Huckleberry, Price, Pool, Plague, Car
Huckleberry Finn: Adventures That Make Us Better People
Thoughts & Words | YouTube | 28th September 2020
"Trashy and vicious" is what the New York Times called Huckleberry Finn in 1885, and controversy around the novel's vulgar language – albeit for different reasons – persists in 2020. A deeper understanding of Jim, who is often viewed as a "stock character," can help bring out the novel's capacity to "challenge us to look beyond the surface of the people around us" (16m 46s)
The Price Of Being Poor | Banking Services
Knowing Better | YouTube | 27th September 2020
The complexities of the banking system – from the history of bank failure and federal insurance (which doesn't start with the Great Depression) to credit scores and "fractional reserve" banking, including the many strings that are attached. Ends with an argument that we should reopen postal banking – which is simply banking through the postal service (25m 48s, recommended start at 1m 05s)
The Meaning Of Swimming Pools In Movies
Entertain The Elk | YouTube | 29th September 2020
Carl Jung said that "water is the commonest symbol for the unconscious." Fittingly, in movies, "a swimming pool is never just a swimming pool." Cinematic pools expose unspoken currents of vulnerability, sexuality, fear and fantasy that would otherwise stay trapped in the character's minds. Like water itself, they take on the shape of the movie they're in (8m 51s)
How America Bungled The Plague
The New York Times | YouTube | 29th September 2020
How did the richest country in the world, armed with an explicit "pandemic playbook," fail to contain a pandemic? Play-by-play rundown of each month of 2020, and what could have been done. For example, "health communications" – basically, conveying the danger of the disease to the citizens – is just as vital to containment as fast testing and tracking (21m 02s)
Beautiful Video Of The Week
Surrealist animated short about a frustrating countryside drive
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