In this delightful talk about talking to strangers, Stark explores the overlooked benefits of pushing past our default discomfort when it comes to strangers and embracing those fleeting but profoundly beautiful moments of genuine connection. [Additional communication video]
Talk To Strangers Most aren’t dangerous and if we don’t, we lose
Kio Stark has always talked to strangers. She started documenting her experiences when she realized that not everyone shares this predilection. She’s done extensive research into the emotional and political dimensions of stranger interactions and the complex dynamics how people relate to each other in public places.
She authored the TED Book When Strangers Meet, in which she argues for the pleasures and transformative possibilities of talking to people you don’t know.
Her novel Follow Me Down began as a series of true vignettes about strangers placed in the fictional context of a woman unraveling the eerie history of a lost letter misdelivered to her door. Additionally, she wrote Don’t Go Back to School, a handbook for independent learners.
She writes, teaches and speaks around the world about stranger interactions, independent learning and how people relate to technology. She also consults for startups and large companies helping them think about stranger interactions among their users and audiences.
This article on misplaced Credit/Blame is the eighth in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over shared ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging. Read more →
[Guest Author] This article on Families is the seventh in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over shared ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging. Read more →
[Guest Author] This article on Toilet Training, is the sixth in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never actually met but have “bonded” with because of shared ideas, opinions, experiences and philosophies—including having a penchant for medical blogging. Read more →
[Guest Author] This article on having “THE sex talk” or sex education, is the fifth in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over shared ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging. This article on talking to children about sex is something that I’ve written about too, several times; it’s that important in the scheme of childrearing. Read more →
[Guest Author] This article on the “Most Important Parenting” is the fourth in a series of guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over sharing ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging. Read more →
[Guest Author] This article on the “bad ages” for parenting is the third in a series of guest posts from another pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with. We share ideas, opinions and experiences including having a penchant for medical blogging. Read more →
[Guest Author] I’ve mentioned before how I stumbled upon another “blogger” on the internet and bonded instantly, like he was a “brother from another mother” based on the fact that we had been writing similar pediatric articles completely independently for years. His URL is up for sale now, and I’ve lost track of him, but his content will be here for safe keeping until he wants them back.
This one: “Choose your battles” is “survival parenting 101.” It merely means to save your energy, and credibility, for the “big stuff” (and there is enough of that to be going on with).Read more →
This article entitled: Real Pediatrics is to mark the beginning of a series of thirty-two guest posts from a pediatrician I’ve never met but have bonded with over sharing ideas, opinions and experiences; including having a penchant for medical blogging and even a similar sounding last name: Dr. Gregory Alan Barrett,, Greg for short.
I’ve lost track of him following Covid but recently found his site has been “camped on” by someone having taken over the URL and trying to gouge someone into buying it—obviously a ‘something-for-nothing-flipper’ using the popularity my friend created. I’ve located most of his articles (I think) and have decided to re-post them here for safe keeping until he wants them back (or this blog suffers a similar fate).
They are nearly all precisely as he wrote them; except, of necessity, I had to add back the headings and photographs because they had not been archived in the ‘way-back machine.’ Additionally, I did, on occasion follow the spell-checkers advice as well as update medical advice on at least one post (a thing I believe the good doctor would do himself if he were here).
Siblings sharing a vacation bed – “A nickel to the first one asleep”It seems like I can’t escape dealing with sleep problems (yep, they’re that common) and just as difficult to answer.
Narrowing it a bit (at least in my mind) to three groups: Infants, toddler-big kids (schoolers) and biggest kids (teens).
Dr. Troxel is the mother of a teen who she claims needs extraordinary measures to awaken for the early start times of their school district. And it’s not due to Snapchat, social life or hormones she says; but rather: public school policy!
School Start Times When is too early and why it matters
Wendy Troxel is not only a mother of a teen but is a fairly renowned sleep researcher and explains that “teens don’t get enough sleep” and that “early school district start times deprive adolescents of sleep during the time of their lives when they need it most.”
Being a Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist at RAND and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh she should know. Much of her research is funded by the National Heart-Lung institute, the NIH and the DOD and focuses on the interface between sleep, social environment and health as well as its implications for public policy.
The bottom line: “school start-times for teens should not be before 8:30 AM.” What time does your teen need to report to school?
Even though I’ve never met him, my brother from another mother Dr. Greg Barrett beat me yet again to writing another parenting article and literally took the words right out of my mouth: Telling truth or lies to children—being honest with your children.
So much so it’s going to be hard giving you my personal take on this important part of parenting without feeling like I’m just repeating what he said: whether or not to tell the truth or lie to your children. Read more →
