I like how this podcast ended on a positive note after going through some drastic highs and lows throughout. There were a few specific messages throughout it that really stuck with me. First was Dr. Bezio’s statement that being a Leadership major is a risk compared to ‘safe’ majors that our parents tell us will guarantee a job and money. If I had a dollar for every time a family member ask me how leadership studies will get me a job or suggest that I major in a ‘hard skill’, I wouldn’t need a career. Furthermore, I think it’s important that she suggests that type of risk taking is necessary to create change. It also makes me feel better about my major choice.

The second thing that stood out to me was Dr. Bezio’s comment during the Titanic story about how social norms allowed for women and children to have access to the lifeboats first when she said that sometimes sexism has its benefits. This made me think of a quote that one of my friends came up with which is, “Its not what you can do for the patriarchy, but what the patriarchy can do for you.” Essentially the meaning is that, as women, it can be more beneficial to us to reap the benefits of sexism such as flirting your way out of a speeding ticket, getting men to do things for you by batting your eyes, etc. than to try to dismantle the patriarchy all on your own. Though it is more funny ironically and kind of problematic for the messages of this class, it brings us back to the podcast’s main message of taking risks and having to strive for wanting change. The better we become at this through the Jepson school, the more I believe we can help improve the world.

I found this week’s podcast to be interesting in its own right but also a cool continuation of our past conversations about history and storytelling. I have never really thought about songs being used to tell messages even though I am very much aware that songs have a deeper meaning. I found it particularly funny that the song Alice’s Restaurant was a protest song. I had never heard it until recently but apparently my boyfriend’s dad listens to it every year on Thanksgiving on repeat while he cooks. The only time I listened to it I couldn’t get through it long enough to reach the part with the political message. I also thought it was cool that Blowing in the Wind is a protest song because its more hidden than some of the other examples, but now that the podcast has brought it up it makes sense. That song always makes me think of the movie Forrest Gump because its the song Jenny performs at the strip club for all of the soldiers, now that I know it’s a war protest song that makes the scene that much more relevant to the context of the time.

I thought the reading was not only an interesting story but a strongly symbolic message. Clearly the author intended for there to be many underlying themes about the oppression of women and oppressive gender stereotypes as well as stigmas around mental health. The beginning of the reading reminded me a lot of my 101 class when we talked about the ‘silent problem’ in the 50s and 60s when many housewives of middle class families were having mental breakdowns similar to the one depicted in the reading. They were the result of oppressive gender roles that did not allow educated women to do anything but tend to house chores and babies. This lack of fulfillment lead to insomnia, anxiety, and depression like the kind the main character here suffers from. I think my point is made obvious when she mentions how she never would have wanted a baby but that is not something she could ever say out loud. Equally telling is the fact that everyone surrounding her finds it disturbing that she writes and therefore she finds the need to hide it.

I found the podcast and the reading super interesting, especially considering all of the ties between popular culture and leadership. I knew the Robin Hood story was old but I had no idea it was that old or had such an effective and extensive history. Since humans are primarily social creatures it makes you wonder if Storytelling was the main form of leadership in times before detailed history recording, mass media, or fast forms of communication. In my Leadership 102 class we talked a lot about oral traditions and how humans have evolved to depend on the information that they learn from others.

Furthermore, I found this podcast super interesting and important because it ties directly to the topic of my semester research paper for this class. My main argument is how music and popular culture in general is a valid and effective form of leadership that can provide a lasting impact and influence on our culture as a whole. Not only is it exciting that I can now cite Dr. Bezio in my research paper, but now I know that it falls under the category of storytelling as leadership. Lastly, I think it is critical to realize what Dr. Bezio points out in the podcast, that storytelling directly ties to our unit on the media and how representation is a reflection of how our society is or how it should be. By creating widespread narratives about injustices in society or an ideal world that would solve people’s problems, we give people the inspiration to create change. I have always found that to be an incredible aspect of leadership: that the actions of ordinary people, like the original storytellers of Robin Hood, can create widespread positive change.

I thought the podcast on history’s relationship with leadership was super interesting and is one of my favorite parts of leadership studies. I had Dr. Hayter for my 101 class and we discussed in depth many of the topics we mentioned in class like Hitler and World War II, prohibition, the Civil Rights movement with Malcom X and Rosa Parks, and how history is important because it explains why our world is the way it is today. That is the part I find the most interesting and the thing I was most interested in and surprised to learn when I started my journey through the Jepson school:  how history has shaped the context of our world today and how context is one of the most important facets of leadership. For example when Hitler rose to power, he recognized the context of current anti-Semitic sentiment all across Europe in the mid 1900s and fed off that sentiment during his rise to power. According to Dr. Hayter, he did not necessarily create a rise in those sentiments when he gained political power. We also talked a great deal about what is mentioned in the podcast, that though MLK was a great charismatic speaker he had many unnamed leaders before him who made the Civil Rights movement physically possible. This idea greatly challenges the Great Man theory since we now know he was not the sole cause of the Civil Rights movement.

I also found the Great Man Theory mentioned in the podcast more interesting now with the connections drawn by Dr. Bezio, I did not think too much about it when I first learned about it, but the theory was created at the time when solely rich, white men were considered leaders and they were the ones controlling what was recorded. I had always known this at the back of my mind but when mentioned in the podcast it all makes sense. We can tie this idea back to how representation is important in the media: since white men controlled the majority of history for so long, it gives the appearance that women and people of color contributed little to history. By beginning to change the narrative in terms of who else can be considered a leader, as well as recording so much more information these days, can be thought of as representation in the historical narrative. This representation can be equally as influential as depictions in the media, in my opinion.

