undervurdert lekens viktighet. I 2022 utga lege Charlotte Lunde og professor i nevrobiologi Per Brodal boken Lek og læring i et nevroperspektiv. Hvordan gode intensjoner kan ødelegge barns lærelyst. I den argumenterer de for at leken er enormt viktig for barns utvikling og trivsel, og om de skadervirkninger som følger av at vi har et samfunn hvor barn har stadig mindre frihet og anledning til å leke. Vi har tidligere snakket med Per Brodal her på podkasten (ep.102), og i denne episoden er det Charlotte Lunde som forteller oss om lekens status i skolen og i barns liv generelt, og hva som har skjedd i de tre årene siden de publiserte boken sin.  Vi snakker om ulike typer lek, lek blant dyr, lekens rolle i å trene opp sosiale ferdigheter, lekeslossing, aldersblanding, frilek i skolen, samfunnets økende krav til selvregulering samtidig som vi får mindre anledning til å oppøve disse ferdighetene, følelsen av kontroll i eget liv, foreldrestil, hva det er som har endret seg i kulturen, Gro Dahles barnebok Ikke, flere diagnoser, seksårsreformen, naturens rolle i lek, hvordan tid i naturen påvirker konsentrasjonsevnen, problemet med begreper som lekbasert læring, hvorfor foreldre ikke alltid trenger å leke med barna sine, foreldre bør gjøre det de har lyst til iblant, den frie barndommen, overbeskyttelse i den virkelige verden og underbeskyttelse i den digitale verden.  Charlottes anbefalinger:  Gro Dahle, Ikke, 2022 Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind, 2019 Barbara Natterson-Horowitz og Kathryn Bowers, Wildhood: The Astounding Connections between Human and Animal Adolescents, 2019 Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens, 2018   Andre bøker og artikler nevnt i episoden:  Charlotte Lunde og Per Brodal, Lek og læring i et nevroperspektiv. Hvordan gode intensjoner kan ødelegge barns lærelyst, 2022 Robert Putnam, Our Kids, 2015 Birger Emanuelsen, Før de forsvinner, 2024 Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The end of children, The New Yorker, februar 2025, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/03/the-population-implosion  David Lancy, The antropology of childhood: Cherubs, Chattel and Changelings, 2022 (3.utgave) Hannah Rosin, The Overprotected Kid, The Atlantic, April 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/  Tom Hodginson, The Idle Parent, 2010 Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, 2024 Uten synlige tegn, tv-serie på TV2, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35391670/    ---------------------------- Logoen vår er laget av Sveinung Sudbø, se hans arbeider på originalkopi.com Musikken er av Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, se facebooksiden Nygrenda Vev og Dur for mer info. ----------------------------  Takk for at du hører på. Ta kontakt med oss på larsogpaal@gmail.com Det finnes ingen bedre måte å få spredt podkasten vår til flere enn via dere lyttere, så takk om du deler eller forteller andre om oss.  Både Lars og Pål skriver nå på hver sin blogg, med litt varierende regelmessighet. Du finner dem på disse nettsidene: https://paljabekk.com/ https://larssandaker.blogspot.com/ Alt godt, hilsen Lars og Pål

A conversation at the New York Encounter 2025 on loneliness and malaise in today's society with Robert Putnam, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University, and Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, moderated by Brandon Vaidyanathan, Professor of Sociology, The Catholic University of AmericaThere is no doubt that loneliness and a widespread malaise characterize the lives of young and not-so-young generations. The speakers have dedicated their professional careers to studying societal changes and will look at the root causes of this unease. They will also discuss the impact of social media on human identity and relationships and reflect on ways to address them.Support the show

A conversation at the New York Encounter 2025 on loneliness and malaise in today's society with Robert Putnam, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University, and Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, moderated by Brandon Vaidyanathan, Professor of Sociology, The Catholic University of AmericaThere is no doubt that loneliness and a widespread malaise characterize the lives of young and not-so-young generations. The speakers have dedicated their professional careers to studying societal changes and will look at the root causes of this unease. They will also discuss the impact of social media on human identity and relationships and reflect on ways to address them.Support the show

Political scientist Robert Putnam told Judy Woodruff that strengthening the country’s democracy would begin with grassroots efforts by people stepping up in their own communities. Those efforts will be her focus this year and she begins by visiting a down, but not out, community in California that’s fighting for a comeback, one round at a time. It’s part of her series, America at a Crossroads. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Join the #McConnellCenter as we welcome KY Secretary of State Michael Adams to convince us to read Robert Putnam's book Bowling Alone! Michael G. Adams is Kentucky's 86th Secretary of State. Michael graduated from McCracken County public schools, was the first in his family to get a bachelor's degree, and attended Harvard Law School on low-income aid. Michael worked for Senator Mitch McConnell and Governor Ernie Fletcher before moving to Washington to serve as Counsel to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General in the second Bush Administration. We all know we need to read more and there are literally millions of books on shelves with new ones printed every day. How do we sort through all the possibilities to find the book that is just right for us now? Well, the McConnell Center is bringing authors and experts to inspire us to read impactful and entertaining books that might be on our shelves or in our e-readers, but which we haven't yet picked up. We hope you learn a lot in the following podcast and we hope you might be inspired to pick up one or more of the books we are highlighting this year at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center. Stay Connected Visit us at McConnellcenter.org Subscribe to our newsletter  Facebook: @mcconnellcenter Instagram: @ulmcenter  Twitter: @ULmCenter This podcast is a production of the McConnell Center

When Josh Fryday's wife was evacuated from Japan after the 2011 Japan disaster, he stayed behind. As a Navy officer, he joined Operation Tomodachi, one of the largest humanitarian relief efforts in history. Working alongside people who thought differently, he learned that service brings people together around a common mission to accomplish amazing things.Now, as California's first-ever Secretary of Service, Josh is helping build the largest state-run service corps in the U.S. Through programs like College Corps and the Climate Corps, thousands of Californians are getting paid opportunities to serve their communities while gaining the critical skills and social networks they need to thrive in the workforce.In this episode, Dart and Josh discuss:- Service as the ultimate training ground for work- How College Corps is reshaping the leap from school to career- How social capital shapes careers- The soft skills crisis- The human edge AI will never replace- Fighting isolation block by block- What businesses can learn from teams with a mission- Why other states are copying California's service model- And other topics...Josh Fryday is California's Secretary of Service, leading the nation's most ambitious state service initiative under Governor Gavin Newsom. He created the College Corps and Climate Action Corps, paying thousands of young people to serve their communities while gaining critical career skills. A Navy veteran and former Mayor of Novato, Josh also led efforts to expand the California Earned Income Tax Credit, helping low-income families across the state. His work bridges service, workforce development, and civic engagement.Resources Mentioned:California Volunteers: https://californiavolunteers.ca.gov/College Corps: https://www.californiavolunteers.ca.gov/californiansforall-college-corps/Neighbor-to-Neighbor Initiative: https://www.californiavolunteers.ca.gov/neighbor-to-neighbor/Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam: https://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046Hardball: How Politics Is Played, by Chris Matthews: https://www.amazon.com/Hardball-Politics-Played-Chris-Matthews/dp/0684845598Eyes on the Prize documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092999/Connect with Josh:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-fryday-b9625219/Twitter: https://x.com/JoshFrydayWork with Dart:Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what's most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.

