Radio on the computer

Ira Glass, I'm a huge fan.

Of your show. Not your website.

Today I listened to last week's This American Life episode about maps. Not the unfold-and-block-the-whole-windshield kind in the glove box, but very specific maps that when layered, function almost as a neighborhood novel, the show explained. The interviewee, Denis Wood, compiled non-traditional views of his Raleigh neighborhood—traffic signs, overhead electric wire, pools of street lamp light, houses with holiday decorations, addresses that appear in the local newsletter—into an atlas. Ira promised a few its images were posted on the easy-to-remember thisamericanlife.org.

I immediately booted up my computer while the rest of the show was still running, intrigued by these maps. But once the site fully loaded, no web banner brought me directly to the visuals mentioned on air. I poked around to find the episode's page, and even then, the one associated image was tiny and static. (See?)

A link within the episode's line up took me to the atlas' publisher's site where an animated banner flashed through a few of the book's pages, but nothing I could manipulate and inspect at my leisure. (The introduction was written by Ira, which makes me wonder about the integrity of his sources. Conflict of interest?)

This whole exchange makes me want to do a UI study on public radio websites, a long-standing latent desire.

Scene: When a radio anchor offers a call to action on air, the transferability between media—radio to web—should be seamless. Keeping me on your site longer is not accomplished by making me dig—digging just frustrates. Give me what you advertised—big, bold, and beautiful—then direct me to related stories, leading me down a bread crumb trail. I'll hardly even notice how much I've wandered.

So, how can we improve the jump between radio and web? Now that I'm streaming radio podcasts through apps like Stitcher, the transition should be smoother than ever. Both things—radio listening and web viewing—are done via mobile.

Here are a few basic improvements I've thought of:

• Calls to action given on air as vanity URLs?
• In-app banners that take you directly to the online story?
• Scrolling photo/link gallery above the fold of every online story to supplement streaming audio?

Now it's your turn. How would you stitch up radio and web?

2013 Valuables

Not that I want to make some easily-broken resolutions, but if I were suggesting things to do in 2013, my list might look like this.

1. Rewatch Donald Miller's lecture "What Makes an Interesting Life."
2. Start anticipating each day with more sense of wonder.
3. Watch some TED talks and further investigate one of the topics—see where it takes you.
4. Let the need for clean water become a passion and not just a job—the thirsty are real.
5. Send more snail mail.
6. Watch all three Netflix seasons of White Collar because Matt Bomer is beautiful.
7. Take some co-workers out for coffee and listen to their stories.

The Meaning of Margins

Each Sunday in Princeton, Han and I reviewed English vocabulary. She'd bring her list of uncertain words culled from articles or TV of the week. I'd muddle through simplifying dictionary definitions.

She'd always start writing a word outside the margin line. Maybe to conserve space? She wasn't compartmentalizing word from meaning, she just acted like the line didn't exist. Whatever, it irked me. Often I'd swallow the sentence, "Don't you know to leave the margin empty? Write inside the lines! They keep your paper clutter-free!"

This morning I visited a church that sang in Spanish and English. The line "to the outcast and the weary" became something like, "a los marginados y los cansados." To the marginalized.

My new goal: live life across margins.

Backpacks in Brazil

This is Adriana, one of the coolest people I know. She just got back from Brazil where she held this little girl whose silent tears streamed down those tiny cheeks.

Adriana also scraped black mold off ceilings in a two-bedroom house - with little ventilation - shared by 16 Brazilian boys, all orphans. Each of the rooms' four walls are lined with bunk beds, and sandwiched between them is a cabinet that holds the each of the eight boys' belongings. Eight people's things fit into one cabinet.

One backpack could hold everything a boy owns.

Convicted today.

Johnny on the Corner

W Bellfort & 59-N Frontage Rd.

Tonight I prayed with a homeless man. Actually, he prayed for me, our hands clasped through my open car window. After cleaning my windshield on the corner of W Bellfort and the 59-N Frontage Rd., I handed him a $5 bill - a completely uncharacteristic move for my when-helping-hurts philosophy. But my windshield really needed it, and, hey, he was being proactive.
“Thank you, sir.”
“God bless you. My name’s Johnny.”
“Johnny, I’ll be praying for you.” My internal dialogue quickly chided, “That’s trite. Actually engage with him!”
“Johnny, how can I be praying for you?” I corrected, when I really wanted to just hear his story.
“Hmm, can I pray for you instead?”
So before the cars could start honking, we held hands. “Lord, it’s Johnny and Meredith, and we’re here today as brothers and sisters. You know whatever financial situation we’re in, but we ask you to just be in the midst of it.”
The light changed. I had to cut the beauty of it short. I don’t know his story. I don’t even know if he’s actually homeless. But He prayed. For me. Now, hours later, I still feel the pressure of his handshake.

A Second Cup

Tomorrow night I'm trying to check out this coffee shop, A 2nd Cup. A quick mention on NPR tipped me off to the place, and I figured if a coffee shop values NPR enough to advertise on our local station, it can't be bad (self-professed NPR junkie, that I am). But it exists for an even higher calling than public radio.

I know I'm super naive, but I had no idea sex trafficking happened in America, much less in Houston. Come to find out, Houston is a hub for human trafficking with is proximity to the Mexican border and as a major port city. A 2nd Cup exists to raise awareness and fund after-care programs for survivors - housing, mentoring, tutoring, and job skills. Their incubator coffee shop has been open since June and has raised $40,000 of their $220,000 start up capital goal. My latte and one bag of grounds (and maybe a stinkin' awesome logo mug... and pin... and tote?) might not help much, but I'm really curious to see if this is something I could advocate. Find them on Facebook.

See the city map taped out on the wall of trafficking hot spots? I live DIRECTLY under that horizontal yellow strip on the west side. It's happening all around me. How long will I be blind?

A Baha'i, a Buddhist and a Brahman

I spent the day with a Baha'i, a Buddhist and a Hindu. No, there's no punchline. But I learned some things I hope to build on in later discussions.

11:15 a.m. - The Baha'i faith was created about 160 years ago (in Iran?) from the belief that world religions should stop their arguing and just get to serving the one Source, though Baha'is have their own set of sacred writings, contributed by two prophets... one preceding the other, preparing the way (maybe like John to Jesus?). All world religions are just different paths to the same God, they say, at least from what I'm interpreting. My question in a follow-up discussion will be, in your faceted study of these faiths, have you discovered substantial inconsistencies? If so, how do you rectify them? Or, if you've only read the Baha'i teachings, do you think there is value in reading the actual sacred writings of other faiths?

2:30 p.m. - I learned one reason Buddhists don't like to keep pets is the belief that animals will try to absorb humans' spiritual energy to jump up a few rungs on the reincarnational ladder. Question: what is it about human energy that sets us apart as a specie? How is that differentiation bestowed upon us? In a reincarnational worldview, are all animals conscious of their need to move up in the world?

6:00 p.m. - This particular Hindu friend, of the Brahman caste, is to be more pious than those beneath him. He's recently been through his thread ceremony, "marrying" him to their goddess - I'm gathering, sort of a pledge of loyalty to his beliefs, before his earthly marriage. He feels guilt when he slips and eats fish or after the occasional glass of scotch, a feeling alleviated after confessing, informally, to his family. So, where does this feeling of guilt come from? Do you feel it toward your deity or just toward your family's public honor? What is your relationship like to the god and goddess? What is your motivation for following their teachings? Do you feel their presence often?

Really grateful for deeper discussions and the necessity of solidifying my own faith through these questions.