Professional sports have become a multibillion-dollar industry with millions of fans who will live and die based on their favorite team’s performance.
Occasionally, soccer hooligans and Raiders fans will take their exuberance a bit too far. Rioting after a team wins a championship happens more often than not.
However, nothing in the world of modern sports can compare to the levels of devotion and street violence which chariot racing commanded in ancient Rome.
A caller shares a strange story of a possible curse. The guys explore the dark side of so-called conversion therapy. And a voicemail inspires the gang to finally begin exploring the controversial, conspiratorial death of the Hip Hop legend, the Notorious B.I.G. All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.
So the COVID surge has Andrew Cuomo banning in-home gatherings of groups larger than 10. Can he do this? Can the surge cause new lockdowns that people will follow? And what will the economic consequences be? Give a listen. Source
So the COVID surge has Andrew Cuomo banning in-home gatherings of groups larger than 10. Can he do this? Can the surge cause new lockdowns that people will follow? And what will the economic consequences be? Give a listen.
COVID explosion with 144-thousand new cases yesterday. Joe Biden names his chief of staff. Tropical Storm Eta makes a second landfall. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
In 1798 James Madison wrote of the press: "To the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression." In 2020, if Madison was correct then reason and humanity could be in for an even rougher ride, with hometown newspapers collapsing across the country. But to think of this threat to hometown journalism as being just a local story is to miss the bigger story.
No longer represented by local shoe leather reporting done by a journalist you knew and saw at town meetings, many American communities now only think of the media as distant strangers who can't be trusted. So the scarcity of hometown newspapers doesn't just make it so some communities are dark on local news, but it's actively feeding our lack of trust and the partisan divide at a national level. Add this together with the rise of multimedia conglomerates and partisan news sources and it's obvious why our problems in journalism are Big Wicked Problems, and time might be short to stop the most profound consequences that lie ahead. And if we lose our paper, just who can we blame but ourselves?
In keeping with our theme for the year - that it's in our hometown where we ultimately decide who we are to each other and (in this case) what we know about our government, our community and our neighbors. So we also talk specifically about how we keep our local journalism healthy and alive for the decades ahead.
Our conversation begins with former Tallahassee Democrat publisher Skip Foster and Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas, both of whom have copious wisdom to share on our topic. Mary Ellen spent a year as a Harvard Niemen fellow studying the deep connectedness between the health of local journalism and the health of democracy. Read "Less Local News Means Less Democracy" here.
In part 2 of this program, we expand the circle of wisdom and experience with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Bob Sanchez and local nonprofit startup Tallahassee Reports' Steve Stewart.
The program is facilitated by Jennifer Portman, Enterprise Editor for USA Today.
Baratunde ends Season One focused on the state of our relationships, a key pillar of how to citizen, and thus the health of our society after the most contentious election in modern history. In conversation with world-renowned relationship expert, Esther Perel, they discuss how to repair relationships in this moment, and how choosing to listen and humanize each other is not only how to citizen, but enlightened self-interest.
Show Notes + Links
We are grateful to Esther Perel for joining us!
Follow her @EstherPerelOfficial on IG or @estherperel on Twitter. or find more of her work at EstherPerel.com.
We will post this episode, a transcript, show notes and more at howtocitizen.com.
Please show your support for the show in the form of a review and rating. It makes a huge difference with the algorithmic overlords!
INTERNAL ACTIONS
What is your model of relationships?
Were you raised to believe in self-reliance and autonomy or interdependence and loyalty? Do you conceive of yourself as an “I” trying to develop a “We” or the other way around?
Take inventory of the relationships in your life.
Identify relationships in your life that are polarized over politics. Determine which make you truly unsafe that you must let go, then focus on those where you are still committed to some level of relationship and you can still see possibility. In those relationships, make the choice to humanize the person, listen, and find common ground, no matter how small. Reflect on your own behavior and language. Can you acknowledge any responsibility for the state of the relationship?
Examine your own perspectives about people who vote differently than you.
What about your view or beliefs about “these people” makes you fearful? If these thoughts were reversed, would they sound fair or accurate to you? Can you imagine another dimension to one of them as to why they vote or behave the way they do?
EXTERNAL ACTIONS
Choose to deepen one or two relationships with people who voted differently from you.
Instead of ignoring how a loved one voted, practice engaging through questions, not arguments. Be curious. Remember the question from Eric Liu in Ep 2: “what are you afraid of?” and add “what do you hope for?” and “what do you care about?”
Build and invest in relationships outside of politics.
We need more excuses to connect with each other beyond politics. In our second episode, Eric Liu asked us to start a club, any club. Do it. If you’re already in one or more, good for you. Stay connected to others through the common interests you share. Invest in those relationships.
If you take any of these actions, share that with us - action@howtocitizen.com. Mention Humanize in the subject line. And share about your citizening on social media using #howtocitizen.
SEASON BREAK NOTES
Thrilled at the response. - example of quotes about the show, slack, inbox, or reviews in itunes. If you’ve enjoyed, the NUMBER ONE WAY PODCAST GROW are by word of mouth. Tell someone about the show or your favorite episode.
Thanks for riding with us this season. Here’s the news on the future of this show: There’s a future of this show! We will be making a second season and expect to release it in the first quarter of 2021.
We might drop some special episodes during this transition period for our country and our podcast, but here’s some ways to stay connected…
Baratunde and show social @baratunde on socials. @howtocitizenwithbaratunde on IG 202-894-8844 “citizen”
Send us email or voice memo! on what you’ve thought of season 1 and what you’d want to hear in season 2. comments@howtocitizen.com
For more than a century California has relied on incarcerated firefighters to help combat devastating wildfires. Bay Curious listener Brittany Powers wanted to know how much these firefighters are paid, and why it's so hard for them to find similar employment when they get out of jail. Brittany's question won our September voting round.
Reported by Kevin Stark. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Rob Speight and Chris Hoff. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Bianca Hernandez, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Michelle Wiley.
Jihadism is growing in a continent-wide strip of Africa, and the riskiest operations to contain it fall to French troops. Our correspondent witnesses a fraught and seemingly endless mission. Peru has ousted yet another president, at a woeful time: the pandemic is raging, the economy cratering and politics fracturing. And the movement to water down Sweden’s state monopoly on booze. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer
In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Iowa polls had Biden and Trump running neck and neck to win the state’s 6 electoral votes. However, one poll in late October showed that Trump had taken a seven-point lead over Biden. Many political observers and Democrats dismissed it as an outlier, insisting that Iowa was up for grabs. On election night? Trump won Iowa by just over eight points.
How did Ann Selzer see this coming? And what does the “Outlier Queen” have to say about the state of her industry?
Guest: Ann Selzer, public opinion pollster and President of Selzer and Company.
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