Listened to Introducing The Shrink Next Door by Joe Nocera from The Shrink Next Door (Bloomberg|Wondery)

Veteran journalist Joe Nocera’s neighbor in the Hamptons was a therapist named Ike. Ike counted celebrities and Manhattan elites as his patients. He’d host star-studded parties at his eccentric vacation house. But one summer, Joe discovered that Ike was gone and everything he’d thought he’d known about his neighbor -- and the house next door --  was wrong. From Wondery, the company behind Dirty John and Dr. Death, and Bloomberg, “The Shrink Next Door” is a story about power, control and turning to the wrong person for help for three decades. Written and hosted by Joe Nocera, a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, “The Shrink Next Door” premieres on May 21st.

Album cover art for The Shrink Next Door

🎧 Dr. Ruth on Communicating Under the Covers and Above | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Listened to Dr. Ruth on Communicating Under the Covers and Above by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Her name is Ruth Westheimer, but we all know her as Dr. Ruth, the helpful lady who’s spoken to us for decades about sex. She's always direct, to the point, and bubbling with insight about ourselves and our partners. In this frank conversation with Alan Alda, Dr. Ruth talks about how to achieve a long lasting relationship in a short term world. She also talks candidly about her past experience as a sniper, and shares her thoughts on sex and relationships as we age.

🎧 Sheila Nevins on Age, Sex, Love, Life, and Everything Else | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Listened to Sheila Nevins on Age, Sex, Love, Life, and Everything Else by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Sheila Nevins has explored the human condition in the thousand or so documentaries she produced for HBO. From more than 30 years of telling us stories about ourselves, to her experience as a woman in the workplace, Sheila has plenty to say about communicating. And she never holds back. In this delightful episode, Alan Alda talks with Sheila about her life, how she feels about aging, the #MeToo movement, sex, divorce, documentaries, storytelling, and just about everything else! This episode is sponsored by Calm. Check out www.calm.com/alda for more details.

I always forget that Sheila is as old as she is. She does have a great sense of humor.

She makes an interesting point about humility that people with power (and especially within the entertainment industry) should be aware of and work to improve.

Most shocking was the story she tells about her me too moment and how she viewed it. Definitely a perspective I wouldn’t have expected.

Her perspective about looking at individuals as a way into human problems and making documentaries is similar to a philosophy I remember hearing from Masha Gessen in an interview that Jeffrey Goldberg did with her. The upshot is that, especially for righting wrongs and general atrocities, focusing a story on a particular individual has a lot more power than focusing on the nameless and faceless masses. Sheila’s example of the Holocaust survivor is a particular apt one. (As I think about it Masha would be a great interview for this podcast.)

In fact, I recently watched an immigration related documentary on Frontline and while I didn’t personally find the lead woman very relate-able or sympathetic, I was still pissed off at the process because her individual story was still so powerful.

This general ideal also reminds me of the gut-punch scene at the end of the film A Time To Kill (1996) [spoiler alert] which ends with the command to the jury “Now imagine she’s white.”

🎧 Senator Bill Bradley on How We Can All Do Better | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Listened to Senator Bill Bradley on How We Can All Do Better by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Senator Bill Bradley has an amazing life. He was a Gold medal Olympian, a Rhodes Scholar, a legendary star with the Knicks for 10 years, a United Sates Senator for 12 years. He ran for the Democratic party’s Presidential nomination, and to top it off, he’s the host of the long-running SiriusXM Satellite Radio program – “American Voices.” In this episode, Alan Alda speaks with Sen. Bradley about leading a life of curiosity, learning and service. His stories are fun and he has a lot to say about our fellow Americans. This episode is sponsored by Athletic Greens, visit athleticgrrens.com/alda

Listened to Steven Johnson on the Importance of Play and the Decisions We Make by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

How do we come up with ideas? How do we make decisions? And how can we do both better? Steven Johnson has explored this question and written a dozen books about it. In this playful, thoughtful episode, Steven has some fascinating stories, like how Darwin made the decision to get married — or how a defecating duck helped lead to the invention of the computer. Through their own stories, Steven and Alan Alda share their thoughts about the transformative nature of ideas and what sort of environments best give rise to creativity.