I always find the mini history lessons in our class podcast really interesting. I knew that FDR was disabled but I did not know that he went to such great lengths to hide it for fear of public opinion. Furthermore, I had never heard that so much research went into Nixon and Kennedy’s debate. I have also found that when listening to things such as the podcast I am much more focused on the content than when I have watched video lectures for other classes. The visual component can easily distract from interpreting the message and it seems like our brain finds the social and body language cues to be more important.

For the Living Room Candidate assignment I chose the 2008 election because during that election my dad had me help him distribute flyers and campaign door to door for McCain. Like we have mentioned in class and in the podcast, I am sure my dad was attempting to appeal to the instincts of the people he was campaigning to by bringing along a 7 year old. My favorite ad was a really poor quality ad made by McCain’s advertisers that I believe was inspired by Austin Powers. It starts out saying “Barack Obama is Dr. No” while playing cheesy spy music in the background and static black and white images of Obama are shown. While all of the messages that pop up do present Obama’s ideas about different energy sources such as gas taxes and nuclear power, it is clear that the information is skewed as the audio of Obama talking cuts at specific moments. Clearly not all of his ideas were presented in this targeted ad. I have always found it funny that the majority of political campaign ads try to bring down the opposing candidate rather than speak positively about the person who paid for and sponsored the ad.

As I am sure was the point of the exercise, I at first found the simulator nearly impossible to do. Even when I started out only making small changes, if I forgot to check one box my crop yield would fail or I would sustain a loss in the market or one of my villagers would get sick. One of the hardest parts I found was that there never seemed to be enough money. Once I got the hang of the game and was able to make a good profit off of corn for a few seasons it still was not enough to install the infrastructure like indoor bathrooms, water pumps, or even a medical clinic that would have been a lot more effective in preventing the villagers from getting sick. Another thing I noticed is that the only way to keep the family and the village afloat was to have Kodjo and Fatou doing work on various things for all hours of the day. I tried at first having at least a few idle hours for them for their health but I soon realized that the only way to make a profit for the family and the village was to have them tasked out for every hour. Overall I think this simulator ties back to the podcast in many ways, one of them being that small changes, or ‘adjustments in habits’ like the human body example suggests, are the best way of facilitating change in a system. This is easy to observe once we are aware of it, as many problematic systems do not disappear overnight. Secondly, this simulator definitely illustrates the fact that systems cannot be lead by either a small group of leaders or a single leader. There were way too many variables for me to remember and each round I would always forget at least one small detail. As stated in the podcasts, systems are so intricate and have so many moving parts that they require a much larger group of leaders to effectively handle the task.

http://https://youtu.be/xxNxqveseyI

I saw this ad for the first time during the Super Bowl and at the time I appreciated it for its humor and irony. Now that I have listened to the podcast and done the reading, I can appreciate it for its effective tactics. Like the podcast talks about, when I think of ads I think of the basic act of seeing a product and wanting it. Whenever my roommate sees ads for donuts on Instagram, we end up going out to buy donuts. Not only is it like the Old Spice ad where it suggests that having an Alexa is equivalent to having a more attractive male in your house, but it also appeals to the familiar and popular by having Michael Jordan as a star in the ad. There is also the sexual appeal, mentioned by the reading as lust, that comes into play when Michael Jordan has the societal definition of attractive features such as large muscles and blue eyes.

Additionally, this ad appeals to our ‘lizard brains’ by portraying many comfortable and inviting images like a backyard barbecue, dinner cooking on the stove, and a warm bubble bath. Overall, this ad seems to insinuate that having an Alexa will bring you all of these good experiences and make you popular and ‘in the norm’ of culture. The funny jokes like “It’s getting way too wet around here” turn the humor from funny to memorable, increasing the effectiveness and memorability of the ad.

Since I am a humanities major mostly due to my inability to work with numbers and statistics, i thought this chart was really funny. I will admit I did not have a favorite chart until I found this one, but I thought it was fitting for that reason and also because I work at Passport Cafe and have to stare at all that delicious food for my whole shift. Moreover, I am glad that critical thinking gives us the skills to analyze arguments in this quantitative form because, as Dr. Bezio mentioned in the podcast, that is often how people choose to back up their humanities-based arguments. I had also never really though about it before how data and statistics are often used to support evidence of demographics, but on second thought even the giving games paper that we just turned in that had sections just about ethics had some numerical forms of evidence. Overall, I will now look at numbers in a much different light when thinking about arguments. More specifically, I will think about how they are used within the argument and if it makes sense or aims to be deceiving, rather than just glancing at them and pretending I understand.

I think this podcast does a great job of illustrating exactly how implicit biases and stereotypes create a butterfly effect of harmful consequences. I am saddened to learn about the problematic origins and ineffectiveness of the D.A.R.E program, as I was the valedictorian of my DARE group in the fifth grade. Additionally, I see the power and pervasiveness of implicit biases enforced by the media and stereotypes from my own experience. I grew up in a rural and very non-affluent area that was relatively diverse, and yet the same implicit and harmful image of predominately persons of color as ‘drug abusers’ comes to my mind. As discussed in the podcast and in my previous blog post, that images such as these portrayed by the media are responsible for this.

That brings into question why the media is so set on perpetuating harmful images, and I think this podcast fills that information gap. People in power, like the First Lady attempting to stop drug abuse or the racist lawyer from the 1930’s who criminalized marijuana (forgot his name), have the means and ability to get their implicitly biased message out to the world. This makes it of the utmost important for everyone, especially those in power, to expose themselves to otherness and different opinions in order to diminish implicit biases to the best of their ability.