We're All Alright
By Phyllis Wilson
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Episodes: 15
Description
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Are We Our Parents?
575
We’ve all had a moment where we aren’t just reminded of our parents; we’ve become them. Maybe it’s a certain gesture, speaking in a certain way, when a particular phrase comes flying–involuntarily–out of your mouth, but we’ve all been there. The inevitable has happened. You’ve become your mother. Or your father. Or another influential caregiver from your childhood. Since this episode is scheduled to air on Mother’s Day, I’m thinking about parents and parenting. How much of who we are do we owe to our parents? And how much of how they are–and were–do they owe to us? In This Episode:
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May 08, 2022 |
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Are We Our Personalities?
1454
We all love a Personality Quiz, right? You get to see yourself through a lens you may never have considered looking through, and discover things about yourself you never thought about before, and who doesn’t love an excuse to think and to talk about themselves for a few minutes? There has been a boom of Personality Quizzes and Typology Assessments over the last 10 years, and even more so since the pandemic. And it makes sense why. In particularly chaotic and challenging times, we tend to look for something, anything, to help us make sense of things, to make sense of ourselves, and to reassure us that not only are we equipped to survive this chaos, but that we are able to thrive beyond it. As we’re digging into the questions of who or what can tell us who we are, and the limitations of any person or tool that attempts to do that, I’m thinking about typologies. Our interest in them, our reliance on them, and what that means–what we’re making that mean–about ourselves and about each other. In This Episode:
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May 01, 2022 |
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Are We The Roles We Play?
1709
Who are we really? Are we the roles that we play? The work that we do? Are we defined by our relationships? Is that who we are? If I asked you if it was possible for anyone else to tell you who you are, you’d probably say absolutely not! Because you define who you are, right? Which is true. But it’s also not the whole story. We all tell others who they are all the time. And accepting or rejecting what other people tell us about ourselves isn’t as simple or straightforward as we might like it to be. Today, I’m thinking about the complexity of identity. Yes, we choose who we are, and how much any particular role defines us. But we also can’t disregard, dismiss, or discount other people’s perceptions of us, because they, too, make us who we are. In This Episode:
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Apr 24, 2022 |
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Are We Our Bodies?
1826
With the emergence of the Body Positivity movement onto the global stage via social media in the last 10 years, I’m thinking about our bodies. More and more (mostly female) public figures are actively celebrating their bodies, or are simply showing up fully with neither explanation nor apology. There is also more and more vocal backlash when they do. How and why do we identify with our bodies? How much meaning and importance do we place on that identity? And what are the implications for the lives we live and what we get to do during our short time on this planet? In This Episode:
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Apr 17, 2022 |
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Are We Our Politics?
1557
Welcome back for Season Two of We’re All Alright. This season, I’m exploring questions of identity and otherness. The big question: Can we allow others–and be okay with others–finding themselves and being themselves when who they are is entirely different from who we are, what we prefer, and what we expect? And where better to start that discussion than with political identity?! Political identity encompasses how and why we choose to define ourselves as members of, in alignment with, or in relation to, political parties, and how we perceive others who do so, especially those of opposing parties. What are we really doing when we adopt a political identity? And is it even useful? In This Episode:
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Apr 10, 2022 |
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Where Do We Go From Here? (The Good Place, Naturally)
1278
One of my biggest intentions with this first season of We’re All Alright–and really, this podcast’s reason for being–was to explore our relationships with the collective–meaning all of us, all of humanity–and to do that through the lens of stories, headlines, issues, and questions that affect all of us. And in that exploration, my hope was to remind us all of that connection we have, each of us, with all of us. One of my other intentions was to help us make sense of the confusion, chaos, and turmoil of the last number of years, as a way of helping us all (myself included) feel better, feel safe, feel alright about our world and the times we’re living in. But what I’m discovering is that it’s nearly impossible to make sense of this confusion. Trying to apply logic doesn’t actually work because logic and reason just aren’t what they used to be! When enough people reject collective truth, as less valid or legitimate than one’s personal truth, it becomes a rejection of the collective as a whole. And since the same logic and reason no longer apply universally–or even for a sufficiently vast majority–making sense of it all may just not be in the cards. And that’s when I realized…THIS is the bad place! Which is where The Good Place comes in. Today, I’m thinking about two of my favorite episodes of The Good Place and how they illustrate the complications of logic in modern life and what it means to be working to make the world a better place. In This Episode:
