Telling stories is a universal phenomenon of ancient origins—it is the heart of our humanity. Every culture continues to weave narratives and enhance the spoken word with ritual, drama, dance, song, and music. On this site you will find: a blog on baby development and caregiving, a diversity of oral histories, larger cultural landscape studies, and this featured article on Narrative, Memory and the Brain: in the Wise Brain Bulletin: narrative-memory-and-the-brain.pdf
Music is a profound pleasure, even for babies–why? As neurologist, Oliver Sacks, explained: “music occupies more areas of our brain than language does—humans are a musical species”! Indeed, researchers at MIT recently discovered a distinct region for music, apart from language, in the auditory processing area. Beyond the sharing of similar sound signatures that would integrate language and music processes, music perception resides alone.
Dr. Joyce Knudsen, in her recently released book: Refusing to Quit—True Stories of Women Over Sixty, shows us the way. Her mission is to exalt the societal worth of elder women. With facts, antidotes, her personal story, and 20 contributing writers we can, with fascination, reevaluate the under-told contributions of seniors. Read more
Dancing is found in every culture; it is fundamental to who we are as humans. Our instinct to sync to a musical beat begins in infancy. Babies are unable actually to tap their toes to the music, but their little brain waves sync to the beat. Dance lights up the brain as it stimulates several areas: musical, language, emotional, kinesthetic, and rational predictive. Read more
On Father’s Day 2015 I did an author interview on KOIT radio (San Francisco) with Armin Brott (aka Mr. Dad) for his “Positive Parenting” show. Listen here.