In this episode, host Corey Nathan takes on one of the biggest challenges in today's society: toxic partisanship. He explores how political and social divisions have deepened, fueled by media, social networks, and entrenched ideological battles. But rather than just diagnosing the problem, Corey offers a powerful antidote—getting local and engaging in real-life, face-to-face conversations. He draws inspiration from scholars like Jonathan Haidt, Katherine Stewart and Robert Putnam, as well as his personal experiences, to make a compelling case for community-based solutions to polarization. What We Discuss ✅ The real extent of political division in America—and why it's not as bad as it seems ✅ How social media and national narratives exaggerate our differences ✅ The philosophy of Carl Schmitt and its impact on modern political discourse ✅ Why local engagement—like city council meetings, PTAs, and even bar conversations—is the key to bridging divides ✅ Practical steps to foster meaningful discussions and rebuild relationships Episode Highlights ⏳ [00:02:00] – The growing problem of toxic partisanship and how social media makes it worse ⏳ [00:05:00] – A study from More in Common shows Americans want unity, but doubt the other side does ⏳ [00:09:00] – Corey shares personal examples of online political attacks and how they reflect broader polarization ⏳ [00:14:00] – A key solution: Local engagement and organizations like Village Square ⏳ [00:17:00] – How shared community goals, like better roads and schools, help bridge ideological divides ⏳ [00:20:00] – The inspiring story of Joe Walsh and Fred Guttenberg: Two ideological opposites who became close friends ⏳ [00:23:00] – The challenge of engaging with people who seem beyond reach—and knowing when to step away ⏳ [00:26:00] – A call to action: Take the first step, invite someone for coffee, and start humanizing one another Featured Quotes

“ Precisely what brings you into communion with the church is not sitting—no matter how good the sermon is—it's not sitting in an auditorium with 3,000 people,” says Robert Putnam. “It's connecting with other cobelievers in a small group.”  Robert Putnam, political scientist and author of the cultural phenomenon Bowling Alone, joins Russell Moore to talk about social shifts in how we gather with—and separate from—one another. Putnam and Moore talk about religion, partisanship, and social shifts such as delayed marriage. Their conversation covers loneliness, the increasing number of people who do not identify with any religion, and politicization.  Moore and Putnam consider the importance of coming together, explore the history of communities in America, and encourage listeners with practical steps for cultivating fellowship.  Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include: Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy by Robert D. Putnam Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam  Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert D. Putnam Join or Die “If You Want to Destroy My Sweater, Hold This Thread as I Walk Away”   Christian Smith The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For over two years, Judy Woodruff has traveled the country exploring the roots of America’s divisions over race, religion, culture, wealth and more for America at a Crossroads. The series returns with political scientist Robert Putnam, who has spent decades studying these divides and how we might find our way back to a more unified nation. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

If Republican senators had any shred of dignity left, they'd demand that Kash Patel answer why he brazenly lied under oath to them about the purge of agents at the FBI. Credible sources have come forward to say he was directing the whole thing. Meanwhile, Trump has leveled the playing field so companies doing business overseas can do all the bribing they want. Plus, our modern "boy problem," our genetic wiring to not be loners, and finding a way out of our polarization by seeing we have an obligation to respect and care for other people.  Carol Leonnig and Bob Putnam join Tim Miller  show notes Bob's "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" The documentary about Bob, "Join or Die" Bob's co-written book, "The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again"

How can you not be drawn in by that title? What the heck? "Join or Die" is a hit documentary playing on Netflix right now. Carl watched the movie and was such a fan of the movie and it's message. It brought back to him some wonderful memories when he was part of a club that he loved -- the Odd Fellows. He was very fortunate and was able to connect with the movie's co-creator, Rebecca Davis. Rebecca was inspired by the work of political scientist and author Robert Putnam, whose earlier work, "Bowling Alone" went viral. Americans had stopped joining clubs and civic organizations. Even the number of dinner parties and picnics had declined. His research showed that those "joining" activities correlated to how Democracy is doing. Rebecca's personal story is an interesting one. She has had a successful career working as a producer with NBC News. "Join or Die" was a passion project for Rebecca. She worked on this film with her brother and co-creator Pete Davis for eight years, working on the movie on weekends and whenever she had time between her busy NBC duties. Initially they were thinking it would be a short Youtube piece, but it grew into what is now an award-winning full-length documentary that is inspiring thousands of people to get off their phones and couches and join or start clubs. You will be totally inspired by this interview and by watching the film. • More about Rebecca Davis: https://www.rebeccadavisvideo.com/  • More about Join or Die: https://www.joinordiefilm.com/  • Episode Content:  https://pickleballmediahq.com/blog/Rebecca-Davis-Interview-Co-Creator-of-Join-or-Die  • Sponsored by Capital Advantage:  https://capitaladvantage.com/promotion/retirement-planning-guide/  • Sponsored by How to Retire and Not Die:  https://garysirak.com/how-to-retire-and-not-die/  • Join the "I Used to be Somebody World Tour":  https://pickleballmediahq.com/tour/  • Subscribe to the "I Used to be Somebody" newsletter:  https://pickleballmediahq.com/contact/subscribe 

Trevor and Christiana sit down with noted author and political scientist Robert Putnam. They discuss why community is now more essential than ever, both for the survival of democracy and for our very survival as a species. The three also debate whether social media diminishes our social capital, and why more people bowl in America than vote. (Hint: If more people bowled America would be more united). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Isaiah 43:1-7 Psalm 29 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17, 21-22   1. What stands in the way of having a deeper faith? On August 5, 1949 a crew of fifteen elite US Forest Service smokejumpers, or airborne firefighters, stepped out of their plane above a remote wildfire in Montana. Within an hour all but three of them were dead or mortally burned. They were caught by flames as they ran uphill through dried grass on a steep slope trying to reach a higher ridge. [1]   The University of Chicago English Literature professor Norman Maclean (1902-1990), who himself had experience as a fire fighter, happened to be in town and took the time to visit the fire even as it still burned. The men who perished were mostly in their early twenties and their stories haunted Maclean until he retired from teaching decades later and began writing about them.   He begins his book Young Men and Fire saying, “The problem of self-identity is not just a problem for the young. It is a problem for all the time. Perhaps the problem. It should haunt old age, and when it no longer does it should tell you that you are dead.” [2]   Maclean found his self-identity wrapped up in the tragedy. And so he studied what happened intently: the physics of fire (how a blowup happens and burns uphill), the geology, weather, terrain and botany of that particular river valley and hillside, safety changes that the tragedy inspired at the Forest Service.   Maclean notes that from the arrangement of the bodies rescue crews observed that most men had fallen and gotten up again. He writes, “at the very end beyond thought and beyond fear and beyond even self-compassion and divine bewilderment there remains some firm intention to continue doing forever... what we last hoped to do on earth.”   His last paragraph says, “I, an old man, have written this fire report… it was important to me, as an exercise for old age, to enlarge my knowledge and spirit so I could accompany young men, whose lives I might have lived, on their way to death. I have climbed where they have climbed, and in my time I have fought fire and inquired into its nature… I have lived to get a better understanding of myself and those close to me, many of them now dead… I have often found myself thinking of my wife on her brave and lonely way to death.”   2. What stands in the way of having a deeper faith? This week in a group my friend Chris directed this question to me. At first I didn't say anything and let the conversation flow. I had in mind the writer Mary Karr's observation that, “Talking about spiritual activity to a secular audience is like doing card tricks on the radio.” [3] But then another friend asked me the same question. So let me try to answer here.   I do not think that the major obstacle to deeper faith has much to do with belief. This is made more complicated because in our time of relative spiritual naiveté many people do not seem aware that we have to learn an adult faith. Paul writes, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11).   Another factor is that many modern people feel that they don't have enough time to come to church or pray. Their work life and other obligations squeeze everything else out. Twenty years ago Robert Putnam pointed out that instead of joining bowling leagues as they once did many people are bowling alone. In other words, people are more isolated and not joining groups and civic organizations in the way they once did. Some people may have an idea of who they might find in a church and simply do not want to be around that kind of person. I can imagine someone with integrity being afraid that faith creates an obligation to take care of other people. And it does.   Despair is also a barrier. Some look at pain in the world and think God is at fault or that this proves there is no God. They have never been introduced to a more subtle form of faith in a God who suffers along with us in the person of Jesus.   I did not say any of this in our conversation. Instead I offered a short response and said: A profound barrier to having faith in our time is rapidly accelerating capitalism. This worldview has become so pervasive today that we are living examples of David Foster Wallace's joke. You remember the old fish swims past two younger ones and says, “How's the water?” The younger fishes swims on for a bit. Then one turns to the other and says, “What the heck is water?” [4]   What I mean by capitalism is an expanding set of values that colonizes our inner life and every domain of our daily experience. This includes a sense that the world is inert or dead, that everything can be measured objectively and valued. It makes our interactions into transactions. It turns gifts into investments and makes non-work activities seem somehow wasteful.   This kind of consciousness leads us to see ourselves as insatiable consumers who can never get enough and others as means to our own ends. It erodes a sense of gratitude and implies that good things have all been earned. It makes radically accelerating inequality seem inevitable even when this destabilizes democracy (and all other forms of community). Above all in our case capitalism is leading us to an extreme individualism that does radical damage to human dignity.   In response, my friends talked about how great life is in the twenty-first century and how it was not that long ago when half of Americans did not have access to warm showers. And I told them about how a society's income inequality is directly correlated with mental illness, and about the misery I encountered that day going twice through the Tenderloin among people suffering so gravely from mental illness and addiction.   I have a friend who lives in a small city apartment. Yes, she has a hot shower. But she wants me to call her every week because she is so alone that no one will even notice when she dies.   Climate scientist Gus Speth writes, “I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought with 30 years of good science we could address those problems, but I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy – and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation and we scientists don't know how to do that.” [5]   3. My friends should have asked a more interesting question, “what can remove these obstacles to faith?” The English translation of today's gospel states that those going out to see John the Baptist were “filled with expectation.” A better translation of this (prosdokōntos) would be foreboding or dread. That was not the world of what some would prematurely call late stage capitalism, but the shocking violence of those times would not be entirely unfamiliar to us.   Did you wonder about the verses that were omitted in our reading (Luke 3:18-20)? They interject a short reference to King Herod who later killed John in prison. And yet Luke writes, “John proclaimed the good news to the people” (Lk. 3). What is this good news? First, even though our inner lives seem thoroughly colonized by a world picture that seems to be leading to the death of our humanity and our planet, we can be changed. The word Luke uses is metanoia and means a change of mind or heart which we call repentance.   Second, don't be confused and think that there are some people who are wheat and others who are chaff. Just as a single grain has both parts, each of us do too. And through prayer we have Jesus' help as we try to separate what is good in our life so that it will thrive and minimize the prejudices and destructive thoughts that distort us.   Finally, let me assure you that deeper than all our thoughts there is a place within us where we can meet God. That voice that speaks quietly to Jesus says the same thing to us too. If you listen this morning you will hear in your own way God saying, “You are my child, my beloved, with you I am well pleased” (Lk. 3).   My friends what stands in the way of having a deeper faith – not just in general, but for you? The world around us is burning. 153,000 LA County residents are under mandatory evacuation orders and an area greater than the size of San Francisco has been reduced to ash. Our governor and next president are publicly feuding. [6] Many of us feel a sense of foreboding as if we were trapped halfway up a hill only just above the rising flames.   Through a lifetime of studying their story Norman Maclean saw similarities between those young men each one knowing he was alone at his death and Jesus. In Young Men and Fire Maclean writes about the group's foreman Wagner Dodge who lit a safety fire and tried to convince his men to follow him into the protection of the already charred land. Strangely enough going toward and more deeply into the fire was ultimately what saved his life. Perhaps this is true for us also. In our time we have fought fire and inquired into its nature. Each of us is trying to reach a higher ridge. After we have lived for a better understanding of ourselves and those close to us we each arrive at the same place. And at the very end beyond thought and beyond fear and beyond even self-compassion that is where we meet the one who has climbed everywhere we have climbed, the one who is closer to us than we are to ourselves. And we shall hear the voice of the One who loves us. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Gulch_fire [2] Norman Maclean, Young Men and Fire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992) xiii, 300-1. [3] Matthew Boulton, “Theologian's Almanac,” SALT, 12 January 2025. https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2025/1/7/theologians-almanac-for-week-of-january-12-2025 [4] David Foster Wallace, “This Is Water,” Commencement Speech, Kenyon College, 2005. https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/ [5] Cited in a letter from Rev'd Dr. Vincent Pizzuto sent on Friday 10 January 2025. [6] https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/11/us/los-angeles-fires-california