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Jan 30, 2022 |
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Media: Where "Truth" Meets Human Nature
1471
Has there ever really been such a thing as a reliable news source? The absence of clear communication–or even, it seems, any kind of strategy–is now frequently cited as the biggest failure and missed opportunity of the pandemic response, in the US and around the world. That lack, along with the absolute explosion of misinformation on social media–to the point that for many, it’s nearly indistinguishable from facts–has me thinking about the media. What do we even mean when we say “the media?” And why do we choose one news or information source over another? If there are no reliable news sources, whose version of events do we trust? In This Episode:
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Jan 23, 2022 |
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Are Cults on the Rise?
1551
The injustices done to people inside cults are very real. And yet the perpetrators of those injustices are rarely brought to justice, largely because the boundaries of personal responsibility are fuzzy at best in these cases. That does seem to be changing though–certainly in the court of public opinion–which we can see in the growing numbers of documentaries, series and podcasts on cults, their abuses, their money-making endeavors, their exoduses and escapes and everything in between. The popularity and prevalence of these documentaries has me asking, are cults on the rise? I’m also thinking about my own relationship with cults, or more specifically, cult-thinking, and about how easy it is, not just for any one of us to find ourselves accidentally in or in close philosophical proximity to a cult, but also how easy it could be for any of us–especially those of us who are teachers, coaches and mentors–to find ourselves leading one. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.
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Jan 16, 2022 |
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Rethinking Haiti, Colonialism, and Freedom with Samoa Blanchet
2358
If you live in the US and pay even a little attention to the news, you’ll know that Haiti and its people have been in the news a lot in recent months. And unfortunately, none of it’s been good. From the devastating 2010 earthquake, up to 2021’s presidential assassination and horrific violence faced by Haitian refugees at the US border following another earthquake in August, it may seem like Haiti is in constant strife and turmoil. As a follow-up to the last episode about immigration, migration and national identity, I invited one of my very favorite people, Samoa Blanchet, to talk about what her home country of Haiti is really like, and for a discussion of how we form perceptions, how they endure, and how we might change them. Samoa Blanchet is an Acceleration Specialist at The Powerhouse's Playground. She's committed to building a world full of magic and play where the possibilities are endless. She plays her role by actively challenging our perspectives of how things are and most importantly, how WE are. In This Episode:
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Jan 09, 2022 |
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Immigration and State-Hood: Are All Who Wander Lost?
1850
Years of continuous news of crisis after crisis at the southern border of the US have highlighted the stark realities of immigration and migration. The lingering–and still raging–pandemic has claimed the lives of over 5 million people worldwide, and has laid bare the incredible disparities in wealth, education, access to basic medicine, shelter, food and clean water among every nation on the planet. In this context, I’m thinking about borders, about immigration and migration, national identity and about unity and division in an increasingly global world. There are vast differences in the experience of traveling, at home or abroad, depending on your nationality, race, gender, class, education and more. Our identities influence our experience of moving between borders, whether you’re going across the globe or across town. As many of us begin to consider traveling again, to school, to work, to places of worship, what does it mean to spend significant time with people who may not share our values? What does it mean to be able to move freely from one place to the next or not? In This Episode:
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Jan 02, 2022 |
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The Power of Looking For The Good
2098
Being hopeful is a practice. Maintaining the perspective that we’re all, each of us, doing the best we can, that there is reason to be hopeful about our world and joyful about the human experience can be empowering, both for ourselves and for others. But it’s a practice I remind myself of daily, even moment to moment. Especially in the presence of people with whom I deeply disagree. I still get angry. I feel rage. But I’m practicing and maybe you will (maybe you do!) too. Today, I’m joined by my producer, Sean McMullin to have a conversation about why I started this podcast and why I’m so passionate about the practice of hope, of believing that We’re All Alright. In This Episode:
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Dec 12, 2021 |
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What Does Justice Mean in the Freedom of Truth Era?
1162
Freedom of “personal choice” (and speech, and truth) is the Great Justifier on social media today, which for all intents and purposes means the world since so many of us by choice or necessity spend so much of our lives online. Personal choice–in schooling, in restorative justice–has been a theme of this podcast so far. Thinking about restorative justice especially, in this climate of “personal choice” raises more questions than it answers. It seems almost preposterous to consider whether restorative justice processes could play out successfully in our culture as it is. What does justice mean in this “freedom of truth” reality we’re living in? And if rules and laws are meant to support our responsibilities to each other–if we can even agree that is their purpose–then do we naturally create rules and laws? Which leads to the biggest question: Do humans have an innate sense of justice?
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Dec 05, 2021 |
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How Should We Practice Justice?
1498
Criminal justice, prison and police reform have become regular parts of our national conversation, especially since George Floyd’s murder and the pandemic continues to hit prisons hard. But what does justice mean? What does it mean in theory? And what has it meant in practice? Justice is a uniquely human experience and concept. And it’s also one we haven’t quite put our finger on defining, let alone enacting. Undertaking reform is a complex, epic challenge that requires us to answer the question of what justice should mean and how we put that into practice. In This Episode:
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Nov 28, 2021 |
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The (Mis)Education of... All of Us?
1607
Ninety percent of the school-age population attend public schools. What would happen to these institutions if that number plunged significantly? Homeschooling, home-school collectives, free schoolers, unschoolers–alternatives to traditional public school models have been increasing in popularity over the last two decades, and the pandemic has seen even more families opt to school their children at home in some fashion. Education is a mirror for the concept of personal freedom and choice as a matter of fundamental rights. We tend to believe that education is what gives us–or is supposed to give us–choices. Your education influences the choices and opportunities available to you after you leave school. So it’s no wonder that it’s such a hot button issue. But if where and how children attend school is a matter of personal choice, what happens to the collective institutions and systems of public education that are designed to benefit us all? If families keep exiting the system, what will be left? Or is there a better way that feels more empowering to children and families? A way that feels like change is actually happening?
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Nov 28, 2021 |
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Introducing We're All Alright
205
Every morning brings a new headline: violence, injustice, disease, suffering. It's a lot to take in, and if you're like me, you've probably started to dread the daily routine of scrolling through the news. I want to stay informed, engaged and present with the realities of our world today, but all of those headlines had me questioning just how much good was really left in humanity. Over the last year, I started to wonder what it would be like to live in a world where I didn't dread the day's news. What would it be like–despite so much evidence to the contrary–to see the best in people, instead of always anticipating their very worst? That's when I remembered the most beautiful lesson my dad ever taught me; something he said again and again, almost like a mantra: Everybody's just doing the best they can. That's the world that I want to live in. Where not only is everyone doing the best they can, but where their best makes the world a better place for others too. Let’s face it, that is not our world. Not yet. But if there's one thing I haven't lost faith in, it's our collective power to make things right. My name is Phyllis Wilson and this is We’re All Alright, the show that explores all the reasons we have to be hopeful–even joyful–about humanity and about our world today. My goal is to reconnect us with the humans at the heart of the issues, and from that place, explore deep and powerful questions about the world we share and how we think about it. So instead of feeling like all is lost, we start to wake up every morning and think, cool, we’re going to be alright.
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Sep 28, 2021 |