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It's more than sex ed. For these young women, it's a movement for equality.

When writer Meera Subramanian traveled to India, she wasn't sure exactly what she'd find.

In an excerpt from her book, "A River Runs Again," she tells us what she discovered:

It was the girls who talked most passionately. Several spoke of becoming more comfortable with their bodies after having been taught what was happening to them, after resolving at least some of the mysteries of adolescence. They had lost their shyness by learning about the details of biology…


Scene from rural Bihar. Photo courtesy of Allison Joyce/Redux.

In rural Bihar — one of India's most impoverished states — Subramanian sat in a small brick one-room schoolhouse, listening to a group of local teenagers talk about their lives. One young woman in particular caught her attention...

Sobha was the most self-possessed. Her forehead was marked with a sparkly bindi that matched an S-shaped pendant hanging from her neck. She sat attentively as the others spoke, only once interjecting, “We should say the truth." But once she had the floor, she commanded the room. All distracted chatter stopped.

“'What sort of place is this?' you'll say if you come to my village. From Bodh Gaya, there's a river and a hill, and behind them is the village, like a cave. People were afraid to go inside. Even my father didn't want to stay in the village. It was claustrophobic." There had been changes, she said. Some villagers now had phones, and one road was being paved. She learned about the Pathfinder training course from village elders, who said all girls between fifteen and eighteen should attend.

Subramanian writes that Sobha and the other teenagers had just finished a three-day training on the basics of sexual health through an organization called Pathfinder International, led by two bold advocates, Pinki and Binod.

But “my situation was common in the village," [Sobha] said, “where each household might have six sisters, five sisters. So we made a group with at least one girl from each house. We took the training and then we went back home to teach others." She had to periodically gulp to catch her breath, as though she had been waiting a very long time to speak and felt the importance of each word.


Pathfinder mural in Bihar. Photo courtesy of Allison Joyce/Redux.

Sobha said she was able to get a Pathfinder poster of the life cycle of a human being passing from birth through adolescence, followed by marriage and a young couple weighing birth-control options, and later holding a child as it is being immunized. She used the poster to begin talking with others in the village. Pinki and Binod exchanged looks; they had no idea that one of their students had gone rogue and appointed herself as trainer.

When Sobha finished, Pinki asked if she would continue to work with Pathfinder to organize more training courses. Sobha eagerly agreed.

Subramanian was deeply moved by what she saw. These teenagers weren't just learning about reproductive health; they were learning to find their true voices:

We emerged from the small schoolhouse into an afternoon damp with mist. Though their hair was neatly pulled back and their clothes were modest, I saw the girls as powerful goddesses, devis eager for justice, who stepped in where the male gods were failing, determined to quietly, or not so quietly, dismantle a world that treats them as second-rate citizens.

Pinki and Binod. Photo courtesy of Allison Joyce/Redux.

As she continued her travels, Subramanian found even more reason to hope for a future of real equality and sustainability throughout India.

India is undergoing a radical test. Girls from all over South Asia are leaning in, tipping the balance, and hairline fractures are appearing in the ancient system of chauvinism. Whether sexual violence is on the rise or decline is difficult to know. Whether the aggression is men's bitter reaction to the power they perceive they are losing to women is likewise uncertain.

But what is known is that it is now news. The rise of both women and men who are unwilling to accept the status quo has been startling and encouraging. There are women who bring their daughters into the streets to protest, boys like Sanoj who fight for the rights of their sisters, men like Pinki's father who struggle to educate their daughters.

In her new book, "A River Runs Again," Subramanian writes about the real change happening — not just in Bihar, but all across the country. From villagers reviving a dead river to an engineer-turned-farmer bringing organic food to the plates of everyday Indians. And, perhaps most heartening of all, women and girls are taking the lead.

Everyone is thirsty. Girls and women, after centuries of serving tea to the men in their lives, are reaching for their own cups. I don't want to believe that power is finite. Let the teapot be topped off, let the servings be stretched. Because everyone is striving. In today's India, men and women, boys and girls, share each other's desires for what Pinki calls “self-independence."

