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Week in Review: Hawking

Ali Lincoln

I like to do some low-key bird watching, by which I mean I sit in my study or on my patio and look at the birds in my pollinator garden. Or I’ll watch for birds when I’m pulling a red wagon filled with my child and her collected rocks around the block. When I get really intense, I like to break out my regional Audubon field guide—I know, right? This week, I discovered that we have a new pair of hawks in the neighborhood, so I’m pretty excited about it. They’re red shouldered hawks, and even though they are native to this area, I’ve not seen them around here before. They’ve come to eat a few times from the suet that I leave out for woodpeckers and bluebirds (no songbird casualties yet), but I’m still on the look out for their nest. Hopefully we’ll have some nestling hawks in the treetops this spring; maybe I’ll look into falconry before then…

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If you’re hoping to look into the latest from the TVP Comms team, just scroll down.

What’s new this week:

CNBC looked back at a Grinnell College speech by Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that made a big impression on Warren Buffet.

Have you subscribed to Educate Podcast yet? Check out the latest episode on single mothers in college.

This week on Inside Higher Ed’s Call to Action blog, be sure to check out posts on redesigning your website with your whole digital ecosystem in mind, as well as communications lessons learned from the Hawaii false alarm disaster.

If you’re interested in writing a piece for Call to Action, please contact Kristine (Kristine@tvpcommunications.com) for submission guidelines.

What’s next on our calendars:

On Feb. 9, Erin will present “Finding—and Using—Your Voice: A Communications Toolkit for Advocates,” part of Mount Holyoke College’s Advocacy in the Public Domain event series.

Erin will provide media training for participants in NACUBO’s Mentoring Program on Feb. 16 in Washington, DC.

Teresa will be at the National Conference on Trusteeship for the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges in San Francisco. She will run the Crisis Management: What is the Role of the Board? Workshop on April 22, as well as facilitate the master class Fake News, Social Media, and Your Institution’s Reputation on April 23.

What we’re recommending:

Kristine Maloney
I’m a big fan of black-ish. In fact, it’s the only show I watch live, instead of on Netflix or on my DVR. I’m tuned in on Tuesday evenings—not only for what I consider extremely well-written comedy—but also because the show takes on topics that matter, and that are often hard to grapple with. As many people did, I had a hard time processing the 2016 election, and black-ish, more than most other things (though Hillbilly Elegy was also particularly useful), helped me understand how and why things happened they way they did and how to start to come to terms with the outcome. In this PBS Newshour interview, Tracee Ellis Ross, one of the stars of the show, talks about how the show unpacks and discusses hard topics in an honest way through the use of humor.

Teresa Valerio Parrot
Without a doubt, my time these days is spent readying myself for a very important birthday. Fiona is turning a year old on January 24th and I could not be happier. While the Cincinnati Zoo Facebook page and Fiona Channel are my favorite spots for news about my favorite hippo, this NPR piece was pretty cute, too, and it has some iconic Fiona social media posts. Happy birthday, Fiona!

Cristal Steuer
As I was driving, I was listening to an interview on WGBH with Tina Brown, editor of Vanity Fair from 1983-1992, who was brought in to turn around the magazine. She was promoting her new book, The Vanity Fair Diaries, which dishes on all the glitz, glamour and secrets during her time at the magazine. I just downloaded the book and I can’t wait to read all about the behind-the scenes stories at Vanity Fair.

Kylie Lacey
Even though my beloved Seahawks did not make the NFL postseason, I have still been glued to every playoff game. I think it’s simply so exciting that unlike most other professional sports, playoff rounds are restricted to one game. You win or you lose. No second chances. And of course, this week, the true significance of that could not have been felt harder by the Vikings and the Saints. Like many, I simply sat absolutely gobsmacked as Case Keenum threw a 61-yard touchdown pass in the literal final seconds of the game. I really enjoyed this quick piece by columnist Neil Best. He provides insight on how this spectacular moment exemplifies why football remains America’s favorite sport.

Erin Hennessy
I opened up my Pocket account today to figure out what articles to share this week and thought, “Wait, what if people don’t know about Pocket??” If you aren’t already using this tool to manage the onslaught of fantastic long-read journalism that’s coming at you every day, I highly recommend it. Throughout the week, I send all of the great pieces that are surfaced through Twitter, Facebook, email newsletters and our team Slack to my Pocket account. That way, I avoid acute tab-itis and always have articles I’m excited to read waiting for me on the bus, the Metro, train or plane.

Here are some pieces I sent to my Pocket this week, to get you started with your new account or to add to your existing one:

I’ve been fascinated by the FLDS, a fundamentalist sect of the Mormon Church, since I read Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, and I make it a policy to read everything Anne Helen Petersen publishes, so this piece was a no-brainer addition to my Pocket.

I’m a somewhat closeted country music fan, so this Rolling Stone story on the culture of sexual harassment that has been part of country music radio for far too long is top on my list to read this weekend.

And lastly, I’m probably the last person on earth who hasn’t yet read all of this first-person piece from the woman who created the Shitty Media Men list in the wake of recent revelations about prominent men in media, culture, news, and entertainment, so into my Pocket it went, for a read that is sure to anger and, hopefully, inspire me.

Ali Lincoln
I’m a perpetual beginning yogi. While I don’t enjoy most forms of intentional exercise, I do like yoga—I’m on board with gentle stretching, calming the mind, and finding peace and introspection. That said, I’m not a huge fan of yoga classes because they can be really intimidating and sweaty and well, just awkward. Even with a great studio (one in which instructors ask before they touch you), I sometimes get nervous. I go to classes on and off, and lately, I’ve been mostly off because of scheduling conflicts and missing it. So I downloaded some yoga apps on my phone and I cannot believe that it’s taken me SO long to do so. If you practice shy yoga, I highly recommend checking some out, like Gaiam’s Yoga Studio or Daily Yoga.

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