 Alright, to get things off, which group would like to go first? Sure, I can talk about our project. So we did a video together about how the world is actually getting better. This project was based off of the book called Factfulness by Hans Rosling. I read it for a different class and it really made an impact on me. It was about why we think things are going so much worse than they are when if you look at the world in just numbers things are better now than they ever have been before. So we actually took to the streets and we asked people what they thought and we can show you a clip of that video now. We're out here on Church Street for our Dimensions of Self in Society class asking people if they think the world is getting better or worse. And so far we've had some surprising answers. I think it's getting better and worse. I believe it's getting worse more in the way that it's getting better. But because it's getting worse I think people are also becoming more aware which is really cool, like especially politics. I don't know a lot about politics but I know that people are definitely wanting to vote more and all that. So with every negative. It's both, right? Like you have good things and bad things you have. But it's always been like that, isn't it? Like Yin and Yang? Yeah, so I think it's actually the same. Yeah, over the last 20-25 years I feel like we've gradually been getting better but right now we're kind of at a turning point where we can go either way. Yeah, it's kind of getting the world better if they like back people doing the right things that they supposed to do. We will be getting the right, but if there is any hate or race then the world is not going to get better. Yeah everyone, romance is getting better. It's a good place to stay and it's a safe place. I think it's getting better and hopefully burning can lead us somewhere. So we came out here with a few facts to tell you that it is getting better and things can be getting better and still be bad at the same time. Yeah, that's awesome. Good for Vermont. Yeah, no doubt. I'm a visitor. So yeah, it's foreign to me but that's nice. And where are you from? I'm coming from Long Island. Does that make you think that things could be getting even better? Yeah, it could be better for that. But I didn't look that much homeless but it could be better. Do you think that that's going to continue to improve? I think it's like you guys trying to do positive stuff. If everyone just did that, it's going to work out. So what were your thoughts on our video? Honestly, I was somewhat surprised. There was a good variety. We got people from out of state, people from in-state. Most people actually thought that we were somewhat getting better. We're kind of at this dividing point now. Some people think kind of negatively. Some people think positively. But we got a lot of people saying that we're making steps forward, which is really cool to hear because people are kind of all over the spectrum right now. So that was some good evidence for it. Yeah, just seeing the video you guys did, Dana and I obviously weren't a part of the making of that video, but I was really impressed by how positive people were in general when you were asking them, is the world getting better? I don't know. It was interesting to me for sure. Yeah, it's kind of surprising. Most people think that with the way it's going, it might be at a turning point, but we're making a lot of changes for the good whether we know it or not. And even putting awareness to these things is a step forward from where we were when we weren't putting awareness to them. I think my favorite takeaway from the entire project was that things can be bad and also be getting better at the same time. It's not just black and white, it's a spectrum and you're allowed to have both. And I definitely think that news and reporters and stuff likes to highlight the bad things because that's what most people like to see. It's more entertaining, I guess. Honestly, it was very intelligently designed by just going out there and asking positive questions and getting people to look at things in a more positive lens rather than a negative news type. Definitely. I might shift it over. We had a really similar topic, but I focused more on what we're dealing with our trash right now. And a lot of people, the world is kind of, it's sort of melting. Not physically, but the way we're acting towards it and the trash that we're putting out and the plastics that we're providing for people. It's the consumption for it. We've just had so much of it. So it's gotten so much easier to just grab trash bags, throw away lids, but we're not giving back. We're taking, we're taking, we're taking and we're not giving back to a point where it's actually helping us. But on a positive note, Burlington, Vermont is actually one of the first states or in-city states to pass the four plastic ban rule in one bill. So we're banning all four plastics, styrofoam, plastic lids, straws and plastic bags all in one bill, which is really impressive. It's a movement forward. Some people see it as our contributions. They're so small, they don't make a difference, but it's really each contribution that makes a whole movement happen. It's all the little parts that make the whole. So that's what I found. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Did you want to try to share your poster? Yeah, I made a little poster. It's more of, I don't know, I got some things going on here. It's what we can do to actually help the situation and we're using bags, we're using lids. That's a really good step forward. This is kind of a little bloop. It's a little dramatic, but this is where we are headed, people. This is where we are headed. Yeah, the growing rate right now of plastic is up 4% each year. It's just growing and growing and growing and we're not doing anything to help that. But putting awareness to this is the important part. That's what I found. The world is getting better. Small steps matter. The fact that we're having this conversation now is a step forward. Yeah, for sure. And how about you two? Did you guys want to talk about your video a little bit? Okay, sure. So for our interview we did. We just went around and we asked people if they were weird because we were curious if people would be open about that, what they thought about it and things like that. And most everyone was very excited and happy to answer and had some weird responses, I guess. But I've collected from it all that weird is the new normal. That might just be a Vermont thing because Vermont's pretty sheltered and weird, but I think that's spreading around, which is really cool. Definitely. Yeah, no, it was a lot of fun for sure. We met a lot of really interesting people. They were willing to do a lot more on camera than we had expected. Like we had people dancing. We met some lovely dogs. It was just very nice, a pleasurable experience for sure. Did you find that going into the talking process with these people once you had asked the question, do you think you're weird? Do you think they opened up a little bit, even just being asked that question? It looks like it really took half of the interview until they finally opened up a bit. More often than not when we were going around asking people, are they weird? The first thing that people really did was take a step back. A visceral reaction of like, you're asking me what I do, you know? So that was funny. But yeah, overall once you kept pestering them a little bit, getting them to open up more, they became much more comfortable and more willing to share what they do. Cool, yeah. And we'd also, the final question we would ask is if they're open about it, which we realized was a really dumb question to put at the end. It's because obviously they are, they just recorded themselves sharing about how weird they were. But yeah, it was fun. Maybe that surprised them like, didn't realize I was actually that open. Now I am. Yeah, and if you're curious, our video is super cool. If you want to watch it now, go ahead. Here's a clip. Yeah, here's a clip. Hey, how are you doing? Can I ask you some questions? This is normal. Like, what do you consider normal? I don't think that... I don't think they're really, it's a normal, I guess. I think normal is what you want to have created around you and what makes you feel like you belong. Being myself, is what I would say. I mean, for everybody, it depends, it varies, right? Yeah. And for you, it might be something different. But me, as long as I'm myself, I'm alright. I'm normal. That's great. You're normal, I don't know. Being yourself, being yourself is a good normal. I don't think there should be any normative unless you're hurting yourself or other people and then maybe that should not be a normative value. But beyond that, I don't think we should try so hard to define what is normal because people come in all sorts of flavors and that's a beautiful thing. I totally agree with you. Something regular, expected. Maybe something that doesn't surprise me. Something that I can understand without having to strain myself too much. Okay. Okay, next question. Do you think you're normal? I hope not. No, I don't think. No, I've never tried to be. I don't think I could pass as normal if I wanted to. No, no thank you. Normal is an average. And who is average? And how many people are normal. It's not too many people are the average, so normal is abnormal. I agree with that. Okay, it's hard to read. No, absolutely not. I think everyone's normal, I guess, which goes against what I just said about normal being standard or average. Yeah, I think that being human is normal. Okay, yeah. Yeah. By not worrying about what others are going to think about you, by really fully committing to being yourself and showing people that not only can you enjoy a life where you are fully committed to being yourself and not trying to live a life that pleases others or out of obligation, and also by doing that, I think you demonstrate to other people who might be afraid to take those risks. You can show them that other people really will love you, even if you don't walk the same path as everyone else or what you were told to do. That's wonderful. Okay, sorry. She wrote these questions. It's a struggle. That's fine, that's fine. I like it too. Not entirely. I feel like there are things that are a little different about me, but I don't know. How are you weird? How am I weird? I feel like I'm into a little weirder stuff. I like dark stuff and