Volunteering, Cuddlers, Self-Compassion, Staying Connected through Social Media, Little Dresses for Africa, Beauty at Home

Volunteering From Home (0:00:00) Quarantine is changing the way we serve each other. Before social distancing we could work together in groups for a particular organization. Now our biggest service moment of the day might be letting our spouse decide which TV show we’ll be watching together. But thankfully because of technology, we can find lots of service opportunities online that we can do from the comfort of our own homes. One such opportunity comes through Zooniverse, an online science platform that conducts research on interesting scientific topics, all led by volunteer researchers. Joining us today is astronomer and science lead Cliff Johnson, here to talk with us about the mission of Zooniverse and how anyone can get involved in real scientific research. The Need for Cuddlers (0:15:07) Lately, I’ve really been missing getting hugs from people! I didn’t really consider myself to be a touchy person until we were advised not to touch anyone... and I miss it! Who knew how important physical contact is? We recently found out about is a position called a “cuddler;” a volunteer whose entire job is to provide this important physical contact for newborn babies in the hospital by holding and snuggling them! This seemed too good to be true, we so we invited Dr. James Kirk Bass , a neonatologist and pediatrician at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, to tell us more! Self-Compassion (0:33:43) As parents, we want to be caring and loving to our kids. I don’t think any of us want to be that parent that only cares about themselves... like Cinderella’s stepmother or Luke Skywalker’s evil father Darth Vader, just caring about our own vanity or ruling our own galaxy while our kids feel forgotten. But is the solution to go to the other extreme and never take care of ourselves? No! And Dr. Fuschia Sirois is here to explain why. She’s an internationally distinguished researcher of Health and Social Psychology at the University of Sheffield who studies how self-compassion can help us be better parents and healthier