Space Between: A STBYM Update Episode

In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe catch you up to date on the podcast’s production schedule and generally check in with listeners in the wake of current events.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My
Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick. And hey,
do we sound different today? I that we might because
we are both recording from home. It's social distancing time.

(00:24):
That's right. We should probably set the stage here. We
were always a little fast and loose with our descriptions
of our our previous recording scenario. Sometimes we more accurately
described it. Sometimes we presented a slightly sci fi vision
of where we might be. Uh. For my own part,
I am currently hunkered up in my closet, surrounded by

(00:45):
my clothes and my wife's clothes. I've got uh there's
a nice shelf of board games across from me. I
have a monstrous compendium over there as well, full of
A D and D monsters that I can see. And uh,
next to me for today's episode, I have a mascot.
I have my VHS copy of Jerry McGuire, which which

(01:08):
one day I hope to hand off to the Everything
Is Terrible crowd and let them take it to the
desert and build the pyramid. Uh. So it's a symbol
of hope. You know that that one day this video
will be a part of the pyramid, and one day
we'll have moved through and past our current circumstances and
Jerry will ascend to become part of the all Jerry.

(01:30):
How about you, Joe? Where are you located at the moment?
So I'm in my laundry room. Uh Rachel helped me
set it up. We've got towels and blankets draped everywhere.
I'm here in my sweatpants and my Electric Wizard T shirt.
I also inspired by you. I have a little talisman
uh to to help us through so in this time

(01:51):
of need for gods and idols, I have my action
figure of Tom Atkins from Night of the Creeps. He's
got he's got a little uh he's got a shotgun,
and he's got his trench code, and he's got a
bottle of course light. And then I also have with
me a tiny replica I was telling you about this

(02:11):
earlier of a tiny replica that we got at the
National Museum of Iceland. That is a replica of a
little idol or or trinkett found to leave from like
the tenth century in Iceland. Uh. And it's a seated
figure with a with a conical hat holding a cross
shaped object in front of it, and they don't know

(02:32):
if this idol is supposed to be Jesus or Thor
and I like that ambiguity. And I really love the
the inclusion of the tom Atkins figure because tom Atkins
and tom Atkins character specifically a Knight of the the Creeps.
It's a it's kind of like top shelf roused ower,
you know, like the budget roused It's exactly it. Uh
So I just want to say real quick, our audio

(02:55):
quality is obviously going to be down from what it
usually is, but also we are waiting on some gear
to be delivered to our houses, so during this time
of social distancing, we can record hopefully something that sounds
a little bit better than we sound today. So if
if the quality is not to your liking, please do
stick with us for upcoming episodes in in in the

(03:17):
coming weeks because hopefully it will be better next time. Yeah.
The the technology is going to drastically improve over the
next few days. And also I think we're going to
get more used to recording remotely like this. Uh. Ultimately,
you the listeners, some of your favorite shows, even in
our network employ remote production like this and you might

(03:38):
not have even noticed it before. Um So I think
we'll get accustomed to it. We'll pick up some new
tips and tricks to make it work. And either way,
this is the this is the only path forward at
this point because we're uh, we're again, we're practicing social distancing.
We are not going back into the physical studio together
for the foreseeable future. Now, we know this is a

(04:00):
tough time, it's a challenging time. Our jobs provide us
with the privilege of continuing to do this from our homes,
and we really we don't take that for granted. We
know not everybody has that privilege. But we're gonna keep
recording the podcast because it fulfills us and we hope
that it can continue to be of use to you

(04:20):
as well as we all work through this together. Absolutely,
we we hope we can be there for you throughout
all this, and we appreciate you sticking with us as well.
This episode is going to be a little different from
what you probably have come to think of as a
usual stuff to blow your mind episode. We don't have
a concrete topic for this one. This is about catching
you guys. Up. It's about, you know, honestly serving as

(04:43):
a band aid episode while we get all of our
gear in so that we can keep pumping out the
sort of episodes you've grown accustomed to over the years. Now,
one thing that we did want to talk about today
is is the issue of social distancing itself. I'm sure
this point you're not wondering what that is. You've probably
heard about it, you've probably been told you should do it. Uh,

(05:07):
But I think it's not clear to me that everybody's
taking social distancing seriously yet we've even this was last week,
so hopefully these opinions have changed. But last week we
even heard from a few people directly who think that
the recommendations that people should stay home if at all
possible is a symptom of hysteria or overreaction. I want

(05:28):
to be very clear that it is not right. Yeah,
over the weekend, I know, I personally, my family we
were already practicing social distancing. But then we I was
in the car, I drove past a popular brunch place
near where I live, and it was it was packed.
It was frighteningly packed. Um Now, I don't know of
in some cases, maybe maybe in some cases, people were

(05:50):
certainly not taking it seriously. Maybe in other places people
thought that they would show up and basically have a
mostly empty restaurant at their hands. But if the latter
is the case, then a lot of people made the
same error and judgment. Uh, either way, it was I
think it was pretty clear to a lot of people
over the weekend that not enough people were taking it seriously.

