It’s rare for me to watch a video which lands in a deep and powerful way. When a video does, it’s because it’s tying together many threads and tackling the really big and complex issues we face as a human collective. In this case, it’s addictions, both substance and behavioural, and how it’s diminishing us all.
The latest from Then & Now is ‘How New Addictions are Destroying Us.’ This is a must watch and if you’re a parent, more so. Please do share with your children if they are old enough to take this message on board.
I wanted to share some of the key take-aways I’ve made from watching this. You can also watch the latest The Know Show with Joe Augustin and Avni Martin to hear our thoughts too.
My take-aways
- Understanding how our brains work, and how dopamine works, as well as how the digital world impacts us. Know what’s happening, be aware. The information is widely available, from how politicians manipulate it, the media and advertisers too, all the way to Putin waging digital war for more than a decade on social media, and of course, our role in it and acceptance of it. It’s known, it’s destroying us, so let’s understand it and work together to fix it
- Ask yourself what landscape you want? Natural or digital? The way this is filmed really helps you to see this message
- Deep self-reflection is required. It’s time to ask ourselves – is this life making me happy? Is it making the world better? What needs to change? How can I change?
- The case for seeking pleasure over pain is wired into us from an evolutionary perspective, but today, we are seeking more and more pleasure. It’s instinctive to avoid pain, but we are moving into excessiveness and abundance, and too much of anything is bad. We need pain, but we also need to stop being scared of our own thoughts, which is hard when the world is full of noise. We all need to do the work within, and focus on balance
- Do simple things, like turn off notifications on your phone (it’s a game changer). Delete or ignore emails, unsubscribe from ones you never read. Stop buying into the dopamine rush
- We MUST all stand up and speak up – it is time for business to change. We’re getting towards the point of frenzy in our world. Noise everywhere. Alerts everywhere. 24×7. Massive consumption that ignores our planetary boundaries. The businesses responsible MUST address this – they need to be ethical, they need to design businesses for good. Algorithms can bring out the best or the worst in us. We need to push them to design their solutions to bring out the best
- We need to do this for our kids as sociologists are expecting a generational disaster – why do we keep accepting this? Are we so willing to sacrifice our children’s future?
- Our cultural, political and social guidelines have disappeared and now there are no guide posts. Worse, the market has become our guidelines. We can see that’s not working, right?
- We regulate addictive substances; however behavioural addiction is rarely regulated. Our kids are the victims of this, adults suffering from trauma too. This week Tik Tok said it would limit time on the platform for under 18s to one hour a day and then turn it off. We need corporate responsibility everywhere – we need to build a world that is focused on life flourishing = all life
- The essential message I took away and the whole sorry mess this world is in, is it’s time to take back control. We accept everything new, we get excited about its potential and continue to be completely oblivious to its destruction – AI/ChatGPT anyone? Even when we have the wreckage of that destruction all around us, as we do with social media, we still don’t change how we live, think and consume. We don’t rise up and say no more to the corporations responsible. I see this as one of the great challenges for our world to overcome.
So that’s my take-aways – when you watch it, I’d love to know your take-aways? This is one of the BIG issues we must address, because it’s doing us all harm and the market is not addressing it, because right now, the market is incapable of addressing it.
OK let’s get stuck into the reads.
Friend’s content and mine
How Much Will Climate Change Hurt the Dollar in Your Pocket? Great read from Dr. David Ko and Richard Busellato. Understanding the economic and financial implications is critical.
When you leave waste at the beach, where does it go? Our family does a lot of beach clean ups. We think it’s important to be part of the solution, because the truth is, everyone getting involved in solving this is the only way we can. Waste in the environment is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050. Are we going to allow that to happen on our watch?
On a recent clean up, the waste collection was overflowing. There is just too much waste going into the system for it to be managed. The best thing we can do ourselves is make sure we reduce our contribution EVERYWHERE. Please clean up after yourself at the beach, take it home/back to the hotel and reduce, reduce, reduce.
Donation time
If everyone gave #just10percent of their time, talent, money or voice, we’ll change the world. Can you donate? Make it a regular donation to the World Food Programme. Or donate to the UN Refugee Program, Medicine Sans Frontier, PowerOf , Kiva.org , Soi Dog Foundation. It’s a time for giving and taking care of each other.
Content to read
And here’s the content I’ve been reading or watching this last week. Scan the headlines, read the ones that jump out at you, read or watch them all. Knowledge is power, and global knowledge is even more powerful.
