Latest news with #rolemodels
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Boys need better role models says Brighton & Hove Albion CEO
Boys need better role models to avoid a "ticking timebomb" created by toxic online influencers, the head of a new taskforce has & Hove Albion FC's chief executive Paul Barber launched the Lost Boys Task Force on Thursday for young men at risk of disconnection from was set up amid growing concerns that, without reliable role models, a generation of boys are becoming increasingly vulnerable to dangerous ideas online, issues highlighted in Netflix's drama Barber said he wants young men to be given access to a trusted adult outside of their family who can help support their development. He said: "I know from my own experience how crucial having a reliable mentor when you're young can be. "At a time when toxic influencers like Andrew Tate are filling the void for so many boys, it's clear that too many young men feel isolated and directionless."The taskforce takes its name from The Lost Boys Project, which saw the Centre for Social Justice travel across Britain to discover what is happening with boys and young report, Lost Boys - State of the Nation, found that this group are in crisis across many fronts. According to the Youth Endowment Fund, as of last year 630,894 young people aged 12–16 in England did not have access to a trusted adult. The taskforce is calling for a Trusted Adult Guarantee, with government-funded training provided for 10,000 trusted adults in education and sport settings, alongside a national system to track the number of young people who have such Fletcher, chief executive of the Youth Futures Foundation which aims to help marginalised young people into secure and fulfilling work, has welcomed the taskforce's said: "Trusted adult relationships are a core part of the programmes we fund to generate evidence of what works to support marginalised young people into employment."
Medscape
a day ago
- Health
- Medscape
Remembering Dr Atul Butte, a Medical Hero
'Like Mike. If I could be like Mike.' On August 8, 1991, Gatorade launched one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history. "Be Like Mike" featured children and adults of all backgrounds emulating basketball great Michael Jordan's moves while the famous jingle played: "Sometimes I dream / That he is me / You've got to see that's how I dream to be." (The rest will play in your head. You're welcome). The campaign tapped into our primal need for role models. Atul Butte, MD, PhD The ad's genius lay not in selling sugar water but in commodifying aspiration. Here was the divine Jordan, tongue out, defying gravity, and a simple message: You too can transcend earthly limitations. We all knew better. And yet, I had my own Mike-like space-creating move to a fadeaway that worked (once). I'm sure I pumped my fist like Mike when it dropped. Heroes like Jordan are harder to find in medicine, but we can still seek them out among the diagnostic savants, the surgical virtuosos, the masterful presenters. Dr Atul Butte, a pediatric endocrinologist turned data evangelist, was one of those heroes. Like with Jordan, I never met Dr Butte but knew him from afar. His talks were inspiring, not just for his comedic, down-to-earth style, but also for the work that they represented. Butte trained as a pediatric endocrinologist. Early in his career, he recognized that while we doctors generate massive amounts of data — from research, electronic medical records, genomics — we weren't making full use of it. Hidden in those gigabytes were insights that could improve diagnosis and treatment and prevent disease. So, Butte pivoted. He immersed himself in data science. He collaborated across disciplines. And he refused to let traditional career paths define him. Over time, he became a leader in computational health, founded multiple biotech startups, and directed informatics for all of the University of California Health Systems. His mission was to transform messy data into actionable knowledge that helps patients. What I find inspiring about Butte isn't just the scale of his success; it was his curiosity. His refusal to accept 'this is the way we do things.' His optimism. And his remarkable generosity. He was as enthusiastic about sharing as he was about discovering. The crush of conference goers would always be six deep to the dais when lights came up. There's something moving about this commitment to sharing knowledge and tools, especially in an era when information is hoarded as intellectual property. Butte's students — now scattered across universities and hospitals and technology companies — carry forward not just his methods but his approach to problems: curious, collaborative, persistently optimistic about the possibility of reducing human suffering through better understanding. Watching highlight reels of Dr Butte's career, we can see what separates the GOATs from the rest of us. He showed us that we should value connection as much as we value expertise. To see that in a world drowning in information, the ability to make meaningful connections across different domains of knowledge is essential for excellence. His core philosophy, summed up as "unfreezing" biomedical data, was a vision for the future of medicine. His genius was in asking simple, yet audacious questions: "What if we could spot patterns across millions of patients, not just the few in our own clinics?' This wasn't idle curiosity; it was a pragmatic, mischievous drive to build the teams and tools to make it happen. In one striking example, Butte's team analyzed data to discover that cimetidine showed promise in treating lung adenocarcinoma. Here was a drug sitting on shelves