(06:11):
And I just hope that an increasing number of people
are realizing that the importance of social distancing. Yeah, there
are several reasons why it's important for anybody who is
able to practice social distancing, meaning you stay at home
as much as possible, limit your interactions with other people,
limit trips out, especially to crowded places, to only what

(06:32):
is absolutely necessary, and that would be things like like
healthcare visits, uh, grocery and pharmacy basically. Now, there are
several reasons right now why it's really important that everybody
who is able limit their interactions with with other people
as much as possible. Of course, it limits your exposure

(06:52):
to a virus that is now just uh just you know,
bouncing around within communities that were no longer talking about
it just be something that is a product of travel.
Of course, it's it's throughout cities in the United States
and many other countries too. Uh. Now, you you might think, okay,
but I I I'm not all that worried about how

(07:13):
this virus would affect me. I'm young and healthy. I
don't really care. I've had a bad flu before. This
was the nature of some of the messages we were seeing,
you know, from young people, like posting on our channels.
And there are several reasons why I want to drive
home that this way of thinking is really misguided right now.
First of all, even for young and healthy people, this

(07:36):
is a much more dangerous infection than a regular flu.
Like people in their twenties and thirties are experiencing severe cases,
requiring hospitalization, and sometimes they are dying from this. It's
just that they are requiring hospitalization and dying at a
much lower rate than older people, say, in their sixties
and seventies and eighties. I remember what it was like

(07:56):
to be a teenager. I remember feeling invincible. You know,
even even if you are more likely to come through
this infection without a severe you know, like without a
need for hospitalization or without dying, like, you are not invincible.
But more than that that, the much more important point
is if you're young and healthy, you still want to

(08:17):
limit your exposure to the virus so that you don't
get infected and then spread it to others who are
at much greater risk than yourself. Uh. And so you
might think, well, okay, that's reasonable, But well, if if
I start to get sick, then I'll just stay home.
Then I won't spread it. You know, I start coughing,
I have a fever, that's when it's time to stay home.

(08:38):
It would be great if that was the case, but
unfortunately it looks like it's not that easy. So at
first some authorities were suggesting that you would only be
contagious if you were showing symptoms. Actually know people who
were under this misimpression. Rachel and I were talking about
some friends of ours who had been mistaken and saying
this the other day. Um, this does not appear to

(09:00):
be the case anymore. There is now pretty good evidence
that people with mild symptoms or no symptoms, who don't
realize they have the coronavirus at all, can spread it
to other people. And we don't know exactly how prevalent
that kind of spread is, but the earlier announcements that
it was only significantly spread through major symptomatic cases really

(09:20):
appear to be wrong. Yeah, one celebrity example of this,
because now we're in the phase, we're definitely hearing a
lot of stories about various notable individuals, famous individuals that
are showing up positive for coronavirus. Idris elba as an
example of this, big driss uh stringer from the wire.

(09:41):
And of course he's been in so much more now,
great actor, one of my favorites. Yeah, he's he's he's tremendous.
And apparently what occurred is he found out that he
had been in contact with somebody who tested positive for
COVID nineteen. So adam an abundance of caution, he himself
was tested and found and it was found that he
was positive for COVID nineteen despite not displaying any symptoms

(10:01):
and feeling otherwise, you know, perfectly healthy, which you know
you look at it yoursel but and you just just said,
he must just feel perfectly healthy all the time. That's
that's probably not gonna change. If anybody's invincible. He is, Yeah,
but just because you feel invincible doesn't mean you cannot
be positive for COVID nineteen and certainly capable of spreading
it to people who are not as physically robust as yourself.

(10:24):
And so he did the right thing and self quarantined.
That's exactly right. So one example here that there was
a new study published in the journal Science on March sixteenth,
I think that was two days ago. Now we're recording
on Wednesday, March eighteen. And this study was called Substantial
Undocumented Infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of novel coronavirus or

(10:46):
SARS c o V two UH. And for quick terminology thing,
COVID nineteen is the name of the disease you get.
The pathogen is being referred to as SARS c o
V two UH. The study was by Rheen Young, Lee Sen,
pey Bin, Chen, y Ming Song, Tao Jiang Wan Yang,

(11:07):
and Jeffrey Shaman, and the team used data from the
outbreak within China to try to understand how the virus
spreads throughout populations and the role of contagion from undocumented
cases people spreading it without even knowing they had it.
Their study estimated that prior to when when transportation lockdown

