Although I’m typically anxiety ridden when it comes to punctuality, I have been remiss in creating a post to share an insight from my week since the start of the year. I’ve set a goal to catch up on three post this week, and to keep on track from next week onward. As Kathryn stated in the inaugural post, this series is intended to “bring people together by posting some of what [our family] discover[s] and want[s] to share. We hope to build community around culture. We will focus on images and text to observe, describe, compare, analyze, or synthesize. These days we spend a lot of time consuming, but we hope to also inspire contemplation, spark conversation, or just bring attention to what we like.” This week I wish to share with you my newly begun practice, which occurs on the way to work.

I’ve generally listened to music on my way to work in recent years. The drive is relatively short, 13 minutes direct, and not more than 25 minutes if I drop one or both of the dogs at the spa. As a lover of long form podcasts, I have saved favorites like No Such Thing as a Fish, or WTF with Marc Maron, to longer drives. Even though Fish is segmented by the four hosts’ individual fact for the week, I find breaking the continuity does a disservice to the overall feeling of the show. This week, I stumbled upon Ted Talks Daily.

Interesting topics; between 6-15 minutes; the feeling of having learned something each morning.

This week I’ve listened talks on women in the construction field (from laborers to executives) and the incredible efficiency of a specific type of seagrass which draws down 1/3 of the oceans’ carbon. I find this little bit of mental stimulation sets me on a more inquisitive track for my day, and gets my thoughts flowing toward how my students can utilize media such as TTD as a springboard for their own ideas.