I love the idea of the slow hunch discussed here. It’s part of the reason I keep a commonplace book. Johnson also discusses his own personal commonplace book, though he doesn’t give it that particular name here.

The commercial about Alda Communication Training makes me wonder if they recommend scientists and communicators have their own websites? In particular, I’m even more curious because of Johnson’s mention of his commonplace book and how he uses it in this episode. I suspect that scientists having a variety of interconnecting commonplaces (via Webmention) using basic IndieWeb or A Domain of One’s Own principles could better create slow hunches, create more links, increase creativity and diversity, and foster greater innovation. I’ll have to follow up on this idea. While some may do something slightly like this within other parts of social media, I don’t get the impression that it’s as useful a tool in those places (isn’t as searchable or permanent feeling, and is likely rarely reviewed over). Being able to own your digital commonplace as a regular tool certainly has more value as Johnson describes. Functionality like On This Day dramatically increases its value.

But there’s another point that we should make more often, I think, which is that one of the most robust findings in the social sciences and psychology over the last 20 years is that diverse groups are just collectively smarter and more original in the way that they think in, in both their way of dreaming up new ideas, but also in making complicated decisions, that they avoid all the problems of group think and homogeneity that you get when you have a group of like minded people together who are just amplifying each other’s beliefs.—Steven Johnson [00:09:59]

Think about a big decision in your life. Think about the age span of the people you’re talking to about that choice. Are they all your peers within three or four years? Are you talking somebody who’s a generation older and a generation younger?—Steven Johnson [00:13:24]

I was talking to Ramzi Hajj yesterday about having mentors (with a clear emphasis on that mentor being specifically older) and this quote is the same sentiment, just with a slightly different emphasis.

One of the things that is most predictive of a species, including most famously, humans, of their capacity for innovation and problem solving as an adult is how much they play as a newborn or as a child.—Steven Johnson [00:28:10]

Play is important for problem solving.

I think you boil this all down into the idea that if you want to know what the next big thing is, look for where people are having fun.—Alan Alda [00:31:35]

This is interesting because I notice that one of the  binding (and even physically stated) principles of the IndieWeb is to have fun. Unconsciously, it’s one of the reasons I’ve always thought that what the group is doing is so important.

Ha! Alda has also been watching Shtisel recently [00:50:04].

🎧 Our Favorite Answers By Listeners to the 7 Questions | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Listened to Our Favorite Answers By Listeners to the 7 Questions by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

We love hearing from our listeners! Through social media and email, you've been sending us your own answers to "Alan's 7 Questions" and we've been having a great time reading through all your witty, smart, and often poignant responses. In this episode, we're highlighting all of our favorites! We want to keep hearing from you, so please continue to write us at: podcast@aldacommunication.com or get social with us on Twitter @alda, or on Facebook and Instagram at "ClearandVivid." Thanks for listening and enjoy the show -- dedicated to all of you!

I appreciate the fact that they did this episode to have some more two way conversation between those on the show and their audience. Makes me think they would appreciate and benefit from taking a more IndieWeb approach to their web presence.

🎧 Steven Strogatz Bonus – What to Do When Things Keep Changing! | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Listened to Steven Strogatz Bonus - What to Do When Things Keep Changing! by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Alan Alda wanted to get off the island quickly. Steven Strogatz explains how an 18th century British clergyman could have helped. In this short bonus episode, Steven helps Alan understand something that he’s wondered about for years.

Quadrilateral equation?? Did he mean the Pythagorean theorem?

There’s a reasonable basic discussion of Bayesian statistics here.

🎧 Stephen Fry On How Our Myths Help Us Know Who We Are | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Listened to Stephen Fry On How Our Myths Help Us Know Who We Are by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Stephen Fry loves words. But he does more than love them. He puts them together in ways that so delight readers, that a blog or a tweet by him can get hundreds of thousands of people hanging on his every keystroke. As an actor, he’s brought to life every kind of theatrical writing from sketch comedy to classics. He’s performed in everything from game shows to the British audiobook version of Harry Potter. And always with a rich intelligence and searching eye. In this conversation with Alan Alda, Stephen explores how myths — sometimes very ancient ones — help us understand and, even guide, our modern selves.

