Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic Published 12:17 a.m. ET Dec. 11, 2020 | Updated 12:40 a.m. ET Dec. 11, 2020

Meryl Streep in Let Them All Talk.(Photo: Peter Andrews)

"Let Them All Talk is a loose, chatty movie, basically a slow-moving cruise with some terrific actors sorting things out (and the director aint bad, either).

Steven Soderberghs film retirement still isnt working out for him, happily brings together Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest and Candice Bergen on a real-life trans-Atlantic voyage of the Queen Mary 2. The script, by Deborah Eisenberg, reportedly served as more of an outline for the cast. However they worked it out, its a good, not great, movie and another chapter in Soderberghs continually evolving process of filmmaking.

Streep plays Alice, a writer famous and respected in literary circles with a Pulitzer Prize-winning book under her belt and a few less-regarded works that she naturally prefers. The film opens with her talking to her new agent, Karen (Gemma Chan), about her new book, which shes customarily secretive about.

Shes receiving a British literary prize, Karen notes. Maybe shed like to accept in person? But Alice doesnt fly. Karen works out the cruise, which Alice will accept if she can invite two old college friends she hasnt seen in years, along with her nephew.

Susan (Wiest) and Barbara (Bergen) are surprised at the invitation. Theyve fallen out of touch. Susan is a social worker. Barbara is an unapologetic gold digger, who jumps at the chance to sail with a potential rich husband. But she also wants to confront Alice about the Pulitzer-winning book, which she believes is based on the secrets of her own marriage she confided to Alice. The book, she contends, ruined her marriage and her life.

Meanwhile Karen is also on board, in secret, trying to figure out what the new book is about. (Everyone hopes its a sequel to the Pulitzer novel.) She and Tyler (Lucas Hedges), Alices nephew, begin flirting; she enlists Tyler to help her suss out the subject matter.

Its really just heightened personal drama played out over a couple hours. But the acting is so comfortably genuine that its a really enjoyable ride. Streep is good you may have heard that a time or two at bringing some empathy to a self-centered writer who no longer connects with the world outside her own interests. (Did she always talk that way, her friends wonder? The consensus is no, she did not.) Streep lets some self-awareness creep in to the character, which helps.

Bergen nails a tricky role. Its the brash way she approaches Barbaras mercenary ways that makes the character work. She has no self-pity (well, maybe a little) and no shame (definitely not). Wiest may be the best of the bunch. Her delivery of surprising lines is delightful. Her delivery of less surprising lines is, too.

But what makes the film hang together are small moments, like those provided by Dan Algrant as Kelvin Kranz, a stratospherically popular mystery writer of the Dean Koontz variety who is also on board the ship. Naturally, Alice looks down her nose at Kranz. Naturally, Susan and Barbara have read piles of his books. Theres a great scene in which Alice browses through the ships bookstore and finds some of her books and a ton of Kranzs.

Theres an even better couple of scenes when we learn more about Kranzs approach to his work and just his unassuming attitude in general. Alice could learn something from him. Maybe she does.

Theres a low-energy mystery about another character on the ship who proves to be both crucial and extraneous at the same time, a neat trick.

But the film is ultimately an excuse to watch and enjoy Streep, Wiest and Bergen. Sometimes roles for outstanding actors who arent in their 20s and 30s anymore wind up being embarrassing misfires. (See the cloying And So It Goes or Book Club for examples or, better yet, dont see them.) Thats not the case here.

Let Them All Talk is a low-key success.

Three stars

out of four stars

Rated R; language

1 hour, 53 minutes

Now streaming on HBO Max

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Cast headed by Meryl Streep makes Let Them All Talk a winner - Detroit Free Press

Hundredsof books, articles, and podcasts are published each year offeringthe answer to the question: How do I lead well?

To really grasp theprinciples of effective leadership that will lead to results, one primary lesson that many of those books and podcasts won't teach comes down to one short sentence:

Leadership is aheartmatter. Ifthe heart is not right, your leadership isn't going to be right.

The heart of a leader has to be focused on serving others first. This will reveal the leader's true intent. It is not a heartmotivated by self-interest, status, position, or power. It's a heart that is driven by service and the overarching life philosophy of "How many lives can I impact for the better?"

To that end, there are things to being a good leader that just cannot be ignored. If youare too busy to put these practices into daily motion, it may be time for a leadership tune-up. Here's what I would recommend to get you running on all cylinders.

Many autocratic managers viewfeedback as a threat to their power, self-worth, and position, which explains why they are opposed to it and often reactfearfully and defensively to feedback. Great leaders, on the other hand, viewfeedback as a gift to improvetheir leadership so they can serve others and their mission better. Theyvalue truth and honesty and diverse perspectives for betteringthemselvesandtheir businesses. Even when feedback is negative, it prompts an exercise in curious exploration to find out where things went wrongso that it doesn't happen again. This is setting your heart right.

So many high-level managers get caught up in situational dramas in whichthey're typically the main character. Sincetoxic fear or insecurity and false pride operate in tandem to protect their self-interest, ithijacks their thinking and potential for healthy relationships. Great leaders don't react to people or situations, theyrespondto themby being quick to listen and understand. They apply self-awareness and curiosity to get varied perspectives and won't get riled up or let their emotions sabotage their thought process. They takea step back, assesswhat happened, and get clarity before their next move. Whatever that next move is, their integrity steps in to end a conflict, help others, and make things better.