Pathfinder training for local men in Bihar. Photo courtesy of Allison Joyce/Redux.

Maybe this is why Pathfinder has found that its trainings are substantially more effective when they teach young men and women simultaneously. It's not just about giving knowledge to the girls or teaching the boys to be respectful. It's about what arises in the ākāșa, that ethereal space between the two sexes. It's about what happens when their lives come together.

The stricter laws against rape that passed at record pace in 2013 might translate into less violence against women. And increasing government support for safety nets and social security could make aging parents less dependent on sons, helping to balance the economic scales that favor a boy child over a girl...

In a country that has historically discriminated harshly against women, both men and women are now coming together to fight for equality. Of course, there's still work to be done...

Resistance remains. Some local government officials have responded to the rash of rapes by suggesting India lower the legal age of marriage to help curb such crimes. “Boys and girls should be married by the time they turn sixteen," they argue, “so that they do not stray." In the face of such logic, the problems can seem intractable. But traditions can be lost in just a single generation. So can the beliefs that it is necessary to marry off your daughter at the onset of puberty and that it is her fault if she does not deliver a son, and do so immediately.

Pathfinder materials. Photo courtesy of Allison Joyce/Redux.

...but Subramanian has seen firsthand what happens when people defy expectations and find their own voices:

I have seen the shift in my own family. My Indian grandmother was married at the age of ten. Her four daughters were married in their late teens and twenties. My father, one of her middle sons, completely broke rank, marrying an American when he was thirty. I wasn't married until the tender age of forty-four and have chosen not to have children. Among my cousins' grown children who remain in India, arranged marriage remains the norm, but some are holding out against matches they're not willing to accept. Each generation has had fewer children than the one before it, and the levels of education for both males and females tick upward. Our population growth is stable.

But we are a family with relative means. For the vast majority of Indians still struggling to survive, larger structural changes are needed. They are within reach. Kerala once had the highest population growth in India, but since 1971 it has invested heavily in women's education, accessible family planning, and comprehensive health care. With neither threat nor coercion, the fertility rate more than halved in a single generation, from over four to under two…

Those teenagers in Bihar are part of a whole new generation. It starts with education...

To stabilize population growth is to rally for literacy, because reading and understanding words on a page develops the same skills needed to read and understand our own bodies. Through this knowledge comes power and autonomy. And speech. The girls I met in Bihar ... spoke in feisty voices, their excitement coupled with impatience as they told the stories of their lives. What they found was that learning how to speak — to a husband, a mother-in-law, a doctor, a police officer — is a powerful tool. With this transformation of a private voice into a public voice a public identity is born, one prepared to dissent and stand up for oneself.

“People ask us, 'Why do you go to these meetings? Do they give you something?'" Reena Kumari, an eighteen-year-old Bihari girl told me. “I say, 'When you go to pray, do you get something?' They say, 'Well, that one girl who did the training met a boy and ran away.'" She laughed, and continued speaking quickly, in a strong voice. “We argue back — you had her for fifteen years and they had her for three days and you're saying we influenced her?" she said.

“There is a flaw in your nurturing, not in our friendship."

“You fight back with their parents?" I asked.

...and it ends with a new generation that can speak their minds and own their futures.

“Hum bolti hain!" she said. “We speak up! Before training, we didn't know anything, but after, we do. We learned how to find the right words to negotiate. There are so many changes."

Scene from rural Bihar. Photo courtesy of Allison Joyce/Redux.

To negotiate such changes is to ask for everything you want, knowing you might only get a fraction. It is to remain unflinching as you look forward into the future of India's women and girls and the generations they will bear. The path ahead is difficult, littered with obstacles, still under construction. But I can imagine the youth I met in Bodh Gaya [in Bihar] growing up in this new India, their India, moving forward down this road… They shape the way as they go. They link their fingers, they quicken their pace, and their voices, rising up into that space between spaces, are unafraid.

True

Food banks are a community staple for millions of Americans. Not only do they provide nutritional assistance to low-income families, they’re also often one of the few places where people can get non-food essentials like diapers, toiletries, paper towels, clothing and more. For the 44 million people in the United States facing food insecurity, pantries can literally be a lifeline.

