Using technology to level the playing field in New York

Photo via https://twitter.com/WriteEditRepeat/status/971186505699004416

I had a great conversation with outgoing Chief Technology Officer of New York City Miguel Gamino earlier this month, when I moderated the fireside chat at the fireside chat at the Zahn Innovation Summit, held March 6 at the City College of New York. The full interview is up at U.S. News & World Report, but you can start reading excerpts from our Q&A right here:

Q: How do you see places like the Zahn Center and entrepreneurs in this city benefiting from being in New York rather than out West?

A: What I came and found (in New York) was this very rich and different ecosystem around tech, in large part because the people here are different and diverse, and I don't just mean that in terms of gender, color, ethnicity. I mean people's backgrounds, where they come from and where they're trying to go is much more diverse here than I've experienced on the West Coast.

And the industry (in New York) is diverse. If you're a tech person here, if you're an engineer, you're not just going and trying to get a job at Facebook and Google or the next startup. Here, software engineers are employed by JPMorgan Chase and food startups and biotech startups and light manufacturing ventures. So there are a lot of different angles.

If I were starting a startup again, I would do it here. Because of the people I can access to help me with that. … It's a richer talent pool and there's a lot of opportunity here because you've got so many different industries contributing to the growth of the tech industry.

Q: Your office's broadband initiative also really addresses equity and fairness. In the age of the internet of things, with access to information at our fingertips, it's easy to forget about the 30 percent of New Yorkers who don't have high-speed internet in their homes. How does that affect their daily lives?

A: For some people it might mean not getting to work because they way you go on transit is by buying a ticket on your iPhone. Or it might mean not being able to apply for a job. It's much more pervasive than my ability to stream Netflix or go on Facebook or chat with friends.

So, one (issue) is what it does to you, as a person, when you can't get online. But the deeper impact is the impact it has on the youth and people who don't have a choice.

In schools, for example, we're spending a lot of time and money and we're really proud of progress we're making in classrooms. We make a bunch of progress, a bunch of investments, to do things in our classrooms to modernize them. And we're proud of that, because it's our effort to keep up with the global competition. But what if your child goes home to an internet-connected home, and mine doesn't? And their homework has been assigned online, or they have to do research for their paper online. Your child, regardless of any other factor, has a significant advantage over mine – maybe one that can't be overcome. Because mine won't be able to do that homework nearly as well as yours will, or maybe at all. So, in some ways, if we're really focused on the equity piece in the U.S. or in New York City, those folks who do not have access at home would be better off if we stuck with stone tablets and paper books, because at least they'd have the ability to compete with the classmates they have in their classrooms. Of course, then the rest of the world would eat our lunch.

So that's a long way of getting you to think about the fact that this is not a luxury, it's not just about the talking points of inclusiveness and diversity. If we're really serious about making opportunity available to people in every corner of New York, and if we're really serious about New York competing with cities around the country, and if we're really serious about this city and this country competing with cities and countries around the world, it's no longer optional, when you break it down that way.

Q: I've been told that you hate the word "innovation." Why do you hate it, and what word or words would you prefer people use?

A: I wrote a little blog post about it some time ago. I think it's not only "innovation" but other terms that get thrown around, and they mean nothing because they mean anything or everything. It's all in the eye of the beholder. So, if you're an agency in government or a big company or whatever and you're still using typewriters, then implementing Microsoft Word is going to feel like an innovation, because you're equating the word "innovation" with progress. You think you're innovating, but you're just implementing – you're implementing something that has been there for a minute, you're just maybe late to the game.

And then you have what I call iteration, which is when you were at the implementation phase, but now you're thinking creatively about how to use it differently – and so you think you're innovating, but you're really not, you're iterating. You're taking something that's existing, tweaking it a little bit or changing your business processes to be improved by the use of technology. Again, in that moment, it feels like progress that we inappropriately call innovation.