When fear,uncertainty, and lack of direction permeates the workplace, you begin to see fewer risks being taken and fewer problems being solved.Team members need to feel psychologically safe tobe at their best. To create a safeenvironment for your employees, managers need to do what great leaders do consistently well: pump the fear out of thework environment. First, honor your team'svoice by allowing them the space to present ideas and express objections. Second, invest in theirsuccess and regularly communicate that their development is a top priority. Finally, sethigh expectations forteam members by giving feedback that ensures they know how valued and valuable they are.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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If You're Too Busy for These 3 Things, Your Leadership Skills May Need a Tune-Up - Inc.

Dan Harmon was behind both Community and Rick and Morty. Here are ways the shows are similar, and what they do differently.

From a failed pilot on Fox to getting removed from The Sarah Silverman Program, it seemed like television didn't love Dan Harmon the same way that he loved it. However, that all changed when he got to create Community, a cult-hit comedy series about the trials and tribulations of college life. Sadly, Harmon would see the same rejection that plagued him for years and was removed even from his brainchild (though he'd return soon enough).

RELATED:Community: 10 Small Details You May Have Missed

His other seminal series has been the Adult Swim giant, Rick and Morty, which has penetrated the zeitgeist as a sci-fi epic and gotten a lot of kids in trouble for staying up late. Given that they're from the same mind, it's a given that there are some similarities between the two Harmon works, but Rick and Morty has still done a lot to maintain its own identity.

Something that's just embedded in Harmon's DNA is the capacity to call out television tropes on-screen while also calling out the fact that a character is calling out things. This confusing eye on an eye is the meta-humor and dialogue that has made Community and Rick and Mortyseemingly smarter than their television colleagues.

While Rick and Morty's writing prides itself in being mostly improvised, it still facilitates the same genre self-awareness that made Community so inventive. If anything, this type of writing is even more necessary for a series about the "Smartest Man in the Universe."

While Community has always dipped its toes into action/adventure tropes and science fiction, it always had to revert things back to reality. Set in a community college, Dan Harmon ran the risk of doing what Charles Schulz did to Snoopy if he were to let the school get too fantastical to still maintain its human charm.

RELATED:10 Non-Sci-Fi Movies To Watch While Awaiting Rick And Morty's Return

Fortunately enough, none of those concerns exist in a series about exploring, saving, and destroying the world with the half-baked experimentsof a mad scientist. Using animation to its fullest extent, Dan Harmon got to revel in the type of high-concept, surreal adventures that he could only ever dream of implementing in Community.

Television can take Dan Harmon away from Jeff Winger, but it can't get the cold lawyer's voice out of his head. With plenty of disillusionment and hardship going on within his own life, Harmon is famous for bringing his pain onto the screen and allowing it to entertain and empathize with the same lonely outcasts that his shows attract.

In Community, the main cynic of the series was the cold, calculating, and street smart Jeff Winger whose always had to fend for himself, though his same capacity for being realistic has bled into the study group every now and then. In Rick and Morty, every character besides Jerry Smith seems to have been infected by Rick's logic and skepticism and now battles the cold truth of reality more often than they actually fight aliens.

One of the most subtle differences between Community and Rick and Morty is the change in character dynamics. Community focused on a close, friend group comprised of people from starkly different backgrounds. This always kept the faces fresh in the series while also bringing a constantly different voice on the topic at hand.

RELATED:10 Best Television Families Of The 70s and 80s

Rick and Morty, however, has a much closer dynamic, bringing the family close to a family with their own, interwoven stories but a much more familiar understanding of one another. They don't have the same intermingled romances or buddy themes from Community. If something goes wrong between the Smiths, it's not just a group of friends growing apart from one another but an entire family falling apart.

Meta-humor just wouldn't be the same without a wide, lexicon of movies and television to draw from. One of the most famous elements of Community was its long line of genre parodies that helped paint college life as this one, big movie waiting to happen.

RELATED:Rick And Morty: The 10 Best Pop Culture References In Season 2

While most Rick and Morty stories aren't as obviously derivative, they do have parodies of Mad Max, The Nightmare on Elm Street, The Purge, and the entire heist genre under their belt, and their dialogue is rife with actors constantly trying to one-up one another with what celebrities and films that they know.

Community may have had its fair share of adult situations; but at the end of the day, it was a family sitcom that always held back from being even cruder and more immature than it already was. That same restraint is gladly not seen in the Adult Swim landscape which eats adult situations for breakfast.

With the freedom of a network literally dedicated to being as mature as possible, Rick and Morty's dialogue reaches new levels of color as it allows its cast to use the full expanse of the urban dictionary to their advantage. While plenty of this dialogue is still heavily bleeped, the series isn't making the job of the censors easy.

While Community and Rick and Morty may be advertised as comedy series, they've managed to maintain the imaginations of their audience by taking some of their more adventurous and physical elements seriously. This is more apparent in Rick and Morty where the titular duo's adventures are constantly putting them at odds with galactic federations and killer aliens.

Community, however, was directed by the Russo Brothers, the same, acclaimed duo responsible for the recent films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They allowed the action and camera work in the series to be much more dynamic, with episodes like the paintball series and "Pillows and Blankets" having their clear influence.

As action-packed as Community may have gotten, the series never treaded even close towards PG-13 territory. Not wanting the show to get much more colorful than paintballs would allow, Community kept its violence and gore to a minimum. Rick and Morty has no restraints and uses the color red more often than the silver in Rick's hair.