Just a lovely episode here. I particularly like the idea about looking back to Greek mythology and the issues between the gods and humans being overlain in parallel on our present and future issues between humans and computers/robots/artificial intelligence.

🎧 Solving the Facebook Problem at Home and Abroad | On the Media | WNYC Studios

Listened to Solving the Facebook Problem at Home and Abroad by Bob Garfield from On the Media | WNYC Studios

When former Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes penned a New York Times op-ed calling for the breakup of the platform, he was lauded by anti-corporate politicians and the press. Then came a series of hard questions: how exactly would breaking up Facebook, which owns WhatsApp and Instagram, address free speech concerns? Or help stifle the spread of propaganda on the platform? And how would American regulations affect the majority of Facebook users, who live in the global south? According to Michael Lwin, an American-born antitrust lawyer living in Yangon, Myanmar, US regulators should tread lightly. He and Bob speak about how calls to break up Facebook could have wide ranging unintended consequences, especially outside of the US.

As bad as Facebook is, there are some potential second and multiple-order effects to be careful of when considering breaking them up or heavily regulating them.

🎧 On Matters of War | On the Media | WNYC Studios

Listened to On Matters of War from On the Media | WNYC Studios

Controversy erupted over news that President Trump may grant more pardons for alleged war criminal Edward Gallagher and others. This week, On the Media looks at Fox News’s influence on the president’s decision. And, how the Navy may be spying on a reporter who's tracked Gallagher's case. Plus, how the latest Julian Assange indictment could spell disaster for the future of investigative journalism. 

1. James Goodale, former General Counsel for The New York Times and author of Fighting For The Press, on the disastrous new Julian Assange indictments. Listen

2. Adam Weinstein [@AdamWeinstein], an editor with The New Republic, on the unofficial Fox News campaign to push the president to pardon alleged war criminals. Listen.

3. Andrew Tilghman [@andrewtilghman], Executive Editor of the Military Times, on the Navy's troubling assault on press freedom. Listen.

4. Scott J. Shapiro [@scottjshapiro], professor of philosophy and law at Yale, on how militaries across the globe navigate the horrors of war. Listen.

🎧 Jonathan Haidt on Why We’re So Divided and What to Do About It | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Listened to Jonathan Haidt on Why We're So Divided and What to Do About It by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

How do we get beyond Right versus Left, "Us" versus "Them," and even "Me" versus "You"? Jonathan Haidt has a few theories about this all too-familiar tribalism and the seemingly endless culture wars of our time. As someone who studies morality and emotion, Jonathan has deep insight into the moral foundation of our politics and his research in moral psychology has revealed new ways for us to engage in more civil forms of politics, which can help make us all more cooperative and decent. In this conversation, Alan Alda talks with Jonathan about what makes us happy and how we can overcome our natural tendency toward self-righteousness, in order to respect and learn from those whose morality (and politics) differs from our own.

Awesome episode. Definitely worth a second listen.

🎧 Steven Strogatz Says You Can Understand Math | Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Listened to Steven Strogatz Says You Can Understand Math by Alan Alda from Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

Steven Strogatz possesses a special ability to see into the unseen. How does he do it? Steve is a world class mathematician, who sees through the window of math. But, lucky for us, he’s also a world class communicator. An award-winning professor, researcher, author, and creative thinker, Steve can help anyone (even Alan Alda) understand some of the unseen world of numbers. In this episode, Alan and Steven start from zero, not the number, but from a place of not knowing anything. He emerges from the darkness for a moment as Steve actually gets Alan to understand something that’s always mystified him. Steven's latest book, "Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe," is now available online and at all major book sellers.

While doing a good job of warming people up to math there was still a little bit too much “math is hard” or “math is impenetrable” discussion in the opening here. We need to get away from continuing the myth that math is “hard”. The stories we tell are crucially important here. I do like the fact that Alan Alda talks about how he’s been fascinated with it and has never given up. I’m also intrigued at Strogatz’ discussion of puzzling things out as a means of teaching math–a viewpoint I’ve always felt was important. It’s this sense of exploration that has driven math discovery for centuries and not the theorem-proof, theorem-proof structure of math text books that moves us forward.

