How do you stay in touch with your kids when you travel? Please add your suggestions and tips in the comments.

Jeff Sass is the proud dad of ZEO (Zach, 22, Ethan, 20 and Olivia, 19).  He is also a seasoned entertainment and technology exec and active social media enthusiast.  You can see more of Jeff’s writing at Sassholes! and Social Networking Rehab and you can listen to Jeff on the Cast of Dads podcast.

Last month I presented on my early findings at the M3 Summit. If your interested in the info checkout my presentation below:

At the conference I was also part of a pannle of dads that were interviewed by CNN check out the clip below:

So if you would like to take the survey here is your chance:

So it was quite thrilling to hear he was part of the lineup at BlogHer Food ’10 in San Francisco last weekend, a gathering of more than 300 food bloggers covering everything from delicious dessert reviews to a mom who cooks gluten free and everything in between.

Ruhlman had two opportunities where I think he dramatically inspired his audience.  He started by wrapping up the conference Saturday evening with an anecdote from Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Harvard University Anthropologist Richard Wrangham.  In the book, Ruhlman said,  Wrangham poses the argument that we didn’t become human because we “tamed fire” or because of “some genetic accident.”

No.  Ruhlman (via Wrangham) says we became human because we started to cook. Before we started to cook, apes would have to spend 6-8 hours per day chewing up enough food to get enough nourishment to sustain themselves.  ”Once we started cooking, we could consume enormous amounts of calories very quickly, leaving us all kinds of time to do other things,” Ruhlman said.  We could divide and conquer tasks. Some people could hunt while others cooked.

And because of that, who we were changed as quickly as our genetics changed (larger brains fed by increased calories, less hair as we travelled longer distances more quickly to find food).  ”[Cooking] made us social,” Ruhlman said.  We had to cooperate with one another.  We had to change our temperament.  ”You couldn’t be an asshole if you wanted to eat,” Ruhlman said.

Cooking food is what has made us human and over the past 50 years, he suggested, as Americans, we’ve started taking more shortcuts and stopped cooking as often.  Despite a dedicated TV network that’s seen in nearly 100 million American homes according to the New York Times in 2009, we spend less time in the kitchen than ever before.  Take a chicken recipe in a cooking magazine today and see how the same recipe was prepared 10 years ago and you’ll see the time’s been cut in half (thanks to boneless, skinless chicken breasts that require little, cleaning or preparation).  Obesity is at epidemic levels. The environment and the oceans are in trouble. Cooking “is really, really important,” he said.  ”Cooking is fundamental to our humanity.”  And we should do it more often, write about it more often, no matter whether you’re blogging about cupcakes or more serious issues.

And with that, he drew a standing ovation from the crowd, which shortly thereafter retreated to the closing night event, where Ruhlman held a demonstration on how to properly cure and cook bacon.

A quick bit of transparency and disclosure before you read any further: my company works for the National Pork Board who was a sponsor of the closing event and obviously benefits from any pork (bacon or otherwise) that you decide to buy and eat as a result of this post. They have not asked me to write this post, the have they not influenced any of the content and they did not pay Michael Ruhlman to talk about bacon.  That, he was able to easily do on his own.

Bacon, he said, is a maligned meat.  It has a bad rap for a number of reasons, not the least of which is our perception as Americans about the role of fat in our diet.

Here’s what he had to say: Michael Ruhlman on Bacon and Fat

But more importantly than what he had to say about why it’s ok to eat bacon was what he had to say about how you can make your own bacon at home.  It’s not nearly as hard as I certainly thought…so check out his recipe about it here.  All you need is a piece of pork belly (any good butcher can get that for you he said) and some simple spices.  And time.  And a bit of water (yes, he put the cold bacon in a pan with tap water and brought it all to a boil before allowing all the water to evaporate and the bacon to cook).

Good luck dads … go make some bacon now!  And then you too can look this happy:

You can LISTEN TO CAST OF DADS # 33 BY CLICKING HERE.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Dad Labs goes to the Texas State Fair
• Chicken Fried Bacon
• SafeKids.org’s Demo Car
• Michael’s car shopping war stories
• Negotiating a car via e-mail?
• Saturn no hassle
• BMW Showrooms
• You can now buy cars at Costco
• That new car smell
• The Diaper Conspiracy
• Bullying
• Brad’s CSI
• The power of buddies
• Girls can be evil
• Never start a fight, but don’t ever lose one.
• Taping children to the wall
• Putting kids on leashes
• Brad is a killer harmonica player
• More Cowbell
• Updated sex study released
• Shooting pool with a rope
• Harold + Maude
• Cougars

If you have been enjoying the Cast of Dads Podcast please tell your friends about the show and subscribe to either our direct feed or via iTunes.  Also, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Cast of Dads is a group of podcasting and blogging dads who gather to gab about fatherhood. The cast of dads includes C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, who collectively represent 13 kids from the youngest of babies to full grown adults. Each of them brings a unique perspective to being a father.