(11:28):
went into effect throughout the regions, in China prior to
that period. On January eight, six percent of all infections
within China were undocumented. They write, quote per person, the
transmission rate of undocumented infections was fifty five percent of
documented infections, yet due to their greater numbers, undocumented infections

(11:50):
were the infection source for seventy nine percent of documented cases.
These findings explained the rapid geographic spread of stars c
o v two and indicate containment of this virus will
be particularly challenging, so to make sense of those numbers
really quick. It looks like the people who didn't realize
they had COVID nineteen were only about half as infectious

(12:15):
as the people who did realize they had it. But
because there were so many more people who had it
without realizing it than people who realized they had it,
the people who didn't realize they had it were responsible
for about eighty percent of the spread, and speaking to
The New York Times on March sixteenth, one of the
authors here, Jeffrey Shaman, speculated on on the basis of

(12:39):
this research that given our lagging testing capacities here in
the United States right now, the number of real infections
could be greater than the number of documented infections by
a factor of about ten. So uh So, to quote
Shaman quote, if we have thirty five hundred confirmed cases
in the US, you might be looking at thirty five

(12:59):
thousand in reality. Uh and a lot of these people
would have no idea they're sick. I was reading a
news article from March sixteenth on CNN which quoted several
public health experts who believe there is a major threat
from a symptomatic, pre symptomatic or only mildly symptomatic transmission.
According to Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for

(13:22):
Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, quote,
we now know that asymptomatic transmission likely plays an important
role in spreading the virus and uh and he says
that asymptomatic transmission quote surely can fuel a pandemic like
this in a way that's going to make it very
difficult to control, and that that sentiment was also echoed

(13:44):
by somebody we quoted, I think in our previous episode
about COVID nineteen, William Shaffner, who's a professor at Vanderbilt
University School of Medicine. Schaffner says quote asymptomatic and mildly
symptomatic transmission or a major factor in transmission. For COVID nineteen,
they're going to be the drivers have spread in the community.

(14:04):
Uh So, this is why it's really important. Like it
looks at this point again, you know, we could get
a bit of better picture in the future, but it
looks at this point like it's totally possible to be young, healthy,
to be only mildly symptomatic or maybe not symptomatic at all.
Have no idea. You have this virus and then go
out and do your daily business and spread it to

(14:26):
people all along the way. So even if you're healthy.
That's why, out of out of caution, it is very
important for everybody who is able to stay home and
self isolate right now or at not totally isolate, but
you know, practice social distancing another way to think of it,
even if you're not worried for yourself, staying home is
a public service. It is an act of charity at

(14:48):
this time. You know, for the next few weeks at least,
you could save a life by doing it. Absolutely. I mean,
as we ask ourselves these questions, do I really need
to go out for this right now? Do I really
need to go to is store? Do I really need
to make this purchase? Um, These sorts of questions, you know,
are the things we need to be asking ourselves. And
I mean, you can really think of this as as

(15:09):
a lot of little sacrifices that we're all individually making, uh,
to to again cut down on this transmission, and to
enable us to flatten that curve. Yeah, that's right, and
and to revisit that technology. You've probably heard a lot
more about flattening the curve since we talked about it
in our original COVID nineteen episode, but just to refresh
really quick, flattening the curve refers to making sure that

(15:33):
the infection rate doesn't rise so steeply that it overwhelms
our capacity to care for people who are infected, and
that makes a huge difference in the overall case fatality
rate of the disease. We are much better at keeping
people who have severe infections alive if the hospital system
is not overwhelmed while they get infected, and so spreading

(15:55):
more people out over time we think will lead to
many fewer deaths than everybody suddenly getting it all in
the next few weeks. Basically, this is I mean this
is an encouraging UH concept for us to all get behind,
because it means that as a society, through this you know,
collective agreeance on the importance of social distancing, we have

(16:17):
the power to influence the rate of this thing as
it moves through our population and therefore keep the surge
in cases below the threshold of what our our hospitals,
on our our our medical institutions are capable of dealing with. Yeah. Um,
And now a lot of people have been asking how

(16:37):
long how long is this need gonna go on? And unfortunately,
at this point we just don't know for sure. There
are some pretty grave estimates out there about how long
people would need to practice social distancing in order to
get us through, say to UH to an effective anti
viral treatment or vaccine, or you know, for for immunity
to build up in the communities. I would say, don't

(17:01):
get overly fixated on the most dire possible scenarios right now.
Just focus, okay, you know, one thing at a time.
In the short term, it is definitely going to help
either way for more people to stay home for the
next few weeks, because that at least allows testing capacity
and stuff like that, and UH, and research to catch
up to the virus instead of just allowing its exponential