But that lifeline is at risk. Food pantries rely on donations, both from individuals and government programs, to stay stocked. Rising poverty levels and budget cuts mean that food pantries sometimes can’t meet the demands of their communities—and as a result, families go without.

No person should struggle for basic needs—which is why Land O’Lakes is teaming up with Clove in the name of comfort ahead of the 2025 holiday season.

Comfort, meet comfort.

A partnership between a farmer-owned cooperative and a modern footwear brand might seem like an unusual pairing. But the reality is that both organizations provide things that are enjoyable and much needed for American families.

You might be surprised to learn, for example, that dairy is one of the most requested but least-donated items at food banks around the nation. From a nutritional lens, dairy is a source of high-quality protein that provides 3 of 4 nutrients—calcium, potassium and vitamin D—that low-income households are at risk of missing from their diets.

But on a larger scale, dairy provides comfort. Items like butter, milk and cream are in high demand, particularly around the end of the year since so many families use these items for baking holiday treats. And while shoes can be stylish gifts, they’re also a basic necessity for hardworking frontline workers who provide care for others and spend hours on their feet. In fact, 96 million people in the U.S. spend their work shift standing.

"We are so excited to collaborate with Clove Shoes and take a moment to celebrate the color of the moment, but also our everyday favorite, butter yellow," said Heather Anfang, president of Land O'Lakes Dairy Foods. "As a company who shares our values of community, hard work and comfort, we are thrilled for the launch of their shoe but also for our shared donation to those in need in an important area for our two brands in Philadelphia."

Meaningful giving when people need it most

Together, the organizations have donated dozens of sneakers and more than 3,750 pounds of butter to Philabundance, one of the largest food banks in Philadelphia and part of Feeding America’s nationwide network of food banks, pantries, and meal programs. As they team up to donate needed supplies, they’re also helping families feel nourished—inside and out—ahead of the cold winter months.

"As a Philadelphia-based brand, we’re proud to give back to the community we call home—nourishing our city and supporting those who care every day," shares Jordyn Amoroso, Co-founder and CBO. Clove has also gifted 88 shoes to the students enrolled at Philabundance Community Kitchen: a free, life-changing workforce development program run by Philabundance.

At a time when so many are stretched thin and families are moving into the holiday season facing food insecurity, collaborations like these can provide an unexpected value—a chance to revitalize local communities, to nourish families, and show how comfort can take many different forms.

Learn more about this unexpected partnership here.

Learning

27 English words people have a hard time enunciating properly, even native speakers

"The word I notice people struggle with is 'vulnerable'. Something about that N following an L is tricky."

Image via Canva/Povozniuk

English words that are difficult to enunciate.

The English language is hard to master, even for native speakers. With over an estimated one million words in the language, not only are English words hard to memorize—they can be hard to properly pronounce and enunciate. Getting tripped up with pronunciation can make your communication unclear, or worse—make you sound uneducated.

As American English teacher Vanessa explains, many mispronounced words are common and used in daily conversation due to tricky consonants and vowels in English words. But by knowing the proper pronunciation, it can help you become a more confident speaker, which is why she shared 33 words that are hard for English language learners to pronounce, such as "probably," "drawer," and "sixth."

On the subreddit r/words, a person posed the question: "What's a word you've noticed many native English speakers have difficulty enunciating even though the word is used fairly often?"

Turns out, there are a menagerie of words people notoriously stumble over. These are 27 English words that people say are the hardest to enunciate.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Tricky 'R' words

"The word I notice people struggle with is 'vulnerable'. Something about that N following an L is tricky." - common_grounder

"Rural." - Silent-Database5613

“'Nucular' for nuclear." - throwawayinthe818

"Remuneration v renumeration (first one is correct)." - RonanH69

"February. It sounds like you're pronouncing it like it's spelled Febuary. But it's spelled February." - SDF5-0, ShadedSpaces

