Bloomberg, 2018, 4:28… Scottish city Glasgow once held the grim title "murder capital of Europe" but homicides in the city have fallen by 60% in just over a decade all thanks to a radical approach - treating violence as a disease.
Emotional Labor & Airlines
Adam Ruins Everything, 2018, 2:17… Adam unfolds the profoundly sexist and disrespectful treatment flight attendants endured during the Golden Age of flying. #truTV #AdamRuins
Coffee, Bikinis & Deviance
The Symbolism of The Lawn
The Atlantic, 2018, 2:26… Michael Pollan explains how front lawns are endemic to America—and emblematic of the country's hypocrisies. “The conceit of the American suburb is that we’re all in a great park together,” Pollan says in the film. “The lawn symbolizes that continuity.” And yet, Pollan explains, despite the fact that lawns are the largest irrigated crop in the country, Americans tend to avoid using them.
Universal Basic Income
The Atlantic, 2018, 3:20… America is the richest civilization in history. Why, then, are our living standards so low compared to those of other wealthy democracies? “There’s a big idea out there that could help solve this,” says The Atlantic writer Annie Lowrey. “It’s called a universal basic income.” In a new animated video, Lowrey argues that UBI—a concept that has existed for more than 500 years—would help close the income inequality gap, eliminating poverty and increasing mobility and opportunity for all American citizens.
Cat Videos and Control
Critical Theory, Culture Industry, and the Lego Movie
Deaths of Despair (Suicide in the US)
Danger Symbology
Danielle Bregoli: Innovator (Cash Me Outside)
Hostile Architecture & Defensive Design
Losing Face (Kesha & Seinfeld)
Sociology in Wall-E (2008)
"Wall-E as Sociological Story Telling" -- Pop Culture Detective, 2017, 15:25 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1-vPQKwXbY
Video's Description: "Pixar’s Wall-E is a masterpiece of animated filmmaking about two adorable robots falling in love, though I’d argue it also serves as an excellent example of sociological storytelling. Social systems are one of the most important, and most misunderstood, concepts in my work on media and masculinity. So in this video essay I use Wall-E's Axiom star liner (and the board game Monopoly) to illustrate how social systems operate in our culture".
Science, Intuition, Experience, and Tradition
Equipment Reviews: Best Cutting Boards -- America's Test Kitchen, 2013, 3:10 -- https://youtu.be/lPyhS2LX_Co
I've been looking for a way to incorporate America's Test Kitchen into my classes and believe their equipment reviews are an excellent example of competing sources of knowledge.
From my own experience, every cutting board I've ever owned cracked and warped. Although I must admit I bought these cheap, experience would tell me to purchase the thickest, heaviest board available. My intuition tells me a different truth. If I was interested in purchasing a new cutting board, I would be attracted to the most vibrant colors and the sexiest design. Intuition also tells me that the most expensive board would be the best board. Tradition tells me a different truth as well. I can vaguely remember the cutting board my parent's owned and if I wanted traditional advice, I can call my parents and ask for their suggestion as to the best board. But a scientific approach to "the best cutting board" reveals a different truth than these former sources of knowledge. Gadget Guru Lisa McManus shows us her sample, method, and results from testing a variety of cutting boards, and the winner of this evidence-based approach differs from what my experience, intuition, and tradition would tell me. The best cutting board isn't the heaviest, sexiest, or most expensive, and the video above proves this with empirical data and methodological transparency. Another video that works with these 4 competing sources of truth is their review of collanders.
The Music Doesn't Matter
Popstar Factory -- Vice News Tonight (HBO), 2017, 6:14 -- https://youtu.be/avp4a-WKIRU?t=16m43s
Capitalism has a peculiar way of stripping meaning from cultural arts. Here we see a rationalized process to produce musical icons where the music is the least important thing. It's almost genius-- if you can build up enough buzz around a "product" by appealing to popular trends (i.e., tennis, genderless) then you're likely to make a profit from merchandising and the initial hype.
Max Weber would lose it if he saw this. The dream of becoming a popstar is now disenchanted and the popstars themselves are now trapped in the iron cage.
Colorism in Ancient Art
Marble Helped Scholars Whitewash Ancient History -- Vice News Tonight (HBO), 2017, 4:02 -- https://youtu.be/86PD8o6xe_4
I became so mad after I saw this news segment on the whitewashing of sculptures. I never knew these iconographic works of art were originally painted and I now feel duped by the numerous museums where these statues are preserved. If they were intended by their creators to be colorful, then they should be presented as such. This revealing clip speaks to the concepts of colorism, whitewashing, imagined communities, and the white racial frame (among others). I bet students may find this to be an awakening moment too. I certainly did!
Subcultural Tastes
Why people keep watching the worst movie ever made -- Vox, 2017, 5:32 -- https://youtu.be/k27mr6p-yhY
Big shout out to Vox @Voxdotcom for explicitly incorporating a major sociological concept, cultural capital, into their video on fans of “trash cinema”. It’s a good example of subcultures and while there is lots of subjectivity here, the idea of having a good taste in bad taste should make for an interesting discussion. I wonder what John Waters would think…
Falsifiability & Karl Popper
Why You Can Never Argue with Conspiracy Theorists (Argument Clinic, Episode 4) -- Wired, 2017, 4:11 -- https://youtu.be/3kJp8as4fE4
A hypothesis must be able to be proven wrong in order to be suitable for logical and scientific inquiry. Conspiracy theorists tend to advance non-falsifiable arguments resulting in no amount of evidence being able to sway their (often ridiculous) stance. In the words of Shaquille O'Neal, "I drove from coast to coast and that shit looked flat to me”.
Impression Management and Bill O'Reilly: "DO IT LIVE!"
Bill O'Reilly: "F*** It! Do It Live!" -- Inside Edition, 1989-1995, 1:35 -- https://youtu.be/Qy-Y3HJNU_s
A timeless example of impression management, the managed self, and front-stage/back-stage behavior. My favorite part of this tantrum is 1:18 when he momentarily snaps back into a composed impression. In 5, 4, 3, ...
Aliens, Contact, and Democracy
"Should Humans Try To Contact Alien Civilizations?" -- Motherboard, 2017, 7:11 -- https://youtu.be/VRIeuuXIhxw
Using the Contact Hypothesis where a system of domination and subordination is established when 2 unequal groups first meet, should we really be actively seeking out extraterrestrials? And who should be making that decision for our entire planet? What repercussions could this have on our society? How does this square with the democratic ideal of the collective prosperity of the people? While these questions may be rather absurd in an empirical sense, they get at something about the operation of society that is applicable to a wide array of other topics including technology, civilization, and power.