Podcast: Putting Young Career Women in Their (Own) Place: Bungalow Courts in 1920s and 1930s Southern California

Last week, I recorded a podcast about Bungalow Courts in Southern California. These cute little houses turn out to have a uniquely gendered history. In human geography we think of the visible world around us as the result of both culture and environment. These little houses are a great example of that in that they were built to embrace the warm Southern California weather, but also to reflect a whole range of cultural values, including those about where a woman should live.

You can here the podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/user-295774952/mike-reed-woman-history-month?in=user-295774952/sets/woman-history-month

“The cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a cultural group. Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape is the result."  Carl O. Sauer

Living a quiet and modest life

 “A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.”
--Albert Einstein

Ironically, this note scribbled on a piece of paper by the famous scientist fetched $1.5 million dollars at an auction this month. Studies show that he's correct.

What worries me is that Americans continue to move in the opposite direction. More and more young people seem to want to be famous. Our television shows are still about the lies of wealthy people - opulent houses and fast cars. And yet consistently the places on Earth that report the most life satisfaction are almost entirely in Scandinavia and western Europe, where the social safety net is strongest and people, in general, have less to worry about and can just get on with the real business of life - meaningful relationships, play and exercise, artistic endeavors, and family. They work hard too, of course. But at all times they know that if they fail or fall their peers (in the form of the state) will pick them up, dust them off, and put them back on their feet.

All the while, Americans, and particularly American young people, are plagued by anxiety.

Collectively we must try less to buy the things we believe will make us happy, and that includes million dollar Einstein quotations, and instead strive to live quiet and modest lives. It seems to me there's a way to be ambitious and still be modest. To have time with your children, a small house or apartment, and an emotionally-rewarding career is not the American Dream, but maybe it should be.

Really Good News for a Change: The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it - by Max Roser

The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it
https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions-in-5-charts/

These graphs speak for themselves. Analyze them carefully. The one thing I would add to this, however, is that if I were to show you graphs on the health of ecosystems and ecosystem services you would get a much more negative impression of the trajectory of history. So, essentially, what we are facing now is ever improving human welfare and systematic destruction of natural systems. We must find a way to continue these improvements while protecting resources (and wild beauty) for future generations. The whole article is well worth a short read.

The F-ing Geography of Darned Profanity

In a nice little summary of recent linguistic research, Jay Livingston explains that the swear words we predominantly use in each part of the country vary dramatically. This is not surprising, really, since each region has a unique cultural history. Immigration differences, religious differences, and economic differences all contribute to regional variety in dialects. The original research by Jack Grieve analyzed the frequency of swear words in tweets by location in the U.S.

Having lived in New York, New England, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, and California, I can personally attest to the potty mouths of the coastal folks and the more traditional tongue of the Midwesterner.

Take a good look at the maps. Can you find the places where crass language is less prevalent ("darn") and other places where asshole, shit, and fuck are common? What do you think explains these distributions?

Here are a bunch more maps of other terms for those who are interested:
https://sites.google.com/site/jackgrieveaston/treesandtweets