Taking full advantage of the dangers of the universe and Rick's own disillusionment, the series has gotten bloody and killed multiple characters with ease, almost to the point where it seems like Rick and Morty are the real villains in the series.

It's weird thinking that a show about community college and a show about a drunken scientist share the same proclivity for alternate dimensions. But that's the type of world(s) that Dan Harmon lives in. Rick and Morty obviously loves to utilize Rick's portal gun to go on a variety of mind-bending adventures, and the duo have even utilized the infinite expanse of possibility to skirt grander consequences.

Community gets to share that same, high-concept thread with one of their most famous and critically-acclaimed episodes to date, "Remedial Chaos Theory." Here, a dice roll creates Community's iconic, alternate timeline gag as well as the "Darkest Timeline" that haunts the study group for a couple of seasons.

One of the greatest advantages that Rick and Morty has over Community is how its story and settings don't have to be limited by resources and budget restraints. While the audience has grown familiar and even adoring of Community's study room, it is only a symptom of a series that never tried to stray too far from Greendale.

In Rick and Morty, one would be hard pressed to accurately describe the Smith household given that most of the show's adventures are exploring some strange and visually exciting world. Straying further and further from a small, community college in Colorado, Rick and Morty always has a fresh, new background to delight fans.

NEXT:Rick And Morty: 5 Things That Changed After The Pilot (& 5 That Stayed The Same)

Next Supernatural: 10 Best Episodes Post-Kripke Era, Ranked (According to IMDb)

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Rick And Morty: 5 Ways It's Similar To Community (& 5 Things It Does Differently) - Screen Rant

The holiday season can be a paradox. We celebrate miracles that could only have existed because people were guided by their listening, witnessing, sensing, believing, and willingness to come together and be aware.

Yet, in our personal here and now, with holidays imminent, we are apt to turn away from community and away from ourselves as we drown in mind chatter of could-haves, should-haves, comparison, criticism, and unrealistic expectations of self and others. Often this chatter leaves us with spiraling feelings of disappointment, disconnection, and isolation.

The antidote to a mind that wanders through darkness and distraction? Be mindful.

While that might seem daunting, Chicago mental health professionals help break down what it means to be mindful and how to incorporate some of these practices in our daily life.

Mindfulness keeps us in the present moment. It encourages us to feel sensations, rather than judge them.

Mindfulness is a practice of embodiment, a moment-to-moment awareness that doesnt just include our thoughts but also our emotions, which are events in the body, and physical sensation, explains Rebecca Bunn, manager of mindfulness at Rush University Medical Centers Road Home Program. The program provides mental health programs for veterans and their families.

Sensation whether as awareness of breath, movement, or thought happens in real time in our body. But when we think about breath, movement, and thought we often apply judgment that removes us from the present. By attending to ourselves through the purity of sensation, rather than story, we are able to live embodied in our physical experiences.

We are all mindful already, to a certain degree, says Marita McLaughlin, a licensed clinical professional counselor, meditation teacher for more than 40 years, and Buddhist chaplain for more than 20 years. Getting dressed, choosing what we will eat, and decorating our space are all mindful activities, McLaughlin says.

Rebecca Davis, a psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker who is formally trained in internal family systems (IFS), describes an IFS therapy session as a meditation led by the therapist.

Westerners typically think that meditation is about clearing or quieting the mind, she says. When we listen to the mind with criticalness, we are not really listening, Davis says. Mindful meditation can help people tune in to what their mind is saying with compassion and tenderness.

Meditation helps clients attend to the mind, Bunn says. I think one of the most valuable aspects of meditation is that it can change our relationship with our thoughts, she says. We can become aware of the presence of a thought without necessarily becoming engaged with it. Not all thoughts are useful, she adds.

It makes a lot of sense that we dont feel calm, we dont feel peaceful all the time, Bunn says, citing the prolonged period of uncertainty, unknowns, and heightened stress that we collectively have been experiencing during this pandemic.

At the Road Home Program, mindfulness offers veterans compassionate connection with themselves, first and foremost. Veterans are encouraged to find a kind, nonjudging awareness of their emotions, thoughts, and sensations that can then support their connection to others.

Sometimes it seems easier to support other people than to support oneself. With the veterans, Bunn says, It is truly remarkable the really natural, deep, and lovely instinct to care for and support one another, while at the same time feeling like, Oh, its so hard for me to do the same for myself.

When we are gentle with our self and build up tolerance for our own foibles as well as strengths, then we are able to extend it outward to others, McLaughlin explains. If we start with compassion for ourselves, then there will be compassion for others that will naturally arise out of that self-awareness.

So, how can we be more aware, more present, more self-kind? Here are some tips to begin a mindfulness practice:

Set doable expectations. Choose a realistic number of times that you can commit to practicing meditation during the week, McLaughlin advises. Perhaps once a week is possible, perhaps three times. McLaughlin suggests starting with five to 10 minutes. Set an alarm so that you are not watching a clock.

Choose good timing. Time of day is important, too. Some prefer the morning, others the evening. McLaughlin advises against meditating before bed. Meditation is not about shutting oneself down or shutting away. Its about really waking up to our life, waking up to the present, she explains. McLaughlin suggests having some space around you as you meditate, open to the environmental experience, with minimal visual distractions.