for decades and hidden there was something that might help patients with cancer. His virtuoso was to play effortlessly between medicine, computer science, and engineering. After his untimely death at the age of 55 in June, tributes to him poured into LinkedIn. Colleagues remembered him not just as a visionary, but as a "big bear of a man with a huge smile and love for everyone." He was described as having "energy that could power a room" and a unique ability to "elevate people around him." His advocacy and his dedication to mentoring "hundreds if not thousands" of students and researchers — making them feel supported and seen — speak volumes. He believed in "scalable privilege," that data insights should be accessible to all, and he lived that belief by empowering those around him. Dr Atul Butte showed us new, creative moves, and perhaps just as important, the same encouraging, radiant Jordan-like smile that made us believe we could actually play like him. By nurturing that curiosity — and channeling a bit of that infectious optimism — we can discover new tools and techniques to advance the practice of medicine. We should all wanna be like him. Jeffrey Benabio, MD, MBA, is chief of dermatology at Kaiser Permanente San Diego. The opinions expressed in this column are his own and do not represent those of Kaiser Permanente. Dr Benabio is @Dermdoc on X.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
14 Films and Television Shows With Strong Role Models for Girls in STEM
Fact checked by Sarah Scott Think back to your childhood for a minute. What did you want to be when you grew up? Were you ever inspired by a character you saw on TV or in a movie? Of course you were. For many kids, discovering their interests, hobbies, passions, and career inspirations can start onscreen. TV and movie characters can be powerful role models for children of all ages who are learning about the world and their place in it—so it's important that parents be intentional about the stories they share with their kids, especially when they are part of a marginalized group. Why Do Girls Need Positive STEM Role Models? A recent study by Ruling Our eXperiences found that while many young girls were interested in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math), they aren't confident in their abilities, possibly in part because they don't see themselves represented in the space. Women represent only 28% of the workforce in STEM—even more unfortunate is that women of color are even more underrepresented. How Can Entertainment Inspire More Girls to Pursue STEM? In the past, many STEM-related shows were centered on male characters, with women playing supporting roles if they appeared at all. But thankfully all that is changing. There are so many great options for entertainment that feature brave, intelligent, curious women and girls as leaders in science, available today—including some created with young girls in mind, who they want to inspire to pursue life-long careers in science, inventing, technology, engineering and other similar fields. Parents can help inspire their daughters to pursue their interest in these fields by showing them TV shows and films with strong STEM role models putting its principles to work in everyday situations. Here are some of our favorite options. Movies Hidden Figures This popular 2016 film, based on a book of the same name, tells the story of three Black women at NASA who helped fuel the Space Race. Young viewers will be inspired by the African-American women working at NASA in the early sixties: Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy, who persevered despite racism and sexism to launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit. Hidden Figures also illustrates the many ways an aptitude for math can come to life as a career, so it's a great choice for kids who love math class and solving complex problems. Best for: Ages 8+ Where to watch: Disney+ Big Hero 6 If your child is into robotics and engineering, they'll love the story of Hiro, a talented robotics engineer who befriends a medical robot created by his brother, named Baymax. On the course of his adventures, he forms a group of superheroes, including two young women who study science alongside him at school. Big Hero 6 isn't just a story about building robots, however; it's about how friendship can help you heal from grief and the power of science to help others when it's in the right hands, with a strong message about embracing found family at its core. Best for: Ages 8+ Where to Watch: Disney+ The Lego Movie For many children, Legos are their first encounter with STEM principles as they build and create worlds of their own. The Lego Movie brings their amateur feats of engineering to life with a touch of comedy and adventure as the protagonists Emmet and Wyldstyle race to save the world—using their super power, the ability to use their imaginations to build and fix any object they need, along the way. Best for: Ages 6+ Where to Watch: Netflix Jurassic Park Jurassic Park is probably best known for its incredible dinosaur special effects, but its core characters—notably Laura Dern's paleobotanist Ellie Sattler—shouldn't be ignored. Ask any '90s kid and they'll probably tell you they wanted to become a paleontologist or archaeologist after seeing this blockbuster film. While Jurassic Park does have some scary moments that might be too intense for younger kids, older children may discover (or rediscover) a passion for history, science, and exploration—and absolutely nobody will forget the iconic scene in which Ellie tries to find out what ails a sick triceratops by digging through a pile of its poop. Best for: Ages 9+ Where to Watch: Peacock Black