(17:24):
spread to continue during that whole time. So during this time,
it's it's very important to make sure that you're getting
your information about COVID nineteen from from trusted sources, UH,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, the
World Health Organization and UH and also you know the
mainstream media sources that you can trust. Yeah. But the

(17:48):
other half of it is, um, okay, So let's say
you're already on board. You've you've bought in, You've bought
in on the idea of social distancing. You understand how
important it is if you are at all able, we're
staying home. The next part is like dealing with that situation. Obviously,
this is going to present different challenges for different people.
Some challenges, UH might be you know, financial and have

(18:11):
to do with how you make a living, and those
are real issues. I mean, I'm hoping some kind of
public assistance comes along very soon to ease that burden.
But on on top of that, uh, social distancing is
socially challenging, right, yeah, I mean we're social animals, We're
not We're not made up for this kind of you know,

(18:32):
just long term certainly distance living. Uh. I mean, and
this is something I come back to again. We've spoken
about social media on this show plenty of times. We've
talked about the the the problems with our current social
media systems, and just looking online these days, one sees,
first of all, one sees some of the strengths of

(18:54):
social media emerging. You can see like, oh, well, this
is what it was supposed to do. It's connecting us
in especially in times when we are physically distant from
each other. Uh. It can be very comforting to have
that kind of connection. On the other hand, I also
see examples of the negative aspects of social media, unfortunately
amplified in this scenario as well. Um So, I think

(19:17):
that's going to be a continuing challenge over the weeks ahead,
as we figure out how to best use these social
media tools and these uh, these these connective tools, how
to use them effectively and in al ways that the
foster social communication and social connectiveness without you know, giving

(19:38):
into these negative aspects that are generally built into the
platforms where you're using. Yeah, I think you're exactly right.
I mean, this it's funny I'm usually somebody who's pretty
focused on the negative aspects of social media, but this
week has really made me think about the good aspects,
like the fact that it allows you to connect directly

(19:59):
and often in a higher fidelity way with your friends
and family. You know, the idea of doing video chats
with family and stuff like that, and that that can
be really helpful at these times, like you might just
need to see other faces, you know, the other people
that you care about, uh, not just hear their voice
over the phone and uh. And so that kind of
stuff I think is great. Now. The darker side I think,

(20:22):
of course, is that we have definitely seen social media
as a source for the spread of potentially dangerous misinformation
about this, uh, this ongoing pandemic. And so I wanted
to share one thing on here, Robert, if it's okay
with you. I posted a little bit about this in
the Facebook discussion module for our show, UM, because a

(20:46):
lot of people have been asking, you know, they said
they had frustration about what to do about friends and
family and acquaintances posting misinformation on the internet, and like
like how to address that. At this time, I will
say that I'm someone who generally does not advocate arguing
with people on the internet. I think it is almost

(21:06):
always unproductive and often counterproductive. I would say that arguing
probably isn't the right word. But but this is the time,
I think, to participate in the information battle. Like it.
If people are sharing potentially dangerous misinformation about how this
virus spreads or how you can protect yourself and stuff

(21:27):
like that, this is the time to get into that conversation. Absolutely,
we should be able to come together in these moments,
sign the common ground and fight against the inhuman uh
enemy that is this virus. Yeah, totally, and and information
is one of our best weapons in this battle, like
knowing what works and what doesn't, having a solid information source,

(21:51):
having a clear understanding of how disease spreads, what can
be done to stop it, That all really matters. So
I just wanted to share a few things that came
to my mind about what to do when you see
people spreading misinformation online. This one might be obvious, but
the first one that I wanted to say was just

(22:12):
make sure that you know what you're talking about before
you go in and try to correct somebody else. It
may very well be that you're working off of outdated
information information landscape is changing really fast right now, and
so so do your own double checking before you before
you start a fight that might turn out to be pointless.
That's right. I mean I I found myself over the

(22:32):
past few days in conversation with somebody, and they'll have
a key v on in the background, and they'll suddenly
be pretty to an update that I don't have, just
by virtue of me not being plugged in. Uh. For
you know, ten minutes you can you can miss something. Uh.
And a minute ago I said fight, I shouldn't. We're
not encouraging fighting of any kind. I guess. I just mean,

(22:55):
like you know, in any form of disagreement with somebody,
you know you've got your disagreement bucks, and you want
to spend that budget wisely. Um So, if you are
actually confident that the information you see somebody sharing is incorrect,
I would say, I mean this it's not a one
size fits all, but my experience tells me that a

(23:16):
good strategy for dealing with it is to message the
person privately first instead of commenting publicly. I think that
with this strategy you might get more people to take
down misleading original posts. If you don't like embarrass them
in front of their friends. Public shaming often has a
counterproductive effect that causes people to get defensive and double

(23:40):
down on what they originally did. Right. I like this
this point because you're leaning into person to person communication
instead of the ultimately weird person to person communication for
performance that is, commenting on somebody's Facebook post or what
have you, or certainly their Twitter tweet because because because yeah,

(24:01):
like you could. You might not even be intending to
to publicly shame them, but you are engaging in something
that is at least semi public. Yeah, and it might
feel like public shaming to them, even if you don't
mean it that way, especially with everybody, everybody's UH levels
are a little off right now, or maybe a little
more inclined to take personal offense at something like that.

