"Red Cross For Rover: Inside America's Canine Blood Banks"

• America is facing a blood shortage — a shortage of dog blood. 
• Whether Fido tangles with a car and loses, or Barky contracts a blood-damaging disease, dogs — like their people — sometimes need transfusions. 
• And while there's no centralized Red Cross for Rover, there are a few commercial canine blood banks across the country, and many veterinary schools do their own blood banking.
• At Blue Ridge Veterinary Blood Bank in Purcellville, Va., it's all-volunteer.
• At about 26 sites across Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia, teams from Blue Ridge collect blood from regular donor dogs that donate every six weeks or so.
• While the dogs' owners are clearly volunteering — both their time and the gasoline it takes to bring their pups in — phlebotomist Rebecca Pearce insists the dogs volunteer as well. The dogs are rewarded with treats and praise throughout the process, and Pearce practices a few times before taking blood to make sure the animals are comfortable.

Listen to the fascinating, 5-minute story (from NPR's All Things Considered) here. 

Because You Need To Learn How To Relax...

Several years ago I experienced my first and (thus far) only panic attack just before I was about to give a presentation in (*seriously*) Tim Wilson's class called Self-Knowledge. That event started me on a quest to learn how to manage my stress. I am not always successful, but I now make a consistent effort.

I have spent a long time hunting high and low for good guided relaxation and mindfulness meditation sessions. It's surprisingly difficult to find voices + approaches that appeal to me. But I have found a few I return to again and again. They are all in the public domain (i.e., free to download). I encourage you to give them a try:

• A progressive relaxation and mindfulness meditation session by Hugh Byrne. 
• A progressive relaxation and mindfulness meditation session by Tempel Smith. 
• A mindfulness mediation session by Susan Stone. 

To download any of the files, right-click on the file name and select save. Or you can just click and listen via audio stream.

Follow these links to find more (free podcasts) from Hugh Byrne, Tempel Smith, and Susan Stone. 

Recommended Podcasts:

I have spent a lot of time in the car during the past two months. I usually listen to a book or to podcasts. Here are some Fresh Air (NPR) interviews I have enjoyed recently:

• Dustin Hoffman (7/15/13)
• Jeff Daniels (7/12/13)
• Carole King (6/28/13)
• Stephen King (5/28/13)
• Bradley Cooper (5/13/13)
• Barbra Streisand (4/26/13)
• Matthew McConaughey (4/23/13)
• Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell (3/28/13)

You can download them from iTtunes or via the Fresh Air website. 

Recommended Podcast: Unearthing History: How Technology Is Transforming Archaeology

The transcript of the opening of this fascinating 16-minute segment from NPR's Talk of the Nation:

"Legend has it that the rainforest of Mosquitia hid La Ciudad Blanca, the White City. For centuries, explorers tried to find the fabled city in the jungle of Nicaragua and Honduras. Protected by white water, coral snakes, stinging plants and brutal topography, the White City remained an archeologist dream. But with a new application of recent technology, a documentary filmmaker, not an archeologist, found the White City.

In The New Yorker magazine, Douglas Preston tells the story of Steve Elkin's amazing discoveries. Doug Preston is an author and contributing writer at National Geographic, The Atlantic and Smithsonian magazine. His piece, "The El Dorado Machine," is in the May 6th edition of The New Yorker, and he joins us from his home in Santa Fe." 

Listen to the podcast here or get it via itunes (5/6) here.

You can find the New Yorker article here, but it is subscriber-only (for now).

Recommended Podcast: Interview with David Sedaris

Terry Gross did a funny, quirky interview with David Sedaris for Fresh Air (NPR). Find it here (#15).

"Brain, Interrupted: A Focus On Distraction"

• TECHNOLOGY has given us many gifts, among them dozens of new ways to grab our attention. It’s hard to talk to a friend without your phone buzzing at least once. Odds are high you will check your Twitter feed or Facebook wall while reading this article. Just try to type a memo at work without having an e-mail pop up that ruins your train of thought.
• But what constitutes distraction? Does the mere possibility that a phone call or e-mail will soon arrive drain your brain power? And does distraction matter — do interruptions make us dumber? Quite a bit, according to new research by Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab.

Read the article from the Sunday NY Times here.

NOTE: If you are interested in this topic, I **highly** recommend the PBS Frontline episode called "Digital Nation." You can find the audio podcast of the program here (it's #66). Or you can watch the video via the PBS website here.

Recommended Podcast: Frans de Waal on Science Friday (NPR)

• In The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates, primatologist Frans de Waal explores traits like empathy and fairness in our closest relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees, and argues that human morality is not the product of rational thought or religion, but evolved long ago.

You can stream the podcast here. It should be available for download via itunes tomorrow. 

My last post about de Waal can be found here. 

Recommended Podcast: The Real CSI (PBS)

Millions of people around the world watch American TV shows such as CSI and NCIS, which make forensic science a major part of the narrative. The upside: novel entertainment and huge revenues for the creators of the hit dramas.  The downside: "Prosecutors have been complaining that shows like CSI are creating the expectation that every trial must feature high-tech forensic tests. They fear that when they don't show off CSI-style technology, juries might let criminals get away with murder."

Last spring, the PBS news program Frontline went public with an episode titled The Real CSI. The subheading: "How reliable is the science behind forensics?"

• Evidence collected at crime scenes -- everything from fingerprints to bite marks -- is routinely called upon in the courtroom to prosecute the most difficult crimes and put the accused behind bars. And though glamorized on commercial television, in the real world it's not so cut-and-dried. FRONTLINE investigates the serious flaws in some of the best-known tools of forensic science.

I downloaded the podcast version of the program (audio only) way back when, and it sat in my itunes account until I listened to it a couple of months ago. What I learned blew me away...and even shook my confidence in the use of fingerprints (the program will explain that better than I can here).

I consider this program a must-listen (or -watch). Trust me. 

Download the podcast version of the program via itunes (#22/5-6-12).

Watch the program online. 

Recommended Podcast: "Roe v. Wade at 40"

Today, it's hard not to think of abortion and Roe v. Wade in political and religious terms. But last week's episode of the NPR show Your Weekly Constitutional ("produced in partnership with James Madison's Montpelier") argues that it was not always that way. 

The guest: "Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse, who reported on the Supreme Court for almost three decades."  In the hour-long interview, Greenhouse tells the story--from a sociological and legal perspective--of the lead-up to the Supreme Court's historic decision. Quite a few of my assumptions were challenged.

I drafted a summary of the program to post here, but in the end I decided it will be more fun to let Greenhouse tell you the (often-surprising) tale.

Trust me: listen to this podcast. {Also available via itunes.}

In Praise Of: Tig Notaro

This past weekend, I listened to Terry Gross's Fresh Air interview with comedian Tig Notaro. 

• An often-repeated equation: Comedy = Tragedy + Time
• Comedian Tig Notaro walked onstage hours after finding out she was diagnosed with cancer, and talked about it in a stand-up comedy set that Louis C.K. described in a tweet as masterful.
• Louis C.K. decided to offer Tig Notaro: Live exclusively on his website (he was in the audience for the set).
• The recording of Notaro's 30-minute set is now available for $4.99 on itunes and via Amazon.

I bought the download yesterday and have listened to it twice thus far. It breaks every rule of comedy. **Highly recommended**