And then there's the last category, which I think is the breakthrough, the disruptions – the stuff that really has the 10x kind of impact on things and people outside of your organization. They are are more than just business-process improvements, they are fundamental shifts in paradigm. In the current moment, that's things like blockchain, A.I. – not Bitcoin, Bitcoin is an iteration on the disruption. It's a function that has a really strong, obvious use-case, but the real disruption is the underlying technology.

And so the reason that I did that early on and I broke it down into those three buckets, the whole point was to set up that NYCx was intentionally going to be focused on that last one of the three. Because there's people truthfully everywhere in the organization that should be actively doing the other two. … If you're not careful, if you lump it all together, then every time you go into a conversation about innovation, the oxygen in the room gets sucked in that direction, to the things that are easier to understand, easier to measure, less risky. And I wanted to intentionally carve out this space where we could allow ourselves to engage with those high-impact, 10x potential disruptions to make sure that we didn't miss an opportunity to take advantage of that.

Read the rest at at U.S. News & World Report, and look for recaps from the summit on Twitter: #ZahnSummit.

Michelle Obama: 'I would be proud' if my daughters joined the military

Back in Nov. 2011, I sat down with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden for an on-camera interview for Yahoo! News. Our conversation touched on several topics, from what it's like to raise kids in the public eye, why they're focusing on help for military families, and how they'd react if their own children decided to join the armed forces.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden during an interview with Yahoo! Shine Senior Editor Lylah M. Alphonse in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, Nov. 2, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

The videos have expired online, but the articles are still available. Take a look at what they had to say about their kids and the military while I work to get the clips back up and running!

Michelle Obama: If Malia or Sasha Joined the Military, "I Would Be Proud"

In honor of Veterans' Day, Yahoo! Shine went to the White House for an exclusive interview with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden to talk about Joining Forces, the White House initiative to support military families. Yahoo! and Yahoo! Shine readers submitted nearly 5,000 questions that they wanted us to ask, including how  Mrs. Obama would react if her daughters Malia and Sasha said that they wanted to join the armed forces. Here's what she had to say about the idea.

Jill Biden already knows what it's like--she's a Blue Star mom herself. "Our son, Beau, is Delaware Army  National Guard. He's been in for 10 years," she told Yahoo! Shine. "He joined in his 30s. And he was deployed to Iraq for a year."

"I felt proud when Beau told me that he was going to join," she said. "He's now a captain, and he's soon to be made a major. We'll go to that ceremony, the entire Biden clan will be there. So we're just very proud."

With the troops from Iraq expected to be home from the holidays, some Yahoo! readers wondered what  the Obama Administration is doing to help support military wives and family members who are coping with the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that soldiers may be struggling with.

"Well, our husbands, through this administration, have expanded outreach and counseling through  Veterans Affairs, first and foremost," Mrs. Obama pointed out. "But we need more awareness. We need  more trained professionals available. And that's something that Joining Forces is working on--finding the collaborations of universities out there that are going to improve their curriculums to really gain an  expertise in how do you treat and identify post-traumatic stress disorder."

"But we have to realize, as a nation, that this stress doesn't just apply to the men and women in uniform.  That similar stress is happening at home. And I think a lot of Americans don't think about that," she added. "So we need local professionals and neighbors and community members and teachers aware. This is why you have to know who are the military families in your communities, be able to identify... those stressors."

Dr. Biden, who still teaches English full-time at a community college in Virginia, says that schools are on  the front line in treating PTSD.

"We're taking curriculums into the teachers colleges so that teachers could be aware of the children in their classroom who may have a parent deployed, and what they're going through, and making them aware of it," she explained. "And also I think that the services are doing a much better job of working with the  families."

Those who serve in the National Guard live in with their families in civilian neighborhoods, not on military bases, which means that they may not have the same level of support as other soldiers do once they return home, Dr. Biden pointed out. "I think it's the families that help to work within each other and help to recognize some of the problems."

