What People Do

Episode 35: Jeffery D. Long on Hinduism, religious nonviolence

Jainism, birthed out of the rich religions of India, asks practitioners to be as careful as they can in not hurting a single thing. They step carefully on the ground and wear masks to avoid inhaling and accidentally killing the little things we thoughtlessly murder. Now, that, but writ large: Gandhi, and the nonviolent movement that sought Indian independence from British rule. 
Well, we don’t talk about any of that, because as a fellow religious convert, I much more wanted to discuss Jeffery D. Long’s switch from small-town Missouri Catholicism to Hinduism over the decades. It turns out, the tale started when he was very young, but then culminated when he was much older: a seeking that finally a home in a newly embraced religion, but also an over-arching belief in the ability of man and man’s systems to change to embrace more peace, less war and violence. 
Dive a lot into Long the main, some into his newly co-edited (and contributed) book, Nonviolence in the World’s Religions: A Concise Introduction (Routledge, 2022), and some more into his wanting to highlight the peace at the heart of some of the world’s religions at a time when the world is increasingly critical of the violence that bubbles up from religion’s adherents. 
And, bonus, listeners! Long recommended books at the end of our recording session for beginners curious about Hinduism or other strands of Eastern religion he’s explored through the years. This is not an exhaustive list. Email him and I bet he’ll pony up with one. 
A Survey of Hinduism, 3rd edition by Klaus K. Klostermaier (from SUNY Press, from Half Price Books online)   
Vedanta: A Simple Introduction by Pravrajika Vrajaprana (from Vedanta Press) 
Jainism: An Introduction by Jeffery D. Long (from I.B. Tauris)  
Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Carrithers (one of a long, lovely series on everything from Oxford)   
What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula (a marvelous one I read a year or so ago, from Grove Press in its most recent edition, with many older editions everywhere in the used-book market)  
What the Buddha Thought by Richard Gombrich (from Equinox Publishing) 
Empty, Empty. Happy, Happy. by Tyler Lewke (Redwood Publishing, 2019, on Amazon) 
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (from the Self-Realization Fellowship, whose wide publishing has made this book a mainstay in used bookstores for decades) 
Editor’s note: This interview is the second of a three-part series on Nation-Building, War and, right here, Peace. (Also in the works is a series on Birth, Adolescence and Old Age.) 

Episode 34: Portia Stewart is a creativity consultant

Oh, that means she does art projects at the local museum? No. Right, well, that means she helps creatives unstick when they’re working on their novels, like, say, Julie Cameron? Well, a little closer. No, Portia (at Mind Full Creatives) is really on the path of helping anyone with unleashing their creativity, but especially those who want to unleash creativity and actually get something done, whether that's a “solo-preneur” or a group of corporate bigwigs or multiple internal teams clashing right now over dreaming into the future and trying to find out what sticks. 
I used to work with Portia for years in veterinary publishing, and now she’s one of my career-reimagining heroes (along with her, who’s a career coach now). She’s been on the podcast before about another job. That’s how fast she shifts. Ha! 
What does Portia do as a creativity consultant? If you’re feeling stopped up or frustrated about idea generation or idea execution, what can you do? 
“Identify when you feel creative and happy, and make more of that in your life,” she says here. 
Let’s dig in. 

Episode 33: Tania Rodriguez, Leah Ferguson study how to improve learning in older adults

