Keeping in the know

By Kate Levinson

You’re sweating your way through a job interview, a hallway run-in with the big boss, some good old fashioned networking, and all of a sudden the topic goes in a dreaded direction: current events. Important people like to know what’s going on in their fields—and they like other people to know that they know. Naturally, then, conversation often flows to the news (“I saw in today’s Times…” or “I heard on NPR…”) as it relates directly or not-so-directly to your common line of work.

And knowing what’s up isn’t just for show. It’s a good way to keep yourself connected to your own field, related fields and in tune with the bigger picture.

Environmental news sites and blogs are obviously a good place to start: TreeHugger is my personal favorite; also check out Grist and Yahoo! Green.

And I recently stumbled across something even cooler—The Environment UChannel from iTunes U, a section of iTunes that pulls together super-interesting educational content from colleges, universities and organizations and provides it to the public (for free!) in little take-me-with-you packages. (Trust me, no one on the bus needs to know you’re listening to a Princeton prof talk about ice sheets and sea levels instead of rocking out.)

You could spend a week perusing or years taking “classes” on a thousand different topics—or you could poke around for a few minutes and find some good stuff to keep in your environmental news arsenal, just in case you suddenly find yourself in a situation that calls for discussion of current events. It’s free, interesting and fits on an iPod (I just downloaded The Ethics of Eating for a plane ride tomorrow). What’s not to love?