Climate crisis
Ecosystem collapse ‘inevitable’ unless wildlife losses reversed
Australia faces unprecedented grassfires next summer ‘supercharged’ by global heating
India warns of heatwaves, expects surge in heat-related illnesses
Antarctic glacier robot observations surprise scientists
Driest February in England since 1993 signals drought ahead, say experts
‘Very precarious’: Europe faces growing water crisis as winter drought worsens
Svalbard’s mysterious ‘doomsday’ seed vault offers first glimpse inside with virtual tour
Cut off for days, running low on food in San Bernardino Mountains
Man wades through waist-high snow in California
Norway’s leader meets Indigenous Sami as protests end
This ‘climate-friendly’ fuel comes with an astronomical cancer risk
What’s the ideal amount of clothing in a sustainable wardrobe? tks Kevin Cottam
Eight Billion People in the World Is a Crisis, Not an Achievement
Dangerous climate feedback loops have been underestimated
Attributing extreme weather to climate change
Parts of US see earliest spring conditions on record: ‘Climate change playing out in real time’
How Climate Change and the Polar Vortex Influenced This Week’s Harsh Winter Storms
Millionaire spending incompatible with 1.5 °C ambitions
Acceleration of global sea level rise imminent past 1.8°C planetary warming, says study
Dow said it was recycling our shoes. We found them at an Indonesian flea market
Unpriced climate risk and the potential consequences of overvaluation in US housing markets
Vanuatu: Pacific nation reels from twin cyclones and earthquake
Greenwashing is more than dirty laundry tks Steve Johnson
What is a 15-minute city? The eco concept that has been jumped on by conspiracy theorists
Toxic “forever chemicals” in Norwegian Arctic ice pose new risk to wildlife
Rainbow plates: the chefs reawakening Africa’s taste for vegan food
Thailand to stop accepting other countries’ plastic waste from 2025 tks Derek Masser
Ohio rail crash: toxic waste removal suspended amid contamination fears
N Korea holds meeting on farming amid fears of food shortages
The UN Campaign for Individual Action
How Businesses Can Make Plastic Sustainability Core to Growth tks Susanna Hasenoerhl
BNP Paribas to be first bank sued for fossil fuel financing
The 50 areas in the UK most likely to perish because of climate change
Companies need to stop greenwashing and get serious with net-zero pledges
Ski Resorts Are Surviving Climate Change with more Money and Less Snow
Onion shortage could trigger a global food crisis, fuel healthy diet worries
Scientists grapple with a possible new consequence of climate change: ‘Zombie’ viruses
Fall in shark numbers ‘worrying’
Combating climate change on the coral reef
‘Sportswashing’: Climate polluters pour money into winter sports as snowless ski resorts struggle
Tesco accused of greenwashing over ‘biodegradable’ teabags
Davos 2023: Don’t Let Greenwashing Fears Stall Credible Action World Economic Forum Podcast
Enough is Enough
Global politics
Human error to blame for train crash – Greek PM
Greece train crash: Survivors describe ‘nightmarish seconds’
Greece train crash: 57 people confirmed dead as public anger grows
Iranian officials to investigate ‘revenge’ poisoning of schoolgirls
Iran: Dozens of schoolgirls taken to hospital after new gas poisonings
China refuses to condemn Russia’s Ukraine invasion during G20 deadlock
China and Belarus express ‘extreme interest’ in Ukraine peace
Sergei Lavrov: Russian foreign minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims
The Economist Podcasts: Next Year in Moscow 2: A beautiful life
Labour left breaks with Jeremy Corbyn over sending weapons to Ukraine
Why Democrats Are Scared to Challenge Biden in 2024
Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that Fox News hosts endorsed false stolen election claims tks Frank Roberts
Outdated and out of time: Biden’s crusade for global democracy is doomed to fail
New bill would eliminate Florida Democratic Party
Mardi Gras: Australia’s PM Anthony Albanese first to join march
First Ardern, now Sturgeon: leaders echo ‘dehumanising’ pressures
Rishi Sunak hails new NI Brexit deal but DUP concerns remain
Let’s remake a deal: Brexit and Northern Ireland (again) The Economist Podcasts
Nigeria election 2023: Tinubu rises from ashes of opposition splits
Business and technology
What Happened to the Recession?