We also asked the First Lady and Dr. Biden about their families' holiday traditions, what they'd do differently as parents, how they maintain their own identities and careers, and what they think people can do to support military families in general on Veterans' Day and every day, only on Yahoo! Shine.

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden on maintaining their own identities, careers

Back in Nov. 2011, I sat down with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden for an on-camera interview for Yahoo! News. Our conversation touched on several topics, from what it's like to raise kids in the public eye, why they're focusing on help for military families, and how they'd react if their own children decided to join the armed forces.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden during an interview with Yahoo! Shine Senior Editor Lylah M. Alphonse in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, Nov. 2, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

The videos have expired online, but the articles are still available. Take a look at what they had to say about Let's Move!, patriotism, pride, and maintaining their own identities and careers while I work to get the clips back up and running!

Yahoo! Readers Ask Michelle Obama and Jill Biden About National Pride, Let's Move, and Keeping Their Careers

 Yahoo! and Yahoo! Shine readers recently offered up nearly 5,000 questions for us to choose from for our exclusive interview with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden. The First and Second ladies answered some of them in clips that aired earlier this week (you can watch them share their families' holiday traditions here, and talk about what they'd do differently as parents here). And, on Veterans' Day, November 11, we'll share what Dr. Biden (a Blue Star mom herself) has to say about helping military families, and how the First Lady says she'd react if her daughters wanted to join the armed forces.

But readers asked questions about other things: opposition to the White House campaign against childhood obesity, whether Mrs. Obama feels pride in her country now that her husband has been in the Oval Office for three years, and how Dr. Biden maintains her own identity and career in spite of her husband's high-profile job. Here's what they had to say:

On maintaining their own identities and careers:

"The real joy for me is I can continue teaching," Dr. Biden told Yahoo! Shine. "I teach full-time at a community college right nearby here and so that, I think, really kind of keeps me grounded. And I love it. I mean, I was this morning grading papers. I'll be in the classroom tomorrow. So I think that this job has been great as Second Lady because I can have a career and I can also do all the wonderful things that I have the opportunity to do by myself or with Michelle."

"I think we both have strong spouses who care deeply about our own happiness and development," Mrs. Obama said. "You can't do it without that support."

Both women acknowledge that ever person's path in life is different, and you have to figure out what works best for you and your families. "And that may change throughout the course of your life with the kids," Mrs. Obama said. "So I would urge spouses to go with that flow and not be defined by what they think they should do. They should do what's best for them and for their families, and know that that is not going to be static."

On having pride in the United States of America:

Mrs. Obama came under fire in February, 2008, when during a campaign stop in Milwaukee she said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." She later explained that she was talking about the political process in particular, and that she was "absolutely" always proud of the country, but the criticism continues more than three years later. One Yahoo! reader wrote: "I would like to ask Michelle Obama: What do you think of America now, since your husband has been President for three years? How do you think America has changed, if at all?" So, we asked her exactly that.

"In so many ways we've been changed, and we've grown," Mrs. Obama replied during our on-camera interview. "I think we're growing as a country in terms of our understanding and appreciation for the sacrifices of war. It is very difficult to take for granted the complicated nature of the lives of our men and women in uniform when they choose to serve. We have one percent of the country protecting the freedoms of the other 99 percent of us. That burden is deep, and it is real, and it's something that the rest of us can't take for granted."

Dr. Biden-whose stepson, Beau, is a member of the Delaware Army National Guard-agreed.

"I think that there has been a really positive change," she told Yahoo! Shine. "I lived through the Vietnam War. And seeing those soldiers come back and how they were treated, and seeing now how American embraces military families, I mean, there's a big change."

On Let's Move and childhood obesity:

Several readers wondered whether the administration had ever imagined that people would oppose efforts to inspire better eating habits, but Mrs. Obama says what she sees is support, not a backlash.

"The truth is, is that there is always opposition, it's just a question on whether you focus on it," she said. "The truth is we've seen some tremendous changes, and every industry stepping up."

Pointing to voluntary changes in the restaurant industry, school lunch programs, food manufacturing processes, Mrs. Obama added, "The support has been tremendous. And I think we're making some progress. And it starts with changing the culture."

"We also know that we can't do this alone. You can't ask a family to solve this problem for themselves in a vacuum," she said. "And everybody has been stepping up to provide the kind of support in communities and schools that parents who care -- do care -- about the health of their kids, so that they have that support to make the choices that they need and the changes that they see fit for their kids. So it's been exciting."

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden on their holiday traditions

Back in Nov. 2011, I sat down with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden for an on-camera interview for Yahoo! News. Our conversation touched on several topics, from what it's like to raise kids in the public eye, why they're focusing on help for military families, and how they'd react if their own children decided to join the armed forces.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden during an interview with Yahoo! Shine Senior Editor Lylah M. Alphonse in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, Nov. 2, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

The videos have expired online, but the articles are still available. Take a look at what they had to say about the families' holiday traditions while I work to get the clips back up and running!

Exclusive: Michelle Obama and Jill Biden Share Their Families' Secret Holiday Traditions

Yahoo! Shine went to the White House for an exclusive interview with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, where they talked about Joining Forces, the White House initiative to support military families. But Yahoo! and Yahoo! Shine readers submitted nearly 5,000 questions, and so we touched on a few other topics as well. Parenting in the public eye can be tough, but both the Obamas and the Bidens have certain traditions that help keep things simple and down-to-earth during the hectic holiday season, and they shared their secrets with Shine.

During the interview, the First Lady and Dr. Biden also offered up some insight about what it's like to parent while being a public figure. "I don't think that the challenges that we face or that the mistakes or worries or concerns... I don't think it has anything to do with this, right?" The First Lady said, gesturing to the White House and the cameras and the handlers packed into the room during the interview. "It just has to do with the worries of being mothers. And I think that it's universal." (You can watch the video here.) 

Dr. Biden -- who has raised three children with Vice President Joe Biden and whose daughter, Ashley, just announced her engagement -- says that if she had to do it all over again, there are a few things she'd do differently-or, at least, do more of. "I think it's really important to give your children good self-esteem," she told Shine. "So I think probably complimenting them more, giving them more positive reinforcement. I think that's so important for kids."

From her own experience as a teacher, Dr. Biden says she knows that positive reinforcement builds self-esteem, no matter how old you are. "So I think it's doing more of that, that parents should not like get so busy with their lives that they forget that, each and every day to say something really positive to their child," she says.

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden on Military Families

Back in Nov. 2011, I sat down with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden for an on-camera interview for Yahoo! News. Our conversation touched on several topics, from what it's like to raise kids in the public eye, why they're focusing on help for military families, and how they'd react if their own children decided to join the armed forces.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden during an interview with Yahoo! Shine Senior Editor Lylah M. Alphonse in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, Nov. 2, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

The videos have expired online, but the articles are still available. Take a look at what they had to say about military families while I work to get the clips back up and running!

Michelle Obama on military families: "There should be no pride that limits them from getting the help that they need"

When we asked Yahoo! and Yahoo! Shine readers to submit questions for us to ask First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, one of the things many readers wanted to know was this: Why have military families become such a priority for this administration?

"I'm not from a military family," Mrs. Obama said candidly. "but I had the opportunity to meet many spouses over the course of the campaign, and truly their stories will take your breath away."

"When you think about the struggles that the average working spouse has, holding down a job, and dealing with daycare, handling sickness, worrying about school and graduation and college for your kids," she continued, "when you take that and you multiply that by five, six, seven deployments, where a loved one is in harm’s way, or you multiply that by nine or 10 schools that a child has had to attend, because that’s the average number of schools that a military child will go through in the course of their educational experience… all of that just makes me think, man, we need to use our voices and our platforms to lift these families up and to find a way to make sure that this nation is stepping up for them in the ways that they’re stepping up for us."

