Shooting the Shish Kebob

Social disconnection is all around us. Many of us experience loneliness, but avoid talking about it because we feel that we're the only ones. But what if that's not true? If you're lonely, you're not alone. In fact, our society feels more disconnected than ever and it could get a lot worse in the coming years. *Disclaimer: I mention that we will work for 90k hours but only socialize 328 days, and I compare these as if they are the same measurements. They are not. Please note that 328 days is equal to 7,872 hours. Sources: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/23/798676465/most-americans-are-lonely-and-our-workplace-culture-may-not-be-helping https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0797-x https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/technology/facebook-remote-work-coronavirus.html https://www.gettysburg.edu/news/stories?id=79db7b34-630c-4f49-ad32-4ab9ea48e72b&pageTitle=1%2F3+of+your+life+is+spent+at+work#:~:text=Writer%20Annie%20Dillard%20famously%20said,on%20your%20quality%20of%20life. https://www.payscale.com/career-news/2018/10/heres-how-many-years-youll-spend-work-in-your-lifetime https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/29/sunday-review/zoom-video-conference.html?auth=login-email&login=email https://www.businessinsider.com/zuckerberg-facebook-influenced-iraq-war-prevented-it-2019-10 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23182523 https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2017/11/paying-for-fake-friends-and-family/545060/

So what's the big deal with weed? The story of marijuana in the United States is a confusing one. As more states continue to legalize weed for medical and recreational use, it's easy to forget that thousands of Americans are still sitting in prison for a substance that's often fully legal just a few miles away in a neighboring state. Sources: https://disa.com/map-of-marijuana-legality-by-state https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/federal-marijuana-laws.html https://www.aclu.org/report/report-war-marijuana-black-and-white?redirect=criminal-law-reform/war-marijuana-black-and-white https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/01/22/four-in-ten-u-s-drug-arrests-in-2018-were-for-marijuana-offenses-mostly-possession/ https://www.omarfigueroa.com/thousands-of-ca-marijuana-prisoners-being-released/ https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/opinion/lifers/2019/09/04/pot-weed-war-marijuana-prison-life-sentence-lifers/2057276001/

Does recycling even matter? Many of us know we should recycle and often feel guilty when we don't, but recent news that China stopped taking our recycling made me wonder what's happening to all our junk - and if recycling still makes a difference. So does recycling really make a difference? It depends, and we'll discuss why in this episode. Sources: https://time.com/4568234/history-origins-recycling/ https://www.buschsystems.com/resource-center/page/a-brief-timeline-of-the-history-of-recycling https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/china-has-stopped-accepting-our-trash/584131/ https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/750864036/u-s-recycling-industry-is-struggling-to-figure-out-a-future-without-china https://www.thekitchn.com/does-recycling-actually-make-a-difference-249514 https://lbre.stanford.edu/pssistanford-recycling/frequently-asked-questions/frequently-asked-questions-benefits-recycling https://home.howstuffworks.com/green-living/recycling-difference-green-impact.htm

In this episode, we'll discuss why family farms are dying and what's been taking their place. As many of these small businesses go broke and disappear, it's a painful end to a way of life that has shaped small rural communities for the past century. So what's happening to this vital link in our national food supply chain? Sources: https://www.farmprogress.com/market-reports/weekly-grain-movement-corn-and-soybeans-slide https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=elj

It's all about hobbies. Who are they really for? Why should you have one? How do you find a good one that you can actually stick with? All that and more on my path (and yours) to finding a hobby.