January 2023 Showing Index Results: Largest Jump in Showings for Any January On Record
TikTok Will Automatically Limit Teen App Usage to 60 Minutes per Day
OpenAI Is Now Everything It Promised Not to Be: Corporate, Closed-Source, and For-Profit tks Emile Bloemen
Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It
The Most Important Job Skill of This Century
ChatGPT Heralds an Intellectual Revolution
Facebook’s Resident AI Guru Just Brutally Slammed ChatGPT
Spotify Launching OpenAI-Powered “DJ” That Talks About Songs Between Tracks
‘Verbal trickery’: Warner Bros Discovery sues Paramount for $200 million over South Park deal
Gautam Adani and the New Indian Capitalism tks Miguel Bernas
‘The Cinderella ride is over for Tesla’
The Sunday Read: ‘Elon Musk’s Appetite for Destruction’ The Daily Podcast
Harvey Norman says sales slow but no sign of recession
Social issues
12 Women Working Toward a More Equal World
How big Christian nationalism has come courting in North Idaho
COVID-19 at Three: Who Got the Pandemic Right? The Political Scene | The New Yorker Podcast
I Wrote About Not Shaving For A Month — And The Backlash Made One Thing Perfectly Clear
Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.
Italy migrant boat shipwreck: Nearly 60 killed off Calabria coast
Lateral flow tests being prepared for UK outbreaks of avian flu
H5N1: Cambodian girl dies in rare bird flu case
No Women Were Nominated For The Best Director Oscar This Year
Dilbert comic strip dropped by US media over creator’s racist tirade
Mothers fight to save their daughters from eating disorders amid a health system in ‘crisis’ tks Yasmine Keating
I found out my mum had schizophrenia when I was 14. Here’s what I wish I’d known
The First Chapter: a year in review and what’s coming next The Story of Woman Podcast
What we’ve learned from Alex Murdaugh murder trial
Genevieve Lhermitte: Belgian mother who killed her five children euthanised
Earth’s inner core appears to have stopped spinning.
Passion, humour, history
Everything Everywhere All at Once: Award Acceptance Speech tks Wayne Chan
Adam Lambert: ‘I didn’t think I’d have a shot’
Northern lights: Aurora seen across UK in spectacular display
Let me know what jumped out at you? Or share with me what you’re reading? I love that!
Cheers
Andrea
Want to get in touch? All of my contact information is here on Linktree.
Environment education
Four environment resources to help you navigate this challenging territory.
- Knowledge, constantly updating
- Individual action and awareness, so we do our part
- Resources for those struggling with eco-anxiety. Please share with your community.
- Finally, more than 100 mini-videos on many topics regarding the multiple crisis’ we face. Feel free to download and use them on social media as your own. No credit necessary.
Uncommon Courage: an invitation
Uncommon Courage is an invitation to be your courageous best self every day. It’s also an antidote to the overwhelm, fear, and rage rolling around the world. But it’s more than a book; it’s an invitation to join an inclusive community that wants to better understand humanities challenges – both global and personal – in order to take courageous action and create a better world for everyone. If Covid19 has given us the time and space to reflect, Uncommon Courage gives us the nudge we need to create lasting change.
You can buy it on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Booktopia, Smashwords, Kobo, Gardners, Odilo, Indie Bound, BookShop by BookTrib and Scribd.
Better yet, order it from your local bookstore, so you can #SupportLocal.
You can read the reviews, including a new five-star review on Book Commentary, another five-star review on ReaderViews, a review on BookTrib, and three more on Booklife, another on Book Commentary and Blue Ink Reviews. I’m also collating reviews on my Website too. Have a look and grateful to everyone who has written or recorded one.
Come and join the conversation in my Facebook Group Uncommon Courage.
Listen in to the Uncommon Courage, the podcast on Apple, Spotify and everywhere podcasts are published.
The Know Show
Check out The Know Show. It’s a fortnightly wrap up of the news!
Climate Courage
A fortnightly conversation on issues that matter to you and I, focusing on the actions we can all take.
18 Steps to an All-Star LinkedIn Profile
Listed by Book Authority in the 100 Best LinkedIn Books of All Time and 22 Best New LinkedIn eBooks To Read In 2021 and 2022 categories. Grab it today if you want to take your professional presence to the next level! When it comes to LinkedIn, it really is time to ask — can you really afford not to have this book in the hands of every employee?
Are you a Social CEO? The Social CEO: How Social Media Can Make You A Stronger Leader.
Want to claim your stage? Unleash Your Voice – Powerful Public Speaking for Every Woman
Feedback
Have I done a great job for you? Can you write a reference on my LinkedIn profile or on my Google Business page? If not for me, why not write one for someone else who inspires you or has helped you? Join the #GivingEconomy.