In this episode of the Revenue Builders Podcast, hosts John McMahon and John Kaplan are joined once more by Doug Holladay, author of 'Rethinking Success,' to discuss the critical elements of building genuine relationships in a business and personal context. They explore the increasing loneliness in modern society, the importance of maintaining authentic connections, and the significant impact of leadership vulnerability. They also delve into practical insights on forming small supportive groups and the broader implications of creating meaningful friendships. The conversation highlights the value of showing up for others and the importance of embracing both strengths and vulnerabilities as a leader.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESConnect and learn more about Doug Holladay:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougholladay/Check out Doug's book ‘Rethinking Success: Eight Essential Practices for Finding Meaning in Work and Life':https://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Success-Essential-Practices-Finding/dp/0062897888Listen to past episodes featuring Doug:Leading Authentically: https://hubs.li/Q02_8bfg0Rethinking Success: https://hubs.li/Q02_8bsL0Enjoying the podcast? Sign up to receive new episodes straight to your inbox: https://hubs.li/Q02R10xN0Force Management is hiring for a Sales Director. Apply here: https://hubs.li/Q02Zb8WG0HERE ARE SOME KEY SECTIONS TO CHECK OUT[00:00:42] Discussing 'Maintaining Genuine Relationships'[00:01:15] The Decline of Communal Bonds[00:02:23] Loneliness and Mental Health[00:04:09] Cultural Differences in Family Dynamics[00:07:49] The Importance of Vulnerability[00:13:21] The Power of Presence and Listening[00:18:09] Authenticity and Connection in Leadership[00:29:03] The Role of Storytelling in Business[00:34:36] The Power of Knowing People[00:35:20] Contempt and Polarization[00:37:08] Fear and the Pace of Change[00:39:03] The Importance of Authentic Relationships[00:40:40] Building Meaningful Connections[00:41:54] Balancing Busy Lives and Friendships[00:46:05] Parenting and Personal Growth[00:53:53] The Value of VulnerabilityHIGHLIGHT QUOTES[00:07:50] "Men don't have a language of the heart. So when they're hurting like this, they don't know how to really give voice to it."[00:20:35] "Everyone has a story. The people that are hearing that story, they make space for that story. They make space for that. And they don't try to interject their story into anybody else's story."[00:28:01] "People don't care about all that mumbo jumbo. They just want to know you care. Just be present." [00:43:46] "The best thing you can do for your kids is keep working on you. I want my boys to see that, wow, dad has real friendships. Everything's not a transaction. He shows up for people."[00:53:03] "Allowing people space to tell their story with no judgment, no expectation, no agenda is way harder than you think it is."[00:53:55] "People are more attracted to our broken parts. They just want to be heard."

Buckle up, because this week we're throwing the rulebook out the window and hitting the gas on a hilarious journey into the world of petty crimes. Trevin opens the episode with a heartfelt reflection on the strange emptiness he's been feeling since the election, leading to a recommendation for the documentary Join or Die. In his quest for community, he also has some exciting news to share—Live, Laugh, Larceny has two new team members! A-Line and Jess are bringing fresh creativity to the show, with stunning designs and video editing that'll take things to the next level. Amanda kicks off the crime-themed fun with a dreadful dilemma that dives back into the chaos of the school pickup line. This time, a mysterious man appears, handing out unsolicited directions and maybe even trying to land a date. One thing is certain: nobody asked for his help. Later, during Killer Facts, Amanda revisits her beloved Ripley's Believe It or Not to share the bizarre tale of a hamster testing space tourism, while Trevin answers the burning question: “Have Brussels sprouts really gotten tastier?” When it's time for stories, things take a strange turn. Trevin's tale features a futuristic Arizona traffic stop that feels like something straight out of Black Mirror. Meanwhile, Amanda introduces us to Jack, a wannabe hockey player whose dreams are dashed by his lack of skills and a drinking problem that leads to an unforgettable (and illegal) adventure. What ties these two stories together is their shared theme of strange vehicles. Whether it's an encounter with cutting-edge technology during a traffic stop or a misguided attempt to fulfill hockey dreams on wheels, these petty criminals prove that the road to crime is anything but ordinary. Tune in to find out how these hilarious missteps unfold! Today's Stories: Into The Black Mirror Danger: On ice! (Discussions Include: Finding Community, Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, After School, Parenting Problems, Mansplaining, Better Homes and Gardens, Ripley's, Hamster, Autonomous, Waymo Car, Self-driving, Cruise, Quebec, Canada, Phoenix, Hockey, Skating, Technology, Drinking and Driving, Ride App) Join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/livelaughlarcenydoomedcrew For ad-free episodes and lots of other bonus content, join our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/LiveLaughLarceny  Check out our website: HereFollow us on Instagram: HereFollow us on Facebook: HereFollow us on TikTok: HereFollow us on Twitter: Here  If you have a crime you'd like to hear on our show OR have a personal petty story, email us at livelaughlarceny@gmail.com or send us a DM on any of our socials!