Dr. Biden's interest is more personal: Her oldest stepson, Joseph "Beau" Biden, joined the Delaware National Guard 10 years ago, when he was in his 30s. "He was deployed to Iraq for a year. So I think that I feel a very personal connection with other military families, and have for a long time."

The first lady and Dr. Biden are the faces of Joining Forces, the Obama Administration's initiative to support military families. "One of our mottos of Joining Forces is, 'Do what you do best'." Mrs. Obama told Yahoo! Shine in an exclusive interview at the White House. "We encourage people -- they don’t have to be experts in military life.  They don’t have to live on a base.  They don’t have to live near a base.  Many people should think about taking the talents and gifts that they have and find a way of applying that."

Other military wives and moms with whom we've spoken have said the same thing. "Everybody wants to help," Dena Provenzano told Yahoo! Shine. "And I say, jump in and do it. Just make it happen."

The first lady suggests that civilians like her start by figuring out who are the military families in your midst—in your schools, churches, and your local community. "Identify who’s out there, because many families don’t identify themselves.  It’s particularly Reservists who are our firefighters, our doctors.  They’re our neighbors.  They’re not surrounded by a military community and the support that goes with it.  So those families in particular need things as small as babysitting support, or a meal cooked, or a carpool covered, and many things, big and small."

Dr. Biden--a military mom--agrees. "I know what it was like during the holidays… when I looked down our Christmas table and I saw that my son was not sitting there because he was in Iraq," she remembers.

"I think we’re growing as a country in terms of our understanding and appreciation for the sacrifices of war," the first lady said. "It is very difficult to take for granted the complicated nature of the lives of our men and women in uniform when they choose to serve.  We have one percent of the country protecting the freedoms of the other 99 percent of us.  That burden is deep, and it is real, and it’s something that the rest of us can’t take for granted."

Yahoo! Shine senior editor Lylah M. Alphonse also talked with the First Lady and Dr. Biden about their families' holiday traditions, what they'd do differently as parents, how they maintain their own identities and careers, and how they felt (or, in Mrs. Obama's case, would feel) about their children joining the military. You can find those videos and more, only on Yahoo! Shine. Learn more about the ways you can support the families of US service men and women at Shine.Yahoo.com/veteransday.

 

The White House and the winter garden. Plus: The Roundup

Last week's excursion to the White House didn't end indoors. After the small roundtable discussion with Michelle Obama, the other invited journalists and I joined a couple hundred teachers and school officials on the White House South lawn to celebrate the winners of the Healthier U.S. School Challenge.

On the South Lawn, October 17, 2011.

After milling around and munching on apples, White House chef Sam Kass took us down to the official White House garden for an exclusive tour. You can read about it on Yahoo! Shine, of course: The White House and the winter garden: Eating local all year long. My favorite part was getting to snack on pineapple basil blossoms and learning about some of the Thomas Jefferson heirloom seeds that they had planted, courtesy of Monticello. Here are a few pictures from that tour:

A slate tablet in the garden. (Photo: Lylah M. Alphonse)

Part of the White House garden. (Photo: Lylah M. Alphonse)

White House chef Sam Kass with the Thomas Jefferson fig tree. (Photo: Lylah M. Alphonse)

Chef Kass picks one of the last of the pumpkins. (Photo: Lylah M. Alphonse)

The White House garden, with the Washington Monument in the background. (Photo: Lylah M. Alphonse)

And now, The Roundup:


On Yahoo! Shine:

• Michelle Obama on the things that matter most to moms
• The White House and the winter garden: Eating local all year long
• Missing baby Lisa Irwin's mom admits she was drunk when her baby disappeared
• Gifted child? Study shows kids IQs can change during the teen years
• What, no rapture again? Maybe the Apocalypse is taking place on Wall Street
• U.S. troops in Iraq will be home for the holidays, Obama says

On Work It Mom!:

• Juggling work and family when you're away on business

On 4 Kids or More:

• What's your go-to meal when you don't have time to cook?