I’ve always thought that Euler and Cauchy have their names on so many theorems simply because they did a lot of simple, basic exploration at a time when there was a lot of low hanging mathematical fruit to be gathered. Too many math books and teachers mythologize these men for what seems like magic, yet when taught to explore the same way even young children can figure out many of these same theorems for themselves.

If we could only teach the “how to do math” while children are young and then only move to the theorem-proof business later on as a means of quickly advancing through a lot of history and background so that students can get to the frontiers of math to begin doing their own explorations on their own again we would be far better off. Though along that path we should always have at least some emphasis on the doing of math and discovery to keep it at the fore.

🎧 This Week in Google 505 Laundry Folding as a Service | TWiT.TV

Listened to This Week in Google 505 Laundry Folding as a Service by  Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, Stacey Higginbotham from TWiT.tv

  •  Facebook Demands Users' Email Passwords, Steals Their Contacts
  •  Sri Lanka Shuts Down Social Media
  •  Smoking Cessation and Depression Apps Could be Sharing and Selling and Your Data
  •  Samsung Galaxy Fold Delayed to June 13th • Mr Dorsey Goes to Washington
  •  Android Q Will Kill the Back Button
  •  Google I/O Preview
  •  Google's Undersea Cable Infrastructure
  •  Jacquard on TEDtalks
  •  Jarvis on Our Addiction to Stories
  •  The EU Wants Your Biometric Data
  •  The WashPo Columnist that Hates Podcasts (and Whistling)
  •  Sprint Settles with AT&T Over Fake 5G
  •  IoT Over 5ghz
  •  That $16,000 Laundry Folding Goes Bankrupt, but a $3000 Competitor is on the way
  •  Google Punishes Walkout Organizers
  •  Most Tweets Made By Young, Female Democrats
  •  AOC Quits Facebook & Thinks You Should, Too
  •  Facebook is Ready to be Fined by the FTC
  •  Tik Tok Unbanned in India
  •  Exploding Frisbees, Underwater Relay Racing, Pommel Horse Sawing, and More Game Ideas from Artificial Intelligence

Picks of the Week

  •  Stacey's Thing #1: The Princess and the Fangirl: A Geekerella Fairy Tale (Once Upon A Con)
  •  Stacey's Thing #2: IoT Inspector
  •  Jeff's Number #1: How Google saved 6 million lbs in food waste
  •  Jeff's Number #2: Court denies Boston entrepreneur share of $65 million Facebook settlement
  •  Leo's Tool: The Land Before Time, "Scottish" edition

🎧 Podcast: Distributed, with Matt Mullenweg

Listened to Podcast: Distributed, with Matt Mullenweg from Distributed.blog

The cofounder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic embarks on a journey to understand the future of work. Having built his own 900-person company with no offices and employees scattered across 68 countries, Mullenweg examines the benefits and challenges of distributed work and recruiting talented people around the globe.

This sounds like an interesting premise for a podcast, though I suspect it’s a limited run. I can’t imagine what episode 50 would look like.

🎧 This Week in Google 504 Gelato in Perugia With Craig | TWiT.TV

Listened to This Week in Google 504 Gelato in Perugia With Craig by Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, Mathew Ingram from TWiT.tv

Facebook Hell, Julian Assange, Notre Dame

  • Documents "Confirm" Facebook Used Your Data Against Rivals
  •  Google I/O Plans: Will Pixel 3a Be There?
  •  YouTube Falsely Hints Notre Dame Fire was Terrorism
  •  Defending Assange: Hard but Necessary
  •  The Open Internet is Under Attack
  •  YouTube Wants to Reward "Quality Watch Time"
  •  Congratulations 2019 Pulitzer Winners!
  •  Facebook's 15 Months of Hell
  •  Twitter "Prioritizes" Abuse Flags
  •  Jack Dorsey Floats Controversial Twitter Changes
  •  Secret Service Mishandle Mar-A-Lago Malware
  •  Illinois' Anti-Alexa Law Has No Teeth
  •  Pixel Camera Adds Kiss Detection
  •  Galaxy Fold Review Units Breaking
  •  Twitter Deletes Journalists' Tweets about Torrent Story

Picks of the Week

  •  Jeff's Numbers: Mayor Pete speaks Binary, Get naked to protest social media
  •  Mathew's Thing: Assassin's Creed Unity will be used to rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral