17 ms·

8-Year-Old Calls Out NPR for Lack of Dinosaur Stories

418 points by sharkweek 6y ago

msoad 6y ago
I'm not a parent yet. For the parents out there: is there a way of making sure my future kid will like dinosaurs? I have so much to discuss with that kid!
- sharkweek 6y ago
  My oldest, a three-year old, is obsessed. I have done nothing to cultivate the interest early or specifically, he just gravitated toward them and now all we do is play dinosaurs. That or firefighters. Or sharks. Or race car drivers.
  - abakker 6y ago
    This is the good stuff.
  - polka_haunts_us 6y ago
    I was cleaning stuff out recently and found a bunch of papers my mom saved from like 1st grade. What I learned about myself is I really, really wanted to be a car mechanic. Also made me realize that I don't really give a hoot about what 6 year old me thought, these days I don't even want to change my own oil!
  - theseanstewart 6y ago
    Have him check out Dino Dana, Dino Trek, Dino Dan on Amazon Prime. My four year old is a big fan and will randomly drop some amazing Dinosaur facts he's picked up from those shows.
- aok1425 6y ago
  I have the theory that if parents push an interest too hard, the kid will actually dislike that interest. So hopefully you can strike that balance / get lucky.
  - dominotw 6y ago
    tiger woods seems to have done pretty well. He is not an exception though.
    - schoen 6y ago
      Also compare https://slatestarcodex.com/Stuff/genius.pdf https://slatestarcodex.com/Stuff/genius.pdf (by László Polgár, whose three daughters are an International Master, a Grandmaster, and the strongest female chess player in history). László Polgár has encountered lots of controversy about his view of child-rearing. My understanding is that his daughters have tended to express support for their childhood experiences.
  - foobarian 6y ago
    I should test the theory by forcing my kid to play Roblox! /sob
    - rbanffy 6y ago
      And Among Us...
  - throwaway2245 6y ago
    I think it depends (similar to other comments): Either, you are engaging the kid's own personal interest in the thing, which has the potential to grow independently of you as a parent, or, you can demonstrate your personal interest, at a stage while they are particularly fascinated with you - this, they will grow out of.
    - polka_haunts_us 6y ago
      A great deal of that probably comes down to how much you respect/like your parent. I think both my sister and myself resemble our dad far more than our mom, and our mom definitely demonstrated her personal interest onto us. My dad in comparison, while not really engaging with our interests, certainly didn't actively try to get in their way like my mom did.
- a3n 6y ago
  Often they'll like what you like if you talk about it and play with it. But you can't force it. Just as fun is to like and play with what they like.
- jrsdav 6y ago
  One of the early realizations I had as a parent (more-so after my second) was that it's wrong to assume that I have the authority to "make sure" my kids like something. They are their own person from day one, will like what they like, and I personally feel that you're setting yourself up for a good, healthy, relationship with your child if you accept this early. This doesn't mean I can't _encourage_ things; if my daughter displays an interest in dinosaurs, I will be sure to gently fan the spark. If the spark goes out, no big deal. There will be more interests, and my job is to make sure I'm encouraging an exposure to a wide range of them.
  - freedomben 6y ago
    Exactly. I have 5 kids, and each one is so different. My oldest loves programming, my middle child couldn't care less. They've been exposed similarly. I think it's more nature than nurture personally.
    - dudleypippin 6y ago
      As my younger brother told me once, “Remember, the ‘nurture’ you got was different than the ‘nurture’ I got, simply because you were around.” My older kid explicitly declined to pick up a hobby that she seemed to be interested in because, “oh, that’s $YOUNGERSIB’s thing.”
      - renerthr 6y ago
        Some days ago I found a comment here in HN talking exactly about that, how siblings want to differentiate from each other. It would be nice if someone finds an actual research paper that delves into this.
    - transreal 6y ago
      My favorite analogy about being a parent is that children are like a tightly furled lotus buds, and our job as parents is to give them the room to unfurl into the unique flowers they are, rather than clay to be molded into whatever form we see fit. Molding them to follow your passions may seem to work initially - kids naturally want to please their parents - and it certainly could happen to align with their personal excellence, but it can also ultimately rob them from developing their own unique talents.
- seanmcdirmid 6y ago
  Some kids are simply into dinosaurs, others are into trains or superheroes. I don't think we have much control over it, and we should probably just go with their flow. My 4 year old is obsessed with trains, galaxy railway videos, and has recently discovered drifting trains and trains doing jumps on YouTube (simulations of course). Not much on dinosaurs, unfortunately.
- csteubs 6y ago
  I recently bought a fairly large fossilized raptor skull mounted on a base for my office. It never fails to get a comment when I have visitors and having a hands-on relic from millions of years ago (even if it's just a cast) is really cool. I suppose my answer would be "tasteful fossil decor". Type in "dinosaur skull" on eBay and see what pops up!
- nineplay 6y ago
  Almost every kid I know got the Nat Geo _Big Book of Dinosaurs_ at a early age and pored over it. My kid couldn't get enough of it, you could have put her on Jeopardy and I'd have given even money that she cleared that column. There's something inherently fascinating about enormous creatures that used to walk the earth. Kids IME don't need much encouragement.
- darkteflon 6y ago
  I sat down to watch Jurassic Park with my son just after he turned three. My wife thought that showed questionable judgement on my part but he absolutely loved it and instantly became thoroughly obsessed with dinosaurs. He’s almost 4 now and shows no sign of slowing down. That doesn’t dispose of the question of my judgement - there’s some violence in that film so that’s not a universal recommendation. Parenting is a total mystery. EDIT: Just to say - kids go absolutely bananas for any of the scenes in either Jurassic World movie that feature a Mosasaurus.
  - sharkweek 6y ago
    I love this. And yes, parenting is a total mystery. One thing I found to be true for me personally (not trying to imply universal truth here), is that so many instincts just take over. Was never one to think I'd be ready for kids (who is?), but here we are and my partner and I are somehow managing. It's exhausting, but I love it so far. There is nothing quite like joining the imaginary world of a young child in their endless creativity.
    - darkteflon 6y ago
      They’re so great aren’t they. I only wish someone had told me to start younger and have more of them - but I bet I wouldn’t have listened. You can’t tell people anything.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - sciurus 6y ago
    FWIW my wife and I often look to the information on https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ to help us decide what's age-appropiate for our kids to watch.
  - bcrosby95 6y ago
    Our first daughter didn't really develop a sense of fear until she was 4. Then it kicked in hard and took about a year for it to go to a more sensible level (she was afraid of almost everything for a period of time). Now, at 6, she likes things that scare her a bit. We have 3 year old twins, and the boy is still fearless but the girl is not.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ddingus 6y ago
  Nope. But, you can share your interest and it will be infectious. You've got a great shot at it happening.
- toddsiegel 6y ago
  Most kids, it seems, are into dinos. There’s also the social aspect where kids are at least somewhat into what other kids are. But then again, sometimes kids reject the stuff you into, just because. They’re excellent trolls that way. :-D
- ant6n 6y ago
  There´s that geeky dino train show that my 2-year-old-likes. He initially liked it cuz trains, now he likes dinosaurs too.
- yardie 6y ago
  Oh they'll like dinosaurs, alright. Then sharks Then tigers Then marsupials Then all of Australia Dump trucks and trains. Space ships and astronauts are a given.
- 99_00 6y ago
  They will be exposed to dinos because it is pervasive in children's culture (TV, toys, clothing) and education (preschool, elementary, museums, science centers, books). If they like it is up to them. You can't push it. If they aren't interested at some point in time, they may be latter.
- brokencode 6y ago
  As others have said, just show them dinosaur cartoons and movies and they are pretty much guaranteed to fall in love. For some reason, kids seem to be predisposed to liking dinosaurs at least a little.
- _carbyau_ 6y ago
  Others have covered the lack of control and the general policy of "Don't inflict interests, support them." angle. But for me, the biggest realisation was not rushing or expecting things at an age. Do you honestly think talking dinosaurs with your same kid as a teenager or adult will be less fun? It will be different sure, but no less great.
- squidbot 6y ago
  Get some dinosaur kids books. Kids love it when you read with them and tend to latch on to the ones you make really fun. As others have said, nothing is guaranteed, but it will certainly improve the odds. Worked with both my kids, one girl, one boy. They are teenagers now and don't care as much about dinos now, but still think they are cool.
- User23 6y ago
  Have children with someone that liked dinosaurs when they were a child.
- Robotbeat 6y ago
  There’s some great shows on Amazon Prime called Dino Dan, with follow-ups Trek’s Adventures and Dino Dana. All great fun. Live action episodic show for kids probably 3-8.
- adamredwoods 6y ago
  Buy fossils!
- daveFNbuck 6y ago
  You could adopt a kid that's old enough to already know whether they like dinosaurs. I'm not sure how adoption agencies will feel about this line of questioning.
- hodgesrm 6y ago
  > is there a way of making sure my future kid will like dinosaurs? In my experience it's unusual for kids not to be interested in either dinosaurs or fire engines at some point. I once asked a fire department rep at an open house whether he liked fire engines as a kid. Turns out he loved them--no surprise--and really enjoyed paying it forward with new generations of kids.
- OldHand2018 6y ago
  Like others have pointed out, do not try to force your interests on your child. However, “liking” dinosaurs is pretty likely to happen, if only for a time period in their life. All of my kids “like” dinosaurs, but one likes them far more than others. For a time, we lived close enough to the Field Museum in Chicago to be able to ride bikes there. We got a membership and visited 50-100 times per year (seriously). They have a world-famous dinosaur collection, but it’s located inside a much larger exhibit that takes you through earth’s history and places the dinosaurs in their proper time period (if I’m remembering correctly it’s between the 3rd and 4th mass extinction event). There is so much information and it’s so well presented that you can’t help but enjoy it and learn from it. My kids have never seen Jurassic Park or any other pop culture dinosaur movies, and they didn’t need to.
- LanceH 6y ago
  Dinosaurs, space or cars. You don't get to decide, they'll pick their own major.
- hluska 6y ago
  My little girl is almost five so I'm not a very experienced parent but I'll tell you what I've learned. She is an individual and she's interested in her own things. Sometimes we share interests and other times, I have to seriously up my own knowledge (and beg for help on Hacker News) to share her interests with her. For the most part, I just try to build a loving environment where she can feel secure to enjoy the things that she is into. I encourage her to be exactly who she wants to be. Luckily, I'm privileged enough to be able to fill her environment with interesting, somewhat age appropriate things. Incidentally, here is one of the things that she is really into right now. I don't understand it, but she loves it enough to draw it fairly often. To this day, she refers to _ph_ as a 'really cool dude'. Armagon is another 'really cool dude' as well. I'm still not but I sure love that _ph_ and armagon are!!! :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993864 Once again, I love you Hacker News. Edit - I'll find and link to an ask HN that I asked while she was having one of the biggest, most awful tantrums of her life. She wanted to see the ISS and was the angriest she has ever been when I couldn't remember the link. "Me no yike you," screamed out at the top of her lungs while we were grocery shopping.....joy! :) Here it is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21576409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21576409
- knz 6y ago
  PBS has a show called "Dinosaur Train" that kids seem to love - https://pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain https://pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain
- irrational 6y ago
  I talk to my kids about how birds are dinosaurs. I've trained them to refer to birds as dinosaurs. "Look at that blue dinosaur!" We get weird looks from other people, but it helps to solidify for them that dinosaurs were and are real.
- dbcurtis 6y ago
  In my observation, pretty much every 5 year old loves dinosaurs. So just wait. Enjoy it while it lasts. Most kids move on... some not. When my kid was 5, mom arranged for a couple of days of family vacation at a dig run by a museum just on the Colorado side of the Utah border, in dino country. You could pay a few dollars for a day of digging, where you paid them to move their dirt. :) Great fun for the kids. The 2 days we participated there was a herd of 5-6 year old kids, and associated parents, digging under the supervision of a quarry master. Said QM being a paleontology graduate student (one of those kids that never outgrew dinosaurs). One of my most memorable moments as a parent: during lunch break as we were all munching on bologna sandwiches, chips, and orange drink that were part of the package, the quarry master was surrounded by an adoring crowd of kids. One boy about 6 years old looks at him very seriously and says "I want to be a paleontologist when I grow up." -- the QM looked at him and said with full sincerity and seriousness: "Yeah. Me, too." The kid, of course, took that at face value and drank in the kinship. For us parents, the moment was an "Oh yeah, I feel your graduate student life. Half-done thesis, summer jobs at museums and a diet of ramen noodles. Keep the faith, buddy." I sure hope that guy is a tenured professor somewhere by now.
- ggm 6y ago
  Maybe forbid them to having anything to do with dinosaurs. But, provide a lot of tempting dinosaur information if they can find it. A bit like the parent whose child is "secretly reading under the blankets" and hasn't yet realized their torch has infinite life batteries... (ours is 28. he still likes dinosaurs. we didn't forbid this, its endogenous in some genotypes apparently)
- omarhaneef 6y ago
  Almost all kids love dinosaurs. I don’t know why but I have a theory: They’re not allowed violent content of any kind. No horror, no blood, no gore. But they’re allowed to watch these prehistoric monsters devour others from limb to limb. It’s actually ultra violent but the kids can watch it because it’s real, therefore natural, therefore science. This is the same reason kids love big cats, sharks and other predators. Anyway, if you want your future kids to like dinosaurs, just don’t let them watch other forms of violence. (Again, just a theory)
- hinkley 6y ago
  Reverse psychology. Hide dinosaurs around the house, when caught looking at one deny everything but look guilty.
- watwut 6y ago
  If you are excited about it and gladly read this books, chances are little one will too. You can make kids think X is cool easily. Mostly talk positively about X. However, with the main hobby, at age of 8, peer pressure does a lot. And so does wish to be individuality. So your kid will like dinosaurs and debates about them with you, but to can't make it super obsessed or something. You can't make kid into copy of you and it would be harmful anyway.
- xorcist 6y ago
  There's really no way to make anything sure. From an early age they are influenced not only by you but also friends and other people. This will only increase as they get older. What you can do is create an environment that encourages learning. Take an interest in them, and their interests, even if it's not the same as yours to begin with. Ask lots of questions! Then they will start asking you, too. If there's one universal truth to parenting, it's that kids don't really do what you say, but what you do. If you keep musical instruments around and play a little regularly when they are around, sooner or later they will try themselves. If there are books of dinosaurs around, and the parents take an interest in dinosaurs, sooner or later they will be curious to find out what's so fun about them.
- lukaszkups 6y ago
  show them dinosaur, if she/he don't like it, show transformers - no matter if she/he like it show them DINOBOTS transformers team. Problem solved :D
- koonsolo 6y ago
  I had a colleague who was into cycling. It was his uttermost passion, the biggest thing in his life. His kid didn't like cycling, he likes wakeboarding. My colleague absolutely hated it, said it wasn't really a sport, said you didn't have the suffering that you have riding a bicycle. After some weekend on one of his rides (alone), he came across a father and a son. The son was all into cycling, took his dad everywhere. The dad didn't really like cycling, but his son was so passionate that he was willing to ride long distances with his son. My colleague noted "I wish I had such a son", but in my mind, I thought "Your son probably wishes he had such a dad". You will have to decide what kind of father you want to be, the one where your kid follows your passion, or where you follow your kids passion. The first option will not result in a close relationship. And as a father of 4 myself, it seems most kids don't really have an extreme passion. And if they do, it shifts quickly. Plus, when you talk about your passion all the time, they will soon be pretty bored by it, don't want to hear about it anymore. Just enjoy the time you spend with your kids, do fun stuff that you both like. You can always discuss dinosaur stuff with people who are as passionate as you.
  - esja 6y ago
    This is a wonderful way of expressing something I've been thinking about for a while. Thank you.
  - orzig 6y ago
    Posted at 4am - parent status checks out
  - JudsonStevens 6y ago
    Really appreciate this perspective - couldn't agree more and you framed it eloquently. Thanks!
- dinobook674328 6y ago
  Someone on HN mentioned the book 'Titanosaur: Discovering the World's Largest Dinosaur' written by the two paleontologists who led the discovery - José Luis Carballido and Diego Pol. It's illustrated and seems to have very good reviews. https://kids.scholastic.com/kids/book/titanosaur-by-jose-luis-carballido/ https://kids.scholastic.com/kids/book/titanosaur-by-jose-lui... Personally, when I was a teen, the first 3 Jurassic Park films whirled my brain and had nice vivid dreams about the island and dinos.
- astura 6y ago
  This is a terrible thing to say, children are humans, not abstract playthings.
- roland35 6y ago
  They will like whatever they will like!
epa 6y ago
The young child has some fair merits, NPR has heavily moved its programming toward progressive political ideology compared to day to day life.
- bpodgursky 6y ago
  I'm absolutely sure NPR would be happy to run a story on racial disparities in paleontology dig crews and the moral challenges and ownership rights when digging up fossils on historically Native American lands.
- ch4s3 6y ago
  I'm not sure that's how I would describe it, but they have really narrowed their focus in a way that's becoming tedious. Their narrow focus on elite media/academic preoccupations has really made their coverage unappealing. I mean I'm interested in that stuff to an extent, but no everything in the world needs to be examined that way.
  - war1025 6y ago
    I had a Facebook memory from four years ago commenting on how I was proud of NPR for covering the beginnings of the Trump presidency in a fair and balanced way. Could only look back and laugh. Not sure where they took a wrong turn, but "fair and balanced" or even "well-rounded" are not terms I would use to describe current NPR.
    - mc32 6y ago
      On their national broadcast they have a couple of reporters who do their best to be balanced (Shapiro and Greene), the rest don't try to balance stories (for example on a budget issue they’ll go to a Democrat and not also add an IND or Republican. Or on immigration, or on workers rights, etc. Those two guys though at least make an effort to have multiple sides for a story and also don’t try to spike the story as others do (from the outset frame something with great bias).
      - 6y ago
rbanffy 6y ago
In NPR's defense, dinosaurs aren't exactly having an impact on our daily lives. If a dinosaur does, I'm sure they will cover it extensively.
- sharkweek 6y ago
  Then, to the kid's point, it isn't fair to call the show All Things Considered! Rename it "All Things Less Than 65 Million Years Old Considered"
- imgabe 6y ago
  In retrospect, attempting to consider all things in the space of a little over two hours a day may have been overly ambitious.
- medium_burrito 6y ago
  "What is fossil fuels for $400, Alex?"
  - Qwertious 6y ago
    Mostly plants, apparently.
  - myself248 6y ago
    Too soon. He's nowhere near fossilized yet.
- postalrat 6y ago
  In the kids defense, the subject of most things NPR does run don't have impact on your daily life.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
asimjalis 6y ago
I don’t understand why they get taxpayer-funding.
- guerrilla 6y ago
  The act that created it covers that https://www.cpb.org/aboutpb/act/ https://www.cpb.org/aboutpb/act/
  - asimjalis 6y ago
    Interesting.
- asimjalis 6y ago
  Why is this being downvoted?
remir 6y ago
Kudos to this kid. How many of us are getting bored to death by the constant coverage of politics yet suffer silently? At least he had the good initiative to write to NPR to offer feedback on something that was important to him. Nice job, kid!
- nolok 6y ago
  Kudos to the parents for encouraging / helping that behavior too. Too many people grow up believing it's useless to interact with the world at large because they can't affect it.
- gerdesj 6y ago
  In the UK we have a rather unimaginative news diet of Covid-19, Brexit, lol-Trump, repeat ad nauseam. One day our media will have to discover doing proper journalism - I think it will be quite a shock when the news stops writing itself. It's been like this for roughly five years (or 50, depending on how much wine I've drunk.)
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    > One day our media will have to discover doing proper journalism You say this as the guardian are breaking a bunch of constitution-shaking-ly tough stories on the monarchy? https://davidallengreen.com/2021/02/the-queens-consent-a-strange-and-obscure-feature-of-the-constitution-of-the-united-kingdom-and-why-it-should-be-abolished/ https://davidallengreen.com/2021/02/the-queens-consent-a-str... Also what do you expect? COVID-19 is ongoing and is still killing as near as makes no difference 1000 thousand people a day in this country, Brexit has effectively just become "real", Trump is in a major trial. It's in the news because that is what the news currently consists of... > It's been like this for roughly five years (or 50, depending on how much wine I've drunk.) Rosé-tinted spectacles. "Proper journalism" is vacuous at best and a dog-whistle at worst - since you refer to 50 years ago the term "Shabby Journalism" with regard to watergate should ring a bell.
  - mattmanser 6y ago
    I was feeling that I wasn't as informed as I used to be about world affairs compared to the old days of reading the newspapers, mainly because of how UK news are now focused on promoting UK/US news. The stories are there, on the guardian, the times, etc., but it's hard to find them. Whether it's the algos, or that screen space is harder to balance coverage, or whether it was easier to skip to the back in newspapers to read the world news, I'm not sure. So I've been trying Al Jazeera as an additional source, and I have to say, it's good. I feel it's fairly unbiased, a bit left leaning, the writing quality is high, the occasional piece that's not is because it is written by a foreign, local, journalist that offers real local insight on an issue (e.g. they had a Tunisian journalist writing about the anniversary). Give it a go.
99_00 6y ago
He should listen to CBC radio. A dinosaur's butthole was a Swiss Army knife of orifices https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/jan-23-a-pandemic-of-boredom-dinosaur-s-nether-regions-a-giant-telescope-on-the-moon-and-more-1.5882533/a-dinosaur-s-butthole-was-a-swiss-army-knife-of-orifices-1.5882552 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/jan-23-a-pandemic-of-boredom... Dino Dana, Dino Dan are great for older kids. Stream online for free on Canadian public networks.
leephillips 6y ago
‘the word "dinosaur" appearing in stories 294 times in the show's history. By comparison, "senator" has appeared 20,447 times.’ Sounds like the kid has a point. And the notorious interview with an astrologer didn’t help.
- Isamu 6y ago
  To make matters worse, some of those dinosaurs are senators.
  - leephillips 6y ago
    Funny...but, come to think of it, some of those < 300 utterances of the word must have been in this metaphorical sense, making the paltry count an overestimate of paleontological content.
holdenc 6y ago
This humble letter follows some good rules for short persuasive prose: - Don't generalize or pontificate - Draw from specific facts or experiences - Qualify your thesis statement as a suggestion or polite request
jamestimmins 6y ago
I love how respectful and helpful the paleontologist they connected him with was. I'd imagine it's quite fun to have a career that you can nerd out about, but which also is appreciated by curious 8-year olds.
dspillett 6y ago
I think it is supposed to be a consequence of my decision so perhaps some sort of punishment, given I'm unceremoniously dropped there upon clicking "your choices", but the text only low-bandwidth version of the article is beautiful. Exactly what I want from a news source. News in text, without all the flashy flashy and 3rd party stalking. https://text.npr.org/965953078 https://text.npr.org/965953078
at_a_remove 6y ago
I think I ditched NPR around the run-up to Obama's election, amidst the hand-wringing over "Is Obama too black?" and "Is Obama black enough?" That and Iraq, Iraq, Iraq at the time. They softball people they support, will hardly ever interview people they don't, and are generally pretty dismissive of those of us in "flyover country." The unceremonious dumping of A Prairie Home Companion, which wasn't exactly my schtick but provided a little variety at least, made their coastal preference clear. Hell, I already disliked NPR for their bullying in Congress of various Class D stations, pretending that they needed a larger clearance for bandwidth than actual engineers would testify to. They're a big dog pretending to be an underdog.
- CameronNemo 6y ago
  I am sad that one of the top comments on a feel good story is a feel bad rant. What does "coastal preference" have to do with dinosaurs and 8 year olds?
  - mxcrossb 6y ago
    There’s a certain irony to NPR doing a “we talk too much about politics, his something else” story, and all the comments here being about how npr is too liberal. Deep down, everyone wants a politics story
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    The gap in quality between "HN talking about technology" and "HN talking about politics" is enormous regardless of which side of said politics you're on. The cultural dynamics of the vaguely-republican contrarian types you get on hackernews is quite fascinating in some threads (not this one to be clear).
- Benjammer 6y ago
  >The unceremonious dumping of A Prairie Home Companion, which wasn't exactly my schtick but provided a little variety at least, made their coastal preference clear. What in the world are you talking about? Why is your post laden with so much angst and victimhood-language, without any real reasoning at all? Do you really think this type of post contributes to an HN-worthy conversation on any topic?
blhack 6y ago
Id highly suggest listening to an NPR story that covers something you are deeply familiar with. Of all things where I am an expert, NPR misinforms in the direction of outrage. I can only assume that is their standard practice. It’s shameful that they are tax paper funded. If somebody has an example of a story that NRP did a good job of accurately informing the consumer, I would love to read it and change my mind.
- ggm 6y ago
  Is it possible you're less of an expert than you think you are, and there is a range of views in these things? Is it possible you are e.g. an autodidact, and NPR is going to academics?
- pstuart 6y ago
  I think NPR tries too hard to be "neutral" and tends to report on the chatter of the stories rather than the drivers of them. The way they report on the Military Industrial Complex, the War on Drugs, and our foreign policy misadventures is maddening, but I don't think it's done to intentionally deceive. It feels more like they're trying to be objective by echoing chatter and headlines without injecting any critical analysis. But that's just my bias as a "lefty".
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    > But that's just my bias as a "lefty". If they did the article or podcast would be an order of magnitude longer - also, could you cite some specific passages, because I'm not familiar with the NPR going into some impassioned defence of the War on Drugs for example. If you want to know what wrong with the world ask an anarchist, whether you stay and listen to the solution is up to you.
    - pstuart 6y ago
      > I'm not familiar with the NPR going into some impassioned defence of the War on Drugs for example. It's not the defense, it's the reporting on it at face value without question. Positions can be challenged by data, and opinions are often offered up by "experts", but this and many other subjects are never implicitly challenged, because "neutral". If you could save me the effort, I'd be interested in you channeling an anarchist perspective in how to fix things (I'm already reasonably aware of what's broken).
ddingus 6y ago
Leo nailed it! Stuck in the car with mom and they have nothing for him. He delivered his sentiments with candor and punch. Lolol, "Newsey Things Considered." Indeed. Well done Leo! Nice!
anovikov 6y ago
Maybe it has to do with the creationism - mentioning dinosaurs that are not supposed to exist in creationist reality tunnel, would turn away too many listeners and depress ratings?
feralimal 6y ago
8 year olds don't want stories about senators. They want stories about big scary monsters! Please! And see, 8 year olds drive the narrative we receive! The networks listen to their customers, and when one writes in for a request, they fulfil every request. This is no puff piece - how dare you!
mechanix8 6y ago
How could they possibly cover dinosaur stories, when they're too busy masturbating over Corona stories?
zachruss92 6y ago
I feel like we all need to be more like this kid and actively seek out more dinosaurs in our lives. I especially enjoy listening to science-related podcasts and shows as part of my wind-down routine. For example I watch a lot of space documentaries to wind down at night to not thing about work and the state of the world by encouraging my curiosity.
hestefisk 6y ago
If one regularly listens to NPR, is one likely to be considered a core Democratic voter or far-left-of-Democrats? I had always considered NPR very left wing until I heard Noam Chomsky claim it was far too moderate in a recent interview. I am what you would call a green-socialist by Scandinavian standards, so asking out if pure interest; not to troll.
- TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
  The news they show and the biases they display are definitely left-of-center, but I would say that they're more neoliberal than far-left. They were pretty biased against Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primaries, yet still bash Trump constantly. They seem to focus much more on social issues like race and gender than economics and actual flows of power.
mensetmanusman 6y ago
Facebook recently announced that they are going to modify their feed algo to reduce the % of political posts that show up. NPR should do this to. Actually, a better idea would be to focus all political coverage to a day of the week, Tuesday. If every organization talked about politics only on Tuesday, then it would give citizens an easy way to stay sane by just ignoring that day. We now know there are huge mental health tolls for getting wrapped up in this stuff, yet we continue to self-flagellate. Would love to see smart ‘leaders’ realize this and respond accordingly.
- 4ggr0 6y ago
  If people start purposefully ignoring you as a politican, how are you supposed to influence them? I don't think that they'll implement something which gives themselves a disadvantage.
  - mensetmanusman 6y ago
    They would still maybe get a date. I think it would work to everyone’s advantage. Then they could work the rest of the week without firefighting every day because of xyz on the media.
    - 4ggr0 6y ago
      That could also be a solution, yeah. Then I guess the question is, how politicians feel about it. But I'm sure this would be abused instantly. Some media outlets would probably ignore it to get readers who crave political news and some politicians would probably purposefully tweet or post on Facebook for the same reasons.
      - mensetmanusman 6y ago
        I wish the media understood it was in their best interest. Trust in journalism is soooo low because they talk about politics so much. If they talked about what is happening (there are an unlimited number of things happening, it shouldn’t all be political, e.g. new technology, structures being built, community activities, health procedures, e.g. teach people stuff) they would be appreciated more.
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sharksauce 6y ago
Picture, thousand words, etc: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGVoi4HU0AAqZDp.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGVoi4HU0AAqZDp.jpg
iamhamm 6y ago
I’m not a “kid” person, but I really like Leo!

418 points by sharkweek 6y ago

I'm not a parent yet. For the parents out there: is there a way of making sure my future kid will like dinosaurs? I have so much to discuss with that kid!

sharkweek 6y ago
My oldest, a three-year old, is obsessed. I have done nothing to cultivate the interest early or specifically, he just gravitated toward them and now all we do is play dinosaurs. That or firefighters. Or sharks. Or race car drivers.
- abakker 6y ago
  This is the good stuff.
- polka_haunts_us 6y ago
  I was cleaning stuff out recently and found a bunch of papers my mom saved from like 1st grade. What I learned about myself is I really, really wanted to be a car mechanic. Also made me realize that I don't really give a hoot about what 6 year old me thought, these days I don't even want to change my own oil!
- theseanstewart 6y ago
  Have him check out Dino Dana, Dino Trek, Dino Dan on Amazon Prime. My four year old is a big fan and will randomly drop some amazing Dinosaur facts he's picked up from those shows.
aok1425 6y ago
I have the theory that if parents push an interest too hard, the kid will actually dislike that interest. So hopefully you can strike that balance / get lucky.
- dominotw 6y ago
  tiger woods seems to have done pretty well. He is not an exception though.
  - schoen 6y ago
    Also compare https://slatestarcodex.com/Stuff/genius.pdf https://slatestarcodex.com/Stuff/genius.pdf (by László Polgár, whose three daughters are an International Master, a Grandmaster, and the strongest female chess player in history). László Polgár has encountered lots of controversy about his view of child-rearing. My understanding is that his daughters have tended to express support for their childhood experiences.
- foobarian 6y ago
  I should test the theory by forcing my kid to play Roblox! /sob
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    And Among Us...
- throwaway2245 6y ago
  I think it depends (similar to other comments): Either, you are engaging the kid's own personal interest in the thing, which has the potential to grow independently of you as a parent, or, you can demonstrate your personal interest, at a stage while they are particularly fascinated with you - this, they will grow out of.
  - polka_haunts_us 6y ago
    A great deal of that probably comes down to how much you respect/like your parent. I think both my sister and myself resemble our dad far more than our mom, and our mom definitely demonstrated her personal interest onto us. My dad in comparison, while not really engaging with our interests, certainly didn't actively try to get in their way like my mom did.
a3n 6y ago
Often they'll like what you like if you talk about it and play with it. But you can't force it. Just as fun is to like and play with what they like.
jrsdav 6y ago
One of the early realizations I had as a parent (more-so after my second) was that it's wrong to assume that I have the authority to "make sure" my kids like something. They are their own person from day one, will like what they like, and I personally feel that you're setting yourself up for a good, healthy, relationship with your child if you accept this early. This doesn't mean I can't _encourage_ things; if my daughter displays an interest in dinosaurs, I will be sure to gently fan the spark. If the spark goes out, no big deal. There will be more interests, and my job is to make sure I'm encouraging an exposure to a wide range of them.
- freedomben 6y ago
  Exactly. I have 5 kids, and each one is so different. My oldest loves programming, my middle child couldn't care less. They've been exposed similarly. I think it's more nature than nurture personally.
  - dudleypippin 6y ago
    As my younger brother told me once, “Remember, the ‘nurture’ you got was different than the ‘nurture’ I got, simply because you were around.” My older kid explicitly declined to pick up a hobby that she seemed to be interested in because, “oh, that’s $YOUNGERSIB’s thing.”
    - renerthr 6y ago
      Some days ago I found a comment here in HN talking exactly about that, how siblings want to differentiate from each other. It would be nice if someone finds an actual research paper that delves into this.
  - transreal 6y ago
    My favorite analogy about being a parent is that children are like a tightly furled lotus buds, and our job as parents is to give them the room to unfurl into the unique flowers they are, rather than clay to be molded into whatever form we see fit. Molding them to follow your passions may seem to work initially - kids naturally want to please their parents - and it certainly could happen to align with their personal excellence, but it can also ultimately rob them from developing their own unique talents.
seanmcdirmid 6y ago
Some kids are simply into dinosaurs, others are into trains or superheroes. I don't think we have much control over it, and we should probably just go with their flow. My 4 year old is obsessed with trains, galaxy railway videos, and has recently discovered drifting trains and trains doing jumps on YouTube (simulations of course). Not much on dinosaurs, unfortunately.
csteubs 6y ago
I recently bought a fairly large fossilized raptor skull mounted on a base for my office. It never fails to get a comment when I have visitors and having a hands-on relic from millions of years ago (even if it's just a cast) is really cool. I suppose my answer would be "tasteful fossil decor". Type in "dinosaur skull" on eBay and see what pops up!
nineplay 6y ago
Almost every kid I know got the Nat Geo _Big Book of Dinosaurs_ at a early age and pored over it. My kid couldn't get enough of it, you could have put her on Jeopardy and I'd have given even money that she cleared that column. There's something inherently fascinating about enormous creatures that used to walk the earth. Kids IME don't need much encouragement.
darkteflon 6y ago
I sat down to watch Jurassic Park with my son just after he turned three. My wife thought that showed questionable judgement on my part but he absolutely loved it and instantly became thoroughly obsessed with dinosaurs. He’s almost 4 now and shows no sign of slowing down. That doesn’t dispose of the question of my judgement - there’s some violence in that film so that’s not a universal recommendation. Parenting is a total mystery. EDIT: Just to say - kids go absolutely bananas for any of the scenes in either Jurassic World movie that feature a Mosasaurus.
- sharkweek 6y ago
  I love this. And yes, parenting is a total mystery. One thing I found to be true for me personally (not trying to imply universal truth here), is that so many instincts just take over. Was never one to think I'd be ready for kids (who is?), but here we are and my partner and I are somehow managing. It's exhausting, but I love it so far. There is nothing quite like joining the imaginary world of a young child in their endless creativity.
  - darkteflon 6y ago
    They’re so great aren’t they. I only wish someone had told me to start younger and have more of them - but I bet I wouldn’t have listened. You can’t tell people anything.
- deleted 6y ago
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- sciurus 6y ago
  FWIW my wife and I often look to the information on https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ to help us decide what's age-appropiate for our kids to watch.
- bcrosby95 6y ago
  Our first daughter didn't really develop a sense of fear until she was 4. Then it kicked in hard and took about a year for it to go to a more sensible level (she was afraid of almost everything for a period of time). Now, at 6, she likes things that scare her a bit. We have 3 year old twins, and the boy is still fearless but the girl is not.
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ddingus 6y ago
Nope. But, you can share your interest and it will be infectious. You've got a great shot at it happening.
toddsiegel 6y ago
Most kids, it seems, are into dinos. There’s also the social aspect where kids are at least somewhat into what other kids are. But then again, sometimes kids reject the stuff you into, just because. They’re excellent trolls that way. :-D
ant6n 6y ago
There´s that geeky dino train show that my 2-year-old-likes. He initially liked it cuz trains, now he likes dinosaurs too.
yardie 6y ago
Oh they'll like dinosaurs, alright. Then sharks Then tigers Then marsupials Then all of Australia Dump trucks and trains. Space ships and astronauts are a given.
99_00 6y ago
They will be exposed to dinos because it is pervasive in children's culture (TV, toys, clothing) and education (preschool, elementary, museums, science centers, books). If they like it is up to them. You can't push it. If they aren't interested at some point in time, they may be latter.
brokencode 6y ago
As others have said, just show them dinosaur cartoons and movies and they are pretty much guaranteed to fall in love. For some reason, kids seem to be predisposed to liking dinosaurs at least a little.
_carbyau_ 6y ago
Others have covered the lack of control and the general policy of "Don't inflict interests, support them." angle. But for me, the biggest realisation was not rushing or expecting things at an age. Do you honestly think talking dinosaurs with your same kid as a teenager or adult will be less fun? It will be different sure, but no less great.
squidbot 6y ago
Get some dinosaur kids books. Kids love it when you read with them and tend to latch on to the ones you make really fun. As others have said, nothing is guaranteed, but it will certainly improve the odds. Worked with both my kids, one girl, one boy. They are teenagers now and don't care as much about dinos now, but still think they are cool.
User23 6y ago
Have children with someone that liked dinosaurs when they were a child.
Robotbeat 6y ago
There’s some great shows on Amazon Prime called Dino Dan, with follow-ups Trek’s Adventures and Dino Dana. All great fun. Live action episodic show for kids probably 3-8.
adamredwoods 6y ago
Buy fossils!
daveFNbuck 6y ago
You could adopt a kid that's old enough to already know whether they like dinosaurs. I'm not sure how adoption agencies will feel about this line of questioning.
hodgesrm 6y ago
> is there a way of making sure my future kid will like dinosaurs? In my experience it's unusual for kids not to be interested in either dinosaurs or fire engines at some point. I once asked a fire department rep at an open house whether he liked fire engines as a kid. Turns out he loved them--no surprise--and really enjoyed paying it forward with new generations of kids.
OldHand2018 6y ago
Like others have pointed out, do not try to force your interests on your child. However, “liking” dinosaurs is pretty likely to happen, if only for a time period in their life. All of my kids “like” dinosaurs, but one likes them far more than others. For a time, we lived close enough to the Field Museum in Chicago to be able to ride bikes there. We got a membership and visited 50-100 times per year (seriously). They have a world-famous dinosaur collection, but it’s located inside a much larger exhibit that takes you through earth’s history and places the dinosaurs in their proper time period (if I’m remembering correctly it’s between the 3rd and 4th mass extinction event). There is so much information and it’s so well presented that you can’t help but enjoy it and learn from it. My kids have never seen Jurassic Park or any other pop culture dinosaur movies, and they didn’t need to.
LanceH 6y ago
Dinosaurs, space or cars. You don't get to decide, they'll pick their own major.
hluska 6y ago
My little girl is almost five so I'm not a very experienced parent but I'll tell you what I've learned. She is an individual and she's interested in her own things. Sometimes we share interests and other times, I have to seriously up my own knowledge (and beg for help on Hacker News) to share her interests with her. For the most part, I just try to build a loving environment where she can feel secure to enjoy the things that she is into. I encourage her to be exactly who she wants to be. Luckily, I'm privileged enough to be able to fill her environment with interesting, somewhat age appropriate things. Incidentally, here is one of the things that she is really into right now. I don't understand it, but she loves it enough to draw it fairly often. To this day, she refers to _ph_ as a 'really cool dude'. Armagon is another 'really cool dude' as well. I'm still not but I sure love that _ph_ and armagon are!!! :) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22993864 Once again, I love you Hacker News. Edit - I'll find and link to an ask HN that I asked while she was having one of the biggest, most awful tantrums of her life. She wanted to see the ISS and was the angriest she has ever been when I couldn't remember the link. "Me no yike you," screamed out at the top of her lungs while we were grocery shopping.....joy! :) Here it is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21576409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21576409
knz 6y ago
PBS has a show called "Dinosaur Train" that kids seem to love - https://pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain https://pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain
irrational 6y ago
I talk to my kids about how birds are dinosaurs. I've trained them to refer to birds as dinosaurs. "Look at that blue dinosaur!" We get weird looks from other people, but it helps to solidify for them that dinosaurs were and are real.
dbcurtis 6y ago
In my observation, pretty much every 5 year old loves dinosaurs. So just wait. Enjoy it while it lasts. Most kids move on... some not. When my kid was 5, mom arranged for a couple of days of family vacation at a dig run by a museum just on the Colorado side of the Utah border, in dino country. You could pay a few dollars for a day of digging, where you paid them to move their dirt. :) Great fun for the kids. The 2 days we participated there was a herd of 5-6 year old kids, and associated parents, digging under the supervision of a quarry master. Said QM being a paleontology graduate student (one of those kids that never outgrew dinosaurs). One of my most memorable moments as a parent: during lunch break as we were all munching on bologna sandwiches, chips, and orange drink that were part of the package, the quarry master was surrounded by an adoring crowd of kids. One boy about 6 years old looks at him very seriously and says "I want to be a paleontologist when I grow up." -- the QM looked at him and said with full sincerity and seriousness: "Yeah. Me, too." The kid, of course, took that at face value and drank in the kinship. For us parents, the moment was an "Oh yeah, I feel your graduate student life. Half-done thesis, summer jobs at museums and a diet of ramen noodles. Keep the faith, buddy." I sure hope that guy is a tenured professor somewhere by now.
ggm 6y ago
Maybe forbid them to having anything to do with dinosaurs. But, provide a lot of tempting dinosaur information if they can find it. A bit like the parent whose child is "secretly reading under the blankets" and hasn't yet realized their torch has infinite life batteries... (ours is 28. he still likes dinosaurs. we didn't forbid this, its endogenous in some genotypes apparently)
omarhaneef 6y ago
Almost all kids love dinosaurs. I don’t know why but I have a theory: They’re not allowed violent content of any kind. No horror, no blood, no gore. But they’re allowed to watch these prehistoric monsters devour others from limb to limb. It’s actually ultra violent but the kids can watch it because it’s real, therefore natural, therefore science. This is the same reason kids love big cats, sharks and other predators. Anyway, if you want your future kids to like dinosaurs, just don’t let them watch other forms of violence. (Again, just a theory)
hinkley 6y ago
Reverse psychology. Hide dinosaurs around the house, when caught looking at one deny everything but look guilty.
watwut 6y ago
If you are excited about it and gladly read this books, chances are little one will too. You can make kids think X is cool easily. Mostly talk positively about X. However, with the main hobby, at age of 8, peer pressure does a lot. And so does wish to be individuality. So your kid will like dinosaurs and debates about them with you, but to can't make it super obsessed or something. You can't make kid into copy of you and it would be harmful anyway.
xorcist 6y ago
There's really no way to make anything sure. From an early age they are influenced not only by you but also friends and other people. This will only increase as they get older. What you can do is create an environment that encourages learning. Take an interest in them, and their interests, even if it's not the same as yours to begin with. Ask lots of questions! Then they will start asking you, too. If there's one universal truth to parenting, it's that kids don't really do what you say, but what you do. If you keep musical instruments around and play a little regularly when they are around, sooner or later they will try themselves. If there are books of dinosaurs around, and the parents take an interest in dinosaurs, sooner or later they will be curious to find out what's so fun about them.
lukaszkups 6y ago
show them dinosaur, if she/he don't like it, show transformers - no matter if she/he like it show them DINOBOTS transformers team. Problem solved :D
koonsolo 6y ago
I had a colleague who was into cycling. It was his uttermost passion, the biggest thing in his life. His kid didn't like cycling, he likes wakeboarding. My colleague absolutely hated it, said it wasn't really a sport, said you didn't have the suffering that you have riding a bicycle. After some weekend on one of his rides (alone), he came across a father and a son. The son was all into cycling, took his dad everywhere. The dad didn't really like cycling, but his son was so passionate that he was willing to ride long distances with his son. My colleague noted "I wish I had such a son", but in my mind, I thought "Your son probably wishes he had such a dad". You will have to decide what kind of father you want to be, the one where your kid follows your passion, or where you follow your kids passion. The first option will not result in a close relationship. And as a father of 4 myself, it seems most kids don't really have an extreme passion. And if they do, it shifts quickly. Plus, when you talk about your passion all the time, they will soon be pretty bored by it, don't want to hear about it anymore. Just enjoy the time you spend with your kids, do fun stuff that you both like. You can always discuss dinosaur stuff with people who are as passionate as you.
- esja 6y ago
  This is a wonderful way of expressing something I've been thinking about for a while. Thank you.
- orzig 6y ago
  Posted at 4am - parent status checks out
- JudsonStevens 6y ago
  Really appreciate this perspective - couldn't agree more and you framed it eloquently. Thanks!
dinobook674328 6y ago
Someone on HN mentioned the book 'Titanosaur: Discovering the World's Largest Dinosaur' written by the two paleontologists who led the discovery - José Luis Carballido and Diego Pol. It's illustrated and seems to have very good reviews. https://kids.scholastic.com/kids/book/titanosaur-by-jose-luis-carballido/ https://kids.scholastic.com/kids/book/titanosaur-by-jose-lui... Personally, when I was a teen, the first 3 Jurassic Park films whirled my brain and had nice vivid dreams about the island and dinos.
astura 6y ago
This is a terrible thing to say, children are humans, not abstract playthings.
roland35 6y ago
They will like whatever they will like!

epa 6y ago

The young child has some fair merits, NPR has heavily moved its programming toward progressive political ideology compared to day to day life.

bpodgursky 6y ago
I'm absolutely sure NPR would be happy to run a story on racial disparities in paleontology dig crews and the moral challenges and ownership rights when digging up fossils on historically Native American lands.
ch4s3 6y ago
I'm not sure that's how I would describe it, but they have really narrowed their focus in a way that's becoming tedious. Their narrow focus on elite media/academic preoccupations has really made their coverage unappealing. I mean I'm interested in that stuff to an extent, but no everything in the world needs to be examined that way.
- war1025 6y ago
  I had a Facebook memory from four years ago commenting on how I was proud of NPR for covering the beginnings of the Trump presidency in a fair and balanced way. Could only look back and laugh. Not sure where they took a wrong turn, but "fair and balanced" or even "well-rounded" are not terms I would use to describe current NPR.
  - mc32 6y ago
    On their national broadcast they have a couple of reporters who do their best to be balanced (Shapiro and Greene), the rest don't try to balance stories (for example on a budget issue they’ll go to a Democrat and not also add an IND or Republican. Or on immigration, or on workers rights, etc. Those two guys though at least make an effort to have multiple sides for a story and also don’t try to spike the story as others do (from the outset frame something with great bias).
    - 6y ago

rbanffy 6y ago

In NPR's defense, dinosaurs aren't exactly having an impact on our daily lives. If a dinosaur does, I'm sure they will cover it extensively.

sharkweek 6y ago
Then, to the kid's point, it isn't fair to call the show All Things Considered! Rename it "All Things Less Than 65 Million Years Old Considered"
imgabe 6y ago
In retrospect, attempting to consider all things in the space of a little over two hours a day may have been overly ambitious.
medium_burrito 6y ago
"What is fossil fuels for $400, Alex?"
- Qwertious 6y ago
  Mostly plants, apparently.
- myself248 6y ago
  Too soon. He's nowhere near fossilized yet.
postalrat 6y ago
In the kids defense, the subject of most things NPR does run don't have impact on your daily life.
deleted 6y ago
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asimjalis 6y ago

I don’t understand why they get taxpayer-funding.

guerrilla 6y ago
The act that created it covers that https://www.cpb.org/aboutpb/act/ https://www.cpb.org/aboutpb/act/
- asimjalis 6y ago
  Interesting.
asimjalis 6y ago
Why is this being downvoted?

remir 6y ago

Kudos to this kid. How many of us are getting bored to death by the constant coverage of politics yet suffer silently? At least he had the good initiative to write to NPR to offer feedback on something that was important to him. Nice job, kid!

nolok 6y ago
Kudos to the parents for encouraging / helping that behavior too. Too many people grow up believing it's useless to interact with the world at large because they can't affect it.
gerdesj 6y ago
In the UK we have a rather unimaginative news diet of Covid-19, Brexit, lol-Trump, repeat ad nauseam. One day our media will have to discover doing proper journalism - I think it will be quite a shock when the news stops writing itself. It's been like this for roughly five years (or 50, depending on how much wine I've drunk.)
- mhh__ 6y ago
  > One day our media will have to discover doing proper journalism You say this as the guardian are breaking a bunch of constitution-shaking-ly tough stories on the monarchy? https://davidallengreen.com/2021/02/the-queens-consent-a-strange-and-obscure-feature-of-the-constitution-of-the-united-kingdom-and-why-it-should-be-abolished/ https://davidallengreen.com/2021/02/the-queens-consent-a-str... Also what do you expect? COVID-19 is ongoing and is still killing as near as makes no difference 1000 thousand people a day in this country, Brexit has effectively just become "real", Trump is in a major trial. It's in the news because that is what the news currently consists of... > It's been like this for roughly five years (or 50, depending on how much wine I've drunk.) Rosé-tinted spectacles. "Proper journalism" is vacuous at best and a dog-whistle at worst - since you refer to 50 years ago the term "Shabby Journalism" with regard to watergate should ring a bell.
- mattmanser 6y ago
  I was feeling that I wasn't as informed as I used to be about world affairs compared to the old days of reading the newspapers, mainly because of how UK news are now focused on promoting UK/US news. The stories are there, on the guardian, the times, etc., but it's hard to find them. Whether it's the algos, or that screen space is harder to balance coverage, or whether it was easier to skip to the back in newspapers to read the world news, I'm not sure. So I've been trying Al Jazeera as an additional source, and I have to say, it's good. I feel it's fairly unbiased, a bit left leaning, the writing quality is high, the occasional piece that's not is because it is written by a foreign, local, journalist that offers real local insight on an issue (e.g. they had a Tunisian journalist writing about the anniversary). Give it a go.

99_00 6y ago

He should listen to CBC radio. A dinosaur's butthole was a Swiss Army knife of orifices https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/jan-23-a-pandemic-of-boredom-dinosaur-s-nether-regions-a-giant-telescope-on-the-moon-and-more-1.5882533/a-dinosaur-s-butthole-was-a-swiss-army-knife-of-orifices-1.5882552 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/jan-23-a-pandemic-of-boredom... Dino Dana, Dino Dan are great for older kids. Stream online for free on Canadian public networks.

leephillips 6y ago

‘the word "dinosaur" appearing in stories 294 times in the show's history. By comparison, "senator" has appeared 20,447 times.’ Sounds like the kid has a point. And the notorious interview with an astrologer didn’t help.

Isamu 6y ago
To make matters worse, some of those dinosaurs are senators.
- leephillips 6y ago
  Funny...but, come to think of it, some of those < 300 utterances of the word must have been in this metaphorical sense, making the paltry count an overestimate of paleontological content.

holdenc 6y ago

This humble letter follows some good rules for short persuasive prose: - Don't generalize or pontificate - Draw from specific facts or experiences - Qualify your thesis statement as a suggestion or polite request

jamestimmins 6y ago

I love how respectful and helpful the paleontologist they connected him with was. I'd imagine it's quite fun to have a career that you can nerd out about, but which also is appreciated by curious 8-year olds.

dspillett 6y ago

I think it is supposed to be a consequence of my decision so perhaps some sort of punishment, given I'm unceremoniously dropped there upon clicking "your choices", but the text only low-bandwidth version of the article is beautiful. Exactly what I want from a news source. News in text, without all the flashy flashy and 3rd party stalking. https://text.npr.org/965953078 https://text.npr.org/965953078

at_a_remove 6y ago

I think I ditched NPR around the run-up to Obama's election, amidst the hand-wringing over "Is Obama too black?" and "Is Obama black enough?" That and Iraq, Iraq, Iraq at the time. They softball people they support, will hardly ever interview people they don't, and are generally pretty dismissive of those of us in "flyover country." The unceremonious dumping of A Prairie Home Companion, which wasn't exactly my schtick but provided a little variety at least, made their coastal preference clear. Hell, I already disliked NPR for their bullying in Congress of various Class D stations, pretending that they needed a larger clearance for bandwidth than actual engineers would testify to. They're a big dog pretending to be an underdog.

CameronNemo 6y ago
I am sad that one of the top comments on a feel good story is a feel bad rant. What does "coastal preference" have to do with dinosaurs and 8 year olds?
- mxcrossb 6y ago
  There’s a certain irony to NPR doing a “we talk too much about politics, his something else” story, and all the comments here being about how npr is too liberal. Deep down, everyone wants a politics story
- mhh__ 6y ago
  The gap in quality between "HN talking about technology" and "HN talking about politics" is enormous regardless of which side of said politics you're on. The cultural dynamics of the vaguely-republican contrarian types you get on hackernews is quite fascinating in some threads (not this one to be clear).
Benjammer 6y ago
>The unceremonious dumping of A Prairie Home Companion, which wasn't exactly my schtick but provided a little variety at least, made their coastal preference clear. What in the world are you talking about? Why is your post laden with so much angst and victimhood-language, without any real reasoning at all? Do you really think this type of post contributes to an HN-worthy conversation on any topic?

blhack 6y ago

Id highly suggest listening to an NPR story that covers something you are deeply familiar with. Of all things where I am an expert, NPR misinforms in the direction of outrage. I can only assume that is their standard practice. It’s shameful that they are tax paper funded. If somebody has an example of a story that NRP did a good job of accurately informing the consumer, I would love to read it and change my mind.

ggm 6y ago
Is it possible you're less of an expert than you think you are, and there is a range of views in these things? Is it possible you are e.g. an autodidact, and NPR is going to academics?
pstuart 6y ago
I think NPR tries too hard to be "neutral" and tends to report on the chatter of the stories rather than the drivers of them. The way they report on the Military Industrial Complex, the War on Drugs, and our foreign policy misadventures is maddening, but I don't think it's done to intentionally deceive. It feels more like they're trying to be objective by echoing chatter and headlines without injecting any critical analysis. But that's just my bias as a "lefty".
- mhh__ 6y ago
  > But that's just my bias as a "lefty". If they did the article or podcast would be an order of magnitude longer - also, could you cite some specific passages, because I'm not familiar with the NPR going into some impassioned defence of the War on Drugs for example. If you want to know what wrong with the world ask an anarchist, whether you stay and listen to the solution is up to you.
  - pstuart 6y ago
    > I'm not familiar with the NPR going into some impassioned defence of the War on Drugs for example. It's not the defense, it's the reporting on it at face value without question. Positions can be challenged by data, and opinions are often offered up by "experts", but this and many other subjects are never implicitly challenged, because "neutral". If you could save me the effort, I'd be interested in you channeling an anarchist perspective in how to fix things (I'm already reasonably aware of what's broken).

ddingus 6y ago

Leo nailed it! Stuck in the car with mom and they have nothing for him. He delivered his sentiments with candor and punch. Lolol, "Newsey Things Considered." Indeed. Well done Leo! Nice!

anovikov 6y ago

Maybe it has to do with the creationism - mentioning dinosaurs that are not supposed to exist in creationist reality tunnel, would turn away too many listeners and depress ratings?

feralimal 6y ago

8 year olds don't want stories about senators. They want stories about big scary monsters! Please! And see, 8 year olds drive the narrative we receive! The networks listen to their customers, and when one writes in for a request, they fulfil every request. This is no puff piece - how dare you!

mechanix8 6y ago

How could they possibly cover dinosaur stories, when they're too busy masturbating over Corona stories?

zachruss92 6y ago

I feel like we all need to be more like this kid and actively seek out more dinosaurs in our lives. I especially enjoy listening to science-related podcasts and shows as part of my wind-down routine. For example I watch a lot of space documentaries to wind down at night to not thing about work and the state of the world by encouraging my curiosity.

hestefisk 6y ago

If one regularly listens to NPR, is one likely to be considered a core Democratic voter or far-left-of-Democrats? I had always considered NPR very left wing until I heard Noam Chomsky claim it was far too moderate in a recent interview. I am what you would call a green-socialist by Scandinavian standards, so asking out if pure interest; not to troll.

TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
The news they show and the biases they display are definitely left-of-center, but I would say that they're more neoliberal than far-left. They were pretty biased against Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primaries, yet still bash Trump constantly. They seem to focus much more on social issues like race and gender than economics and actual flows of power.

mensetmanusman 6y ago

Facebook recently announced that they are going to modify their feed algo to reduce the % of political posts that show up. NPR should do this to. Actually, a better idea would be to focus all political coverage to a day of the week, Tuesday. If every organization talked about politics only on Tuesday, then it would give citizens an easy way to stay sane by just ignoring that day. We now know there are huge mental health tolls for getting wrapped up in this stuff, yet we continue to self-flagellate. Would love to see smart ‘leaders’ realize this and respond accordingly.

4ggr0 6y ago
If people start purposefully ignoring you as a politican, how are you supposed to influence them? I don't think that they'll implement something which gives themselves a disadvantage.
- mensetmanusman 6y ago
  They would still maybe get a date. I think it would work to everyone’s advantage. Then they could work the rest of the week without firefighting every day because of xyz on the media.
  - 4ggr0 6y ago
    That could also be a solution, yeah. Then I guess the question is, how politicians feel about it. But I'm sure this would be abused instantly. Some media outlets would probably ignore it to get readers who crave political news and some politicians would probably purposefully tweet or post on Facebook for the same reasons.
    - mensetmanusman 6y ago
      I wish the media understood it was in their best interest. Trust in journalism is soooo low because they talk about politics so much. If they talked about what is happening (there are an unlimited number of things happening, it shouldn’t all be political, e.g. new technology, structures being built, community activities, health procedures, e.g. teach people stuff) they would be appreciated more.

deleted 6y ago

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sharksauce 6y ago

Picture, thousand words, etc: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGVoi4HU0AAqZDp.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EGVoi4HU0AAqZDp.jpg

iamhamm 6y ago

I’m not a “kid” person, but I really like Leo!