How do schools navigate the complexities of inclusion, polarization, and freedom of expression while fostering a vibrant learning environment? Today, John Austin, Head of School at Deerfield Academy, joins Heterodox Out Loud to explore these questions and share insights from the groundbreaking report, Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention: A Framework for Schools.John reflects on his unique journey from aspiring surfer to educational leader, shaping student experiences across continents, including his tenure at King's Academy in Jordan. Drawing from decades of experience, John delves into the challenges and opportunities presented by diversity in schools, discussing how institutions can promote dialogue, trust, and intellectual growth through structured initiatives like randomized community meals and robust expressive frameworks. John also sheds light on the collaborative process behind the report and its three foundational pillars: disciplined nonpartisanship, expressive freedom, and intellectual diversity.In This Episode:Independent schools as laboratories for educational innovationBalancing inclusivity with robust academic inquiryThe significance of Robert Putnam's social capital theoryStrategies for fostering meaningful dialogue across differencesThe transformative potential of conscientious, courageous, and tolerant expressionAbout John:Dr. John Austin became Deerfield Academy's 56th Head of School in July of 2019. Prior to Deerfield, Dr. Austin served as Headmaster at King's Academy in Madaba, Jordan, and before that as Academic Dean at St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, where he joined the faculty in 1987. A graduate of Williams College, he holds a Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and Doctoral degrees in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, along with a Master's degree from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. Last year, with funding from an E.E. Ford Foundation grant, Dr. Austin convened a group of renowned independent school leaders from across the United States to develop a framework for enhancing the expressive freedom of students, fostering in them habits of curiosity and critical analysis, and preparing them to thrive in a world of pluralistic contention. The resulting work, authored by Dr. Austin, Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention: A Framework for Schools, was published in May of 2024. Follow Heterodox Academy on:Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Fax5DyFacebook: https://bit.ly/3PMYxfwLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/48IYeuJInstagram: https://bit.ly/46HKfUgSubstack: https://bit.ly/48IhjNF

Hello Libration Nation! In this week's episode I'm chatting with David Crowley, nonprofit leader and podcaster, about The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Mark Schultz. Over a glass of Longevity Cabernet Sauvignon, we explored the Harvard study's core finding: strong, meaningful relationships are key to happiness and health. David shared insights from his work with Social Capital Inc., which combats social isolation, and his personal journey maintaining relationships throughout various phases of life. Together, we reflected on building deeper connections in a digital age.David Crowley founded Social Capital Inc. (SCI) over 20 years ago in his hometown of Woburn, Massachusetts. Under his leadership, SCI has grown to serve communities across the region while continuing to make a difference in Woburn. Prior to SCI, David was the Executive Director of Boston-based Generations Inc. (now Literations). He has been involved in AmeriCorps since the program began in 1993, and served as the founding Director of the Kentucky Community Service Commission, which oversees the program for the state. David graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Government. Unsure of his long term plans, and after many service activities in college, David set out to do a year of service in rural Kentucky, which began his career serving his community! In his free time, he enjoys cooking for his family, reading and walking nearby Horn Pond. He also shares his kitchen creations on his food & wine blog, Cooking Chat. He also hosts two podcasts: Cook Local, Eat Local and SCI's Cultivating Connections podcasts.DrinkLongevity Cabernet SauvignonLongevity WinemakersIn this EpisodeSocial Capital Inc.Cooking Chat (David's Food & Wine Blog)Cook Local, Eat Local PodcastSCI's Cultivating Connections PodcastBowling Alone by Robert D. PutnamRecent NYT interview with Robert Putnam (not mentioned in the episode but really interesting read on loneliness)

This Thanksgiving, The Amanpour Hour focuses on the power of bridge-building. Following a contentious election, America feels more divided than ever. Renowned political scientist Robert Putnam joins Christiane to reflect on the reasons driving Americans apart and how to rebuild those communities. Former Israeli and Palestinian leaders Ehud Olmert and Nasser al-Kidwa join forces and discuss their shared vision for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Journalist Yuval Abraham and Palestinian co-director and West Bank resident, Basel Adra talk about their collaboration in a new and controversial film, “No Other Land.” Diane Foley, mother of slain journalist James Foley and co-author Colum McCan delve into their book "American Mother," which covers her journey of resilience, meeting her son's killer and rejecting hatred despite her tragic loss. Historian Dominic Erdozain examines the origins of the Second Amendment and its evolving interpretation in his book "One Nation Under Guns," and the need to find political agreement to end gun violence in America. Finally, “Kim's Convenience” creator Ins Choi sits down with Christiane on-set to celebrate the immigrant experience that unites us all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Many of us think our individual actions can't combat systemic problems. Vox's Rachel Cohen and Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam explain why volunteer work, no matter how small, can make a difference for you and for us all. This episode was produced by Miles Bryan, edited by Matt Collette and Miranda Kennedy, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members A volunteer serving a Thanksgiving meal at the Long Beach Rescue Mission. Photo by Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We visit with Reed Endersbe regarding the Robert Putnam documentary, "Join or Die." Putnam, the author of the best-selling, "Bowling Alone," argues that the epidemic of loneliness is having an adverse impact on the mental health of Americans and the lack of joining civic organizations is likewise impacting the health of American democracy. 

