A small collection of good things to read, hear, or watch when time allows during the coming week.
Read: Isaac Asimov wrote 500 books in his lifetime, both fiction and non-fiction, in addition to hundreds of essays, letters, and other works. So, what was his secret for such a prolific body of creative work? A writer for Quartz found six “tactics and strategies” in Asimov’s autobiography that would be easy for anyone to use. (about 5 minutes)
Read: Every four years, the Olympic Games are a huge spectacle spotlighting one major city in the world. A city that likely has spent huge amounts of money building venues to house the athletes and the events. But what happens after everyone leaves. It’s not pretty, and one writer believes we’ve reached The End of the Olympics As We Know It. (about 8 minutes)
Read and View: Speaking of abandoned places, National Geographic offers a collection of photos from the apocalypse, but smaller. They are miniature scenes by two artists from Brooklyn (where else?) depicting what common place locations might look like long after humans have left. I know it’s weird to like this stuff but the images are very compelling. (about 10 minutes)
Listen: You probably don’t think much about bees unless you get stung by one. But they are an essential part of the ecosystem around the food we eat. The story about how millions of bees from Louisiana help produce California almonds is a great Planet Money segment. If you teach middle or high school science, play this one for your students. (22:54)
Watch: Everyone gets spam email. A few people actually respond, usually with unfortunate results. However, British writer and comedian James Veitch is one who responds and turns his encounters into great social commentary. This is a TED talk from last year in which he details his very funny ongoing exchange with a Nigerian “Kamanda”. (10:20)
Watch: Austin Kleon is an interesting artist and writer, author of the wonderful book Steal Like an Artist (I bought it just based on that title :-). He is also a big fan and advocate for journaling and keeping notebooks. In this video of a bookstore talk to promote a journal related to the Steal book, he explains his process in between showing notebook examples from other fanatics. (31:30)