On the Savvy Source for Parents:

• Kid-friendly haunts in the Greater Boston area

9/11 remembered: A retired NY firefighter focuses on hope instead of hatred

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview a truly inspirational person. Lee Ielpi lost his son Jonathan, a New York City firefighter, when the World Trade Center fell on September 11, 2001. But instead of focusing on retribution, he's determined to make the world a more understanding, more hopeful place.

"On September 10, I was still retired," he told me. "My wishes were to go fishing and hunting and hiking and camping and enjoy the outdoors and travel.... But 9/11 changed many people, not just me."

"My life changed. I had to put most of that on the back burner," he said. "Someday maybe I'll get back to fishing and hiking. Right now, we feel it's more important to continue this mission we're on."

That mission is one of peace and understanding. Ielpi is the co-founder of the Tribute WTC Visitors Center in New York City. Thanks to his efforts, about 2.2 million people have walked through the center, led by more than 450 people with firsthand knowledge of the way 9/11 changed the world.

My interview with Mr. Ielpi is part of a series of in-depth articles at Yahoo.com marking the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11; that picture, above, is a snapshot of the Yahoo News page showcasing Mr. Ielpi's story. You can can read the rest  below, and you can see the entire mosaic of Yahoo.com 9/11 articles here. (Keep checking that link for more!)

Who wants to live semi-happily ever after?

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to interview historian Pamela Haag, author of "Marriage Confidential: The Post-Romantic Age of Workhorse Wives, Royal Children, Undersexed Spouses, and Rebel Couples Who Are Rewriting the Rules," for a story about the decline of marriage in the United States. The story, "Are you stuck in a semi-happy marriage?" is up on the main Yahoo.com homepage right now, and is generating an interesting discussion (1,140 comments so far).

Click on the picture to read "Are you stuck in a semi-happy marriage?" at Yahoo.com.

You can read the entire article on Yahoo.com but, as always, there was a lot more to the interview than what ended up in the finished piece. Here's the rest of the story:

The trick to a long life: Being able to rebound from stress

You've heard about amazing centenarians who swear that they reached their 100th birthday thanks to their good genes. Or clean living. Or selectively dirty living. Or the glass of wine a day that killed the germs. Or the weekly cigar that did the same. Or the strict exercise regimen that kept them running until their grandkids had kids of their own.

But researchers say there may be another reason: They live longer because they learned how to not just manage stress, but rebound from it.

There's a direct link between psychological stress and biological aging, says Thea Singer in her new book, "Stress Less: The New Science That Shows Women How to Rejuvenate the Body and the Mind." And, as I point out at The 36-Hour Day and Yahoo!'s Shine, that link goes all the way down to our cells.

In a groundbreaking study, 2009 Nobel Prize-winning cell biologist Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., and health psychologist Elissa S. Epel, Ph.D., both at the University of California, San Francisco, discovered that that chronic stress "literally gnaws at our DNA—its tips, or telomeres, to be precise—speeding up the rate at which our cells age." In fact, Singer says, "Women who perceived themselves as being under the most stress had telomeres that were shorter by equivalent of 10 years."

Can you be happy at work and at home?

Like many working moms, public relations and marketing professional Caitlin Friedman is seeking to simplify. "I want to keep working, but I need more flexibility!" she says. She and her business partner, Kimberly Yorio, run TC Media in New York City and are the coauthors of the "Girl's Guide" series of books. Their latest, Happy at Work, Happy at Home: The Girl's Guide to Being a Working Mom, offers hints and advice for making the most of your work-life juggle.

