BIG IDEA: "OxytoSUNDAY"

How does one combat a world dominated by social media and the divisiveness that stems therefrom? Manipulate your social media algorithms and feed your need for OXYTOCIN. Start with just one day...Sunday. Let's call it OxytoSUNDAY. 

Transcript

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Welcome to the Kindness Chronicles where we hope to inject the world with a dose of the Minnesota nice that it desperately needs Wow down here in the studio. We got Steve Brown a hello Steve. Hi, our friend Kevin Gorg is on assignment He's doing a tour of Canada You sound very newsy today. Well this is, you know what, today we're tackling the tough topics. Alright. Yep, this is going to be a very newsy kind of uh, discussion. Well, we live in a world divided. Oh my god. And I'm sick of it. Yes, me too. It's time, we need a change. It's time for a change. Yeah, I mean. I was gonna break into a Peter Brady. We're not gonna do that. It's the political season, at least I should say, the election is over. Thank God. Thank God is right. Yeah. And I continue to be just overwhelmed with, I gotta get off of Facebook. I go to Facebook because I want to see people talking about their kids winning hockey tournaments and their trips and, you know, their triumphs in life. Yeah. And, I'm still finding People that I really like, putting things on there, that are, that are, and it's, it's both sides of the coin. I think that the challenge that we have is we've got too many people that are so dug in. And I think that, as we had a little pre meeting, and I think to me what it boils down to is people are too busy wanting to be heard. but they don't want to listen. Yeah. Right. They want to be right and they want to be heard for their reasoning for whatever news outlet, whatever, algorithm they've been a part of. They want to be able to justify that with other, with someone else. so you're saying our theme would be. Kindness in a world divided and a divide kindness in a divided world, right? And it is a divided world. I mean, it's like 50 50. Yes. Here's an example, I jokingly talk about watching Fox news, but I literally, I watch all the news channels because I kind of want to understand, I find it entertaining how different they are. Um, but on top of that, there are things that Fox never shows. That I see, your eyes don't lie. Yeah. I mean, you can see what's going on. Mm hmm. CNN rarely showed anything about the open border, and they rarely showed anything about, Joe Biden's cognitive decline. Mm hmm. Um, but the flip side of that is Fox doesn't tell you about some of the people that, that Trump pardoned that were part of that J6 riot that are thugs. They're troublemakers. And I wish that there was somewhere where you could go where you don't have to deal with that BS, but that is the news. That's our world. And I think, um, the anxiety about it drives people and drives me to the news. I, after the election, I was kind of done with the news. Now I'm back checking headlines cause I'm, you know, concerned about what is happening. What is being declared and what is, I don't want to care about it. But you have to. But I, I have a lot of curiosity and anxiety about where directions, what the direction is. if we are on a razor's edge like it seems that we are, and you did, you know, Trump today was talking about, uh, wanting to build an iron dome like they have in Israel. Which, great, I mean, I would love to have something that would protect us from incoming bombs. But the fact that we even have to talk about I didn't even hear about that. Incoming bombs. Oh, jeez. Good lord. We've had a good life. we're in our mid fifties. But we got children and, hopefully someday grandchildren and Well, I hope we still have more life coming, John. I do, too. Yeah. The point that I'm trying to make is our people have a long time left here. Yes. And I just put it in perspective, the anxiety, the stress we go through, um, in, in our, with our media barrage that we're hit with social media and media, think about, um, where the world was. This is really nothing compared to some things people have dealt with in our country, in our world. In years past the forties, you know, World War Two, I mean, things are horrible and we have comfortable homes for the most part. Obviously, there's a lot of different people have a lot of different situations, but, um, you know what we're concerned about are. Is, is relatively less compared to what people in past history have seen. You know, we're not, we're not dealing with famine. Yes. We're not dealing, I mean, good lord. Health issues as far as, uh, you know, uh, I mean, we have, of course, we had a pandemic that hit a few years back. But, you know, plagues and things like that. I think, there you go. Let's talk about the pandemic. Yeah, that created chaos in terms of just the way that people were responding to it. Yeah, and it did nothing but create a divide. So the world divided. So are you an anti vaxxer or a vaxxer? It's just like, good God. So we're kind of deep into politics in a way, how can we, how can we frame this up and bring a kindness angle to this