It will be a long day when you get up to go to the gym at 5:30 AM, and the heat is already oppressive. To help get us through, we bring stories of conversations that help make responsible people, followed by people making television decisions like passing on Breaking Bad? After learning and head-scratching comes a new website (to us), with AI-inspired personas of every state in the U.S. Finally, speaking of HOT, the women from Boygenius work on living in the moment and sharing the joy of this moment with the audience. We start and end H-O-T!

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Vox Media has a great article we found from the 1440 newsletter. Charley Locke, a journalist, and fellow Substacker, wrote the piece titled; How to (actually) talk to kids. Like Locke's advice, we appreciated the honesty and uncommon suggestions on a common topic. The subheading suggests that talking to a kid isn't or shouldn't be much different than talking to another adult. A big part of that is listening, not responding with too many unconscious replies, and the illustration for the article shows an adult crouching down to be at eye level with the kid they are talking to.

I have three young adult boys and was blessed to work from home for most of their childhoods. I coached many sports teams they played on, volunteered at their schools, and worked in several schools and early learning centers throughout my life. Getting a kid to talk to you, ask questions, and converse has always been challenging. My kids grew up on the edge of the smartphone, and I got to see both sides of that challenge. Before the smartphone, it was hard to get them to engage in conversation; post smart phone, you won’t be able to find them to have a conversation, but that’s a story for another day.

As a dad, teacher, and coach, I wanted my kids and players to know I heard them, and many times that meant I would say what they said to me back to them in the form of a question. I also wanted them to know I trusted them enough to have real conversations, and I would tell them the truth even if that hurt me or them. Going back to Locke's article, she says the same thing, although she comes with more data and experts 😇

Check out the Subheadings from the article; all of them should be part of any conversation regardless of the age of the person you are conversing with. The big difference with a kid is they are looking to you to teach them how to have a conversation, and how you talk with them can show them the way.

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Another highlight from 1440 links us up with RollingStone, who compiled a comprehensive list of 50 bad decisions in TV history. After Jump The Shark, we were surprised by how many other decisions and reactions RollingStone reminded us about. Most of these situations are from the last 20 years, but the list does dip into the 60s and 70s for a few of the moments. The list reminded us of when feedback took time and people had to make decisions based on limited data. We wonder if we will long for those days?

We have few words for this next story, a new site to us called DailyBee, put out a story that looks more like a graphic novel; here's the premise: Ask AI to generate real people personas of all 50 States. The results are a M-U-S-T-S-E-E!

Here's an example. What is the state it represents?

If you have seen clips from Boygenius at many of their shows this summer, they end with the members of the supergroup, Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, along with other members of the band with a group hug or a big pile on at the end. They give it all they've got and look like they are having so much fun it's hard not to share in the joy.

The members of Boy Genius aren't new to the music scene; they are all great solo artists, but the amount of attention they get as the members of Boygenius and the love they get from fans at shows borders on hysteria. The members take in stride and with a dose of humor to get them through the day.

According To Plan - I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

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Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

7 minutes of good cheer every day. Become a Fan to get daily posts and updates.

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