Brains On Purpose™

Good to hear: Two interviews with me have made top-10 or most-listened-to lists

I am pleased to say that the interview by Zena Zumeta of me for the Texas Conflict Coach Radio Blog Show was one of The Best of 2013. The description:

Brains on Purpose: Traits and States to Shape Your Conflict Fate

Our brains are changing all the time. We can be in control of those changes or we can have accidental brains, ruled by habit. Stephanie will show you how you can break bad habits, set and reach goals, and maximize your ability to handle conflict through the process of self-directed neuroplasticity. By using some basic techniques, you can take charge of how your brain changes. You can rewire your brain on purpose.

Click to listen (the link is towards the bottom of the page).

And my interview by Dave Hilton was among the top 10 episodes of the Conflict Specialists Show. The description:

Conflict Resolution, Neuroscience & Zombies with Stephanie West Allen (Idealawg)

In this 31st episode of the Conflict Specialists Show, Dave Hilton interviews Stephanie West Allen (Idealawg & Brains on Purpose) about her work with Conflict Resolution, Neuroscience, Mediation, Monsters and…wait for it…ZOMBIES!

Some of the topics in today’s episode:

• Writing Multiple Blogs
• BOOK – Triversity Fantasy: Seven Keys To Unlock Prejudice
• Neuroscience and Conflict
• Edgar Allan Poe, Monsters and Zombies
• and more

Click to listen.

A list of other brain-focused blogs around the Internet

Click to read the list of blogs posted at Your Brain Health and chosen by Dr. Sarah McKay as her top brain blogs.

Virtuous Tweeting: Do you really, really, really want to send that "science" Tweet?

Why do people pass on items before scrutinizing them? Some members of my Tweeter gang regularly Tweet press releases from such sources as Science Daily as if they were news. Then these Tweets are reTweeted and the peeping and chirping and crowing of Tweety birds grows louder and louder.

In a post from Arstechnica, the practice of treating such aggregators as PhysOrg and Science Daily as news was criticized:

[I]n a large number of contexts, these two sites are treated as credible sources of scientific information. Items posted there make frequent appearances on social news sites, and a number of people I've talked to have been shocked to discover that the majority of the sites' content is nothing more than rebranded press releases.

Ultimately, the job of editing and of peer review is to help ensure that only scientifically valid data and ideas end up in the literature. The job of the press should be to ensure that the public only receives reports of equal quality (or better, since the press can act as an additional layer of filtering). Unfortunately, with the rise of the press release, and of aggregators that disguise press releases as news content, the public is not being well served in this regard.

I have not forgotten a Tweet from Todd Stark last month in which he responded to this problem and wrote:

Aggregator problem reinforces the need to understand and filter before passing on. A new virtue for the 21st century!

A new virtue. I like that suggestion. Wouldn't it be nice if people did some digging prior to Tweeting? Even chickens don't eat

This blog on list of top 25 conflict resolution blogs

BlogRank included Brains on Purpose as one of top 25 blogs on the topic of conflict resolution. The first 10 on their list are:

1st    Settle It Now Negotiation Blog   
2nd   ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace)
3rd    Pace and Kyeli
4th    Notes from the World of Anger Management
5th    Brains On Purpose
6th    Conflict Zen
7th    Reporting on Conflict | Peacemakers Trust Media Watch Blog
8th    Colin Rules blog 
9th    Random Nuclear Strikes
10th    Brillianter

Click to see the rest of the list. It includes some very novel blogs.

Want to follow some of the activities at Neuroscience 2010? Read these Neurobloggers

I hear that the number of presentations and activities at the annual Society of Neuroscience conference can be overwhelming. For those of you who want to take a few peeks at the goings-on this year, here are the links to the official Neurobloggers, with many Twitter handles, too.

Law & Neuroscience Project Web site links to many resources

The Law & Neuroscience Project, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, maintains a Web site. Click to see the site, Project blog, external web resources, online video, bibliography, and list of related blogs.

Interviews of several psychology and neuroscience bloggers: Who are they and why do they blog?

Reading through these interviews can be time-consuming, and worth the time. For example, each of the interviewees recommends his or her favorite blogs and books; these recommendations can send you off on several exploratory link-paths. They also talk about such topics as why they got into science blogging and how blogging affects their "day jobs."

From The bloggers behind the blogs (Research Digest blog):

Blogging has emerged as a powerful medium in recent years and nowhere is this more evident than in psychology and neuroscience. But who are the people behind these increasingly influential blogs? What are their motives and what advice do they have for aspiring bloggers? The Research Digest caught up with a handful of the world's leading psych bloggers to find out:

• Jacy Young of Advances in the History of Psychology.
• Jesse Bering of Bering in Mind.
• Anthony Risser of BrainBlog.
• David DiSalvo of Brainspin & Neuronarrative.
• Petra Boynton of Dr Petra.
• Vaughan Bell of Mind Hacks.
• Mo Costandi of Neurophilosphy.
• David Dobbs of Neuron Culture.
• Neuroskeptic of Neuroskeptic.
• Hesitant Iconoclast of Neurowhoa!
• Scarlett de Courcier of Ramblings of an Academic Petrolhead, Paracademia and 28 others.
• Dave Munger of Research Blogging and Cognitive Daily.
• Wray Herbert of We're Only Human & Full Frontal Psychology.