"Mirror. Some people pronounce it 'meer'." - weinthenolababy, diversalarums

"Anthropomorphize is a word I have to use semi-frequently with limited success each attempt." - ohn_the_quain

"I can’t say the phrase 'rear wheel' without considerable effort." - ohn_the_quain

"Eraser (erasure, but they're talking about the pink rubber thing)." - evlmgs

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Multiple syllables

"Exacerbated vs exasperated." - SNAFU-lophagus

"'Asterisk'. A lot of people wind up inadvertently name-checking Asterix. I think it's best for those who struggle to use the alternative name for that punctuation mark, the 'Nathan Hale', after the American patriot who famously declared, 'I can only regret that I have but one asterisk for my country!'" - John_EightThirtyTwo

"I realized recently I have always mispronounced mischievous. It's mis-chiv-us, not mis-chee-vee-us. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone pronounce that correctly." - callmebigley"

'Supposebly' [supposedly]. Drives me up the wall." - BlushBrat

"Library. My coworker knows I hate it, so he’ll say Liberry every time." - Jillypenny"ET cetera, not 'ect' cetera. I think people are used to seeing the abbreviation etc and since there is no diphthong tc in English their mind bends it into ect." - AdFrequent4623

"The amount of people who say Pacific when they're trying to stay specific is pretty alarming. I'm not even sure if they know it's a different word sometimes." - Global-Discussion-41

"Then there was my old boss who would confidently and consistently use the word tenant when he meant tenet." - jaelith"

"Probably." - Rachel_Silver

"Contemplate. It's one of those word I hear people stumble over more than anything, often it comes out as Comtemplate, Contempate or a combination of both." - megthebat49

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Foods

"Turmeric. People drop the first R. It drives me nuts!" - Jillypenny

"Oh, and it’s espresso, no X [ex-presso]." - Jillypenny

"Also cardamom with an N." - nemmalur

"Pumpkin (punkin)." - evlmgs

espresso, espresso gif, sipping espresso, espresso drink, drinking espresso sipping modern family GIF Giphy

Awkward vowels

"Crayon 👑. My ex pronounced it 'cran'. Drove me up a wall." - rickulele, premeditatedlasagna

'Mute' for moot. A good friend of mine, who's extremely intelligent and articulate otherwise, says that. Unfortunately, it's a word she likes to use. I haven't had the heart to tell her she's pronouncing it incorrectly, and it's been three decades." NewsSad5006, common_grounder

"Jewelry." - weinthenolababy

"I hear grown adults calling wolves woofs and they're not doing it to be funny." - asexualrhino

Math teacher assigns class to come up with punny math jokes and they did not disappoint.

Dad jokes are the best. Okay, that's just my personal opinion, but hear me out: Dad jokes are always clean and are generally reliant on some sort of pun or very obvious reality, which makes them nearly irresistible to find amusing. The person on the receiving end may not double over in laughter, but they likely cracked a smile while planning to save that joke for another day.

Terrica Taylor Barlow, a math teacher in Birmingham, Alabama, recently assigned her class to come up with dad jokes: math edition. The students really embodied the entire process of telling a punny joke, complete with the look of embarrassment over the absurdity of it all. But every time the joke landed, laughter erupted, and those who were sheepish about their dad jokes smiled the smile of victors.

math jokes; dad jokes; punny jokes; math class; class assignments; student fun; fun teacher Kids enjoying learning together with a laptop.Photo credit: Canva

These jokes weren't just the corny ones you'd see on the front of a Conversation Heart. These jokes were top-tier math puns, and some kids even gave their best math pickup line for their assignment. In the very first few seconds of the video, the viewer knows they're in for a treat of silliness and laughter. The little girl who tells the first joke starts by saying, "I got another math joke." After getting the go-ahead from her teacher, she launches into it: "Parallel lines have so much in common," she says. "It's a shame they'll never meet."

She immediately covers her face in embarrassment as the entire class bursts into laughter.

math jokes; dad jokes; punny jokes; math class; class assignments; student fun; fun teacher Joyful student aces math class!Photo credit: Canva

One of the students decided to go with the long-lasting relationship between fractions and decimals, saying, "Why did the fraction break up with the decimal?" A very good question, to which the student answered, "Because they couldn't see the point."