So how can The Dude and The Boss save America? According to the cultural critic, David Masciotra, Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski and Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen, represent the antithesis of Donald Trumps's illiberal authoritarianism. Masciotra's thesis of Lebowski and Springsteen as twin paragons of American liberalism is compelling. Both men have a childish faith in the goodness of others. Both offer liberal solace in an America which, I fear, is about to become as darkly surreal as The Big Lebowski. Transcript:“[Springsteen] represents, as cultural icon, a certain expression of liberalism, a big-hearted, humanistic liberalism that exercises creativity to represent diverse constituencies in our society, that believes in art as a tool of democratic engagement, and that seeks to lead with an abounding, an abiding sense of compassion and empathy. That is the kind of liberalism, both with the small and capital L, that I believe in, and that I have spent my career documenting and attempting to advance.” -David MasciotraAK: Hello, everybody. We're still processing November the 5th. I was in the countryside of Northern Virginia a few days ago, I saw a sign, for people just listening, Trump/Vance 2024 sign with "winner" underneath. Some people are happy. Most, I guess, of our listeners probably aren't, certainly a lot of our guests aren't, my old friend John Rauch was on the show yesterday talking about what he called the "catastrophic ordinariness" of the election and of contemporary America. He authored two responses to the election. Firstly, he described it in UnPopulist as a moral catastrophe. But wearing his Brookings hat, he's a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, described it as an ordinary election. I think a lot of people are scratching their head, trying to make sense of it. Another old friend of the show, David Masciotra, cultural writer, political writer. An interesting piece in the Washington Monthly entitled "How Francis Fukuyama and The Big Lebowski Explain Trump's Victory." A very creative piece. And he is joining us from Highland Indiana, not too far from Chicago. David. The Big Lebowski and Francis Fukuyama. Those two don't normally go together, certainly in a title. Let's talk first about Fukuyama. How does Fukuyama explain November the 5th? DAVID MASCIOTRA: In his. Well, first, thanks for having me. And I should say I watched your conversation with Jonathan Rauch, and it was quite riveting and quite sobering. And you talked about Fukuyama in that discussion as well. And you referenced his book, The End of History and the Last Man, a very often misinterpreted book, but nonetheless, toward its conclusion, Fukuyama warns that without an external enemy, liberal democracies may indeed turn against themselves, and we may witness an implosion rather than an explosion. And Fukuyama said that this won't happen so much for ideological reasons, but it will happen for deeply psychological ones, namely, without a just cause for which to struggle, people will turn against the just cause itself, which in this case is liberal democracy, and out of a sense of boredom and alienation, they'll grow increasingly tired of their society and cultivate something of a death wish in which they enjoy imagining their society's downfall, or at least the downfall of some of the institutions that are central to their society. And now I would argue that after the election results, we've witnessed the transformation of imagining to inviting. So, there is a certain death wish and a sense of...alienation and detachment from that which made the United States of America a uniquely prosperous and stable country with the ability to self-correct the myriad injustices we know are part of its history. Well now, people--because they aren't aware of the institutions or norms that created this robust engine of commerce and liberty--they've turned against it, and they no longer invest in that which is necessary to preserve it.AK: That's interesting, David. The more progressives I talk to about this, the more it--there's an odd thing going on--you're all sounding very conservative. The subtitle of the piece in the Washington Monthly was "looking at constituencies or issues misses the big point. On Tuesday, nihilism was on display, even a death wish in a society wrought by cynicism." Words like nihilism and cynicism, David, historically have always been used by people like Allan Blum, whose book, of course, The Closing of the American Mind, became very powerful amongst American conservatives now 40 or 50 years ago. Would you accept that using language like nihilism and cynicism isn't always associated--I mean, you're a proud progressive. You're a man of the left. You've never disguised that. It's rather odd to imagine that the guys like you--and in his own way, John Rauch too, who talks about the moral catastrophe of the election couple of weeks ago. You're all speaking about the loss of morality of the voter, or of America. Is there any truth to that? Making some sense?DAVID MASCIOTRA: That's a that's a fair observation. And Jonathan Rauch, during your conversation and in his own writing, identifies a center right. I would say I'm center left.AK: And he's--but what's interesting, what ties you together, is that you both use the L-word, liberal, to define yourselves. He's perhaps a liberal on the right. You're a liberal on the left.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes. And I think that the Trump era, if we can trace that back to 2015, has made thoughtful liberals more conservative in thought and articulation, because it forces a confrontation and interrogation of a certain naivete. George Will writes in his book, The Conservative Sensibility, that the progressive imagines that which is the best possible outcome and strives to make it real, whereas the conservative imagines the worst possible outcome and does everything he can to guard against it. And now it feels like we've experienced, at least electorally, the worst possible outcome. So there a certain revisitation of that which made America great, to appropriate a phrase, and look for where we went wrong in failing to preserve it. So that kind of thinking inevitably leads one to use more conservative language and deal in more conservative thought.AK: Yeah. So for you, what made America great, to use the term you just introduced, was what? Its morality? The intrinsic morality of people living in it and in the country? Is that, for you, what liberalism is?DAVID MASCIOTRA: Liberalism is a system in and the culture that emanates out of that system. So it's a constitutional order that creates or that places a premium on individual rights and allows for a flourishing free market. Now, where my conception of liberalism would enter the picture and, perhaps Jonathan Rauch and I would have some disagreements, certainly George Will and I, is that a bit of governmental regulation is necessary along with the social welfare state, to civilize the free market. But the culture that one expects to flow from that societal order and arrangement is one of aspiration, one in which citizens fully accept that they are contributing agents to this experiment in self-governance and therefore need to spend time in--to use a Walt Whitman phrase--freedom's gymnasium. Sharpening the intellect, sharpening one's sense of moral duty and obligation to the commons, to the public good. And as our society has become more individualistic and narcissistic in nature, those commitments have vanished. And as our society has become more anti-intellectual in nature, we are seeing a lack of understanding of why those commitments are even necessary. So that's why you get a result like we witnessed on Tuesday, and that I argue in my piece that you were kind enough to have me on to discuss, is a form of nihilism, and The Big Lebowski reference, of course--AK: And of course, I want to get to Lebowski, because the Fukuyama stuff is interesting, but everyone's writing about Fukuyama and the end of history and why history never really ended, of course. It's been going on for years now, but it's a particularly interesting moment. We've had Fukuyama on the show. I've never heard anyone, though, compare the success of Trump and Trumpism with The Big Lebowski. So, one of the great movies, of course, American movies. What's the connection, David, between November 5th and The Big Lebowski? DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, The Big Lebowski is one of my favorite films. I've written about it, and I even appeared at one of the The Big Lebowski festivals that takes place in United States a number of years ago. But my mind went to the scene when The Dude is in his bathtub and these three menacing figures break into his apartment. They drop a gerbil in the bathtub. And The Dude, who was enjoying a joint by candlelight, is, of course, startled and frightened. And these three men tell him that if he does not pay the money they believe he owes them, they will come back and, in their words, "cut off your Johnson." And The Dude gives them a quizzical, bemused look. And one of them says, "You think we are kidding? We are nihilists. We believe in nothing." And then one of them screams, "We'll cut off your Johnson." Well, I thought, you know, we're looking at an electorate that increasingly, or at least a portion of the electorate, increasingly believes in nothing. So we've lost faith.AK: It's the nihilists again. And of course, another Johnson in America, there was once a president called Johnson who enjoyed waving his Johnson, I think, around in public. And now there's the head of the house is another Johnson, I think he's a little shyer than presidents LBJ. But David, coming back to this idea of nihilism. It often seems to be a word used by people who don't like what other people think and therefore just write it off as nihilism. Are you suggesting that the Trump crowd have no beliefs? Is that what nihilism for you is? I mean, he was very clear about what he believes in. You may not like it, but it doesn't seem to be nihilistic.DAVID MASCIOTRA: That's another fair point. What I'm referring to is not too long ago, we lived in a country that had a shared set of values. Those values have vanished. And those values involve adherence to our democratic norms. It's very difficult to imagine had George H. W. Bush attempted to steal the election in which Bill Clinton won, that George H. W. Bush could have run again and won. So we've lost faith in something essential to our electoral system. We've lost faith in the standards of decency that used to, albeit imperfectly, regulate our national politics. So the man to whom I just refered, Bill Clinton, was nearly run out of office for having an extramarital affair, a misdeed that cannot compare to the myriad infractions of Donald Trump. And yet, Trump's misdeeds almost give him a cultural cachet among his supporters. It almost makes him, for lack of a better word, cool. And now we see, even with Trump's appointments, I mean, of course, it remains to be seen how it plays out, that we're losing faith in credentials and experience--AK: Well they're certainly a band of outlaws and very proud to be outlaws. It could almost be a Hollywood script. But I wonder, David, whether there's a more serious critique here. You, like so many other people, both on the left and the right, are nostalgic for an age in which everyone supposedly agreed on things, a most civil and civilized age. And you go back to the Bushes, back to Clinton. But the second Bush, who now seems to have appeared as this icon, at least moral icon, many critics of Trump, was also someone who unleashed a terrible war, killing tens of thousands of people, creating enormous suffering for millions of others. And I think that would be the Trump response, that he's simply more honest, that in the old days, the Bushes of the world can speak politely and talk about consensus, and then unleash terrible suffering overseas--and at home in their neoliberal policies of globalization--Trump's simply more honest. He tells it as it is. And that isn't nihilistic, is it?DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, you are gesturing towards an important factor in our society. Trump, of course, we know, is a dishonest man, a profoundly dishonest--AK: Well, in some ways. But in other ways, he isn't. I mean, in some ways he just tells the truth as it is. It's a truth we're uncomfortable with. But it's certainly very truthful about the impact of foreign wars on America, for example, or even the impact of globalization. DAVID MASCIOTRA: What you're describing is an authenticity. That that Trump is authentic. And authenticity has become chief among the modern virtues, which I would argue is a colossal error. Stanley Crouch, a great writer, spent decades analyzing the way in which we consider authenticity and how it inevitably leads to, to borrow his phrase, cast impurity onto the bottom. So anything that which requires effort, refinement, self-restraint, self-control, plays to the crowd as inauthentic, as artificial--AK: Those are all aristocratic values that may have once worked but don't anymore. Should we be nostalgic for the aristocratic way of the Bushes?DAVID MASCIOTRA: I think in a certain respect, we should. We shouldn't be nostalgic for George W. Bush's policies. I agree with you, the war in Iraq was catastrophic, arguably worse than anything Trump did while he was president. His notoriously poor response to Hurricane Katrina--I mean, we can go on and on cataloging the various disasters of the Bush administration. However, George W. Bush as president and the people around him did have a certain belief in the liberal order of the United States and the liberal order of the world. Institutions like NATO and the EU, and those institutions, and that order, has given the United States, and the world more broadly, an unrivaled period of peace and prosperity.AK: Well it wasn't peace, David. And the wars, the post-9/11 wars, were catastrophic. And again, they seem to be just facades--DAVID MASCIOTRA: We also had the Vietnam War, the Korean War. When I say peace, I mean we didn't have a world war break out as we did in the First World War, in the Second World War. And that's largely due to the creation and maintenance of institutions following the Second World War that were aimed at the preservation of order and, at least, amicable relations between countries that might otherwise collide.AK: You're also the author, David, of a book we've always wanted to talk about. Now we're figuring out a way to integrate it into the show. You wrote a book, an interesting book, about Bruce Springsteen. Working on a Dream: the Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen has made himself very clear. He turned out for Harris. Showed up with his old friend, Barack Obama. Clearly didn't have the kind of impact he wanted. You wrote an interesting piece for UnHerd a few weeks ago with the title, "Bruce Springsteen is the Last American Liberal: he's still proud to be born in the USA." Is he the model of a liberal response to the MAGA movement, Springsteen? DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, of course, I wouldn't go so far as to say the last liberal. As most readers just probably know, writers don't compose their own headlines--AK: But he's certainly, if not the last American liberal, the quintessential American liberal.