(24:25):
You know, it's it's These are not the best of
circumstances for for for misunderstandings like that totally. But then
I would say the next step is okay, if you
try that and they don't remove the misinformation after a
private message, then it probably is time to post publicly
and again, not be confrontational, don't be a jerk, don't
try to own them, just post corrections or sources for

(24:47):
the benefit of onlookers, so that somebody can see this
being answered with correct information. Again, don't it's not about
it's not about owning people. It's not about showing that
they did something stupid. In fact, what I would say
is that generally you want to avoid all forms of
you language in these communications. You you know, don't say

(25:08):
like you're posting bs, you're posting pseudoscience, you're doing dangerous stuff.
Just focus on the information and the facts themselves. One
example of this in action at a quaintance of mine
on on Facebook had posted something and I just responded
to it by saying, the Associated Foreign Press has identified

(25:29):
some issues with this particular post. Uh. And then I
uh that they had shared and I included a link
to that a FP article. Uh. So you know, I
didn't engage in you. I didn't say you know anything
of the sword. I just said like, hey, here's some
information about the thing you just shared, and then they
took it down. That's great. I think that's an ideal interaction. Like,

(25:49):
there's no reason to unnecessarily multiply the nastiness of these interactions.
People are going to be on edge enough. Yeah, Alright.
On that note, we're going to take a quick break,
but we'll be right back. Thank alright, we're back. Hey.
So we're still getting used to this format, and we
realized we were going to make an announcement at the

(26:10):
top of the episode, and we forgot to do it.
So maybe here's the place to make the announcement. We're
gonna be publishing some playlists of classic stuff to blow
your mind episodes. Uh. You know, we heard that this
might be useful to some people while they're you know,
trying to to find entertainment and comfort and things to
do while they are social distancing in their homes. So

(26:30):
first thing, we're basically going to do a Halloween and
March thing, or as as I've been calling it, Halftober.
Oh yeah, finally looking back on October now, uh, and
certainly those episodes that we did, So these are going
to be ten episode batches of past episodes that that
we that Joe and I have personally curated. We're going
to make sure that these don't drop in between a

(26:52):
part one and a part two of anything. But hopefully
this will serve to put more engaging content out there
and won't make you feel overwhelmed and hopefully won't be disruptive. Certainly,
let us know how you feel about it once we
start implementing it, but you're probably gonna see this on
a few other shows within this network as well. Uh.

(27:13):
And yeah, it was actually pretty fun to go back
through the catalog and pick out a week of in
this case, October related stuff. Uh, and then a couple
of other fun themes ahead. That's right, So yeah, download
the playlists if you want, but also don't don't be
worried that we're going to playlists instead of our regular episodes.
We're doing everything we can to keep stuff to blew
your mind. Brand new episodes coming out on schedule, So

(27:36):
so we're still doing our thing. Yeah. In fact, uh
for next week, I believe we have part one already recorded.
We recorded is the last thing we recorded in the
studio before uh we uh we put that that sort
of production on hiatus, and then we're going to record
Joan are going to record part two of this series,
uh sometime this week. So yeah, normal stuff to blow

(27:58):
your episodes are right around the corner. Hopefully that everything
will be back back and moving next week, because they're
really fun episodes. I'm excited about them, and they don't
have anything to do with infectious disease, so I'm excited
about that angle as well. Wait do they not? Does
it never come in? Maybe not? Oh well it might show.
I don't know, it might come up once or twice,

(28:19):
but for the most part, I don't think it's involved.
They's got to slip a few germs in there. Yeah,
all right, So next, I guess we were thinking about
what talking about what people could do to help keep
their brains from melting. Apart from listening to a bunch
of old episodes of our podcast. You know, if you
if you're stuck at home, you're trying to be responsible,
do all the social distancing you can. Uh what what

(28:41):
are some ways to to keep the mind agile and
and uh, you know, not find yourself giving into all
of your your worst mental impulses. Well, you know, obviously
escape into fiction and fantasy and video games and so
forth is great when you can do it. Um, you know,
to to quote the great uh and Zevon, uh lock
the gate scoofy take my hand and lead me through