In another peek at fractions, a student asks, "Which king likes fractions?" (Insert Jeopardy music here), "Henry the 8th." The laughter was so loud after that one, the girl covered her ears.

Measurements are not lost on one student. He asks, "Why can't a nose grow 12 inches?" After a dramatic pause, the student answers with, "Because then it would be a foot."

Puns make the world go round, and these kids will be dad joke connoisseurs by the time they have children of their own. While these jokes aren't coming from a parent teasingly embarrassing their child with their ridiculous jokes, they do serve a purpose. They require each child to critically think about the math concepts they've learned, the social setting they'll be in when the joke is told, as well as become more resilient to embarrassment in front of classmates. It's a multipurpose assignment that carries the students into the weekend on a high note.

Commenters can't get enough of the jokes the kids tell. Many applaud the teacher for giving her students such a fun assignment and sharing the results. Some even share their own dad jokes.

math jokes; dad jokes; punny jokes; math class; class assignments; student fun; fun teacher Students collaborate in a lively group activity.Photo credit: Canva

One person writes, "This is just pure gold and their little expressions ❤️🔥."

Another says, "This is the kind of education that inspires and uplifts!"

Someone else chimes in, "The uproarious laughter they each get from the class is the best part."

"That teacher ADDED laughter to and SUBTRACTED boredom from learning. She MULTIPLIED student interaction and DIVIDED camera time between all students. The SUM was A GREAT TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!!!" One person applauds.

This person offered up their own joke, "I have a maths joke. 'Why was the math book so sad? Because it had too many problems.'"

All GIFs and images via Exposure Labs.

Photographer James Balog and his crew were hanging out near a glacier when their camera captured something extraordinary. They were in Greenland, gathering footage from the time-lapse they'd positioned all around the Arctic Circle for the last several years.

They were also there to shoot scenes for a documentary. And while they were hoping to capture some cool moments on camera, no one expected a huge chunk of a glacier to snap clean off and slide into the ocean right in front of their eyes.


science, calving, glaciers

A glacier falls into the sea.

assets.rebelmouse.io

ocean swells, sea level, erosion, going green

Massive swells created by large chunks of glacier falling away.

assets.rebelmouse.io

It was the largest such event ever filmed.

For nearly an hour and 15 minutes, Balog and his crew stood by and watched as a piece of ice the size of lower Manhattan — but with ice-equivalent buildings that were two to three times taller than that — simply melted away.

geological catastrophe, earth, glacier melt

A representation demonstrating the massive size of ice that broke off into the sea.

assets.rebelmouse.io

As far as anyone knows, this was an unprecedented geological catastrophe and they caught the entire thing on tape. It won't be the last time something like this happens either.

But once upon a time, Balog was openly skeptical about that "global warming" thing.

Balog had a reputation since the early 1980s as a conservationist and environmental photographer. And for nearly 20 years, he'd scoffed at the climate change heralds shouting, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

"I didn't think that humans were capable of changing the basic physics and chemistry of this entire, huge planet. It didn't seem probable, it didn't seem possible," he explained in the 2012 documentary film "Chasing Ice."

There was too much margin of error in the computer simulations, too many other pressing problems to address about our beautiful planet. As far as he was concerned, these melodramatic doomsayers were distracting from the real issues.

That was then.

Greenland, Antarctica, glacier calving

The glacier ice continues to erode away.

assets.rebelmouse.io

In fact, it wasn't until 2005 that Balog became a believer.

He was sent on a photo expedition of the Arctic by National Geographic, and that first northern trip was more than enough to see the damage for himself.

"It was about actual tangible physical evidence that was preserved in the ice cores of Greenland and Antarctica," he said in a 2012 interview with ThinkProgress. "That was really the smoking gun showing how far outside normal, natural variation the world has become. And that's when I started to really get the message that this was something consequential and serious and needed to be dealt with."

Some of that evidence may have been the fact that more Arctic landmass has melted away in the last 20 years than the previous 10,000 years.