Build the capacity to be stable in the present moment. McLaughlin suggests meditating seated and attending to the following:

Pay attention to your breath. After feeling the body in this upright, noble posture not too tight, not too loose McLaughlin suggests paying attention to the movement and rhythm of your breath, however it is occurring in the moment. Then, begin to notice thoughts. Dont expect that you are going to stop thinking or that you are going to stop having feelings or emotions, McLaughlin says.

Notice where your attention goes. While we are using the breath as an anchor for our attention, we are acknowledging that other things are going to come and go. As they do, notice, McLaughlin says. Use the moment of noticing as a reminder to bring our attention back to feeling the breath, with gentleness, without judgment, without criticism. Every time we notice and come back, we are strengthening the mind, we are taking responsibility for our experience.

Be honest in your present. In any calendar year, the holidays can include feelings of disconnection, isolation, or loneliness. During this Covid-19 time, we are being asked to separate ourselves further from one another. One of the most mindful things we can do, rather than expect ourselves to feel peaceful and calm in the midst of real challenge, is to admit to ourselves how tough it is right now, Bunn encourages. In this acknowledgment, Bunn suggests we offer ourselves some comfort.

Peel the sticker. When we are stressed and upset, it is often difficult to move forward because we cant separate from the very thoughts and emotions causing us distress. For example, Davis says, when clients say they are experiencing anger, they often also say they feel frustration toward that anger. To reduce the added stress and distraction of frustration and to better tune in to the original feeling of anger, Davis asks her clients to imagine peeling the frustration off like a sticker and holding it in their hand. Im not asking to banish the frustration or throw it away. Youre just trying to get a little bit of separation. Its almost like youre imagining holding it, rocking it, and taking care of it, like a little baby. In the moment that youre peeling it off and holding it, youre beginning to get separation. And, once the separation starts to happen, you can look back at the anger and say, Oh, Im not surprised that the anger came up. Im not totally crazy, and maybe I have a little bit more understanding and compassion now.

Attend with curiosity, compassion, and no agenda. As you meditate or increase your mindfulness in other ways, Davis suggests bringing curiosity and compassion to your noticing. For instance, if you are noticing sadness, Davis suggests asking questions such as, I wonder how long Ive been holding this? I wonder how old this feeling is? This type of curiosity will help you connect without agenda. Conversely, when we try to force things to go away, they often get bigger and more persistent. When we can access curiousness and compassion, then the wounded inner aspects of self get to relax, Davis explains.

Listen to how your body is responding. During the pandemic, Davis has found that people who have been practicing self-connection have felt less isolated because they have themselves. They are not missing things. They are recognizing the silver linings, such as the chance to relax or reboot, even with the emotional and financial difficulties, she says.

Use technology and virtual classes. Apps such as Headspace and Insight Timer offer easy access to meditations for every occasion and every level. Check out virtual meditation classes, such as those through the Chicago Shambhala Meditation Center, Marita McLaughlin, and Rush University Medical Center. If you are a veteran, find out more about services at the Road Home Program. Find internal family systems therapists through the IFS Institute.

Kathleen is a lover of embodied, joyous living and deep engagement inour nature. She is an award-winning author and life/movement coach.

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Using Meditation to Achieve Mindfulness - Chicago Health

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"In the Heights" at Chicago's Porchlight Theatre in 2016. (Photo by Gretchen Kelly)

Too often, comfort with culturally inappropriate casting starts in educational settingsprecisely the places these practices should be interrogated.

A few months ago I was added to a seemingly innocuous Facebook group for alums of my high school theatre program, but a brief scroll through the feed showed ample brownface and whitewashed casting. Greatest hits included questionably cast productions ofHairspray, Aida, and Once on This Island. Though my time there spanned 2010 to 2014, and the conversations around culturally conscious casting have since turned mainstream, these practices continue, not just in my previous high school, but also in colleges and on the professional stage.

What serves as an evergreen case study is Lin-Manuel Mirandas In the Heights, which both my high school and college alma maters produced within a couple months of each other, both repeating the same mistake. This musical explores the strife (and joy) of immigrant roots, particularly of the Latinx experience. As a precursor to Mirandas Hamilton, it set a precedent for expanding roles on Broadway to intentionally include people of color.In producing the musical In the Heights, educational and professional institutions alike should be saying yes to this intentionality. They should be affrming artists of color who havent had a plethora of opportunities designed with their full selves in mind, as nearly every white performer has had since time immemorial.

And yet the leading protagonist, Usnavi, is often cast with a non-Latino performer. In confidence, peers have shared with me their embarrassment about participating in this kind of whitewashing, to the extent that they no longer list these roles on their rsums. Others, however, go on to repeat the offense on professional stages, collecting a paycheck for roles that arent inherently written for themin essence, eliminating already scarce opportunities for actors of color.

How do we stop such casting malpractice? One place to start is in the classroom.

Acting at the collegiate level is largely viewed as a collection of learning experiences. Its the time to explore beyond types and expand ones range. Theres an understanding that the skills one is learning in school are a work in progress, and versatility is the goal. But pedagogy becomes suspect when students are publicly cast in roles they have no business embodying. When students are cast outside of a race-conscious framework, they may learn that whitewashing is acceptable and may go on to perpetuate it. If we agree this practice should not continue on professional stages, why are institutions and their educators enabling it as a part of actor training?