(29:04):
the world of self. But uh, but it's hard to
do that, like NonStop uh and and this is where
I think mindfulness is UH is really important. So if
you've listened to the show long enough, you know I'm
a big advocate of mindfulness practices, especially yoga. And given
the amount of stress, disruption, anxiety, and uncertainty in everyone's

(29:24):
life right now, it is the perfect time to maintain, resume,
or even begin a mindfulness practice. But at the same time,
disruption and social distancing can make it very difficult. So
just a quick reminder about what mindfulness practices are and
what they are not. Mindfulness practices can allow us to
temporarily remove ourselves from the inner monologue, from the default

(29:48):
mode network signals that just where it can wear against
us over time UH. To focus on the moment, to
focus on the breath, to focus on on something that
is that is not just this this this inner storm
and it's such. These practices can help with anxiety and stress.
At the same time, these are not magical cures, and

(30:09):
they are certainly not replacements for medical UH and or
psychiatric care. If you want more info about the particulars
of these distinctions, I urge you to check out a
pair of our past episodes. We did one that was
an interview with An Swanson titled Science of Yoga, and
then there was another one titled Meditation lab Empathy and Energy.
Now for my own part, you know, I have to

(30:29):
say I I had grown rather accustomed in my life
to swimming at the y m c A several times
a week, attending two to three yoga classes both at
the y m c A and at local studios, local
Yoda's yoga studios, in addition to some studios Yoda Studios.
But Yoda is very yoga in this practice. I've never
looked it up before, but I got I kind of

(30:51):
assumed that his name is basically uh uh, you know,
fantasy sci fi ease for for for yoga. So I
had grown to grown to accustom to a particular rhythm
of of mindfulness and sort of self care. However, now
the local y m c A, like I think most
of these, not all of these facilities are is closed.

(31:13):
My local yoga studios are all physically closed. My wife
and I are at home, are seven year old is
at home. And as many of you are finding out
as well, teleschooling comes with an adjustment period, shall we say, So,
it's hard to make time for meditative self care at
the moment, but it's also very balancing and rewarding of

(31:34):
for a time like this, Like just yesterday, I managed
to squeeze in just a little yoga time for myself
and and then I found that it made a huge
difference in my ability to roll with a little frustration
that occurred around dinner time. Um, So I'd like to
just briefly run through some options. And these are not

(31:55):
you know, one size fits all options, but I just
want to run through some options for those of you
out there are that are in search of mindfulness options
at this time. So first of all, check and see
if your local yoga studios, meditation studios, y m c as,
fitness clubs, et cetera are offering virtual classes in one
form or another, because many are doing this, some were

(32:17):
already doing this to begin with, and it's a great
way to get some level of the social interaction that
your class entails, uh and the mindfulness practice and even
the exercise that you need, all while supporting local teachers
and businesses. So check around, because I'm finding some studios
and centers are also even just offering free streams right now?

(32:40):
Is they you know, either just as a way to
sort of spread the word, to to just do something
good for for everyone out there, or just to get
there their technology up and running to where they can
make it part of their their business model to sustain
them through a difficult time. And then a plus side
of this, of course, means that a lot of local
places become broadly available via this method. So perhaps you

(33:01):
moved away from your favorite yoga studio, Well, now it's
a great time to reconnect and see if they're offering
any kind of online support for you. On top of that,
there are variously there are some great apps and streaming
services out there. I want to say that neither of
these are current advertising advertisers or anything for the show,
but I'm just mentioning a couple that I personally have
experience with. There's an there's an app and website online

(33:24):
service titled Glow g l O formally Yoga Glow. I've
used this before. It contains tons of yoga and meditation
videos for all skill levels. UH. For instance, there was
a period of time where I had a shoulder injury
and it prevented me from doing a lot of different
yoga practices. UH in a way that I was pleased with.

(33:45):
I was able to find some practices that were specifically
tailored for people who had to go easy on their shoulder,
that sort of thing. Uh, So that's a good source.
Simple Habit is another one. This is a meditation app.
And this one I believe is a previous advertiser on
the show um some months back, but during that time
I got to try it out and it seems like

(34:06):
a pretty solid way of of exploring meditative possibilities for you.
But these are just two examples that I have personal
experience with. There are a bunch of them out there,
so I would encourage you to just, you know, look around.
Maybe there's one you can you can do a free
trial on, uh, try out, see how it goes. And
then there are various streaming opportunities that are going on,

(34:29):
uh with yoga teachers, meditation teachers, uh, you know, across
social media platforms, on YouTube, etcetera. All Right, we gotta
take a break, but we'll be right back with more
than alright, we're back. Yeah. So we we've also been
trying to find ways to keep our keep our brains healthy.
And I will say one thing that's been very useful

