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The president interviewed iconic writer Marilynne Robinson. But one of the best quotes was his.

Being President probably has it's downsides: the busy schedule, the exhaustion, the lack of privacy and, you know, the whole "constantly having to be responsible for an entire country" thing.


Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images.

But one of the upsides (I would imagine) is getting to meet and talk to pretty much anyone you want, wherever you want, about whatever you want.

President Obama took advantage of that perk when he sat down to interview one of his favorite authors, Marilynne Robinson, in Des Moines, Iowa, last year.

The two had met several times before, and when offered an opportunity to interview someone, the president couldn't think of anyone he'd rather ask.

Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images.

Robinson is a Christian writer and theologian who has written essays and numerous books, including one of President Obama's all-time favorites "Gilead."

Their conversation is being released in two parts and already, in Part 1, has covered topics like faith, democracy, small towns, and, of course, writing. In it, Robinson shares so many thought-provoking yet simple truths like:

"I think that the basis of democracy is the willingness to assume well about other people."

and this:

"But Christianity is profoundly counterintuitive — 'Love thy neighbor as thyself' — which I think properly understood means your neighbor is as worthy of love as you are, not that you're actually going to be capable of this sort of superhuman feat. But you're supposed to run against the grain. It's supposed to be difficult. It's supposed to be a challenge."

(Translation: Loving someone else as much as you love yourself isn't easy. It's not supposed to be. Try anyway.)

But one of the most insightful quotes in Part 1 of their interview came from President Obama himself.

In one monologue, Obama summed up not just his greatest challenge as a leader, but what is probably the biggest conundrum of American political life:


"But there's this huge gap between how folks go about their daily lives and how we talk about our common life and our political life. And people describe it as the distance between Washington and Main Street. But it's not just Washington; it's the way we talk about our politics, our foreign policy, our common endeavors. There's this gap.

And the thing I've been struggling with throughout my political career is how do you close the gap. There's all this goodness and decency and common sense on the ground, and somehow it gets translated into rigid, dogmatic, often mean-spirited politics. And some of it has to do with all the filters that stand between ordinary people who are busy and running around trying to look after their kids and do a good job and do all the things that maintain a community, so they don't have the chance to follow the details of complicated policy debates.

They know they want to take care of somebody who's sick, and they have a generous impulse. How that gets translated into the latest Medicare budgets [isn't] always clear. They know they want us to use our power wisely in the world and that violence often begets violence. But they also know the world is dangerous and it's very hard to sort out, as you talk about in your essay, fear when violence must be met, and when there are other tools at our disposal to try to create a more peaceful world.

So that, I think, is the challenge. I'm very encouraged when I meet people in their environments. Somehow it gets distilled at the national political level in ways that aren't always as encouraging."





Can I get an amen?

In so many words, President Obama is acknowledging a pretty obvious reality about America life: People are so good and yet our politics often seem so bad. Something happens to the goodness that we see in our neighbors and our communities when we — and those we elect to represent us — start talking about "politics."

There's this inherent tension between the basic values and principles that most kindhearted people share and the complex policies needed to govern them. And that tension can be mind-numbingly frustrating, especially during election season when our airwaves are full of meanspirited attack ads and zingy one-liners that sound nothing like the conversations most of us have with loved ones at our dinner tables.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

But the encouraging reminder here is that there is still common ground between us all. Most of us have the same core needs and the same core desire to make the world a safe, loving place and a desire to operate with a little bit of common sense. And while we may not all agree on how to do it, we can at least change the way we talk about our politics to better reflect that shared humanity.

Right?

Based on Robinson's expressed belief that we are all images of God, and on how many times she expresses an appreciation for the beauty hidden all across America during her discussion with the president, I think she would agree.

You can hear Part 1 of the interview on iTunes. It's worth it, not just for the thoughtful discussion of faith and democracy, but also to hear the president of the United States full-on fanboy-out over a brilliant female author. Enjoy.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Teacher starts period in front of class, turns into a lesson

Teachers are almost always teaching even when it's not in their lesson plan.

Those that were born to be teachers find teachable moments everywhere and one woman found herself in one of those moments. Though this one was likely just a bit more personal than she probably would've liked.

Emily Elizabeth posted a TikTok video about how she found herself in a predicament in front of her classroom full of 10 and 11-year-old kids. The teacher explained that she was noticing a lot of commotion and whispering among the little girls in her class while she was wearing white pants. After reminding the girls to stay on task, the whispering continued, prompting Emily to be more direct.

That's when one of the girls asked to speak with her privately dropping the bomb that no one that gets periods wants to hear in public.

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Mario Mirante criticizes a mom he saw at the park.

