Blogs

TWLIAS Episode 25 Show Notes - Media Literacy

  • Posted on: 22 January 2021
  • By: Michelle Brightwell

In this episode, Michelle spends some time talking about one of her favorite subjects - media literacy! In a short discussion about the ways in which social media feeds alter our thinking, Michelle talks about how the algorithm doesn't do you any favors when it comes to learning actual information on a subject, the reaction buttons on social media are there to gather more information about you to sell to advertisers, and the false equivalencies created when every post in your feed looks exactly the same. Learn about how our thoughts are permanently changed by the algorithms social media companies use to feed us information to keep up scrolling, and get some recommendations for further reading.

New and Notable Words for the Year 2020

  • Posted on: 20 January 2021
  • By: Michelle Brightwell

Language changes, and has always changed. It’s helpful to think of language as a living thing, that evolves and changes as the need arises. We still speak English, but it’s not like the English of Shakespeare’s time, or English in 1776. New words appear every year in both Merriam-Webster’s and the Oxford English Dictionary, and sometimes the addition of a word can be controversial. People feel very strongly about making a slang word “official,” but I would argue that we should embrace language changes. (I’m not arguing that you need to adopt words into your daily lexicon that you don’t like, just maybe don’t feel anger over a new word.)

2020 added a lot of new words and phrases to our daily conversations. “Social distancing”, “COVID-19”, “community spread”, “herd immunity”, and the abbreviation “WFH (work from home)” were all added to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary in 2020.

TLWIAS Episode 24 Show Notes - Recommeded Young Adult Novels

  • Posted on: 19 January 2021
  • By: Michelle Brightwell

In this episode, Rob and Michelle discuss some novels from the Young Adult section that they recommend to anyone looking for a fast, engaging read. A novel is classified as Young Adult (YA) by a few metrics – you can expect that the motivations and the feelings of the characters will interact with problems in a different way than an adult novel. YA novels deal with problems in the immediate future, rather than thinking about long term goals and effects. Generally speaking, a YA novel will be less graphic than an adult novel, but modern YA does not shy away from the realities of the world. The pacing will be fast, the plot will be intriguing, and the characters will make you want to root for them.

Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff

Even more movies on Hoopla not available on Netflix

  • Posted on: 8 January 2021
  • By: Robert Freese

Even more movies on Hoopla not available on Netflix

 

Here is another list of ten more movies I found on Hoopla that are not currently available on Netflix. These titles came from Hoopla’s list of Popular Movies. (You can also narrow your search by going to Categories and selecting the type of film you feel like watching.)

 

TLWIAS Episode 23 - Best media of 2020

  • Posted on: 8 January 2021
  • By: Michelle Brightwell

<p><span style="font-size:14px">Rob and Michelle recap some of their favorite books and media of 2020 in this episode! Check us out wherever you listen to your podcasts!</span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:14px"><strong>Michelle's Pics</strong></span></p>

<p><strong><span style="font-size:11pt"><span><span>Southern Book Club’s guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix</span></span></span></strong></p>

TLWIAS Episode 22 Show Notes

  • Posted on: 5 January 2021
  • By: Michelle Brightwell

Rob and Michelle interview their coworker, Marquez McClinton. Marquez is an author, a motivational speaker, performer, and poet. He also works full time at the Madison Public Library. Marquez wrote his book “Becoming: The process of becoming you” to help people on their own journey to becoming their best selves. He shares a little of his message in this interview, as well as shares what he’s currently reading and listening to to help him realize his own goals. His advice for us in the New Year is to love yourself. When you love yourself, he says, you treat people differently, and you don’t react the same way to adversity. He gives some good ideas for how to love yourself in different ways to kick start your new year. Marquez also discusses his goals, and some projects that he’s working on for us to look out for in 2021.

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