that, um, is so anxiety ridden and, uh, and stratifying and dividing? I think that it really boils down to, having a willingness to listen, have a, having a willingness to reach out and actually, I'll tell you, the guy that I am most impressed with in the Senate right now, Is, uh, a guy that I made fun of a couple of years ago. And that's John Fetterman. The senator from Pennsylvania with his Carhartt sweatshirts and wearing shorts to the inauguration. That was a shocker. He looks like a lunatic. Yeah., he's recovering from a stroke. Yes. So he struggles to get his words out. He was recently invited by Trump. to come down to Mar a Lago, to come to Florida. And the, the rumor was is that Fetterman was gonna flip from being a Democrat to the Republican. I was seeing all kinds of stuff on X about this. Democratic, defection. Yeah, I'm sure. And to Fetterman's credit, Ruffled everybody. Oh, ruffled everybody. But to Fetterman's credit, he said, I'd be a pretty bad conservative because I'm a pro choice, LGBTQ uh, open borders kind of a guy. Yeah, he's a, he's a, And I'm pro immigration, Yeah. and all this and, and so on. But what he is also, is he understands that he was, He was elected in a state by a very thin margin as a Democrat, but he was elected in a state that two years after his election, picked Trump to be their president and he was on the view and I couldn't wait to see how that went down because he's really become thoughtful, willing to listen. He is definitely a liberal, but he is willing to have the conversation. So anyway, so he's on The View. Yeah. And, they were, you know, saying it's just disappointing that you would, go down to Mar a Lago and bend the knee and, and it just, it's, I didn't like the optics of it, is how one of them, It's all about the optics, yeah. It's all about the optics. Mm hmm. And Fetterman said, I'm a senator that represents the entire state of Pennsylvania. And I happen to be a Democrat in a state that, that elected Donald Trump. And if the President is going to invite me to have one on one time with him, It would be malpractice for me not to go down there and at least try and find out where you have common ground and what I loved about it was he said Trump was cordial. He was kind. He listened. we had a great exchange of ideas and I believe that there is room for common ground and it blew the people from the view away because they're just the visceral. No one wants to hear that. They don't want to hear that Trump has some human qualities. He has some Qualities that might not be well, what's admire? What's admiral? Admirable about that is that he takes his job seriously He takes the fact that he was given this he was voted into this position And he's gonna try to do the entire job not just do the bidding of the people that He wants to you know appeal to well, and he's also smart. That's great understand that You know, this is kind of a good gig. I get to wear sweatpants, I get what do you wear in the view shorts? And uh, he did a hoodie shorts and a hoodie shorts and a hoodie with this, you know, he's like, he's like a 30 something kid living with mom and dad still he's that kind of a guy even as old in that but he's like a slacker He's total slack slacker. He's a total slacker, but he I think that he's smart. Yes. He seems like he's very smart Well, and he's also smart enough to understand that people that, lean the direction that, uh, he doesn't lean are watching this going, I can get on board with a guy like this. So what does that say about? Okay. So that's a great example. What's that say about everybody else? Kind? No. About kindness. And what's that say about, um, how this could relate to our pre production meeting? I think that you nailed it. What did I say? You made the comment that., when you watch these programs and you've got somebody from the left and the right, they always want to interrupt each other and talk over each other. And you made the comment, wouldn't it be nice if people would just let a person finish their thought, and then you respond. Yeah. look for the, as long as the person who's making their point doesn't filibuster and go on and on and on. Mm hmm. know, one of the most cringeworthy interviews during the election cycle, Brett bear from Fox News did an interview of Kamala Harris and Brett. I remember that. Yeah. And Brett is considered one of the more moderate, people on Fox. In fact, there's some people that watch Fox that don't like Brett bear because back in 2020 he called Arizona. Um, too soon. Too soon. I mean, it's just like, come on. But it was the right call. Do you have all the Fox News trading cards? I have, and I have my CNN trading cards except for Jim Acosta, he got let go yesterday. He did? He got let go. I didn't know that. Yeah, they were demoting him and then I think that he got let go. He's been there a long time. Peter Doocy was to Biden as Acosta was to Trump during his first term. the cringe worthy interview, Bret Baier. It was, they just talked over each other. Like, and the ability that they have to finish their thought while another person is talking is really quite remarkable. That's, you