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes. He represents, as cultural icon, a certain expression of liberalism, a big-hearted, humanistic liberalism that exercises creativity to represent diverse constituencies in our society, that believes in art as a tool of democratic engagement, and that seeks to lead with an abounding, an abiding sense of compassion and empathy. That is the kind of liberalism, both with the small and capital L, that I believe in, and that I have spent my career documenting and attempting to advance. And those are, of course, the forms of liberalism that now feel as if they are under threat. Now, to that point, you know, this could have just come down to inflation and some egregious campaign errors of Kamala Harris. But it does feel as if when you have 70 some odd million people vote for the likes of Donald Trump, that the values one can observe in the music of Bruce Springsteen or in the rhetoric of Barack Obama, for that matter, are no longer as powerful and pervasive as they were in their respective glory days. No pun intended.AK: Yeah. And of course, Springsteen is famous for singing "Glory Days." I wonder, though, where Springsteen himself is is a little bit more complex and we might be a little bit more ambivalent about him, there was a piece recently about him becoming a billionaire. So it's all very well him being proud to be born in the USA. He's part--for better or worse, I mean, it's not a criticism, but it's a reality--he's part of the super rich. He showed out for Harris, but it didn't seem to make any impact. You talked about the diversity of Springsteen. I went to one of his concerts in San Francisco earlier this year, and I have to admit, I was struck by the fact that everyone, practically everyone at the concert, was white, everyone was wealthy, everyone paid several hundred dollars to watch a 70 year old man prance around on stage and behave as if he's still 20 or 30 years old. I wonder whether Springsteen himself is also emblematic of a kind of cultural, or political, or even moral crisis of our old cultural elites. Or am I being unfair to Springsteen?DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, I remember once attending a Springsteen show in which the only black person I saw who wasn't an employee of the arena was Clarence Clemons.AK: Right. And then Bruce, of course, always made a big deal. And there was an interesting conversation when Springsteen and Obama did a podcast together. Obama, in his own unique way, lectured Bruce a little bit about Clarence Clemons in terms of his race. But sorry. Go on.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yeah. And Springsteen has written and discussed how he had wished he had a more diverse audience. When I referred to diversity in his music, I meant the stories he aimed to tell in song certainly represented a wide range of the American experience. But when you talk about Springsteen, perhaps himself representing a moral crisis--AK: I wouldn't say a crisis, but he represents the, shall we say, the redundancy of that liberal worldview of the late 20th century. I mean, he clearly wears his heart on his sleeve. He means well. He's not a bad guy. But he doesn't reach a diverse audience. His work is built around the American working class. None of them can afford to show up to what he puts on. I mean, Chris Christie is a much more typical fan than the white working class. Does it speak of the fact that there's a...I don't know if you call it a crisis, it's just...Springsteen isn't relevant anymore in the America of the 2020s, or at least when he sang and wrote about no longer exists.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes, I agree with that. So first of all, the working class bit was always a bit overblown with Springsteen. Springsteen, of course, was never really part of the working class, except when he was a child. But by his own admission, he never had a 9 to 5 job. And Springsteen sang about working class life like William Shakespeare wrote about teenage love. He did so with a poetic grandeur that inspired some of his best work. And outside looking in, he actually managed to offer more insights than sometimes people on the inside can amount to themselves. But you're certainly correct. I mean, the Broadway show, for example, when the tickets were something like a thousand a piece and it was $25 to buy a beer. There is a certain--AK: Yeah and in that Broadway show, which I went to--I thought it was astonishing, actually, a million times better than the show in San Francisco.DAVID MASCIOTRA: It was one of the best things he ever did.AK: He acknowledges that he made everything up, that he wasn't part of the American working class, and that he'd never worked a day in his life, and yet his whole career is is built around representing a social class and a way of life that he was never part of.“Not too long ago, we lived in a country that had a shared set of values. Those values have vanished. And those values involve adherence to our democratic norms.” -DMDAVID MASCIOTRA: Right. And he has a lyric himself: "It's a sad, funny ending when you find yourself pretending a rich man in a poor man's shirt." So there always was this hypocrisy--hypocrisy might be a little too strong--inconsistency. And he adopted a playful attitude toward it in the 90s and in later years. But to your point of relevance, I think you're on to something there. One of the crises I would measure in our society is that we no longer live in a culture of ambition and aspiration. So you hear this when people say that they want a political leader who talks like the average person, or the common man. And you hear this when "college educated" is actually used as an insult against a certain base of Democratic voters. There were fewer college-educated voters when John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan ran for president, all of whom spoke with greater eloquence and a more expansive vocabulary and a greater sense of cultural sophistication than Donald Trump or Kamala Harris did. And yet there was no objection, because people understood that we should aspire to something more sophisticated. We should aspire to something more elevated beyond the everyday vernacular of the working class. And for that reason, Springsteen was able to become something of a working-class poet, despite never living among the working class beyond his childhood. Because his poetry put to music represented something idealistic about the working class.AK: But oddly enough, it was a dream--there's was a word that Springsteen uses a lot in his work--that was bought by the middle class. It wasn't something that was--although, I think in the early days, probably certainly in New Jersey, that he had a more working-class following.DAVID MASCIOTRA: We have to deal with the interesting and frustrating reality that the people about whom Springsteen sings in those early songs like "Darkness on the Edge of Town" or "The River" would probably be Trump supporters if they were real.AK: Yeah. And in your piece you refer to, not perhaps one of his most famous albums, The Rising, but you use it to compare Springsteen with another major figure now in America, much younger man to Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has a new book out, which is an important new book, The Message. You seem to be keener on Springsteen than Coates. Tell us about this comparison and what the comparison tells us about the America of the 2020s.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, Coates...the reason I make the comparison is that one of Springsteen's greatest artistic moments, in which he kind of resurrected his status as cultural icon, was the record he put out after the 9/11 attack on the United States, The Rising. And throughout that record he pays tribute, sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly, to the first responders who ascended in the tower knowing they would perhaps die.AK: Yeah. You quote him "love and duty called you someplace higher." So he was idealizing those very brave firefighters, policemen who gave up their lives on 9/11.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Exactly. Representing the best of humanity. Whereas Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has become the literary superstar of the American left, wrote in his memoir that on 9/11, he felt nothing and did not see the first responders as human. Rather, they were part of the fire that could, in his words, crush his body.AK: Yeah, he wrote a piece, "What Is 9/11 to Descendants of Slaves?"DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes. And my point in making that comparison, and this was before the election, was to say that the American left has its own crisis of...if we don't want to use the word nihilism, you objected to it earlier--AK: Well, I'm not objecting. I like the word. It's just curious to hear it come from somebody like yourself, a man, certainly a progressive, maybe not--you might define yourself as being on the left, but certainly more on the left and on the right.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yes, I would agree with that characterization. But that the left has its own crisis of nihilism. If if you are celebrating a man who, despite his journalistic talents and intelligence, none of which I would deny, refused to see the humanity of the first responders on the 9/11 attack and, said that he felt nothing for the victims, presumably even those who were black and impoverished, then you have your own crisis of belief, and juxtaposing that with the big hearted, humanistic liberalism of Springsteen for me shows the left a better path forward. Now, that's a path that will increasingly close after the victory of Trump, because extremism typically begets extremism, and we're probably about to undergo four years of dueling cynicism and rage and unhappy times.AK: I mean, you might respond, David, and say, well, Coates is just telling the truth. Why should a people with a history of slavery care that much about a few white people killed on 9/11 when their own people lost millions through slavery? And you compare them to Springsteen, as you've acknowledged, a man who wasn't exactly telling the truth in his heart. I mean, he's a very good artist, but he writes about a working class, which even he acknowledges, he made most of it up. So isn't Coates like Trump in an odd kind of way, aren't they just telling an unvarnished truth that people don't want to hear, an impolite truth?DAVID MASCIOTRA: I'm not sure. I typically shy away from the expression "my truth" or "his truth" because it's too relativistic. But I'll make an exception in this case. I think Coates is telling HIS truth just as Trump is telling HIS truth, if that adds up to THE truth, is much more dubious. Yes, we could certainly say that, you know, because the United States enslaved, tortured, and otherwise oppressed millions of black people, it may be hard for some black observers to get teary eyed on 9/11, but the black leaders whom I most admire didn't have that reaction. I wrote a book about Jesse Jackson after spending six years interviewing with him and traveling with him. He certainly didn't react that way on 9/11. Congressman John Lewis didn't react that way on 9/11. So, the heroes of the civil rights movement, who helped to overcome those brutal systems of oppression--and I wouldn't argue that they're overcome entirely, but they helped to revolutionize the United States--they maintained a big-hearted sense of empathy and compassion, and they recognized that the unjust loss of life demands mourning and respect, whether it's within their own community or another. So I would say that, here again, we're back to the point of ambition, whether it's intellectual ambition or moral ambition. Ambition is what allows a society to grow. And it seems like ambition has fallen far out of fashion. And that is why the country--the slim majority of the electorate that did vote and the 40% of the electorate that did not vote, or voting-age public, I should say--settled for the likes of Donald Trump.AK: I wonder what The Dude would do, if he was around, at the victory of Trump, or even at 9/11. He'd probably continue to sit in the bath tub and enjoy...enjoy whatever he does in his bathtub. I mean, he's not a believer. Isn't he the ultimate nihilist? The Dude in Lebowski?DAVID MASCIOTRA: That's an interesting interpretation. I would say that...Is The Dude a nihilist? You have this juxtaposition... The Dude kind of occupies this middle ground between the nihilists who proudly declare they believe in nothing and his friend Walter Sobchak, who's, you know, almost this raving explosion of belief. Yeah, ex-Vietnam veteran who's always confronting people with his beliefs and screaming and demanding they all adhere to his rules. I don't know if The Dude's a nihilist as much as he has a Zen detachment.AK: Right, well, I think what makes The Big Lebowski such a wonderful film, and perhaps so relevant today, is Lebowski, unlike so many Americans is unjudgmental. He's not an angry man. He's incredibly tolerant. He accepts everyone, even when they're beating him up or ripping him off. And he's so, in that sense, different from the America of the 2020s, where everyone is angry and everyone blames someone else for whatever's wrong in their lives.DAVID MASCIOTRA: That's exactly right.AK: Is that liberal or just Zen? I don't know.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yeah. It's perhaps even libertarian in a sense. But there's a very interesting and important book by Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke called Why It's Okay to Mind Your Own Business. And in it they argue--they're both political scientists although the one may be a...they may be philosophers...but that aside--they present an argument for why Americans need to do just that. Mind their own business.AK: Which means, yeah, not living politics, which certainly Lebowski is. It's probably the least political movie, Lebowski, I mean, he doesn't have a political bone in his body. Finally, David, there there's so much to talk about here, it's all very interesting. You first came on the show, you had a book out, that came out either earlier this year or last year. Yeah, it was in April of this year, Exurbia Now: The Battleground of American Democracy. And you wrote about the outskirts of suburbia, which you call "exurbia." Jonathan Rauch, wearing his Brookings cap, described this as an ordinary election. I'm not sure how much digging you've done, but did the exurbian vote determine this election? I mean, the election was determined by a few hundred thousand voters in the Midwest. Were these voters mostly on the edge of the suburb? And I'm guessing most of them voted for Trump.