New texts from podcasters ...

 Here are a couple of new texts coming out this week from podcasters and an award-winning science writer:

ORGANIZING FOR THE REST OF US by Dana K. White promises “100 Realistic Strategies to Keep Any House Under Control.” It is unfortunate that the cover is so muted and not really appealing, but some of the ideas do gel. For example, White who is a blogger and podcaster about decluttering, encourages readers to accept that they have too much stuff. She says, “focusing on having “less” and making my home “better” is what finally brought about real change … When I focused exclusively on getting stuff out of my house instead of looking for creative ways to keep my stuff, my home started to look more organized, feel more organized and function [in a] more organized [manner].” Using a very informal tone, White provides much needed inspiration with humorous anecdotes and pragmatic advice.

WHY HAS NOBODY TOLD ME THIS BEFORE? by Dr. Julie Smith deals with coping techniques for emotional and mental health. Smith, a clinical psychologist with over 3 million followers on her TikTok channel, helps her readers to understand low moods, deal with emotional pain and grief in some of the early sections of this debut. She also offers advice on topics like fear, self-doubt, stress, and having a meaningful life. Each chapter has a bulleted summary (e.g., “to fight fear, you must be able to face it; escape and avoidance only provides short-term relief but feeds anxiety in the long term”). The last chapter, “When to seek help,” is especially important, of course.  Smith says that “this book is your toolkit to use for improving or enhancing your mental health and wellbeing.”  About five percent of the book contains useful references and other suggested (primarily UK-based) resources which might be of interest to our psychology students. 

EMOTIONAL, subtitled “How Feelings Shape Our Thinking,” is written by Leonard Mlodinow, an award-winning author (in addition to his own work, he has co-written other texts with Stephen Hawking) and physicist. Here, Leonard Mlodinow encourages increased self-awareness and reflection as he explains some of the more recent affective neuroscience findings. Mlodinow contends that today, “we know that emotion is as important as reason in guiding our thoughts and decisions … emotion operates at a more abstract level – it affects the importance we assign to the goals and the weight we give the data.” Fascinating to think about this in the context of the many personal decisions which are being made relative to vaccine mandates, mask wearing, and other restrictions related to COVID-19. Overall, EMOTIONAL seems a bit too sophisticated for many of our high school students; it does, however, contain extensive notes and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.