know, that's a debate tactic. That's, but that's not listening to someone and actually, dehumanizing people Small gestures can humanize. The other side instead of creating barriers and I do think that it's small gestures create common ground by yes, small ways to listen, appreciate, look someone in the eye, don't interrupt them because there's something you could probably learn from what they're saying or at least take in from their perspective and now because you're calm, they're responsible because that's communication, right? Call them home. What we need to do is we need to have one day a week and this is a sincere thought. One day a week, where the only thing that you can look at on your phone is stuff that universally makes people happy. Okay. So we, Is this a different, a new app? This is, well, no, I think that it's, um, Happy app? Kind of a happy app. Like maybe it's on Sunday. Instagram doesn't do that. Instagram is full of stuff that it's like, oh You watch it too late at night. It's scary or whatever. You do it on Sunday So when you're going back to work on Monday, you're all sort of level set because you've been watching pictures of kids getting puppies for Christmas Oh picture videos of soldiers Uh, visiting. Did you see what I sent you today? I didn't get to, I didn't get around to it. Um. Go ahead, describe it. Um, I can't remember what it was. Oh my god. Yeah, you said it was going to make me cry. I was in the mood for a cry. A very sweet video. I don't know how they did this. I, I'm, I'm pretty sure it was real. There was a family of a mother and son and father on a plane and the child was clearly sick and going through like cancer treatment or something. And the pilot gets on and announces that they're so proud to have this kid on. He's a fighter and they're going to Disneyland. Terminal terminal cancer. Oh boy, you said but I'm I'm need to tell everyone here on the plane And those of you that have cards behind you, please take them out and hold them up They were behind the kid and his family and they said I don't know how I don't know how this got organized but the pilot explained that he has doctor's information from somebody told them from from the family that said he is now cancer free He's no longer terminal and they were holding up a sign. You are cancer free. The family is crying. The kids just ecstatic. It is Something to see and and you got to kind of basically Turn away from my anyone who comes in the room or you know walks by your desk. You're not crying at your desk It's it's so sweet and so joyous um It, it's, it's one of those things that I think if we could have a happy app and only good things, I think maybe this is something we're on to something here, kindness app or a good vibe app. So, let's say on Sundays, these are the only kind of things that you could watch. And I'm being very serious. I like that. But how does that going to help us in our division? What it's going to do is it's going to level set us. We're going to realize that we're bitching about things that, uh, in the grand scheme of things are not that important. And I think what it's going to do is it's going to be this level set. I mean, who doesn't get motivated by seeing something like this in a positive way? Who doesn't get motivated by Oxytocin. It's, you know, it's It's oxytocin. It's a, it's a shot. Oxytocin day. Oh, Oxy to Sunday. That is good. Ha Huh? Oxy to Sunday. Yeah, I know. I'm a marketing major. Oh, Michael Dempsey's gonna love that one too. Oxy to Sunday. Yeah. You know what? Let's start it here. Yeah. So I, I don't think that we can manage the algorithms and I'm sure that the, the people at Google and YouTube and and Facebook and what are all those other things. Oxy to Sunday, Oxy to Sunday. I just came up with so so it's great. So it's basically what we're going to try to do is encourage our listeners and us as co hosts of this show on Sunday evenings. We'll say yeah, instead of because we're all looking at your algorithms to get videos of of uh, Kids coming home from the army and surprising their moms or their dogs, seeing their dogs for the first time or, um, hearing babies laugh or hearing babies here for the first time or see for the first time. So you and I, I think watch a lot of the same videos. I think there's nothing like it. It's because it's very human and it's very, uh, it's the experience of joy. It brings us together. It's pure. Yeah, how about the videos with the little guys, like they're fighting to get the glasses on and all of a sudden the glasses are put on them. I mean, they're infants and they stop crying and they can see their mom for the first time. Yeah. Or hear their mom. Oh, I saw a beautiful one of a girl who goes to her friend's house. She's deaf and she had surgery and she walks in her friend's house and she knocks on the door and her friend comes to the door and she goes, Hi, and she's talking to her and she goes, I can hear you sick. What she was I can hear your voice. They both start crying. Oh my god. It's amazing That's joy. It's pure joy oxytocin oxytocin day how do we pull this all together? Well, I mean, I think that