One argument: Many such programs do not have the actors needed to cast authentically. If this is the case, then In the Heights needs to be set aside for another time. In this moment of deep reckoning with the white supremacy embedded in our country and our field, many institutions are working toward diversifying their seasons as a nod toward equity. But what needs to happen in parallel to these season overhauls is the intentional recruitment of BIPOC students and faculty. This process is slow and requires resources, but it will ultimately create casting pools equipped to support a wider range of narratives without perpetuating harm.

It would be disingenuous for me to put forth a definitive list of dos and donts of casting. The We See You, White American Theaterdemands around education, which call for culturally appropriate casting of all student productions, is an excellent place to start.

Whats tricky is how much nuance exists in the differences among race, ethnicity, culture, and identity more broadly. Even in writing this article, Ive struggled to name this casting issue with precision, mulling over word choices like color-conscious vs. race-evasive. (On a language justice note, I refrain from using the word blind, as in colorblind casting, to evoke a deficit because its ableist, even apart from all the I dont see color implications of that phrase.)

Regardless, educators must be ready to facilitate an explicit conversation on these issues, especially around perpetuating culturally inappropriate casting. It only contributes to a cycle of harm when educators are unwilling or unable to talk frankly and sensitively about what it means for students to be cast outside of their identity. If a student leaves an educational institution without a critical analysis of how to evaluate which roles are appropriate for them, that is the failure of the institution.

Acting educators can also work to foster this critical self-awareness in their own classroom spaces. There is obvious value in studying and exercising work that examines BIPOC experiences, but pedagogically, what do white students gain from reciting monologues of characters not intended for them? What dropped contexts are we co-signing when we may shed dialects, say, to make the work more appropriate for white students? Even if we approach scripts as learning tools, it is still necessary to adhere to the intentionality of the playwright and mandates outlining expectations on character-specific casting. It is a question of dramaturgy and pedagogy, a centering of script analysis and interrogation of learning goals.

Expanding the canon of plays we are teaching should also translate to season planning. Typically, when acting students invest in their education, this manifests as production opportunities. Many students go through an audition process similar to that of a professional one, and accordingly rarely have a say in how they are cast. Since there are a limited number of production slots, pushing back or even questioning casting decisions is a gamble for students anxious about the consequences. The stakes here are immense for students trying to learn their craft at the same time they are learning to navigate the world beyond the stage. Season planning must take into consideration the identities of the actors they have and work with, not against, scripts that serve these students. Otherwise, students maintain a troubling lack of power, lack of consent, and lack of alternatives.

It doesnt have to be this way. A commitment to expanding the stories we tell and also casting them with dramaturgical rigor should be the bare minimum. In the Heights premiered in 2005, so why do we remain stuck in a loop of controversy over a production with the potential to do so much good? As institutions interrogate how they perpetuate these toxic systems and work to dismantle them, there can also be collective power in educators committing to both teach and use these scripts in the contexts for which they were written. That would constitute principled learning and baseline progress.

Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel (she/they) is a Chicago/Austin-based dramaturg, journalist, and oral historian. @YasminZacaria

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One Way to Stop Whitewashing: It's Got to Be Taught - American Theatre

Just because Mike Krzyzewski says it, the entire college basketball world is required by statute to come to a screeching halt so Very Serious People can parse What It All Means. This is true even when Krzyzewski openly pondering the moral dilemma of playing college basketball during an uncontrolled pandemic Tuesday night wasnt actually anything that hasnt already been said.

It was the same thing hundreds of his peers and thousands of his colleagues in college athletics have been saying, or feeling, since July. But such is the stature of the Duke coachs bully pulpit that his former assistant Jeff Capel can say essentially the same thing and more in Pittsburgh on Monday I dont know why you cancel it in March, but you say its OK to do it right now only to have his comments disappear like a stone dropped in a pond, while Krzyzewski admitting I dont think it feels right to anybody becomes a matter of intense national debate.

College basketball in particular is at an inflection point, trying desperately to scrape its way through to March and the financial imperative of the NCAA tournament while Rick Pitino and others have called for the season to be pushed back.

Krzyzewski will face the same slings (Is he just doing it to distract from his disappointing team?) and arrows (coach k your a coronabro lol) from social-media experts and coronavirus-denier media grifters as anyone else who has dared question the rumbling steamroller of college athletics as it proceeds forward, but he was merely giving voice to a sentiment shared by a great silent many.

There has been a shared general queasiness about this whole operation, a sense of uncomfortability around the blatant exploitation of college students to grease the wheels of the giant economic engine that is college sports. That feeling of being a part of something vaguely unseemly, the one Krzyzewski expressed Tuesday night, has never quite gone away.

And yes, a great many people would lose their jobs if these games arent played. And yes, the players desperately want to play them. And yes, even Krzyzewski has said the NCAA tournament must be played for financial reasons. Everyone understands that. Its OK to be conflicted. Many people who draw their paycheck from college athletics certainly are, and not just vocal media personalities like Jay Bilas, who has shown no hesitation to make a meal of the hand that feeds him, and did so again on ESPN during Dukes loss to Illinois on Tuesday.

It is a complicated quandary that taps into emotions as much as finances. There is no right or wrong here, no black or white. There are only shades of gray, and Krzyzewski dabbled in a nice charcoal heather Tuesday night.

There wasnt much of this during the fall, since college football coaches and fans alike arent exactly cursed with self-awareness, but college basketball has always had a more thoughtful ethos, a sport where idealists like Dean Smith and John Thompson are admired, not treated as outliers or worse.