Panther T'Challa's (he's the titular Black Panther) little sister Shuri is one of the most accomplished (fictional) young women in STEM; the teenager is a masterful engineer and inventor who designs super suits—among many other things—and uses the many powers of vibranium, which helps protect Wakanda. Shuri's skills are irreplaceable and teach young viewers to believe in themselves, trust their talents, and help the people around them. Best for: Ages 13+ Where to watch: Disney+ Ghostbusters (2016) The all-female 2016 remake of the beloved '80s films centers on four women in STEM investigating the paranormal—including an engineer, a physicist, and a scientist. This is the perfect choice for viewers with an interest in the supernatural and science—and as an added bonus, it's hilarious. And in a twist on the typical movie cliches, guess who plays the ditzy character this time? Chris Hemsworth. Best for: Ages 13+ Where to watch: Hulu Contact In this 1997 movie, Jodie Foster plays scientist Dr. Ellie Arroway, who picks up a message from what could be extraterrestrials in outer space. Dr. Arroway has to use her skills to decode messages and eventually travel through space to make contact with aliens, all while facing doubt and opposition from people in power. Older kids who are curious about space and its mysteries will enjoy following Dr. Arroway's journey. Best for: Ages 10+ Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video TV Shows The Magic School Bus & The Magic School Bus Rides Again Whether you choose the original series starring Lily Tomlin as Ms. Frizzle or the 2017 reboot featuring Kate McKinnon as her sister Fiona Frizzle, your children are guaranteed to learn (and laugh) along with the students of Walkerville Elementary. Ralphie, Wanda, Carlos, Arnold, and the rest of the crew travel in the titular bus to learn about the human body, animal habitats, and so much more, and the Frizzle sisters serve as fun, silly, adventurous, and curious teachers who will spark your child's imagination. Best for: Ages 5+ Where to watch: Netflix Ada Twist, Scientist As its name suggests, Netflix's Ada Twist, Scientist—based on the book series by Andrea Beaty—is about Ada Twist, a young scientist, and her best friends, Rosie and Iggy. They're always discovering, researching, and studying something new, bringing together elements of science, engineering, architecture, and tech. Ada Twist is a thoughtful introduction to STEM principles for younger viewers who will appreciate the colorful animation, and the show explores everyday problems kids might encounter in real life, like power outages and how to revive wilting flowers. Best for: Ages 4+ Where to watch: Netflix Emily's Wonder Lab Watch real-life kids explore and experiment alongside host Emily Calandrelli, an aerospace engineer. Kids who are always begging to do hands-on experiments will find so much to love here. The series explores high-level scientific concepts like ultraviolet light and the laws of motion in accessible language, then applies to what they learn through a real-world experiment—in one episode the kids make a tornado in a bottle, in another they create their own fluorescent paint. The series is interactive and allows children to try what they see on screen at home. Emily's Wonder Lab is ideal for aspiring scientists who can't wait to get into a lab of their own. Best for: Ages 6+ Where to watch: Netflix Sci Girls Sci Girls, which premiered in 2010, was created to appeal to middle school-age girls interested in STEM, and it's still available to watch on PBS Kids. The show was a mix of live-action and animated content. Each episode features real-life scientists and tween girls, who explore nature, space, national parks, and many other spaces to create their own experiments and investigations into topics as wide ranging as nutrition to the environment. Best for: Ages 7+ Where to watch: PBS Kids Odd Squad This PBS series is all about math. The Odd Squad is a group of government agents (though they are all kids) who put their math skills to investigate seemingly strange events, aided by a lab of hardworking scientists and their boss, Ms. O. Like many other beloved kids shows, this one was produced by The Fred Rogers Co. The show makes math feel exciting and important, and because the actors who play the agents are young kids, viewers can see their peers onscreen solving problems and having fun doing it. Best for: Ages 5+ Where to watch: PBS Kids Miles from Tomorrowland This animated series follows Miles Callisto, a space adventurer. Meanwhile, Miles's sister Loretta is a tech whiz; their mom is a space captain; and their dad is an inventor. The Callistos have to work together as they travel through outer space using their science, engineering, and math skills. Young girls will be inspired by both Loretta and mom Phoebe, as well as the adventurous Miles. The family even has a robotic pet ostrich named Merc. Best for: Ages 4+ Where to watch: Disney+ Ironheart This new Marvel series centers on Riri Wiliams, a talented engineer who is also dealing with trauma, grief, and finding her place in the world. Riri is an inventor, and the story revolves around the mechanical suit she constructs, modeled after Iron Man. But it also touches on family dynamics, responsibility, and navigating common teenage emotions like anger and doubt. Can you be a superhero while you're still figuring yourself out? Riri Williams hopes so. Best for: Ages 13+ Where to watch: Disney+ Read the original article on Parents Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Born on One of These 4 Dates? You Manifest Success Later in Life