it's going to take, uh, you know, we're going to have we're going to have to, uh, to reach out to Congress and, uh, we're going to have to have the, uh, the people that are in charge of managing algorithms at the, uh, the various social media spaces. maybe we could start by asking the local news. We have some connections to the local news and. instead of playing the news that's going to upset people, what if the news is nothing but Do you ever see Do you ever watch, uh, Willie Geist on Sunday morning? And no, so Sunday morning on the show, the show CBS, no NBC. Oh, Sunday morning, Sunday, not okay. It's, it's on Sunday morning, not the show Sunday morning, but it's called, uh, Sunday today with Willie Geist. Anyways, he has this highs and lows of the week and it's very formulaic, but. One of the highs from this past week was this little British boy who's talking about how his mother was videotaping him. And he's this little guy, he's got glasses, he's probably a kindergartner, and he's cute as hell, and he's got this British accent, and he said, I'm gonna ask so and so, some girl, Emily, To be my valentines and the, the mom is like, are you sure that's, you know, that's going to be, he's like, I think she's going to say yes. And then she videotapes them the next day and he explains how, uh, she accepted. This Oxytocin Sunday idea and, you know, we're here to try to encourage kindness, encourage, um, compassion, encourage goodwill for everyone to be better and stop bitchin and try to, try to find goodness in people. But, I will say, people that would object to this or would be like, eh, you guys are, you're putting your heads in the sand to what's really going on in the world. What do you say to that, John? What if somebody goes, Yeah, but you can't ignore what's going on. You can't. But I'm saying just one day. It's take time away from it. Yes. Stop thinking about it for I'm not ignoring that. I'm just choosing on oxytocin day to just occupy myself with things that are going to make me feel good about the world. I, it's going to be a little disciplined. You need to do it. Well, yeah, it's sort of like a, it's like a diet, you know, It is a diet. It's a, it's, we've taken in so much social media through our brains. It is a diet. It's a diet of what we're viewing. The title of this episode is going to be Oxytocin Day. And we're going to encourage people to find things that make you happy. So you're saying that Oxy till Sunday is a way to deal with. A divided world because you're breaking your, you're breaking from your algorithm. You're breaking from that diet of all that bad video and media that we're trying to keep up and just understand what's happening. Um, which ends up feeding to negativity, division, and anxiety. And here's what'll end up happening. If you go on YouTube and you put in, uh, babies laughing. You know, who doesn't love, babies laughing? You're gonna get fed a whole bunch of videos of babies laughing, and it's going to change your Let's campaign to change our algorithms. Yeah, manage your algorithm. You can manage it. Change it. Yeah, look up babies laughing, deaf babies, you know, hearing for the first time, military returns, Surprise puppies, you know kids getting their first puppy. Oh, man I've seen those, you know, even videos of like, people slipping and falling on the ice as long as they're not getting hurt I get caught in those they're so damn funny sometimes, but again it's a commonplace, yeah, they get a little violent. If you go too far, they get a little violent. Well, there's a video of me slipping on the ice that people have seen. There's a video of you getting your car stolen too. There's that as well. It's not funny, I'm just saying. But it was funny. It's, it's funny that you're okay and nothing happened. Well, and just watching me try and chase after the car. Yeah, you threw your hammy. I, I pulled a hammy. There's no question about it. I didn't even know I had a hammy. That's terrible. But, okay, so we're gonna promote Oxytocin Day. Yeah. And we're gonna see if, uh, I'm gonna start myself. I'll do the same. I'm gonna start on Sunday. Um, I'm gonna be down in Florida. Okay. Um, going down there to, uh, can I just tell you a little bit about my last week? Let's hear about it. So I went to two events that were just absolutely heartwarming. Um, I went to one. So many events. You go to so many events. I go to a lot of events, one of them, it was said black tie optional. So I wore a tux, and I showed up and I might have been the only one in a tux. Ooh. So it was really optional. No, not that one. Nope. Nope. I just I saw black tie optional I got a great tux. Glasses and the tux going? You got that going? I had the glasses going, you know I like to see when I'm at these things. True. It's always a plus. It is a plus, but that was for the It was the Twins Diamond Awards and at the Diamond Awards, they're raising money for the Bob Allison ataxia center at the University of Minnesota and as a person that has a connection to the many things Masonic at the University of Minnesota, of course, I was invited to go sit at this and I sat down next to a