Marty Nemko's Blog, page 320

On the Personal Essay: An interview with Phillip Lopate

A mark of good writers, whether fiction, essay, or poetry, is the ability to unflinchingly illuminate the emotional issues that people often try to suppress.

A prime exemplar is Phillip Lopate, long acclaimed as a writer of the widest range: from film reviews to poetry, novels to, most of all, personal essays.

Lopate is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, been a judge for the Pulitzer Prize, and is Professor and Director of the nonfiction writing program at Columbia University.  He is my latest The Eminents interview in Psychology Today.

Parenting That Made Me Cringe

A parent sitting near me at a restaurant made me cringe. It was her parenting. I tell the tale in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Training Smart

Next to hiring, training staff may be a manager or leader's most important task. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer thoughts on how to do it wisely

When A Parent Wants to Keep His Child From Paying the Price for Screwing Up

A caller to my radio show yesterday said that his son did something so bad when he was 13 that now, four years later, it's still grounds for automatic disqualification from admission to the Army. He'd love to enlist in the Army.

His father called asking for my advice on how to get the Army to make an exception. I don't think I told him what he wanted to hear. My PsychologyToday.com article today consists of an augmented transcript of our exchange.

On Being Practical: An underrated way to live.

The word "practical" has kind of gotten a bad name, implying a certain dourness, a life lacking in purple. We tend to more admire life writ-large: the risk-taker, the idealist, the artiste.

Yet, with rare exceptions such as my irrationally exuberant doting over my sweet doggie Einstein, I've stubbornly remained practical in my career, writing, and personal life. I make the case for the boring, practical life in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

On Making Mistakes: Career, Relationships, Money, Health, Performing

A differentiator between successful and unsuccessful people is in their preventing mistakes and in how they respond to mistakes they do make.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I share thoughts on mistakes in career, relationships, money, health, and performing.

Geneticists and Education Researchers Should Talk: Thoughts on a Robert Plomin quote.

Inexorably, we're learning that intelligence, okay, "reasoning and problem solving" are heavily affected by genes. 

That doesn't imply that education is fruitless. It implies that geneticists and education researchers should work together to make the most of individuals' different genetics. 

Preeminent behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin makes the case in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

The Experimental Parent. An interview with T. Berry Brazelton

Parents have relied on T. Berry Brazelton’s parenting advice for decades, for example, his book: Touchpoints Birth-3 .  

He is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus at Harvard Medical School and founder of The Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. President Obama awarded him a Citizen's Medal. The Library Of Congress named him a "Living Legend. (He said, "It's better than the alternative.")

He is today's The Eminents interview in Psychology Today.

Practical Ethics: An interview with Peter Singer

Consciously or not, we're always making ethical choices. Peter Singer argues that we often do so poorly.
 
Singer is Professor of Bioethics at Princeton. The New Yorker called him, the planet’s “most influential living philosopher. I interviewed him today in Psychology Today.

Are People a Minefield?

We can relax around some people even if they're veritable strangers...but not with others. They're mines ready to explode if you don't say what they want to hear.  

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer examples of the accelerating problem.