Born on One of These 4 Dates? You Manifest Success Later in Life originally appeared on Parade. Manifesting success is a personal journey. While some attract their materialistic, career-driven, or practical desires earlier in life, it's also common to mature into your most significant achievements. According to expert numerologists, mystics, and astrologers, people with four birth dates are the most likely to manifest success and attract their best opportunities later in life. While society normalizes youthful luck, remember that many of the world's most respected role models didn't get their lucky break until they had matured. Check for the date you were born, regardless of birth month. Those born on the 7th are often late bloomers with an intellectual edge. With a reserved personality, they usually take time to process life's essential lessons, milestones, and checkpoints to maturity. Rather than rushing, they prefer an intentional approach. Therefore, success often finds them in later years, as they take their youth for deeper soul-searching with trial and error experimentations of what their heart looks for in terms of career or practical purpose. Being born on the 14th makes one a structured leader with an innovative edge. Oftentimes, it takes their formative years to come to terms with the fact that they stand out and have a hard time conforming. People often underestimate their ideas, skills, or talents. Later in life, they tend to take themselves more seriously and carve out a unique path for themselves to succeed. In their lane, they find the structure, routines, craftsmanship, or skills to land their dream job, create their own business, or find an overall sense of purpose with their daily work. Those born on the 25th are often steady climbers, naturally and over time, achieving the top of their expertise. A typical career path tends to drain their soulful nature. They must factor their spiritual calling into their craft to fulfill their successful goals. These people tend to find the right vocational choices, career, or purposeful path as they mature and learn to honor their intuitive nudges. The 30th is associated with creative, talented, social, or expressive people in their later years. However, it may take time in their youth to learn valuable communication skills, relationship needs, and inner self-esteem. Their values become clearer with time, maturing into an intentional, motivated person who believes in themselves. Their dreams become reality when they dare to release who and what no longer matches their core vibrational energy. Born on One of These 4 Dates? You Manifest Success Later in Life first appeared on Parade on Jul 2, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
Telegraph
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why obsessing over ‘identity' is a stupid idea
Earlier this year, delivering the annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Gareth Southgate argued that in Britain today, too many boys and young men are suffering an identity crisis. They need better role models: only through emulating such figures can they reverse their own slump into academic underachievement, Andrew Tate-fuelled misogyny and feelings of worthlessness. The speech was widely praised. It seemed, if you'll forgive the pun, that the former England manager was shooting at an open goal. Few disputed that the fundamental problem was our boys' sense of identity, or that this sense needed to be made stronger and more resilient. Or maybe not. In this incendiary and timely broadside, Australian philosopher Alexander Douglas argues that the entire concept of 'identity', as we find it in contemporary discourse, is wrong. There's something undeniably odd about looking to others to find one's true self. Personal authenticity surely can't be a matter of imitation – and yet, for good or ill, we do it all the time. As children, we play at being superheroes, monsters, parents, criminals, police: we try to find out who we are by playing at being what we are not. As adults, Alexander suggests, we continue this role-play, but with a twist: we're motivated by fear to hunker down in silos of identity definition. Hence, perhaps, the rise of identity politics, as manifested on all sides: Black Lives Matter, the English Defence League, #MeToo, Proud Boys, self-regarding wellness crypto-fascists, the LGBTQ+ community. It seems unlikely that Nicola Sturgeon, Nigel Farage or Donald Trump would have been elected were it not for the respectively Scottish, English and American national identities to which their supporters cleave. Identity politics has for some time been excoriated by conservatives, but increasingly it is attacked by the Left too. Ash Sarkar, a regular panellist on Radio 4's The Moral Maze, who has described herself as 'literally a communist', proposed in her recent book Minority Rule that the Left's cause is being thwarted because the oppressed they hope to defend are being splintered into different interest groups riven by identity politics. If only black people, queer people, trans people and the white working-classes could see past their identitarian distinctions, and think along class lines, the revolution might have some actual prospects. It's easy to understand, Douglas writes, why we shore up our identities like latter-day Canutes. 