Inappropriate Conversations

I'm posting this on the Friday before a national holiday in the United States, thinking about "casual Friday" vibes. Perhaps a day like this might start with a team-building meeting, where one leader in the organization takes a turn sharing his story with everyone -- or everyone not taking vacation -- with the intent to drive commitment to our values and maybe answer questions from the room. 

It's not easy being green.

Different Drummer: Colleen Camp

The next podcast I post will be a new short-form considering movies by year. I'm not replacing Inappropriate Conversations or Walk The Earth, just adding something new. The starting point will be Film Year 2009.

Different Drummer: Charles Tashiro

Note: the first half of this episode raises questions about the consequences of a recent Supreme Court decision, and I don't know the answer for how this will impact governing in the United States. By my reckoning, things certainly could get very ugly. Consequences are not bound by our lack of accountability.

Feeling challenged in more than one way, I'm recommending the 2022 movie Close as one of the best films in years. It directly reminded me of a past Inappropriate Conversations podcast with Mark Greene as the Different Drummer. His work, and the director of Close, directly refer to this episode's Different Drummer, too. 
I was reminded of my childhood, at the same age as the central characters in the film, and a sense of disconnection that came from a change in school districts.
I also was challenged by how our defense mechanisms seem to presume something inappropriate (directly or indirectly incestuous) might make an unwanted appearance in the plot of a film like this. I don't blame the filmmakers. It's more the way our society is driven to sexualize, seemingly, everything, even when nothing of the sort is going on. 

Different Drummer: Niobi Way

The Project for the Advancement of our Common Humanity

There is a certain laziness in summing up an entire decade to a simple phrase, like "the Me Generation" for example. At the same time, we sometimes miss the connections in how one sub-generation reacts to what they see from the group before them, too old to be peers and too young to be elders. 

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/9-overview-of-the-decades/


Don't Discount Evangelicalism as a Factor in the Racist Murder of Asian Spa Workers in Georgia this year

This early Inappropriate Conversations episode gently suggests that we don't value imagination sufficiently in a world where entertainment is as pre-packaged as it is today. We take our fun seriously, as Jello Biafra once sang for Dead Kennedys. Perhaps the introduction to this TalkBack episode implies that too many adults are waiting for directions, hesitant to hold elected officials accountable or literally following marching orders to "take back your country" by putting up a "fight" at the U.S. Capitol. The fine line here is somewhere between too much misguided imagination and not enough genuine inspiration.

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/66-child%e2%80%99s-play-and-imagination/

Ten Areas of Agreement about Abortion, Part 1

Or, 

both parts edited together for SoundCloud

I never took a class in debate or participated in a club when I was in school. I've also never seen it as some sort of sport. To me, matters worth debating should be taken more seriously than that, and we ought to commit to higher standards than anything we've seen on television in decades. I'm not only referring to the presidential election cycle. No, my complaint covers punditry today in its entirety. 

Introductory material includes perspectives on this and the previous presidential election, recorded on the official election day in 2020 with important references to past Inappropriate Conversations podcasts.

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/55-a-better-way-to-debate/

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/190-dear-family-member/

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/195-telling-your-stories-before-its-too-late/

http://www.inappropriateconversations.org/e/24-elections-are-not-horse-races/