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A photo of my typewriter--a Smith-Corona Silent Super--a sheet of Letraset dry transfer letters, Perry's paper, my handwritten notes, and an edited first draft of these posts.

Behind the scenes!

For more on this, listen to my conversation with Dr. Sylvia Perry on Opinion Science wherever you get your podcasts! Perry, S., et al. (2024). White parents' racial socialization during a guided discussion predicts declines in White childrens' pro-White biases. Developmental Psychology, 60(4), 624-636.

So, these findings suggest that parents can help their kids (and themselves) have more tolerant views by explicitly acknowledging racism, especially in its more subtle forms, and not just redirecting attention away from race or just emphasizing that it doesn't matter.

These benefits were strongest when discussing instances of subtle racism: videos where bias may have occurred but wasn't obvious. Like a White child being uncomfortable around a Black child. These discussions may be most beneficial because they help kids navigate common situations that they don't otherwise notice as wrong.

Another approach was the clear winner: color-conscious messaging. This included calling out prejudice for what it was and connecting what happened in the videos to societal racism.

BUT! The type of conversation mattered. Sometimes, kids and parents made colorblind comments, denying the role of race or directing attention away from it. This approach made the conversations less beneficial for reducing prejudice.

These conversations reshaped prejudice. Both kids and their parents were less quick to associate "White" with "good" and "Black" with "bad" following their discussions.

But what if they did? A few years ago, social psychologists facilitated conversations between 84 parents and their kids. They played brief cartoon scenarios of subtle and blatant racial prejudice and invited them to talk about what they saw.

Careful surveys find that most White parents avoid talking about race with their kids. Even when given the opportunity, only 6% of parents made comments about race, ethnicity, or diversity with their preschoolers.

The Science of How to Talk to Kids About Race: A Typewritten Look at the Evidence

More adventures in analog tools to share behavioral science.

This time, looking at work by @sylviapperry.bsky.social ...which happens to be the feature of my podcast this month!

So, after you read this, fire up Opinion Science for more on the context of this work and where it's headed.

Congrats!

Yep. And I have some spacing with BB&S pin marks, but not the nifty casting on top.

I was just setting this last night...

What I like best about the Artemis II photos is that it was taken by actual humans. An actual person had to frame it and manually adjust settings. It's their own artistic rendition of what they thought looked best at the time, something no probe, rover or unmanned spacecraft can take. it's art

My complaint is really that we already have language for videos. When Netflix has "podcasts" that are actually highly produced video series, why are we calling them "podcasts"? Just call it a Netflix series. Podcasting is a distribution medium, not a genre or particular piece of content.

My argument is more like you insist on saying you used the radio to watch the Super Bowl when you actually watched it on TV. In the end, though, I agree--just say you watched the Super Bowl. Why add the baggage of referring to the wrong medium to describe how you watched it?

BUT! The YT video, radio program, and live shows themselves are not a podcast.

That's my textualist view on it, anyway.

If you want to distribute the audio from your video series via RSS, it's a podcast. If you want to distribute a radio program online, it's a podcast (ala many early NPR pods). If you have a live show that you air on the radio and also distribute online (ala Wait Wait Don't Tell Me), it's a podcast.

As far as I understand, the original definition is an audio file distributed with an RSS feed. So, it's different from a YT video in that it's audio-only, and it's different from a radio program because it's distributed via the Internet.

I heard about a "podcast" and then figured out that it's only on YouTube. That's a YouTube channel. Not a podcast.

Hot take: Videos aren't podcasts.

#115: Raising Color-Conscious Kids with Sylvia Perry Podcast Episode · Opinion Science · April 6 · 1h

Listen at all the podcast places...

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...

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Web: opinionsciencepodcast.com/episode/rais...

Along the way, we explore the privilege underlying the freedom to opt out of these difficult conversations and offer practical takeaways for parents looking to foster empathy and a sense of fairness in their own homes.

She shares insights on facilitating parent-child discussions about race and racism, including the unique benefit of color-conscious messaging and how addressing subtle microaggressions can be more impactful than discussing overt prejudice alone.

New episode of Opinion Science, featuring @sylviapperry.bsky.social!

We talk about her research on racial socialization, specifically focusing on how white parents navigate—or frequently avoid—conversations about race with their children.

"The most distinctive and indispensable construct..."

"Earthset" behind the lunar surface

Earthrise, 2026

“There’s the Earth comin’ up,” Anders said at the time. “Wow, is that pretty!” Anders later compared the sight of the Earth to “a fragile Christmas tree ornament.” “I thought to myself, it's too bad we don't treat it more like a Christmas tree ornament,” Anders said in a 2023 NASA interview. “It's really too bad, we're shooting missiles and rockets and whatnot at each other on this tiny little place we call home,” Anders added. “It's the only home in the universe for us humans. And it's too bad we don't treat it a little better.”

Astronaut Bill Anders took the iconic 1968 photo "Earthrise."

“It's really too bad, we're shooting missiles and rockets and whatnot at each other…" Anders later said. "It's the only home in the universe for us humans."

Artemis II just recreated the photo: www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-a...

Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request to Congress

I am shocked to see this language from the NSF.

“The U.S. National Science Foundation's Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Request reflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment while eliminating woke and weaponized grant programs that previously funded radical DEI projects.”

Consider this your podcast sneak peek.

#OpinionScience