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Well, Trump's numbers in exurbia...I've dug around and I've been able to find the exurbian returns for Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Arizona. So three crucial swing states. If Kamala Harris had won those three states, she would be president. And Trump's support in exurbia was off the charts, as it was in 2020 and 2016, and as I predicted, it would be in 2024. I'm not sure that that would have been sufficient to deliver him the race and certainly not in the fashion that he won. Trump made gains with some groups that surprised people, other groups that didn't surprise people, but he did much better than expected. So unlike, say, in 2016, where we could have definitively and conclusively said Trump won because of a spike in turnout for him in rural America and in exurbia, here, the results are more mixed. But it remains the case that the base most committed to Trump and most fervently loyal to his agenda is rural and exurban.AK: So just outside the cities. And finally, I argued, maybe counterintuitively, that America remains split today as it was before November the 5th, so I'm not convinced that this election is the big deal that some people think it is. But you wrote an interesting piece in Salon back in 2020 arguing that Trump has poisoned American culture, but the toxin was here all along. Of course, there is more, if anything, of that toxin now. So even if Harris had won the election, that toxin was still here. And finally, David, how do we get rid of that toxin? Do we just go to put Bruce Springsteen on and go and watch Big Lebowski? I mean, how do we get beyond this toxin?DAVID MASCIOTRA: I would I would love it if that was the way to do it.AK: We'll sit in our bathtub and wait for the thugs to come along?DAVID MASCIOTRA: Right, exactly. No, what you're asking is, of course, the big question. We need to find a way to resurrect some sense of, I'll use another conservative phrase, civic virtue. And in doing--AK: And resurrection, of course, by definition, is conservative, because you're bringing something back.“Ambition is what allows a society to grow. And it seems like ambition has fallen far out of fashion.” -DMDAVID MASCIOTRA: Exactly. And we also have to resurrect, offer something more practical, we have to resurrect a sense of civics. One thing on which--I have immense respect and admiration for Jonathan Rauch--one minor quibble I would have with him from your conversation is when he said that the voters rejected the liberal intellectual class and their ideas. Some voters certainly rejected, but some voters were unaware. The lack of civic knowledge in the United States is detrimental to our institutions. I mean, a majority of Americans don't know how many justices are on the Supreme Court. They can't name more than one freedom enumerated in the Bill of Rights. So we need to find a way to make citizenship a vital part of our national identity again. And there are some practical means of doing that in the educational system. Certainly won't happen in the next four years. But to get to the less tangible matter of how to resurrect something like civic virtue and bring back ambition and aspiration in our sense of national identity, along with empathy, is much tougher. I mean, Robert Putnam says it thrives upon community and voluntary associations.AK: Putnam has been on the show, of course.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Yeah. So, I mean, this is a conversation that will develop. I wish I had the answer, and I wish it was just to listen to Born to Run in the bathtub with with a poster of The Dude hanging overhead. But as I said to you before we went on the air, I think that you have a significant insight to learn this conversation because, in many ways, your books were prescient. We certainly live with the cult of the amateur now, more so than when you wrote that book. So, I'd love to hear your ideas.AK: Well, that's very generous of you, David. And next time we appear, you're going to interview me about why the cult of the amateur is so important. So we will see you again soon. But we're going to swap seats. So, David will interview me about the relevance of Cult of the Amateur. Wonderful conversation, David. I've never thought about Lebowski or Francis Fukuyama, particularly Lebowski, in terms of what happened on November 5th. So, very insightful. Thank you, David, and we'll see you again in the not-too-distant future.DAVID MASCIOTRA: Thank you. I'm going to reread Cult of the Amateur to prepare. I may even do it in the bathtub. I look forward to our discussion.David Masciotra is an author, lecturer, and journalist. He is the author of I Am Somebody: Why Jesse Jackson Matters (I.B. Tauris, 2020), Mellencamp: American Troubadour (University Press of Kentucky), Barack Obama: Invisible Man (Eyewear Publishers, 2017), and Metallica by Metallica, a 33 1/3 book from Bloomsbury Publishers, which has been translated into Chinese. In 2010, Continuum Books published his first book, Working On a Dream: The Progressive Political Vision of Bruce Springsteen.His 2024 book, Exurbia Now: Notes from the Battleground of American Democracy, is published by Melville House Books. Masciotra writes regularly for the New Republic, Washington Monthly, Progressive, the Los Angeles Review of Books, CrimeReads, No Depression, and the Daily Ripple. He has also written for Salon, the Daily Beast, CNN, Atlantic, Washington Post, AlterNet, Indianapolis Star, and CounterPunch. Several of his political essays have been translated into Spanish for publication at Korazon de Perro. His poetry has appeared in Be About It Press, This Zine Will Change Your Life, and the Pangolin Review. Masciotra has a Master's Degree in English Studies and Communication from Valparaiso University. He also has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of St. Francis. He is public lecturer, speaking on a wide variety of topics, from the history of protest music in the United States to the importance of bars in American culture. David Masciotra has spoken at the University of Wisconsin, University of South Carolina, Lewis University, Indiana University, the Chicago Public Library, the Lambeth Library (UK), and an additional range of colleges, libraries, arts centers, and bookstores. As a journalist, he has conducted interviews with political leaders, musicians, authors, and cultural figures, including Jesse Jackson, John Mellencamp, Noam Chomsky, all members of Metallica, David Mamet, James Lee Burke, Warren Haynes, Norah Jones, Joan Osborne, Martín Espada, Steve Earle, and Rita Dove. Masciotra lives in Indiana, and teaches literature and political science courses at the University of St. Francis and Indiana University Northwest. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Peace does not always represent justice or equity. Sometimes, it's good to be agitated. I think we can be hopeful AND angry. I truly believe there is room for both. “The challenge for us... is not to grieve over social change, but to guide it.” - Robert PutnamRESOURCES: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_find_hope_when_youre_feeling_cynicalhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/23/hope-for-cynics-by-jamil-zaki-review-beating-the-trust-recessionhttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/in-hope-for-cynics-researcher-explores-how-seeing-the-good-in-others-is-good-for-youTHE BOOK: https://www.jamil-zaki.com/hope-for-cynicsDONATE:www.pcrf.netGet Involved:Operation Olive Branch: Spreadsheets + LinksGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM FOR COOL CONTENT: www.instagram.com/mydbpodcastOR BE A REAL GEM + TUNE IN ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/MYDBpodcastOR WATCH ON YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/juliemerica The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the media talks about the evangelical vote today, what or to whom are they referring? Who are the people who self-identify in this way? Should we understand them as a group defined by their faith, their style of worship, by distinctive theological positions – or has the term evangelical itself become so politicised that in practice it is now most meaningfully understood as shorthand for a group of mainly white voters characterised by their opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights?Presenter: Adam Smith, Orsborn Professor of US Political History at Oxford and Director of the Rothermere American InstituteGuests: EJ Dionne, is a distinguished journalist and author, political commentator, and longtime op-ed columnist for the Washington Post. He is also a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a government professor at Georgetown University, and co-author of the recent New York Times bestseller One Nation Under Trump, author of ­Souled Out, and Why the Right Went Wrong, among others. His most recent book, released last year, is Code Red: How Progressives And Moderates Can Unite To Save Our Country.David Campbell is the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame and the director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative. His research focuses on civic and political engagement, with particular attention to religion and young people. Campbell's most recent book is Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics (with Geoff Layman and John Green), which received the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Among his other books is American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (with Robert Putnam), winner of the award from the American Political Science Association for the best book on government, politics, or international affairsKristin Kobes Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling author and Professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent book is Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.The Last Best Hope? is a podcast of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford. For details of our programming go to rai.ox.ac.ukProducer: Emily Williams. Presenter: Adam Smith Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robert Putnam, renowned political scientist and author of Bowling Alone and The Upswing, joins Offline to explain why bowling alone and scrolling alone are two sides of the same coin. Putnam has spent his life deciphering why social capital—our connection to each other and our communities—has been withering away for the last 50 years. The consequences of this trend are the focus of a new documentary, “Join or Die,” which explores the importance of civic engagement in America. Bob and Jon talk about the film, why social capital undergirds democracy, and why the internet is no substitute for joining an in-person club. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Pam King joins licensed therapist Dan Koch on his podcast, You Have Permission, for a discussion of the six facets of spiritual health.Announcement! With & For Season 2 is dropping on January 5, 2025! And until then, every Monday from September to December, we're sharing some shorter clips, practical features, and other talks or interviews featuring Dr. Pam King, to offer insight into what it means to thrive and pursue spiritual health.Show NotesWith & For Season 2 is dropping on January 5, 2024!Subscribe to Dan Koch's podcast, You Have Permission and his Patreon at patreon.com/dankochPam's research interests: positive developmental psychology and theologyHow do psychologists perceive religion, spirituality, and theology?How does spirituality and religion factor in human development?William Damon (Stanford University) on moral development in the wake of the Columbine shooting“My work has really focused on how do we offer people insight into the psychological benefits available in spirituality and religion at their best.”Youth group“What's the question I could ask that would get her thinking about the potentially harmful theology?”Purity culture at youth groupThe Thrive Center's rubric of Six Facets of Spiritual HealthWhat are the six facets of spiritual health?Transcendence and spirituality. Habits and rhythms. Relationships and community. Identity and narrative. Vocation and purpose. Ethics and virtues.“This model comes from is comes from existing research that highlights potential resources available through religious participation or being a spiritual person that can promote our well being.”How religion and spirituality buffer against mental illnessPsychological benefits of spirituality“Mechanisms of change”Benefits mediated through relationships with other people“Young people need relationships.”What is the nature of healthy spiritual community?“But increasingly, with the fragmentation of our society and our very transient and digital affiliations, we don't have the richness and the thick connections that we once did.”Polarization and culture wars and Robert Putnam's “Bowling Alone”Transcendence: ”something beyond the self”Spirituality: “experiencing and responding to transcendence”Habits and rhythms.Creativity and music“The reality is, as humans, we often find freedom with some structure.”Atomic HabitsContemplative neuroscienceFight, flight, freezeBuilt in rhythms of work and restSabbathAncient rhythms and practical wisdom that give us permission to restListen to Pam and Dan discuss facets of “Relationships and community” and “Identity and narrative” in the Patron-only second half of the conversation, available via patreon.com/dankochVocation and purpose.Teleology and Telos (end, goal, purpose)Reciprocating relationshipsPursuing purpose as an “enduring goal that is actionable”Mary Helen Immordino Yang (USC) and the default networkMeaning making“The moment that I was able to admit that I was a theological liberal was when I felt through contemplative practice directly accepted by God.”“If God exists, then I'm God's kid.”“And if there is God, and if these spiritual experiences actually correlate to something, then the clearest thing I know is I'm good. I'm loved. I'm accepted.”Ultimate transcendence and connection to divine love“Ultimately spiritual health involves an identity in which we are the beloved.”Contemplative practicesHow to make changing diapers a spiritual practice: “Oh, we got a pooper!”Directionality to narrativeEthics and virtues.Ethics as “real-world application to moral thinking.”Virtues as “building up certain regular capacities in ourselves such that we will naturally make good ethical choices.”Intercessory prayer and loving-kindness meditationHow youth approach morality in the context of community and family About the Thrive CenterLearn more at thethrivecenter.org.Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenterFollow us on X @thrivecenterFollow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter About Dr. Pam KingDr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking. About With & ForHost: Pam KingSenior Director and Producer: Jill WestbrookOperations Manager: Lauren KimSocial Media Graphic Designer: Wren JuergensenConsulting Producer: Evan RosaSpecial thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