Click to the post to follow links to all the interviews. You may find a new blog or two to add to your RSS feed.

This blog is 2 years old today!

The time has flown for Brains on Purpose™ and me. I am particularly grateful for all the people I have met as a result of this blog, and hope to hear from even more of you in the coming year. Thank you!

Brains on Purpose is included in Alltop's new conflict resolution category

As you can see by the new addition to this blog—the Alltop logo over to the right—Brains on Purpose has been chosen for inclusion in the new Alltop category: Conflict Resolution. Read all about it here.

Conflict Zen: A "centered, balanced, and intentional" approach to conflict

I am delighted to see a new blog in the conflict resolution blogosphere: Conflict Zen created by Dr. Tammy Lenski. Her message seems aligned with ours in valuing self-awareness and mindfulness. A while back we posted this quote:

There is a dimension to the practice of mediation that has received insufficient attention: the combination of psychological, intellectual, and spiritual qualities that make a [mediator] who he or she is.   . . .   Indeed, this . . . may be one of the most potent sources of the effectiveness of mediation.

--Daniel Bowling and David A. Hoffman, Bringing Peace Into the Room: How the Personal Qualities of the Mediator Impact the Process of Conflict Resolution

I think those qualities of the mediator are the most important "sources of the effectiveness of mediation."

And it look as if Lenski will be speaking to those qualities. She writes:

Conflict Zen is the intersection of the threads of my professional life: teacher, professional mediator, executive coach, and writer. It is the place I will offer up simple, mindful practices for keeping your balance and changing your reaction in conflict. It's a site for anyone who wants to keep their balance better during difficult conversations, including mediators . . .  .

In that same post in which I included the above Bowling quote (Asclepius, JD: What can this god's daughters teach us about conflict?), I talked about the impact of the reactive brain and the reflective mind on  conflict, and mentioned one key on the path to reflective mind—self-awareness. I think I have a fellow blogger walking that path with me. I look forward with great enthusiasm to reading more about her "centered, balanced and intentional reaction" to disputes. Tammy, I am excited to welcome Conflict Zen. You are in both my Google reader and my esteem.

Hat tip to Geoff Sharp at mediator blah...blah... .

Another blog focusing on neuroscience and conflict resolution: Welcoming Nancy Hudgins to the blogosphere

Nancy Hudgin's new blog is Civil Negotiation and Mediation. From her debut post:

Welcome to the inaugural post of Civil Negotiation and Mediation!
I chose this name for three reasons.
I will be discussing negotiation strategies in civil litigation.
I will be making a pitch for putting the “civil” back into civil litigation.
I will be reflecting on how civility is a hallmark of mediation and should be an aspiration of litigation.
I hope to make accessible the research from social science, psychology, and neuroscience on negotiation and mediation.
Along the way, we’ll have some fun.

I see that both Nancy Hudgin and I have taken the same mediation training: Gary Friedman's at the Center for Mediation in Law. No mediation training I have taken has ever come close to being as valuable as that which I received from Gary Friedman and Jack Himmelstein. They are the best. I am happy to meet in the blogopshere another Center trainee.

Welcome to you, Nancy. Maybe we can "have some fun" together!

MediationChannel.com: Tune in your blog neurons now

If the conflict resolution blogosphere was a brain, all neuron pathways would lead to Diane Levin. She is a star shepherd, scout, and sage of our corner of the blog world. If I open my google reader and see that she has posted (no matter how busy or tired or distracted I may be), I eagerly look to see what she has written. She never fails to be informative, thought-provoking, and original. And where does she get those great graphics to brightly illustrate the topics of her posts?

If you have been reading Diane Levin in the past, or want to start following her now, you will want to know she has just moved addresses to MediationChannel.com. Click on over and see what she is doing with her new blog hearth and home. Diane says:

Tune in for the latest news, info, and ideas (not to mention the occasional offbeat story) about mediation, negotiation, conflict resolution & the law

Vickie Pynchon (of Settle It Now Negotiation Blog) is another star conflict resolution blogger (who sometimes posts about the nexus between neuroscience and conflict resolution). Vickie has posted about Diane tonight: My Favorite ADR Blog Gets a Spiffy New Home. Vickie writes:

[S]he's everyone's favorite ADR blogger.  And not just because she writes the best; has the most eclectically "on message" posts; is the most responsible member of the ADR Blog Possee (yes, she's the ADR Blog Neighborhood Watch Captain); always finds the most apt images to illustrate any point she's making; and, is a mediator's mediator.  No, it's genuinely because she's just so darn nice!!

Yep, I definitely second that. Congratulations, Diane. I send you an e-bouquet to celebrate your new place. (Image credit below.)