Basketball is also proving much more difficult to actually, you know, play than football was. Hours after Krzyzewski spoke, a full quarter of the ACC was on pause. N.C. State shut down its program Wednesday, joining Louisville and Virginia and Wake Forest and dozens of programs across the country in coronavirus limbo.

Meanwhile, there are players who wont get to see their families for the holidays and international players who havent been home in more than a year while game after game falls off the schedule. And thats before you even consider the basic unanswered questions about safety and health and fairness all of which inevitably end up circling back to the complete untethering, now and forever, of athletics from academics.

I dont think anyone can say anymore that these young men are amateurs, Capel told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Thats out the window. Theyre not. They absolutely arent.

The Ivy League took one look at all of this and walked away, shaking its collective head. Everyone else is hurtling ahead in a car on a snowy road with an iced-over windshield, hoping for the best.

That doesnt sit right with a lot of people, and Krzyzewski is the latest to join a chorus that was hushed when it gave voice to these concerns over the summer. But where Krzyzewski goes and Pitino and Capel and others go others are sure now to follow.

2020 The News & Observer. Visit at newsobserver.com. Distributed at Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Coach K not the first with concerns about basketball in a pandemic, but he's the loudest - Union Democrat

A major mental task in life is to craft a coherent identity. Psychology maintains that identity is an amalgam of ones life experiences, memories, relationships, physical characteristics and values. Some psychologists believe clear self-definition (I am this kind of person) provides a steady sense of self that persists over time, affording a consistent psychological platform from which to interact with the world and contemplate ourselves. But, for many, identity is neither steady nor consistent.

When someone struggles to describe their personality, values and attributes, they likely suffer an ill-formed, conflicted or murky sense of self. This poses a substantial psychological handicap. A muddled self-definition undermines relationships, decision-making, self-discipline and life satisfaction. This conundrum is most common in young folks struggling to find themselves, but also afflicts adults who become fixated on the logistics of living, only to wake up one day and realize theyve lost touch with who they are.

Regardless, such folks are left pondering that proverbial existential questionWho am I? There are a multitude of challenges that can complicate ones answer. For example, for some folks, their identity is heavily invested in one prominent aspect of their person, such as being a parent, their career, or physical appearance and capacities. If they lose this defining role or self-image, then the classic identity crisis ensues. Attaching too much of ones self-definition to a single role is risky.

Another scenario involves people who act in ways inconsistent with their core values, perhaps by doing something hateful or destructive. This creates a psychological clash between their longstanding sense of self (Im a good person) and actions that paint a very different picture (Im a bad actor). If ones actions are sufficiently at odds with ones values, the cognitive dissonance disrupts or even shatters ones identity, sometimes with dire consequences. More than a few suicides and self-destructive lifestyles stem from this deep wound to self-definition and the shame it often engenders.

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In another troubling vein, one may harbor a hidden identity kept secret from the world, having discovered that ones authentic self is not affirmed or welcomed by others. This can leave a person feeling fake and unworthy, which fosters both self-loathing and what psychoanalyst R.D. Laing termed the divided self. Ones hidden identity and the public persona one presents to the outside world square off in a mental tug-of-war for ascendency. Which is the real me? The one I sense inside myself or the one I show the world?

Clearly, identity, even when well-formed in adulthood, changes and morphs over time, for better or worse. This evolution reminds me of a line from the Indigo Girls: Were sculpted from youth . . . the chipping away makes me weary. Some who feel theyve lost their prior sense of self talk about how difficult life circumstances, poor decisions or behavioral problems gradually eroded their previously stable self-image, leaving them feeling ill-defined. Such folks contradict the assertion that identity is stable over time.

We know certain attitudes and behaviors can support a clear and healthy sense of self, even in the face of corrosive impacts due to challenging life situations and losses. High among these is authenticity. Being real is an implicit affirmation of self, a way of saying yes to who one is. Then, there is self-compassion, which acknowledges ones flawed humanity rather than rejecting the self for failing to be perfect. Also, contemplative practices, like journaling and meditation, increase self-awareness, keeping ones identity in clear view. Another helpful element is acting from purpose, because meaning is central to a positive identity. As the philosopher Nietzsche said, Those who have a why to live for can bear almost any how. Purpose anchors identity, holding it fast in the face of lifes tempests.

In the movie Batman Begins, Bruce Waynes lady friend, Rachel, reminds him, Its not who you are underneath; its what you do that defines you. Identity is partly innate temperament, partly upbringing, partly life circumstances, but, in the end, mostly the choices one makes.

For more, visitphilipchard.com

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Pondering the Question 'Who Am I?' - Shepherd Express

I cant do it, I wailed to my editor. I cant write about the new Saved by the Bell reboot.

My editor, obviously wondering why Peacocks new reboot of the famous 90s sitcom, released on Thanksgiving, had me so discombobulated, pressed me for details. She had, after all, asked me to watch it and deliver a routine review, and this was clearly not the reaction she anticipated.

So I proceeded to have an existential meltdown in Slack over a show where, among countless other ridiculous moments, Mario Lopez explains male privilege to two obviously 20-something high schoolers by pointing to the words toxic masculinity on the cover of Self magazine.

Is that funny? Is it supposed to be? Im no longer sure, just like Im no longer sure what comedy means in general in showrunner Tracey Wigfields relentlessly meta framework. Based on the iconic 90s high school sitcom, which was frequently (and knowingly) terrible, the reboot also expects us to laugh at how cheesy it is. The new show is I think supposed to be cringey but cute, equal parts wince-worthy and nostalgic.