I loved BOWLING ALONE as a poli-sci grad so was fascinated by the new documentary JOIN OR DIE at SXSW 2023. Now I had the chance to interview the directors Pete and Rebecca Davis. Joining a club could save our democracy! Get Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam using our affiliate link (ad) at https://amzn.to/3W8J38Q Make sure to check out Society Girl by Alys Murray (ad) https://amzn.to/3W1oRpg For our 2000s list https://youtu.be/EL0kY4SMgpo Find out more at https://www.joinordiefilm.com/ Get your #animationjunkie merch at https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies?ref_id=8581 For all of my interviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUXrD_GPfFY&list=PL7wz447AgL4zCpbwD6finm99UJtugYhnb For the Talking Disney Classics Podcast on youtube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7wz447AgL4wBeDtPI6IgHc6mh4LyIRkY Please support my content on patreon at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Listen to Hallmarkies Podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hallmarkies-podcast/id1296728288 Follow Rachel's Reviews on Itunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rachels-reviews/id1278536301?mt=2 Follow my blog at https://rachelsreviews.net Follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/rachel_reviews Follow me on facebook https://www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirlreviews/ Find the patreon at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies You can find the rest of the interviews at rotoscopers.com Follow me on twitter twitter.com/rachel_reviews Follow Rachel's Reviews on youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/RachelsReviews Follow Rachel on facebook www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirlreviews

It is day two of the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin, and a sense of dread is descending here across the pond since former President Trump named as his running mate, the ultra-isolationist Senator JD Vance. The former president, his ear bandaged, was greeted like a hero in his first appearance since the assassination attempt this weekend. “Fight, fight, fight!,” the crowds cheered and chanted, “We love Trump!” Correspondent Jeff Zeleny joins the program from the convention.  Also on today's show: Former US Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker; political scientist and author Robert Putnam; Astead Herndon, National Politics Reporter, The New York Times  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The author of “Bowling Alone” warned us about social isolation and its effect on democracy a quarter century ago. Things have only gotten worse.

Cheers was a sitcom hit in the 80s thanks to a theme tune promising that the fictional bar was a place "where everybody knows you name". Venues like pubs - away from our homes and workplaces - are vital for building our social networks and making our lives richer, easier and more fun.   But these so-called "Third Places" are in danger. Neighborhood hangouts are closing and membership of clubs, associations and unions is falling. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam has been watching this worrying decline across a lifetime and warns that we need to act before it's too late.   Robert is author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community and The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. He also inspired the 2023 film Join or Die. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.