Watch the video of the event of the glacier calving below:

This article originally appeared 10 years ago.

Education & Information

14 weird English words that sound made up, but aren't

From collywobbles to susurrus, these bizarre words are real.

The weirdest sounding English words that sound totally made up, but are actually real.

Whether you are a native English speaker or trying to learn how to speak English for the first time, there is no denying that the English language is filled with tons of absurd-sounding words. With so many weird sounds and vowels, it is a unique language to master.

And the reason why English is filled with bizarre-sounding words is rooted in its history. English has continued to transform and evolve ever since its origins in the 5th and 6th centuries, according to the University of Texas Permian Basin. English has been influenced by a number of dialects and cultures ever since, including from German (via Anglo-Saxons), Latin, Old Norse, French, and more.

This amalgam led to English as we know it today, with many strange-sounding words remaining. These are 14 weird English words that sound totally made up, but are actually real:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Apparatchik

An apparatchik is "a blindly devoted official, follower, or member of an organization (such as a corporation or political party)."

Merriam Webster notes, "The apparat in apparatchik (a term English speakers borrowed from Russian) essentially means 'party machine,' with machine referring to a highly organized political group under the leadership of a boss or small group of individuals: apparatchik originally referred to someone functioning as a cog in the system of the Communist Party."

Flibbertigibbet

A fllibbertigibbet is "a silly flighty person."

Collywobbles

Collywobbles, "as in cramps; abdominal pain especially when focused in the digestive organs."

Merriam Webster also notes that its "earliest print appearance dates from around 1823. We also know that the word probably came about through a process called 'folk etymology.' In that process, unusual words are transformed to make them look or sound like other, more familiar words. Collywobbles is believed to be a friendlier-sounding transformation of cholera morbus (the New Latin term for the disease cholera) that was influenced by the words colic and wobble."

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Floccinaucinihilipilification is "the act of considering something to be not at all important or useful."

@donhuely

The Daily Word: Floccinaucinihilipilification | Reposted with Captions Definition: (noun) Rare. the estimation of something as valueless Performed by: Don Huely Written by: Don Huely with ChatGPT Edited by: Dougie McFallendar Music by: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 by Sergei Rachmaninoff & Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland #huely #wordoftheday #thedailyword #Dougie69mf #fergusOshay #Rachmaninoff #Copland #Floccinaucinihilipilification

Susurrus

Susurrus is "a whispering or rustling sound."

Syzygy

Syzygy is "the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system."

According to Merriam Webster, "Syzygy can be traced to the Greek syzygos ('yoked together'), a combination of syn- ('with, together with') and zygon ('yoke'). Zygon is also the source of zygote ('a cell formed by the union of two gametes') and zygoma, which refers to several bones and processes of the skull, including the zygomatic bone (a.k.a., the cheekbone). Zygon is also related to the Old English geoc—the source of the Modern English yoke—and the Latin jungere, from which the English words join and junction are derived."

Widdershins

Widdershins is "in a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction."

Catawampus

As an adjective, catawampus means "fierce, savage or destructive." As a noun, it means "a fierce wild animal, a bogeyman."

@ellenthagreat

“CATAWAMPUS” [kat-uh-wom-puhs] adjective — askew; or awry. #wordoftheday #newword #vocabulary #english #dictionary #catawampus #mondaymotivation

Quincunx

Quincunx is " an arrangement of five things in a square or rectangle with one at each corner and one in the middle."

According to Merriam Webster, "In ancient Rome, a quincunx was a coin with a weight equal to five twelfths of a libra, a unit of weight similar to our pound. The coin's name comes from the Latin roots quinque, meaning 'five,' and uncia, meaning 'one twelfth.' The ancients used a pattern of five dots arranged like the pips on a die as a symbol for the coin, and English speakers applied the word to arrangements similar to that distinctive five-dot mark."

Chthonic

Chthonic means "of or relating to the underworld."

Bumfuzzle

Bumfuzzle means "confuse, perplex, fluster."

Sigogglin

Sigogglin means "diagonally or on a slant; askew, obliquely, sideways."

