Podcast and Pink

Being the overachievers that we are (or as Rachel phrased it, "We're just too lazy to do it later in the week"), Rachel and I performed Podcast #3 today in good ole G-17. The process moved quite seamlessly; the sound levels cooperated, we had plenty to discuss, and the file saved and uploaded easily. Our first podcast was such a planned production. This one took about an hour at most, with uploading the file.

Rachel and I discussed how we find A Whole New Mind to be encouraging to people like "us," the Professional Writing/English majors of the world. I was especially interested in his sections on metaphor and story -- two things that writers clearly focus on, and two things that the world needs. "...Only the human mind can think metaphorically and see relationships that computers could never detect," Pink points out (139). In an increasingly technological world, we still struggle with the ageless quest of finding and making mean from our lives. The metaphor makers find connections. They draw together everything that appears random and distant. They make sense out of what would otherwise be a cold world.

Stories are indeed more memorable than a string of numbers. I think that the number of moles in a molecule is 6.02 x 10 to the -23 power. I can't remember what's after Pi beyond 3.14. But I can certainly recall the crazy Spanish story, "El ramo azul," in which a stranger tries to get the protagonist's eyes because his girlfriend wants a bouquet of blue eyes...

I especially like the idea of narrative medicine. To be sure, plenty of hypochondriacs will be spilling their life stories. But if you're alone and frightened in the hospital, you need empathy and compassion. "Story," says Pink, "represents a pathway to understanding that doesn't run through the left side of the brain" (115). We all have stories. It's not longer just about the numbers.

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Apparently it's just to the 23rd power, no negative sign. And the next number in pi is 1, according to Wikipedia.

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As a response to Dr. Reid, I did indeed log in before I made the changes on the course Wiki.