But after watching all 10 episodes, Im still not sure whether that nostalgia is supposed to be for the original Saved by the Bell or for a time when we could even straightforwardly watch a show like Saved by the Bell, with its easy, pre-ironic internet era moral framework. My editor probably wanted me to map out this difference more neatly than I have in this piece, but thats the quandary this show presents me with: How can we know whether Saved by the Bell is ironic or sincere when the show itself doesnt seem sure either?

NBCs Saved by the Bell revival reboot tries admirably to update a frequently problematic show for a new woke generation. (This show is begging me to describe it as woke, especially with quotes, so fine, show, you win.)

In the reboots opening moments, we learn that former class clown/current governor of California Zack Morris has cut $10 billion from the states education budget in order to revive the fossil fuel industry. Its supposed to be a joke Zack says he just Googled what the last administration did but its also the device that fuels the plot for the rest of the season. Kids from underprivileged schools that were shut down by the cuts start flocking to Bayside, the ritzy upper-class high school Zack once attended and where his son Mac now follows in his footsteps. Zacks besties, Jessie Spano and A.C. Slater, also now work at the school as the guidance counselor and football coach, respectively, their longtime on-again/off-again relationship currently off. The actors from the original series, including Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez as Zack and Slater, reprise their original roles, though the spotlight stays on the new students.

Bayside plays home mainly to rich white kids who hang out at the vague school diner-lounge called the Max, which still looks like someones 1993 Trapper Keeper. When three new kids, Daisy, DeVonte, and Aisha, show up to the school, they have to contend with the other students breezy indifference to things like classism, white privilege, and sociopolitics.

The humor and wacky hijinks that follow from this setup can be charmingly savvy, nodding to the premises inherent social complications (I know our school library was just a Bible and a bunch of Army pamphlets, goes one choice quote from the transplanted students). The show can also be almost Dadaist, in the worst way, courtesy of jokes that are frequently little more than random pop culture references made for the sake of making them. Like I got DJ Khaleds baby to make you a playlist, or the running joke about Selena Gomezs kidney that sparked online backlash and which NBC rapidly pulled from one episode. Theres also this line from the pilot that haunts me: I read a Facebook article about an underground sex cult where kids snort Baby Yoda. Why?

And its not like I dont love a good random pop culture reference. But Saved by the Bell blatantly takes The Big Bang Theorys shallow you just shouted a bunch of shit formula of invoking geek cred and swaps it out for celebrity name-dropping to invoke preppy suburban Los Angeles life. Its a superficial stand-in for both world-building and humor, and it fails on both fronts.

In between all its corny self-references and baffling pop culture jokes, the new Saved by the Bell does try to spin a heartwarming tale of friendship overcoming class and racial divides, 2020-style. DeVonte learns the value of authenticity from trans cheerleader Lexi, played with pitch-perfect zeal by trans actress Josie Totah. (Shes perfect and I love her.) The PTA is run by a villainous Karen, while the other school moms have names like Joyce Whitelady. Then theres Daisy, who flounders between resentment and envy of her new friends: She joins the Flat Earth Society just because its an extracurricular. At one point, she gets caught up in a power trip and starts acting like a rude rich lady in short order, before checking herself and teaching all her new friends about empathy and power dynamics.

I dont want to be totally negative here: The shows cast is endearing. Most of them are sincere and wholesome, which helps sell the seasons storyline, in which they ultimately unite against systemic racism and learn life lessons about coexistence. But in its attempt to be sincerely woke in a parodic context (Stop having empathy for the wrong person! Daisy snaps at one point), the reboot sometimes teeters on the brink of becoming a completely non-woke meta-parody of wokeness. Thats probably not what the shows writers intended, but its the risk you take when the shows attempts at sincerity are part of the joke.

The whole conceit of reviving an un-woke 90s series for a much more progressive 2020 audience is an exercise in tongue-in-cheek self-awareness. (See a string of similar recent 90s reboots, from 90210 to Dallas.) So its perhaps inevitable that the reboot becomes not just a parody of the original Saved by the Bell, but also a superimposition of modern-day political sensibilities onto the old shows concepts to see if they can coexist.

So we get a show thats rife with constant send-ups of 90s teen comedy and self-parody. We get high school seniors with obviously receding hairlines and boomer wrinkles. We get an episode where Bayside stages a cheesy teen beach musical about a surfing champ Army veteran whos happy to sing about the horrors of war. And we get all the worst and/or campiest traits of the original show (like Zacks misogyny, the Maxs vagueness, and a disinterest in any other students besides the main characters) trotted out, pointed to, and then made fun of. Its all loud and clunky, just like the oversize 90s phone our hero Daisy (in Zack Morriss original role as audience surrogate) is forced to carry around.

Thats not to say that the show is a nonstop woke parody, but its most sincere moments almost feel more parodic than its moments of cheek. We see this particularly with the characters from the original series. Zack, Kelly, Jessie, and Slater have all returned in part to do penance for the original series to admit what jerks they used to be as teens and prove how much theyve grown. In one episode, Slater apologizes for making fun of Jessie, his love interest on the original series, when they were kids. In a speech that could have come straight from peak Tumblr fandom, he recounts how the original show mocked Jessies activism and progressive values. But she won in the end, he passionately declares, because, Todays kids are all Jessies!