morbid stuff. That's considered normal, but... How are you weird? I don't know, that's a good question. I guess I'm just thinking of the ways that I'm not as average. I sleep a lot on weekends, more so than other folks. I won't wake up. That's not really weird, but that's not as standard as other folks. I don't know, is that an okay example? Yeah, that's perfect. How do you live an alternative lifestyle to others? I think we're all in our little Vermont bubble, so everyone here lives an alternative lifestyle to others. Yeah, I guess I really make an effort to know where my food comes from and how much to do so. I know that a lot of folks just in the U.S. don't have the literacy or background knowledge to and don't have the access to do that. I would say that's kind of what was the question, unusual lifestyle? Or was it an alternative lifestyle? I would say that's a little bit alternative lifestyle for me. Are you open about your alternative lifestyle or weirdness? Yeah, for sure. Yes, definitely open about it and also open to hearing other people's lifestyle differences and differences to me. Well, thank you. Absolutely, good luck. I hope you have a wonderful day. I dress like a preschooler because I'm a preschool teacher and I don't make any apologies for it. I sing to myself all the time and I'm in a band and even when I was, you know, one month pregnant. We ran to a rave. We do all sorts of music. We don't even try to just do one. I make all sorts of art. I encourage my children to be subversive and to be themselves and I like to let my freak flag fly and to encourage other people to do so. I have another follow-up question on that. I heard you say you were ten months pregnant. Well, yes. I had three children who were overdue. One who was a plan cesarean, but three of my children were overdue by a month and even then I would wear lycra and get on stage and sing punk rock songs. I did sit down once. That is true. That's true. I did one time. How are you weird? Oh, wow. Well, that's a great question. I wish I had a really great answer for that. I think there's a lot of things that I might do that's weird, but I think the thing that makes me weird is that I love to dance everywhere. Some people might think that's weird, but like our normals, like I think weird is normal. How do you define an alternative? Can I ask that? Get laid out, go to work. So like, I'm not a white straight male with two and a half kids. Is that what you mean? I guess so. So because that's so I think that's the question is what's the regular lifestyle? Do you know what I mean? That's a hard question to answer because to some alternative might be, oh, I'm gay. Alternative might be, I don't have kids. Alternative might be that I shave my head once. You know, like, I don't know. Alternative might be that I have a tattoo. What is that for you? I don't, so that's so hard because I don't know what alternative is. Alternative is different than me, but I think alternative is great. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay, cool. 100% I think it makes it, I think that helps others bring out their weirdness. Yeah. Of course. Oh my god, what kind of dancing on camera? I just got back from like a 12 hour trip. I mean, like, I don't know, I need some music. Pump it up. I'll do whatever you want. Oh, sorry. I'm pulling that mic. You know, oh my word, you're like really going to get me to dance on it? Like, that's not too weird? Weird. Not too something. I dance to the music in my own head like constantly all the time. I mean, depending on what it is, it's going to change it. You can do a little ballroom if you want. You know, like, just weird dancing. Yeah, I don't know, whatever it is. I am, I am very open about it. Even in my workplace, which and I work with children and I'm very open about it because I just think it sets the stage for other people being open and then it normalizes not being so normal and yeah, I hope it encourages other people to just be themselves. You've encouraged me. So thank you very much. An alternative lifestyle. As far as like appearance wise, I feel like I've kind of like modified myself outside of the norm. Like I've like stretched my ears and I've tattooed and stuff like that. Like, I feel like that's not an everyday thing. So that would probably be as far as I go. I don't really like to live by one specific way like to mix it up. Um, and well actually this is kind of obvious, but are you open about your alternative lifestyle and being weird? I think so. I think it's fun. Well, thank you. Yeah. Are we interviewing him now? Would you like to be interviewed? That's my last question. Hey, thank you. Nice to meet you ladies. The important thing is make sure you're being normal. Okay, I'll try. I'm Dana. This is Professor Williamson. Jamie. Nice to meet you. Jamie, my best friend of many, many years. Thank you guys very much. Have a good night. You too. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to try to get in the frame here kind of. All right. First question. What is normal to you? Is it recording? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that was what we did. Did you want to talk about your personal project a little bit? Oh, sure. So for my personal manifesto, um, okay. Um, I tried to just depict in a painting. Wait, this one? Okay, this one. Um, just pretty much like love and compassion. And I tried to portray the emotion that like it's dark. Somebody's sad. I don't know. Just give somebody a hug every now and then just be nice. It's all about love, man. Can't hurt. It really can't hurt to be nice. Even in the smallest ways. Yeah. Um, we had a talk a couple weeks ago. We were able to talk to Ali Dang. He came into our class and he discussed with us where he started his career in helping out in his community and where he ended it and where he was now and what steps he was taking. And I can say what I took away was that even just starting so small, you don't have to start big. Just start small acts like we're doing now. We're just sitting here talking to the community. It doesn't matter how big it is because if that's what you're interested in, if you actually have something you want to put forth, it'll start to grow and you'll be able to get more of a feel of what you want to do. It doesn't have to you don't have to just jump all in. You can just get a feel for what you like. And yeah, you just grow from there. So that was really cool being able to talk to him because he's on the city council and he has a lot to say for just helping out and starting small and growing big. So that was really cool. And did you want to talk about your channel? I do not have it with me. No, that's fine. Okay, did you want to though? Oh, mine's not pretty similar to our video. I ended up doing some focus on why media was so negative. And I actually found out that media is as negative as it is because that's what people are consuming. And I was able to delve a little bit deeper into the negativity bias which is our more innate desire to consume negative media, which is something that I didn't really know about and it seems like a lot of people don't. There was an experiment done where people were asked what type of media they like to consume. And for the most part they said, I like to consume positive media. I like good things, but when they're given an array of options, they always chose the more negative, the violent, the war, the disaster. Interesting, yeah. Yeah, and I wanted originally when I went in this paper I wanted to blame someone and I wanted why is media doing this to us? Why is Facebook doing this to us? And it's really, it's because it's what we want. Even if it's not what we think we want, it's still what we're innately looking for. And I actually found the solution to that is just understanding that we have that negativity bias in us and that's the first step to overcoming it is now that you know that maybe that's part of you and maybe that's something next time you're looking at articles you can go and maybe not this one. Yeah. And the less negative media consumed the less that we made media is only being made to be consumed. Yeah. So if it's not what people want they're not going to make it. Yeah, it's kind of interesting how we have that side of us that always goes towards that negative factor. It's like no matter what, it's like especially in news it's like they portray it so negative even if it's not that negative they're like we'll grab their attention with this but it's not all negative and there's a lot more positivity coming from it you always focus on the negative but as you said it's really important to shift your views and see how you really want to see it because there's multiple ways of viewing these things. I think another reason people like negative content like that is because they can compare it to their lives and be like oh I'm thankful my life's not like that which they probably don't think exactly like that but still you know people like to compare themselves to others and it makes them feel better if they're better than what's on the other side of that. That's very true. It's interesting that like the negative media that you can consume can just be like countered if you're an active participant in the media you're consuming you know like I know that like a lot of Facebook and other social media platforms rely on algorithms that use like clickbait articles or how many times you click on certain things will determine what kind of stories you get in the future so if you just avoid clicking on the bad articles more often than not your feed and the media you're consuming will become good and that seems crazy but I guess it's not which is so cool. Yeah it's amazing how much is just based on awareness. Like once you're aware you can move forward and I think even with your project that's the first tiny step is just being aware of what plastic's doing or being aware that maybe you're kind of weird and it's okay and that's others other people out there do and you can build from there. Awareness is key. Yeah it sounds like that's across the board what we learned. Awareness matters. And what you put your attention to to be aware that's what matters too. Yeah. Do we have any closing comments? Anything else anyone to say? I don't think so I think I'm good. I think we hit our points. Yeah. Well this has been an awesome opportunity to talk to you guys and it's been very cool for our class to be able to be here so thank you for watching and enjoy the rest of your day. Wow.