Protecting Your Ears, What's in Your Playlist, Family Game Night, Language's in Children's Novels, Christmas in Wales, The 13th Season and Resilience

Protecting Your Ears (0:00:00) For most of us, when we get excited about something, we get loud. When our favorite song comes on, we turn it up! When we’re at a football game, we scream our lungs out for our team! I think we all can recognize these as noisy experiences, but what about when we do less exciting things like turning on the blender? Or trying to hold a conversation at a busy restaurant? Whether we recognize it or not, we are constantly surrounded by things that are hurting our hearing. It’s no wonder that studies have shown that approximately 15% of American adults (37.5 million) aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing. So what can we do about this? David Owen, author of “Volume Control,” joins us on the show to talk about the loud world we live in and what we can do to protect ourselves.  What’s in your Playlist (0:17:34) With so much diversity in music, and so much access to different artists, sounds, and genres, we are now more than ever able to find a music taste that reflects our personalities. People love to talk about, sing along to, and blast the car stereo with their favorite tunes. Music brings people together. As 2019 has come to an end, different music platforms like Spotify have given us our “year in review” for what we listened to. As we take time to reflect on what our music says about us, it is fun to remember certain bands and artists that defined our year. Here to discuss with us what our taste in music means is Kacy Faulconer, a former writing professor and friend of the show. Family Game Night (0:36:46) Friend of The Lisa Show Carrie Ann Rhodes shares ways to make your next game night the best one yet. Languages in Children’s Novels (0:50:36) Are you a fan of fantasy novels? There’s nothing quite like getting lost in a world unlike our own and meeting colorful and mythological creatures. Here to talk to us about her own experience creating such a fantasy world and on where she got her inspiration for creating her own mystical world is Carolina Ugaz-Moran, author of Aline and the Blue Bottle, the first book in a new middle grade fantasy series The Adventures of Aline. Christmas in Wales (1:05:41) We all love our own Christmas traditions, but have you ever wondered what it’s like to celebrate Christmas in a different part of the world? Christmas in Europe is a little different from Christmas in the United States. We’ve invited Rosalind Hall, who is originally from Wales, onto our show to discuss Welch Christmas traditions. The 13th Season and Resilience (1:23:18) How long are you willing to fail at something before you give up and move on to something else? Would you ever last 12 years? Burgess Owens is a former NFL player who was part of the 1980 Super Bowl-winning Oakland Raiders lineup. But before getting the ring, Burgess had to endure 12 losing seasons. Those were defining years in his life, as he learned to find success in the midst of failure. He’s with us to share how he was able to overcome his trials and how we can persevere when things get hard.