There are certain sources that I check periodically for good books, authors and subjects. One is "To The Best of Our Knowledge" (TTBOOK), a series on Wisconsin Public Radio, one of the oldest public radio institutions. They find authors or thinkers on important or novel subjects and interview them. The recorded interviews are available from their web site.
For all of the sources I mention here, I recommend visits at least once or twice a month. The interviews on TTBOOK usually run about 15 minutes and the staff is expert at assisting a visitor with their messages. A good interviewer knows how to draw out the speaker and talk less. They also know how to "actively listen", that is, paraphrase what seems to be what the speaker is saying, to check for good understanding.
I hadn't looked at the web site for probably a month so I checked today. Yep, there's a goodie, all right. Parker Palmer on retirement. Palmer is a good source all by himself. He is one of those scholarly, lanky, smooth Quakers with a great voice and an agile mind. He is famous for "The Courage to Teach", especially the first chapter. My favorite of his is "Let Your Life Speak".
Another good source is TED. There is a movie called "TED" but it has nothing to do with what I am talking about. If you look up "TED" in Google, one of the first suggestions is "TED talks". That is roughly what I am talking about. I write "roughly" because there are local and regional TED events that are sometimes available on YouTube but not on the official TED sites. Often the TED presenters have books or other materials that explain or extend their ideas further. Sometimes, not. I just watched Shereen El-Feki, born and raised in Canada, who researches Arab sexuality and mores. I recommend it. It is clear that sex is a major part of everyone's life.
You can look at the TED web site, you can stream TED talks to your tv via your computer or a streamer like Roku, and there is a TED app for iPads.
Finally, to exit from the desert of searching for good things to read and view and think about, I find the suggestions Amazon makes very helpful. For my taste, the actual recommendations to me personally are not usually as interesting as the sort of inserts that say people who looked at this item also looked at these.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