'Drowning in a world where nothing is certain, where half of what we know is probably mistaken and the other half will soon be out of date, fear drives us to cling to the driftwood of various definitions.' Tech companies monetise exactly this insecurity and desire for stability. We're encouraged to present our 'authentic selves' online, the better for Meta and other firms to exploit our private data for profit – though the more heavily redacted, cunningly filtered and therefore inauthentic, the more engagement-worthy those selves will be. The central point of Against Identity is that these identities are not just generated by fear and algorithms but are fundamentally mendacious. As the late Christian philosopher René Girard put it: 'Individualism is a formidable lie.' That's a discombobulating axiom for the 21st century, in which individualism has become a religion for a society that's lost faith in God. Girard grew up in post-war France, when existentialism was becoming an exportable commodity, like fine wines or Brigitte Bardot, spreading its influence from Saint-Germain-des-Prés cafés to the world. The leader of the turtlenecks, Jean-Paul Sartre, argued that we have the God-like power to become our true selves ex nihilo – a tremendously hopefully message for those of us who are struggling to escape the inherited curses of family, class, sex, or (in my case) a Black Country accent. Soon, ironically enough, everybody sought to become an individual. Girard denounced the hipster narcissists whose way of becoming themselves was, ironically, to look like what he called 'a vast herd of sheep-like individualists'. Girard called this desire to establish one's authentic identity a 'romantic lie', and it's a lie that persists today, not least in Silicon Valley. Douglas points, for instance, to Steve Jobs's much-mythologised 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, where the Apple founder hymned 'your own inner voice, heart and intuition', which 'will somehow know already what you want to truly become.' How did we get this way? One account of human evolution, as related by Douglas, goes like this. For much of human history, there was no organised legal force to restrain the lawless thugs who sought to harm others. Coalitions of the willing thus formed to eliminate them and safeguard society. This is what the primatologist Richard Wangham calls the 'execution hypothesis': to put it roughly, the more aggressive members of society were bumped off or, presumably through some form of community-wide castration, prevented from reproducing. Douglas contends that this domesticated human society, which has continued to the present day, produced a civilisation that wasn't violent in a reactive way, as with the elimination of those thugs, but a proactive one: it enforces conformity to norms. Humans became selected, in the evolutionary sense, for their extreme vigilance in conforming to social norms, whether out of fear of punishment or, worse, being made to look ridiculous. 'People fear breaking the social contract,' Douglas writes, 'for the same reason they fear turning up to a gala event in unfashionable shoes finding themselves in a conversation where everybody but them seems to have mastered the appropriate slang or academic jargon.' (He is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of St Andrews: one wonders if he's speaking from experience.) One's identity, that is to say, is constrained and defined by the norms of our society. We are not meaningfully free to choose who we are. Douglas goes on: 'Many of our communities, whatever the stated purpose might be, are really identity regimes driven by egotism – patrolled and sustained by individuals determined to preserve a certain idea of themselves: a fragile idea that cannot bear much novelty.' This rings true to me. But the alternative Douglas proposes is, to put it mildly, bracing. He counsels something called 'identitylessness', which – following the philosophies of Girard, Spinoza and the ancient Chinese sage Zhuangzhi – involves breaking out of the prison of individual identity and realising that we're all, in a profound sense, connected to everything. 'We are the others and the others are us,' he writes at his most rhapsodic, 'not because we share an identity, but because we are alike in identitylessness… I believe we have barely begun to live in the world together. Our drive for identity is always getting in the way.' Alexander is alert to the complaint that this anti-identity vision might be deranging, that 'a world without identity is terrifying'. Not just terrifying, I would argue, but scarcely comprehensible. Yet he believes in it. At one point, he movingly recounts how he struggled to deal with his father's Alzheimer's disease. His dad's identity was being brutally stripped to nothing. A friend advised that Douglas should stop yearning for his dad to become his old self: give up the hope of trying to bring the father back to this world, and instead enter his. 'That turned out to be the secret,' he writes. 'My father was not vanishing but changing.' Douglas set about 'letting go of the things I was exhausting myself trying to hold on to, the things by which I had defined both him and myself, and learning to find joy in what was there'. The experience allowed him to fully understand the anti-identity philosophers he celebrates here. 'Nothing can remain the same. Trying to hold on to the way things are is a losing game. But love remains, because love can flow along with the way things change… Love is as supple as the world, and the world's transformations cannot erase it. Love is the opposite of identity and the secret to adaptation.' Ultimately, I'm not sure Douglas is right about love. Can we really love what has no personality or identity? Nor, closing Against Identity, was I convinced that we could really live identityless in a mystical communion with the rest of the universe. But the challenge he makes along the way to what many of us have become – narcissists onanistically buffing our fatuous identities, both online and in real life – seems to me more valuable and important than most contemporary philosophy.
