maybe i should incorporate interviews?

since obviously i don't know everything about the things i want to write about, maybe one way of doing secondary research that would be in some ways more interesting than simply sourcing from academic journals (which can be rather boring and dry) would be to interview people who are experts in the given topic of interest.  i mean, interviews have the potential to be really interesting.  this american life is like 80% interviews.  well, not that i ever measured, but it sure seems like it.  and not that i think i'm anywhere near as talented at interviewing and producing material as the folks who do this american life.  but hey, they've set a really good example, and there's nothing wrong with taking their lead and trying to make what i'm going to present as fun and interesting as what they do.

well, i'm not entirely sure i want to make podcasts.  maybe presenting my stuff as print media won't lend itself as well to interviewing people.  at least not in the this american life (or the story, or fresh air) style.  i'm trying to present information, not just tell interesting stories.  in fact, i'm not sure i'm trying to tell any stories at all.  maybe some anecdotes, to make the topics relatable, laced in there.  but, anyhow, without trying to make my content anything like those really cool podcasts, in that i'm not telling stories, and i'm writing it down and not making audio presentations, i still think i can strive for a level of quality that their example sets.  but really what i think will make using interviews with experts good for what i'm doing is that it will allow me to insert stronger statements.  like, a research paper might say something really conservative (that is, careful) and objective and generally make sure to not even have an air of over-reaching, and being confined to a specific set of primary research, and what conclusions can be drawn from that.  whereas someone who's not only done a whole bunch of research over the years, but also read a ton of other people's research in similar fields, will have a lot to say.  a lot that is broader and more overarching.  like, someone who has seen a lot of data and written a lot of papers regarding the correlation between homelessness and mental illness, they are probably likely to say something like "there's no doubt in my mind that putting a person who is predisposed to experience an emergence of schizophrenia is significantly more likely to have those traits emerge when they experience prolonged bouts of homelessness than when they are housed in even the most basic of apartment-style dwelling", for instance.  i mean, i don't know what they'd say.  i hope they'd say something like this.  whereas i can't say something so strong just from looking at a series of research papers.  who am i to have "no doubt in my mind" about anything i haven't personally and extensively studied?  and yet isn't information always more worth reading when it's strongly endorsed by someone who really knows their shit in that field?

so that's why i'm thinking that talking to experts about the things i want to present will make the stuff more interesting to read, too.  in the end, i'll be curating a series of topics, and adding the glue and transitions.  hmmm....

it just occurred to me that those topics i came up with for 'focus the nation' are things i should incorporate.  hmmm.... what were some of those?  let's see if i can remember (and why in hell didn't i remember those the other night when i was listing topics?  what is wrong with my brain?  how come memory access is so random like that?  i hate that about it!  the brain/memory storage that is!)

* reducing water usage, including some unconventional ideas
* sustainability isn't for the upper class, it's for the poor.  because if you fail to take measures to make our world a sustainable one, it's the poor people who suffer.  this is especially obvious in the third world, but what about all the ways it's true even right here in the U.S.?  ... discussing how it's true for the third world is worth writing about, too, but just would be a separate piece.  several separate pieces.  because there is SO MUCH HEARTBREAKING STUFF to discuss.  there could be a whole blog just about how shitty the consumerist segment of the world is treating the majority developing segment of the world
* what the hell does sustainability mean?  it's not the same as being eco-friendly, or the same as habitat preservation.  those are subsets of the greater topic of sustainability, which includes not just ecological sustainability, but social and economic sustainability, too, among other things.

oh, my stupid brain won't cooperate with me right now.  good thing i have a list of these topics, as well as some brief write-ups about the importance of each topic, somewhere.  SOMEWHERE.  ::pout:: ... when the hell will we get all our files off the stupid old hard drives in those old damn towers taking up so much room in the office?  i'm seriously so sick of every time we have to get new computers, we lose access to everything we used to have.  it's so disjointed, it's worse than not having technology.  if we just had all those files in a physical file cabinet, we'd have to dig a little more to find them, but at least they'd be there, accessible, all the time, regardless of what computer, OS, etc., we're using.

maybe some time soon i should write about how the hell to solve that problem.