Week 6: Podcasts Are for Young People, Too?

I missed the memo. My parents have always listened to NPR, every day, all the time, so I would never choose to on my own. But last week, I found myself alone in the office, reaching for something to listen to related to my work to help me write. I chose a Freakonomics episode called “When Helping Hurts” because I was intrigued by the title–I thought, I wonder how well they’ll make that impossible case.

It turns out, VERY WELL. The episode followed a decades-long study on the effects of mentorship on underprivileged kids. It used a control group of kids who had no program-mentors, which seemed a little cruel in the beginning to the social scientists (“We’re going to withhold bonds between kids and young people?!”). The mentors would play sports with the kids one-on-one, take them to the YMCA, do little outings with them, talk to them, and help them with their homework in a program called Big Brother Big Sister that lasted from 1939 to 1945. A team of social scientists checked in with the 500 kids in the program when they were in their 40’s and recorded results in seven areas: length of life, criminality, state of mental health, state of physical health, alcoholism, job satisfaction, and satisfaction in marriage. The stunning results are, on ALL SEVEN measures, the control group did statistically significantly better.

Statistically significantly, intervening in these kids’ lives in widely accepted, well-intentioned ways, actually hurt them. “Why?” is a different experiment, the podcast explained. Those theories are even more numerous and hard to test.

I can’t stop thinking about these results. I was sure I could never be talked into ever thinking helping could hurt, really. I listened to it again after a couple days. In the DCBRP, we’ve talked about being sensitive entering communities and not overestimating our welcome. This podcast sure helps me be more conscious of those; it’s not a question anymore of whether I want to help or not. People who undeniably want to help can end up hurting. I need to be especially thoughtful about my work, here at ONA and beyond.

Side plug: one of my work colleagues actually has a podcast of her own! It’s called Talk Juicy, and she and her friends chat and interview Detroit-based artists, poets, musicians…it’s great. Podcasts really are for young people, too.