These modernized sitcom teaching moments come across like Disneyfied progressivism for kids, and maybe theres a space for that in todays tween TV landscape. Except this show is also clearly aimed at capturing an audience of boomers and millennials who loved the original Saved by the Bell in all its cheesiness. What are those viewers taking away from this absurdist unfunny meta-parody, except that the shows sociopolitics are, well, absurd?

Okay, deep breaths. I know this is all a lot to process. Were talking about a show that made me sit through a running joke where Mac turns himself into a payphone. Im not proud of how much Im overthinking it.

Still, I think these questions are fundamental ones. People tend to ask the same question about reboots of beloved-but-dated 90s shows: Do we even need this? (The answer is almost always no.) The questions this not-so-complicated version of Saved by the Bell invites us to ask are somehow more complicated, about whether its even possible to make woke comedy without setting up the work to be accused of not being woke enough. After all, whats ever going to be woke enough?

If theres any show the Saved by the Bell reboot made me consistently nostalgic for, its Community, another NBC comedy about drastically different students learning to coexist. But if Community managed to stay brilliantly funny while showcasing its diversity and self-referentiality, it also already feels outdated; its way of reconciling sociopolitical tensions by, for example, just coexisting with well-meaning racist Chevy Chase now feels hopelessly naive. But is Saved by the Bells guilt-ridden, perpetual lampshading of itself the best way to ethically perform a goofy school comedy these days, when writers rooms and audiences are hyper-aware of the importance (and pitfalls) of telling diverse stories well?

I really hope not. Still, I think the series actually deserves points for trying. In 2020, the easy fantasy of a quickly resolvable sitcom conflict is both an escapist dream and a weak excuse to avoid confronting reality. Saved by the Bell, with its neon opening credits, its weirdly autotuned theme song, its cast of former teen idols, and its endless litany of dad jokes, seems to want to rebrand these escapist fantasies as earnest optimism.

The teens of the Saved by the Bell reboot choose friendship and loyalty over scheming and stratagems; they listen, grow, learn, and evolve. Yes, its ham-fisted and improbable. But maybe its the sort of back-to-basics approach many viewers, old and new, will appreciate. Then again, maybe its a superficial, condescending insult to the real challenges modern teens face.

But Saved by the Bell never remotely pretended to be realistic. Maybe all the reboot needs to be now is 100 percent itself, too however messy and daffy and fumbling that is. And for my editor, who wanted a conclusive theme to come from this existential crisis, maybe its just this: that in this era of pandemics and political extremes, were all just fumbling along and doing our awkward best, snorting Baby Yoda and hoping for better jokes to come along. Maybe, mentally, at the end of 2020, were all just sitting in homeroom, zoning out on the teachers, waiting for the bell to get us out of here.

At least in TV Land, the bell actually rings.

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Review: The Saved by the Bell reboot gave me an existential crisis - Vox.com

Whom should you hire?

Thats a question you ask yourself often, and you strive to be fair with it by hiring the best person for the job, no matter what. But what if the person doesnt fit with your team? Can you truly keep gender, race, sexuality and different beliefs out of your hiring process and your workplace? Or, as in The Leaders Guide to Unconscious Bias: How to Reframe Bias, Cultivate Connection, and Create High-Performing Teams by Pamela Fuller and Mark Murphy with Anne Chow, do you need to do better?

Ad schedules, HR concerns, budgets, board meetings is there any wonder why your head is full? Not really: According to Fuller, Murphy and Chow, our brains absorb millions of bits of information each second were awake, but were unable to process all but about 40 of those bits at any one time.

To help deal with the overload, the brain creates shortcuts which lead to unconscious bias, defined as a subliminal preference for or against a thing, person or group, compared with another. That can include sexuality, personality, gender identity, nationality, attractiveness or race, among other things you may (overtly or not) notice about an individual.

As employees of FranklinCovey, Fuller and Murphy use the performance model to explain what might be done about unconscious bias, which is as detrimental to a business as is open bias. The first step is to identify where your unconscious bias lies through a process of self-awareness, knowing how you got your biases and recognizing bias traps.

Secondly, focus on bringing others together through a culture of belonging. Be authentic, cultivate a curiosity about people, mind your words and work to ensure that employees and customers are represented in your business.

Thirdly, use careful courage to stand up for yourself and to pay attention to whats being done or said. Check yourself for any assumptions you may have on promotions, assignments or hiring. Have the courage to know when you need more self-work.

Finally, learn how the talent lifecycle can put this knowledge in action for good and for the good of all. Your team will thank you for it.

The very first thing youll want to know about this book is that its well-considered and thorough. The second thing youll want to know is that whats outlined within will require considerable work.

Thats something its authors freely admit. Its also going to take serious introspection, the possible discomfort of which isnt so much discussed here, though its hard to complain when the authors themselves are as forthcoming and honest as they are in their self-anecdotes. Fuller is a Black woman, Murphy is a gay man and Chow is Asian American, and their shared experiences very strongly illustrate the points they make.

Still, in this day and age, you cant ignore homogeny at the workplace any longer. You need the advantages that will come with The Leaders Guide to Unconscious Bias. Read it, absorb it and take your team higher.

The Leaders Guide to Unconscious Bias: How to Reframe Bias, Cultivate Connection, and Create High-Performing Teams by Pamela Fuller and Mark Murphy with Anne Chow. 304 pages. Simon & Schuster. $28.

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Overcoming workplace bias - The Miami Times