Daily Podcast #4

Source 🎧

How to cultivate kindness (w/ Richard Weissbourd)
- How to be a better human (TED Audio Collective)

Sentences ✍️

1. These things are Rick’s bread and butter.
   • bread and butter: Something that is a person’s main source of interest, expertise, or livelihood.
   • New sentence: Solving complex math problems is her bread and butter as a tutor.
2. A thing that your book, I think really pointed out in a way that hit home for me is that it’s not actually about him.
   • hit home: To strongly resonate or feel personally relevant.
   • New sentence: The documentary about climate change hit home when I saw its effects in my own neighborhood.
3. We’re gonna take a moment to mull that over, and then after this quick break, we will be right back into it with Rick.
   • mull over: To think about or consider something carefully.
   • New sentence: She took a walk to mull over the job offer before deciding.
4. So you’re, you know, you’re sort of swooping in to resolve minor peer conflicts because you don’t want your kids to be unhappy.
   • swoop in: To intervene quickly and decisively, often to help or fix something.
   • New sentence: The teacher swooped in to stop the argument before it escalated.
5. Shame sort of festers in the self.
   • fester in: To linger or worsen over time, often in a negative way.
   • New sentence: His resentment festered in silence after the disagreement.

Summarization 👀

Chris Duffy hosts Rick Weissbourd on How to Be a Better Human to discuss cultivating kindness and morality. Duffy shares a funny memory of working with Weissbourd on videos sparking ethical talks among kids, like Pierce’s tale of sneaking his parents’ phone. Weissbourd, a Harvard professor, revisits his 2009 book, noting stagnant progress in connecting parents and engaging fathers. He highlights a parental mental health crisis mirroring teen struggles, worsened by isolation. They explore how shame, unlike guilt, reflects self-image more than a child’s actions, urging support to ease it.

Weissbourd critiques hyper-individualism and the focus on happiness over morality, advocating for collective well-being. He challenges the obsession with elite colleges, recalling his son Jake’s pushback against community pressures. Practical tips include prioritizing kindness in parenting and knowing kids deeply rather than over-praising. He calls for restoring morality in education and public life, beyond self-esteem or achievement. The episode ends with a plea to share these ideas for moral reflection.