"I have a boy and a girl, who just entered Kindergarten this fall," she said during an email interview (you can read the entire Q&A here). "Which is one of the reasons I need to simplify my life a little and start working from home. It's been hard to do everything, as I am sure all of your readers can relate!" Here's her advice on ways to be happy at work and happy at home, and what inspired her to write about it.

An interview with Barefoot Books CEO and co-founder Nancy Traversy

Canadian-born Nancy Traversy, 49, went from the world of finance to graphic design before launching a successful children's book publishing company with her business partner, Tessa Strickland. Their company, Barefoot Books, recently opened a massive flagship store in Concord, Mass., where they sell only the titles they publish.

For Traversy, the leap from banking to books isn't as large as one might think. "I come from a family of very artistic, very creative family, and somehow I went the business and math and numbers route," Traversy told me. "One day I was on a bank audit -- I was wearing a trouser suit with a tie, and I thought I was looking very professional -- and I was told, 'Women don’t wear trousers.' And I said, OK, that was kind of the final straw."

"But I don’t regret going into finance initially instead of design for a second," she added. "I love spreadsheets and business plans, and I also love design and creativity. So, I’m sort of on both sides."

I stopped by the Concord store recently to chat with Nancy; a portion of our interview was published yesterday in The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine (see image at left), but of course there's always so much more that doesn't make it into the article. Here's the rest of our question-and-answer session:

Selena Gomez: "I think I'm fully aware of my audience"

Selena Gomez may be leaving Waverley Place, but she’s holding on to the magic for a little while longer.

With her 18th birthday coming up next week and her new film, Ramona and Beezus opening a day later on July 23, the Disney star says she doesn’t feel pressure to take on more adult roles. “No, not at all. I’m 18 years old and I play a 15 year old in this film, so I don’t feel pressure at all,” she said in an interview from Miami yesterday. “I think I’m fully aware of my audience and I’m still just a kid myself. I wouldn’t do a role I don’t feel comfortable doing or that my audience wouldn’t feel comfortable seeing.”

Putting your marriage first may be better for your kids

Many parents feel that they don't have time for their spouse because they're so busy taking care of their children -- and that's just the way it is once you have kids. But family coach and Episcopal minister David Code disagrees.

"Here's the biggest myth of parenting: The more attention we give our kids, the better they'll turn out," he says. "Where are the results? Studies show today’s parents spend more time with their kids, and yet today's kids don't seem happier, more independent or successful. They seem more troubled, entitled and needy."

The solution? It's the title of his new book: To Raise Happy Kids, Put Your Marriage First.

"You might say that today's parents seem to be marrying their children instead of their spouses. The truth is, we often find it easier to be with our kids than our partners," Code points out. This seems child-friendly, but we don't realize we're using our kids as an escape from our spouses."

Code took the time to chat with me recently for a post at Boston.com's In the Parenthood column. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two children, ages 10 and 8. "I've been a full-time writer since 2007, but at 3:08 when the kids get off the bus, I'm a full-time dad as well," he says. "I'm so glad this shift in roles has become socially acceptable, because it fits my career-oriented wife and me to a T."

Here's our entire Q & A; scroll down to the bottom for Code's four tips for making a good marriage even stronger.

An interview with artist Rufus Butler Seder

Rufus Butler Seder, 56, is the artist behind the New York Times best-selling books Gallop!, Swing!, and Waddle!, which showcase his amazing Scanimation artwork. His books capture the charm and motion of classic flip-art books -- you know, the ones where you fan through the pages in order to see an image move across them -- but without having to actually flip the pages.

Based in Arlington, Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife, Penny, and their cats, Buddy and Scout, Seder started off as a filmmaker before deciding to figure out a way to create pictures that move without using motors or electricity. I was lucky enough to be able to interview him for an article in The Boston Globe Magazine late last year -- click here or on the picture at left read it. The techonology Seder created is complex and fascinating; here's a bit more about it, plus the part of the interview that didn't make it onto the Globe Magazine page: