https://open.spotify.com/episode/7j1nfZZcPgHckBrWFHGvXv?si=z6pOBMiWThiXUmXxJ4r_lg On the plane coming back from Hawaii, the guy seated in front of me was easily over 300 pounds. He bulged over the armrests on either side of him. When he leaned his seat back, it came back so far it was virtually in my face. A teenage boy of equal girth sat next to … Continue reading On Being Fat
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3xNZjqPTtkDmYWDH8r6Wor?si=Wk61CVhmTCKk2D1Mg7QeEg #Litchat hosted an author on Twitter who'd recently written a book about being proud to be obese. The author tweeted of being 310 pounds on her 5' 5'' frame. She touted that she was in “great shape, healthy and happy.” Others joined in and congratulated her on finally accepting herself for being fat. And … Continue reading Why NOT to Be Proud You’re Fat
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3LWbdbjaOAeWGa6Abns7RF?si=GxpBGPPzSO-eqgZcmv0QOQ On our drive from school the other day my tweenage son told me a classmate had offered him a joint. I’d been preparing for this moment, staging it in my head for years, ready with my bag full of allegorical stories of my reckless youth before easing into the “Why drugs are bad for … Continue reading Between What is Said and What is Heard
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1OQMrhdQTm1rjz8TTB6gPU?si=UNv6gWBMSsC8zLnExI1d8g I imagine when all is black in my head and heart, I'll write something brilliant that justifies the darkness within. But when I'm depressed like this, I can not motivate myself to create, or do anything beyond succumbing to my sadness. This essay is simply on depression, living with it in a world that wears … Continue reading Living with Depression
For Lisa, my BFF since elementary school, until her other took over... --- https://open.spotify.com/episode/60vOOmeYWu2KI86YFIgxsX?si=CpZsD7u9S9aPHVbI-90How I haven't always been mentally ill. I've always been on the fringe of the norm, the glass wall between me and humanity kind of thing, but I didn't feel myself start to fragment until my mid-twenties. The first time it happened … Continue reading Chemically Sane
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6P4XfxWPS2TMHbfHxmJK2d?si=1PIvWMFiQimW1wMIByISdQ I teach my students at Berkeley and Stanford that the foundation of marketing is psychology. Marketing is manipulating people to do what we want, so to get people to do what we want, we have to understand how they think, what they feel, and why. I also teach that the foundation of psychology, what … Continue reading The Psychology of Marketing
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3o6bFRVafttDXEUV118V2x?si=oy8DMZD1TKG4OZecdTkrZQ Hiking on the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska a few weeks ago, I was trying to capture the iridescent blue/green light coming through the ice below my feet with my Canon Digital SLR. I took a few shots, with different apertures, from different P.O.V.s, but knew when I put them on the computer the picture would flatten. … Continue reading The Layering of Life
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5G6TXQ0St7n3bbNkZqilUa?si=HkJNU1PnSEGq8Qq_gUiaAw I was 16 weeks pregnant, with my first baby, when the results of an amnio told me that the wanted child I was carrying was not healthy. I have always been pro-choice, and never considered it a moral dilemma to terminate a fetus with severe Down’s Syndrome, or other life threatening, or debilitating abnormalities. … Continue reading Abortion and Choice
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0DYUfzcpaWX0QLAHm4zwgL?si=IcLDVye0QWqYc9-znLZu3g IMAGINE working your ass off all through high school, studying instead of partying, volunteering with school and community groups so you can into a good college. You send out your applications, to Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, as you have the 4.8 GPA, and all the right clubs on your resume. Your mom kisses each envelope … Continue reading The Truth About Mark Zuckerberg
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ZOKYCrxRZmRJVnyAbjue6?si=2K-lfWj6SGmnn7PZkyhGkQ Went to the Jelly Belly Factory on a field trip with my daughter’s 2nd grade class. The young man assigned to escort us on the tour misquoted a brilliant saying by one of my favorite icons. The guide delivered his canned speech, spoke of how long and complex the process to make even one … Continue reading How to Raise a Genius