How do you keep learning when you get old? Keep learning when you get old. It’s not a riddle, say Tania Rodriguez and Leah Ferguson (with the red streaks on the left, if you see the thumbnail) working at the Calla Lab at UC Riverside with their inspiring leader, Rachel Wu, PhD. (Stay to the end to hear how awesome Wu is.) 
Rodriguez is a first-year PhD student in the psychology program studying low-income minority older adults helping them to increase cognitive function and stave off cognitive decline in their later years. Ideally, she’d like her research to help us understand how older people can learn new skills and keep their brains healthier later in life. When you’re old and you want to learn something, you can, she argues. 
Ferguson is another first-year student in the program, and she’s studying “learning based off of necessity” to help other underserved communities, like people with disabilities or citizens returning to society after being institutionalized in prison. 
Our conversation rolls through neuroscience, how experiments are conducted (Calla Lab looks at brain waves and neuroscience evidence of learning, too), what learning looks like for older folks in tougher circumstances (like marginalized communities and people post-prison), and how they plant the question in everyone, even their own relatives: Why do you think you can’t learn things you want to learn when you’re old?  
Can an old dog learn new tricks? Rodriguez and Ferguson say, heck yeah (not literally). Let them sell you on it! 
This is the second in a three-part series on childhood, adolescence, and old age. Catch the adolescence episode here. 
Editor’s note: I had to frantically buy premium Zoom while this conversation went on because, with two awesome guests, free Zoom was going to boot me after 40 minutes. If you can’t tell when I had to mute my mic and frantically enter credit card data, praying my guests wouldn’t stop or ask me a question, I did my job. Why, Zoom? Why? 

Episode 32: Kelly Main acts

Kelly and I used to work together, and she was always very high-energy, a big laugher, a loud, ringing and positive voice. She was in sales, so none of that should surprise. But what I found out later, after I’d worked with her for a while, was she was an actress. Maybe on temporary, busy-life hiatus, but she’d had a whole ‘nother life before this one in the arts, in New York acting school, in New York performing and tryouts. Years before. 
And she was back at it, trying out for a local this, working with a local group that. 
This is Kelly’s story, from small-town midwest life as preachers’ daughter, but supportive preachers, and her first kiss with Christian Slater as kids at Starlight, and then acting college under greats in New York City and a solid 10 years trying to make it. And, finally, one day, deciding, no, this is about as far as I want to go. So, then, family, kids, back to the Midwest, and a more peaceful and differently amazing life.  
When I found out I knew a real actor, and when I had a chance to ask her about it, well, I did. 
And, at the end, Kelly says she was kinda glad her kids are going their own way and didn’t decide to try to make it. 
Kelly is happy being an actress, couldn’t even get away from it, but in her own way in her own time. 

Episode 31: Carol Branson makes whimsy-ponderable art

"Whimsy ponderable”: how Carol Branson’s friend described her art. I’d call it child-like, folk-art-flavored found art. You can see the fun, but it makes you think, too. Her online gallery starts with old guitars and goes from there. My daughter is particularly partial, in a major way, to the skateboard art. There’s wood, metal, paint and lighting elements: found objects transformed into feelings and color. 
Carol shares how she started in art, how theater and art played roles in comforting and guiding her as she was outed as a gay woman before high school, and how working with her hands has played such a big part in her careers (from theater manager to arborist) and her free time. Her art’s shown up in churches, at art galleries and even Union Station. As the pandemic winds down, she’s trying to find more nice ways to show her art and interact with the folks who come by to tell her how it makes them feel. 
Let Odd Job Grrl, a business/pseudonym she came up with when she needed to invoice something on a letterhead, share with you her even-keeled, joyful, found-art approach to making things because you want to, not just the things the world tells you to make …  
P.S. My refrigerator came on and started making noise, so I cut that part out. Sorry, if you wanted to hear it. 

Episode 30: Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson studies adolescence

I throw inflammatory questions and opinions about teenagers at Washington State University sociology professor Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson, and she handles them with aplomb.
Teenagers have a rough time, and different teenagers have different rough times depending on who they are, where they live, what their parents are like, and how much money they've got. Most interesting, and sounding right, Monica discusses the "package" we're born with: Our rough or easy teenage transition as a life stage usually has to do with more than one factor ... here and abroad.
Let's talk adolescents ...
Want to read more? Monica recommends two "easily accessible" books (not overly mathematical) and one a little denser:
Not Quite Adults: Why 20-somethings Are Choosing a Slower Path to Adulthood, and Why It's Good for Everyone by Richard Settersten and Barbara E. Ray 
The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition by Katherine S. Newman, with a less U.S.-centric take
Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex by Amy T. Schalet, which compares U.S. views on adolescent sexuality to Dutch teens and parents.
Sneak peek? She's also working with another academic on learning how people are reacting to each other, masked or unmasked, in this pandemic. Got to have her back to talk about THAT!
My own sneak peek? Monica's great interview is the first in a three-part series about childhood, adolescence, and old age. More to come there!
PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels

Episode 29: Jeremy Black studies war (and talks academia)

Jeremy Black spoke to me Jan. 1, 2022, so he seems the perfect guest to share first in this new season. 
He talks about one of the most emotionally fraught issues of human civilization, War and Violence(TM), with a historian's pragmatism and a respect for those affected by the war, especially the dead. 
I start off on some rant here about war being "bad," and he adds nuance and refuses to be baited into black-and-white thinking. One of his most recent books, A Short History of War (2021, Yale University Press), succinctly presents a complicated view of war that belies our current take that war is always and mostly caused by modern nations and politics: "Bellicosity in the shape of the will and readiness to fight leads to war, rather than war arising because misunderstandings produce inaccurate calculations of interest and response."
The best bonus, for me, turned out to be his rearview mirror picture of academia as Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Exeter.
He's also excited for you to read A History of the Second World War in 100 Maps (2020, University of Chicago Press), if you're interested enough in learning some of the geographical facts and realities that affected the biggest multi-country conflagration in the 20th century.
And a little teaser? He's not just a prolific writer, but he's clearly an avid reader, and he's working on books on Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. I've never been much for mysteries, but I might be enticed into exploring these classic writers in a deeper way.
Jeremy Black's interview is the first of a three-part series I hope to do on Nation-Building, War and Peace. (Also in the works is a series on Birth, Adolescence and Old Age.)
Enjoy. And happy (belated) new year ... 

Episode 28: Jonathon Stalls draws on paper, draws in energy on walks, and is drawing people out of their cars, trucks and box homes to check out the outside world

I found Jonathon Stalls on TikTok, where @pedestriandignity highlights the ugly, unpleasant and, worst of all, dangerous world of pedestrian travel in today's towns and cities. Sidewalks are overgrown, shoved next to roaring highways, or stop in the middle of nowhere for no reason. And that's just for those who can walk comfortably: What about the strollers? The wheelchairs? The walkers?
Pedestrians don't have enough dignity. The commercial and residential world around us ignores them. 
This episode should move you. Are you moved? Then get moving! Get out of your metal car box and flee your climate-controlled, artificial, sanitized home for the free air, wind, sun and greenery of the world. Take your friends! Take your colleagues! Imagine what life as an embodied person moving through the world could look and feel like ...
I love this topic, I dig Stalls' energy, I love his art and activism in Intrinsic Paths, and I support his Patreon. You should, too, if people in nature is a thing you think about.

Episode 27: Rachel Rilinger teaches Tai Chi Chih

She saw her aunt doing it decades ago and got into it then. This spiritual movement of body and energy is less exercise (Tai Chi) and more moving chi. Do the movements standing. Or sitting. Or visualize them lying down.
Rachel (who was my very first What People Do podcast guest ever) swears by Tai Chi Chih (tay chee chuh) and has found such joyous rewards through the movements that she's a certified teacher.
Dive in with us ... and check out the originator, the man it came to, Justin Stone doing a movement here.

Episode 26: Ronn Pawo McLane teaches meditation

He studied and worked with Lama Surya Das for years. He's got a cool podcast, online courses, a published set of meditations and he's working on an app. This cat has some cool thoughts and a thoughtful and very ecumenical and open-minded approach to quieting the mind.
P.S. The picture is my daughter from years ago from, and she learned a little meditation with a counselor in a group in elementary school. But she doesn't do it now. I don't think. She should start again. I mean, she just started middle school in person. She's gonna need it.