What People Do

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.

Episode 25: Adam Clare makes games and teaches game design

Educational games get a bad rap. If more of them were made by Adam Clare, maybe I'd like them more. Adam admits some of the things that make bad educational games bad, but then makes interesting distinctions between free play and designed games and delves into how education infuses his views on the environment and, yes, on COVID. I mean, can we escape it? We can't.
You should play Dr. Trolley's Problem, if you're curious. While rudimentary in its graphics, wave after wave of consideration, reconsideration and repositioning of the classic philosophical problem makes it a good thought experiment to explore where you come down when it comes to life, death, utilitarianism and hard choices.
While we didn't discuss it, Adam also helps curate news on Things Are Good. If you need a nearly daily dose of positive news in a maelstrom of negativity, bookmark it, kids.

Episode 24: Mike built a nice garden ... for everybody

I noticed during then pandemic that one of the home owners whose property butts up against a trail at a nearby park started putting up flowers. And signs. And a bench. And nice messages for folks who were being emotionally beaten up by the pandemic.
It started with being irritated with a bunch of overgrown poison ivy and a tendency to flood during rain. And it turned into something special. People sent him letters. Park walkers talked to him on days when he was out working on it. Somebody painted his garden, and that hangs in his home office. Somebody wrote him a poem.
But it turns out that land wasn't his land ... so ... 
P.S. The picture is my daughter from years ago from, you guessed it, another park. She just got back from Europe. She's a world traveler now!

Episode 23: Gabrielle Roman writes

It's been a long time, so we're gonna call this season two, yeah?
We're back with a personally helpful conversation about writing: how she does it, how she did it, how she started, and, because I'm self-centered, what I can learn (and by extension, you can learn) from her about my own writing.
Find out how the first hit of audience dopamine hit for Gabs with her first fan, what she does to make sure she keeps writing in her busy life, and why she thinks anyone who wants to write should just write and not put too high expectations on the product and process.
If you've never written before, you think you might want to write a longer book, and you think you want some shared social accountability and some gamification, try NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It helped her.
Want to read Gabs' cool new blog? I got you.
P.S. As always, that pic is my daughter, years ago, out on the prairie. I like it, so there you go.