The Oxford English Dictionary explains that this word originated in the Appalachian region of the United States, and first emerged in the 1860s.

Dawdle

Dawdle means "to spend time idly."

Kerfuffle

A kerfuffle is "a disturbance or commotion typically caused by a dispute or conflict."

Derek Jeter got a concerning phone call from his kids' school live on air.

All parents have experienced the uncomfortable moment when your life as Mom or Dad collides with your career. It could be the call from the school nurse in the middle of the work day, the fever discovered in the morning right before your big presentation, or your kids who are home on school break photobombing the Zoom meeting with your boss.

Being a world-famous athlete and TV personality can make a lot of these problems go away, but apparently not all of them. Even mega-celebrities sometimes struggle to balance their parental duties with career commitments. That's exactly what happened to MLB legend Derek Jeter on a recent telecast.

Jeter, a Hall of Fame shortstop, now works as an analyst on Fox Sports. During a recent game, a rain delay forced Jeter and the rest of the crew to fill three extra hours with coverage and analysis. And then his phone rang live on air.

While in the middle of speaking, Jeter's phone went off.

"Sorry. It’s a rain delay. I had a parent-teacher conference that I’m going to miss. So, sorry guys," Jeter said as he silenced the ringer.

The response from Jeter's co-analyst, former player David Ortiz, was so wholesome:

"Take it! Take it" Ortiz yelled. "Take the call, man." The gang enjoyed a good laugh at the slightly awkward broadcast miscue, but Ortiz wasn't joking. He doubled down a moment later when he said, "Kids first."

Host Kevin Burkhardt then quipped, "Derek has a parent teacher conference to go to, so we're going to take a break." At first, he appeared to be teasing, but he then admitted, "Well, we weren't supposed to be on the air, you're right! This is a surprise to all of us."

"I actually should get on it," Jeter then said, checking his phone again.

"You should go do your thing," Burkhardt said. Ortiz then added, "We got you, dawg."

The video went viral when MLB on Fox posted it to Instagram, and people couldn't say enough good things about how the men handled the situation.

"Best part is, everyone else was like 'go, that’s more important, we got your back'" one commenter said.

"The best part was all the other supporting men on that stage actually meaning when they say 'go man, take it'" added another.

"These men are the best thing to happen to sports in a long time… they’re funny, real humans and pro hands on dads!"

"A+ parenting. A+ teammates encouraging him to take it."

"The man who refused to have children until he finished playing because he wanted to be totally committed to fatherhood or the game. Way to go Derek for being an incredible father"

(That one is true, by the way. Jeter is on record with Fox News saying, ""The one thing I can say about my parents is: They were always present. It’s so hard when you have kids—I don’t care if it’s one kid; I have four kids—you want to be there, and then when you miss a day or two, you come back, and they completely change," and that he tries his best to emulate them.)

parenting, fatherhood, dads, famous dads, celebrities, derek jeter, mlb, yankees, family, work, career Derek Jeter Nod GIF by ESPN Giphy

The video even caught the attention of world-famous family psychologist Dr. Becky, who found the entire exchange to be an incredible teachable moment for other working parents.

She says she often speaks with parents who worry immensely about how their bosses and coworkers will react to their family obligations, causing tons of anxiety and mental strife.

Her advice was simple and pretty brilliant:

"What if people around me think I'm slacking and think I'm not doing a good job?" she said parents often worry. "You might not have [Ortiz] next to you telling you, 'Hey, we've got this, go do that thing for your kid'"

But that doesn't mean we have to feel alone and judged.

"If we are going to make up the thoughts of other people, we might as well make up that those thoughts are supportive. So the next time you're struggling ... imagine everyone in your workplace saying, 'We've got this. Go do that. We support you.'"

In a culture that rewards hustle and sacrifice and does not always do a good job accommodating people who want to have both careers and families, it's nice to see an example of what a supportive workplace atmosphere can look like.

It's great that Jeter wants to be there for his kids, but what's even better about this viral clip is the encouragement he gets from his fellow hosts and analysts that family, indeed, should come first.