Friendship
What does "friendship" mean to you?
To most of us, friendship is essential.
​
It's the "glue" that holds our lives together, that keeps us in contact with our common humanity.
​
It is crucial to our health and happiness -- and yet it's hard to find two people who define the concept in the same way. So we are asking our listeners to answer the question:
​
"What does Friendship mean to you?"
​
We are working on a series mostly comprised of these answers -- the voices of our listeners. We have already collected several really remarkable comments, and we would really like to include your voice in this crucial conversation.
The easiest way to add your voice to this conversation is right here on our website. Just click on the little yellow microphone icon you see on every page. That will take you to our COMMENT! page. Just follow the simple instructions there, and you can record your voice directly into your computer mic. That audio file will be sent straight to us.
Don't worry about mistakes, umms and uhhs and stumbling over your words. We all do it. We'll edit all that out (just like we always do).
​
And if you find the voice recording app too complicated, no worries. Just let us know via email at rob@ourgenpod.com that you'd rather talk on the phone. We'll reply to set up a mutually convenient time, and give you a call. We'll record your comments that way -- friend to-friend.
​
We'll be mixing in some expert commentary about Friendship from some people who have studied it -- as well as what has been called a "Crisis of Loneliness" among young and old alike.
This is something we can fix. And we want your help doing that.
​
Guest Blog Post: On Friendship, By Todd Taggart
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
We're also going to be talking about Technology Run Amok, and how mastering today's Internet and all the associated gadgetry is more and more maddening to those of us who weren't born with a smartphone in our crib. Then there's the rapidly evolving specter of of A.I. -- "Artificial Intelligence" - advancing so fast that humans are being replaced more and more by machines. Already, images and words created by AI are appearing on the Internet, indistinguishable from the truth. Can we still believe our eyes? What will that do to our world?
The tech world has brought wonders unimagined in our parents' time, but we've also been sucked into a synapse-singing nightmare of ever-changing "forgotten" passwords, the
Machiavellian algorithmic maze of confounding "Captcha" word jumbles and picture puzzles, two-factor authentication, rude robots demanding that we prove we are actually ourselves human...not to mention the tortuous ordeal of typing on those tiny keyboards with our aging eyes and declining dexterity.
​
We're planning episodes on Family -- how we grew up, and how the notion of family has changed in our lifetime. So much of what is happening in our society "begins at home," we have to ask if there is a breakdown in the family and what effect that is having. We'll also be looking at some different ideas about what "family" means to different people, like the LGBT community, where LGBTQ kids were rejected by their parents have formed new families with friends.
​
There's no end to what we might talk about. We'd really love to hear your suggestions -- what would YOU like to hear?
Let us know!