TikTokker Mario Mirante is going viral for his video that brings up two significant issues: smartphone addiction and whether people without children have the right to criticize parents.

It all started when Mirante saw a young boy playing alone in the park.

“The kid is just playing quietly, not being annoying. I don’t hear a peep from him; he's just doing his thing on the playground,” Mirante said in a video that has nearly 6000,000 views. “The mom the entire time is on her phone, staring right down at her screen. Doesn’t look up one time.”

The boy climbed up to the top of the slide and called down to his mother, who didn’t even look up from her phone. “I hear, ‘Hey mom, watch. Watch, Mom,’” Mirante recalled. “And at the top of her lungs, shrieking like a Velociraptor, this mother screams, ‘One second!”

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Woman who was pressured to quit her job to raise stepdaughter's baby makes a bold decision

This sparked an important conversation about family responsibility.

via Pixabay

A middle-aged woman holding a baby.

A story that recently went viral on Reddit’s AITA forum asks an important question: What is a parent’s role in taking care of their grandchildren? The story is even further complicated because the woman at the center of the controversy is a stepparent.

The woman, 38, met her husband Sam, 47, ten years ago, when his daughter, Leah, 25, was 15. Five years ago, the couple got married after Leah had moved out to go to college.

Leah’s mom passed away when she was 10.

Last year, Leah became pregnant, and she wanted to keep the baby, but her boyfriend didn’t. After the disagreement, the boyfriend broke up with her. This forced Leah to move back home because she couldn’t afford to be a single parent and live alone on a teacher’s salary.

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Watch this 104-yr-old woman break the world tandem skydiving record

Dorothy Hoffner tried skydiving for the first time on her 100th birthday and loved it.

Dorothy Hoffner is pure #agingoals.

If you're looking for some aging inspiration, look no further, because Dorothy Hoffner is about to blow your mind.

At 104, Hoffner just became the oldest person to parachute out of an airplane in a tandem skydive. That's right, skydive. At 104 years old—or to be exact, 104 years and 289 days old—beating the previous world record set by a 103-year-old in Sweden in May of 2022.

But it's actually even more impressive than that. It's not like Hoffner is someone who's been skydiving since she was young and just happened to keep on doing it as she got older. She actually didn't go on her first skydiving adventure until her 100th birthday.

On Oct 1, 2023, she joined the team at Skydive Chicago in Ottawa, Illinois, for the world-breaking tandem skydive. Though she uses a walker to get around, she manages the physical toll of plummeting through the air at 10,000+ feet before parachuting to a skidding stop strapped to a certified U.S. Parachute Association (USPA) tandem instructor with impressive ease.

“Let’s go, let’s go, Geronimo!” Hoffner said after she boarded the plane, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Watch her do what many of us would be too terrified to attempt:

The way she rolls right out of that plane cool as a cucumber! Hoffner told the Tribune that on her first skydive, at age 100, she had to be pushed out of the plane. But this time, knowing what she was in for, she took charge with calm confidence.

“Skydiving is a wonderful experience, and it’s nothing to be afraid of," Hoffner shares. "Just do it!”

That's some seriously sage advice from someone who knows firsthand that age really is just a number. Learn more about skydiving with Skydive Chicago here.

Education

Unearthed BBC interview features two Victorian-era women discussing being teens in the 1800s

Frances 'Effy' Jones, one of the first women to be trained to use a typewriter and to take up cycling as a hobby, recalls life as a young working woman in London.

Two Victorian women discuss being teens in the 1800s.

There remains some mystery around what life was like in the 1800s, especially for teens. Most people alive today were not around in the Victorian era when the technologies now deemed old-fashioned were a novelty. In this rediscovered 1970s clip from the BBC, two elderly women reminisce about what it was like being teenagers during a time when the horse and buggy was still the fastest way to get around.

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Can we bring back some 50s fridge features, please?

There are very few things that would make people nostalgic for the 1950s. Sure, they had cool cars and pearl necklaces were a staple, but that time frame had its fair share of problems, even if "Grease" made it look dreamy. Whether you believe your life would've been way more interesting if you were Danny Zuko or not, most would agree their technology was...lacking.

All eras are "advanced" for their time, but imagine being dropped off in the 50s as someone from the year 2023. A recent post by Historic Vids on Twitter of a 1956 commercial advertising a refrigerator, however, has some people thinking that when it came to fridges, maybe they were living in the year 2056. I don't typically swoon over appliances, yet this one has me wondering where I can purchase a refrigerator like this.

Of course, there's no fancy touch screen that tells you the weather and asks how you'd like your ice cubed. It's got more important features that are actually practical.

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