(34:50):
to us is just getting out of the house to walk,
you know, not going to anywhere that would be uh,
that would be crowded with other people, or that would
have you know, places where you'd be touching public surfaces.
But just getting outside and going on a walk. And
as long as you keep your distance from others, you're
not like handling you know, stuff that other people have
been around or interacting with. I think your risk is

(35:12):
extremely low just walking around. Yeah, and now we do
want to stress that things can change, as in the
eventity lockdown where you were asked to not leave your homes.
But generally speaking this is true. Oh yeah, I hadn't
thought about the possibility of the lockdown affecting this, uh,
if that comes about. But but yeah, I mean if

(35:33):
if it is not prohibited where you are. Obviously, just
walking around outside can be relieving, it can be refreshing,
It can make you feel a kind of mental reset,
uh in a way that does not involve you getting
within the danger radius of other people or you know,
like handling door knobs and stuff like that. And you
can even wave at people and their dogs, which is

(35:55):
which is nice. I personally have enjoyed working a fair
amount on my front poor on the weather has been
nice and people have been out on the walks. I
can wave to them, I can say hi and uh,
and that's good. Occasionally a child will make a break
for it to come up and ask where my son
is and they you know, some parents will have to
intervene and say all right, nope, nope, comeback safe distance. Uh.

(36:15):
The learning curve with the children on this this new
way of approaching things. UH. But but yeah, definitely encourage
you to consider nature walks, neighborhood walks if you have
the ability to do so. You know, just again, provided
there's enough space to ensure social distancing. UM. Connection with
nature in end of itself boast proven effects for physical

(36:37):
and mental well being. We've talked about that on the
show before. UH. Walking meditation on top of this is
UH is the way that you can potentially contribute to
to at least the the mental well being aspect of this,
adding a meditative practice to your walk. UH. There are
various guides to this online. You can find podcasts related

(36:59):
to wall king meditation as well as videos. And I
I've I've only really dipped my toes in walking meditation
in the past. UM, I do enjoy walking, but walking
meditation kind of adds a practice on top of that. Uh,
that is, it kind of forces you to too again
in the same way you might focus on your breathing,

(37:19):
You're you're going to focus on your breath and you're
going to focus on your steps. So I would I
would encourage anyone that's interested to look into it, especially
if you if you find it maybe more difficult to
disconnect on your walks these days. Yeah, I think that's
totally right. I mean, I've been thinking about how it's Um,
I think it's important to try to find ways to
make sure that you are experiencing and displaying whatever kind

(37:43):
of normality or normalcy is allowed. Um, you know, whatever
doesn't actually increase increased disease transmission risk, but helps you
maintain the sense of a normal life and and not
feel like, uh, not feel the anxiety creeping in, not
feeling like everything has changed at once. I think that

(38:06):
kind of thing is important and not just for you,
but it's important for other people to see that in
you as well. Right, on one hand, it is really
important to see people taking this infectious disease seriously. But
on the other hand, like you know, the the opposite
side of the coin would be panic, which is its
own kind of horrible epidemic. And so finding whatever kind

(38:26):
of normalcy and comforting routine you can within all this,
and while adhering to best practices is very important, that's right, Yeah,
it certainly don't give into panic, don't don't give into fear,
because we we all remember the litany against fear, right, Oh, yeah,
we we've made great use of that in our household.

(38:47):
I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear
is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will
face my fear. I will permit it to pass over
me and through me. And when it has gone past,
I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only
I will remain. That's the Benny Jesseret Litany against fear

(39:09):
from Doune. Of course, we learned that from Paul Trades. Yes,
and uh and yeah, I have used this in the past,
like legitimately used it as as a mantra because in
and of itself it is kind of a mindfulness mantra.
But it but it also uh, it actually can be
pretty specifically inspiring on a couple of levels regarding COVID nineteen.

(39:29):
I mean, these these measures of social distancing and even
lockdowns and quarantines that we've been discussing. Uh. In effect,
we're talking about letting the pandemic pass over and through us,
but at a pace we can handle being the the
the force of control, uh, that that mitigates it. And
it's again also just a good insight into fear and

(39:52):
the uh you know the power of fear and what
we can do individually to try and stand against it. Yeah. Absolutely, Um,
as as long as we're we're we're quoting comforting Litany's
one thing I've been thinking more and more about is um.
You know, it's not just normal routines and comfort but
this is an important time to try your best to

(40:14):
foster a sense of community. I mean you can't do
that in person right now. For for me, this has
been a great time to read Walt Whitman, you know,
the poet, the poet of masses of people and communities. Uh.
This morning I was reading the poem crossing Brooklyn Ferry,
Robert do you know that one? I don't remember this
one now? Well, it's a it's a wonderful poem. It's

(40:37):
it's too long to read here, but I kind of
did want to read a selection from it, uh, that
I've found sort of inspiring. At this time when he's
he's speaking in his mind the idea of the you know,
the masses of people within the city's coming and going,
and he's feeling this kind of like infinite, ineffable bond
with all these other people, and uh, you know, and
and he sort of speaks of coming through crises and uncertainty,

(41:02):
and towards the end of the poem, ah, he begins
to to say this. He says, appearances now or henceforth,
indicate what you are. You necessary film, continue to envelope
the soul about my body for me and your body
for you. Be hung our divinest aromas. Thrive cities, bring

(41:22):
your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers, expand
being that which none else is perhaps more spiritual, Keep
your places objects than which none else is more lasting.
You have waited, you always wait, you dumb beautiful ministers.
We receive you with free sense at last, and our insatiate. Henceforward,

(41:45):
not you anymore shall be able to foil us or
withhold yourselves from us. We use you, and do not
cast you aside. We plant you permanently within us. We
fathom you, not we love you. There is perfection in you. Also.
You furnish your parts towards eternity great or small. You
furnish your parts towards the soul. Oh that's beautiful. It's

(42:08):
a wonderful poem. I recommend people read it. I always
uh find myself. I don't know. I like to read
wal Whitman when when I want to feel U when
I want to feel not just better in general, but
specifically better about other people and better about people. I
don't know. Yeah, yeah, it's it is in many ways.

(42:28):
It is a good time for inspiring poetry. Um, if
you have poems that you hold dear and now it's
perhaps a good time to unearth them. Uh looked them
up online and uh and read them again. Now let
me ask you this, Joe, how's your how's your dog handling? All?
This is? Uh? Oh, it's it's the jackpot for him.

(42:49):
And suddenly suddenly his people are home all the time,
and he's just getting so much attention and so many
snuggles while we're working. It's that this is like the
best thing that ever happened to Charlie. Yeah, I feel
like our cat is in a similar boat. Like suddenly
there's always a warm lap around, there's always someone to

(43:09):
inquire about when the next wet food can is being opened.
Uh And in my feet, my socked feet are around
even more for the cat to hunt an attack while
I'm you know, getting my steps in just sort of
nervously walking around the house. I've been doing a lot
of that too, just random pacing way more than usual.
Even my wife took my son on a nature walk yesterday.

(43:34):
I stayed at the house. I did some yoga, but
I didn't have like my phone doesn't capture that. I
didn't have my phone on me anyway. But then afterwards
we compared our steps for the day, and uh, I
think I had equaled or exceeded hers just through a
nervous pacing around the house. So and it has a
it has a purpose. Uh, well, you know what, I

(43:56):
think maybe we can conquer some of that anxiety, not
just with pace thing, but by staying busy. And we
are definitely going to stay busy working on the show.
That's right, um yeah, and again hopefully it will be
uh comforting entertaining, informative for you, and it will be, um,
you know, if you're a regular listener of the show,
it will be a normal part of your life that's

(44:16):
going to continue, even if other things are kind of
in a state of transition. All right, in the meantime,
let's say, first of all, if you want to socially
connect with us and with other listeners. Uh, we do
not personally engage on our social media platforms that much,
but uh, there is a Facebook group for our show.
It is the Stuff to Blow your Mind discussion module.

(44:37):
You have to ask to be letting in, and you
have to like answer a question which is just it's
an easy one, like what's the title of the show?
That sort of thing. Uh. So it's pretty easy to
get in, and there's some basic rules to maintain order
and civility there. But it's a great way to connect
sometimes with us, but more generally with other listeners. So
if you need that in your life right now, uh,

(44:57):
go look it up. Otherwise, if you want to check
out the show, you can find stuff to Blow your
Mind wherever you get your podcasts and wherever that happens
to be just rate, review and subscribe. Those are the
actions you can take to help our show. Huge thanks
as always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson.
If you would like to get in touch with us,

(45:18):
you still can. You can let us know topics you'd
like to hear in the future. You can give us
feedback on this episode or any other I don't know
what your feedback about this episode would be, except I
don't know people. People who you know might be able
to weigh in about their own mindfulness practices, how they're
coping with changes, or just hey, tell us what I'm

(45:41):
interested in, just knowing what what video games are you playing?
What what books are you're reading, what movies you're watching,
what are you know, some of the pleasant things that
you're you know, maybe even amplifying your life right now
to help get you through it. I just had a
great idea, actually we should put together with Stuff to
Blow your Mind community sourced reading ist. Yeah, for for

(46:03):
the social distancing period, So yeah, maybe we will try
to do that. But also yeah, anyway, I never got
to the address. So if you want to get in
touch with us, it is contact at Stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

(46:24):
production of i heart Radio. For more podcasts for my
heart Radio, this, the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
or wherever you're listening to your favorite shows.