woman and I just, you know, so what do you do? And she said, well, I just left target. I was in event experiences and I said, wait a second, I know a guy that was at target in event. And she knew you, she's like, Oh my God, Steve Brown, I love that guy. And I'm like, I love that guy. How do you know Steve Brown? Well, we went to high school together. We have a podcast. So Jessica, I'm sure she's a listener now. I hope so. I mean, she probably was before, but anyway, so it's a small world, small world, but you know, a lot of money raised for these, you know, these people that are dealing with, muscular dystrophy. MS, ALS, uh, one of my dear friends who lives in New York, Peter McCormick, his friend, young man named Chip House, 58 years old, just died of ALS. I saw his, I saw his, uh, obituary in the paper, apparently just an absolutely wonderful guy. But these are for neurological diseases that are crippling for people. So that was a great event and there was a lot of money raised at that event. And then I went to the Crescent Cove Gala. Mm-hmm Um, wasn't black tie optional, so that was good. So I wasn't the only guy walking around looking like a penguin. So everyone was black tie? No, no. It was, I see. It was, you know, suits or whatever. Snappy. Yeah. Yeah. So I dressed snappy. Good. Um, but that was also a, a, a lovely event as well. Um. You just made me, you know, think more about this thing. Oxytocin. Oxytocin. Why not do this, John? Um, there's a lot of sadness, a lot of anxiety in the world. you can choose to watch and be a part of things that are uplifting. You can choose that. We're choosing the wrong stuff sometimes. Life is short. Why are you watching crap that makes you feel bad or anxious or getting you fired up to be in a fight to go? Yeah to take your snake because you want to be right and have some kind of bit of information that you've Taken in you're trying to feed it back to show that you know something. We don't know this is complicated stuff. It's complicated stuff Why are we why are we so divided? Why do we why do we care about? The stance someone else has I guess someone's trying to take something from you, you know, that's a different but In the end, this, ridiculous conversation about us versus them and, dehumanizing the other because of your stance or your political involvement. And as I have said many times on this podcast, keep Facebook for the nice stuff. If you want to fight with people, go on Twitter or X. that's a place where people can battle because it lends itself to conversations, but even that it doesn't nobody wins anything Well, then you can I see a LinkedIn a lot now It's a lot of conversation that a lot of people post stuff and people go Why is this here because it's not you're right ago LinkedIn has become but the comments go on and on and on everyone wants to Have their stance people want to have their stance and I don't understand it Especially in a business setting where you're everyone's just trying to sell stuff and try to meet people to get jobs And you know hire people one day one day Sunday off from it I'll see toast Sunday and with that I think that we've given you people something to think about I think so I think we've given you more than you deserve actually. No, I why would I say something like that? But I think it's a I think it's a good. I think we've done a good job here Um, and I think we've got a nice idea. Let's see what happens. You know what? Hold on. You know, I think we do need to do though. We need a list of things that our listeners can put into their algorithm that will create interesting things. So we'll, we'll work on that with our social media manager, Ms. Lucinda Brown. Yeah. Lucinda Brown. We'll see if she can help us come up with a list of things that will help regenerate your algorithm. For Oxytocin. Yeah. You know, what if you're a cat person, and they're showing nothing, you're telling people to look at dog videos. Well, they can look at cat videos. It's gotta, it's whatever brings you the warm of fuzzies. And not, uh How about hockey fights? I mean, we didn't talk hockey. I don't think so. No, I don't think so either. I don't think so. It might be entertaining. Um. But it's not what we're looking for because it's aggression. Don't watch Ultimate Fighting. Oh God, I can't watch that. You get stuck in that and it brings you down to a bad level. Oh God. Even like a, they get you on a boxing match where you watch a round and then you have to see who wins. And it's ridiculous. And that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about calming yourself. You don't want, no one wants, you're not supposed to look at your phones on a Sunday night before work, before you go to bed. But, I would claim that maybe. Our new program, Oxytocin Sunday, is going to actually bring your stability level to a new level. Your anxiety is going to come down and you're going to be prepared much better for your Monday. You know what we should do? We should start posting this first thing in the morning on Monday. And we're going to review how was Oxytocin Sunday. Yeah. I love it. Alright. With that, off we go. Oxytocin