Jeff Sass is the proud dad of ZEO (Zach, 22, Ethan, 20 and Olivia, 19).  He is also a seasoned entertainment and technology exec and active social media enthusiast.  You can see more of Jeff’s writing at Sassholes! and Social Networking Rehab and you can listen to Jeff on the Cast of Dads podcast.

Photo Credit: © caraman – Fotolia.com

As I write this, my wife, Rocky, is in Kenya. But she uses magic to be with us each day. She will be there for nine more days working at Saint Monica’s Childrens Home. I know this number, not because I’m good with math or because I am so lost without her that I’m counting the moments until she returns. Though the latter may be closer to the truth than I’d like to admit, I know it’s nine days because before she left, she made a countdown chart for the kids. It’s held by magnets on the front of our fridge. The kids love it.

Mom is magical.

I watched the kids play in our backyard for hours today. They were playing with a cheap croquet set that my wife purchased before she left. She hid it behind the curtains of a window we never use. She then led the kids to it with clues, extracted from an envelope that was taped to the pantry door. The instructions on the outside: “Open on Friday, 10/8, After dinner.” There are six envelopes with clues taped to that door. The kids love it.

Mom is magical.

On our kitchen table sits a jar with 10 folded pieces of paper. The outside of the jar reads, “Mom’s Thank You Fors.” Each little piece of paper contains something she’s thankful for while away. Each of our six kids takes turns reading one at dinner each night as we do our own “thank you fors.” The kids love it.

I’ve never been magical.

I’ve never made a countdown chart for any trip I’ve ever been on. I’ve never left clues to hidden treasures. I’ve never left my thank you fors in a jar. I’ve never tried to make sure I was there, even when I wasn’t. I’ve never even thought about it before this moment. I bet the kids would love it.

I should at least try to be magical.

The topic of bullying has always been important to me. I’ve seen the pain and anguish caused by bullying my whole life. Fortunately for me, I grew tall early in life so I avoided the torture of being the victim of most bullies but I still witnessed too many friends get picked on for years. I did get involved in many fights with bullies because I tried to help my friends.

Anyway, bullying seems to be getting worse these days thanks to social networks like facebook and twitter where bullies spread vicious rumors and embarrassing photos and videos with a massive audience. These ugly personal attacks spread like wildfire now. Unfortunately, increasing numbers of young people are driven to suicide sooner than ever because of the viral nature of these taughts and attacks. Here’s a clip of talk show host Ellen Degeneres addressing a recent news item involving a teenage boy who killed himself when a video was made of him with another boy and shared with many others.

No one is helping these kids. Ok, that might be untrue. There are many of us out there trying to help our kids but obviously not near enough of us. All parents, teachers, schools, coaches, and all adults involved with taking care of our children need to work together to help all children no matter what age. This means from pre-K to grade school and even all the way to college.

Here’s another sad news item that broke my heart and also infuriated me. 4 bullied teens from same Ohio school driven to suicide! This isn’t an isolated incident that has only impacted this school or even that community. This is an across the board  epidemic that continues to grow out of control. We need to get more involved with our own kids first and foremost. If they aren’t being bullied or abused in a relationship, then we must find out if they are the bullies or the abusers. Yes, it is a scary thought to think our own child could be the bad guy but every bully and abuser is someone’s child. If our children are neither, then they might be a witness to these attacks and they must step forward to be a part of the solution. If they don’t, then they will continue to be a part of the problem. Silence is the same as aiding and abating, thus making them an accomplice to these vicious actions. Our silence and inaction makes us accessories as well.

Call to Action

What can we do? I know we work or we’re swamped with endless activities with the house and activities for the kids, but we must get more involved. We must communicate even more not only with our kids but also their teachers and their coaches and other parents. We need to keep one another informed of any warning signs so we can do something when there’s still time to help.

Free Tools

It’s ironic that the same technology and networks that have made bullying worse can also help fight it. There are websites and applications that can help us and our kids find answers and help when they’re faced with a bully or abusive partner. One of them is from MTV called “A Thin Line” which is located at: http://www.athinline.org.  They also have a free iPhone app.

photo credit: Monica Arellano-Ongpin

Though I’m attending for work (disclosure: several of my firm’s companies are participating in the event), I’m looking forward to taking this on from a Dad-o-Matic perspective. Check back next week for the inside scoop!

Adam's cedar-planked Alaskan sockeye salmon (via Mario Batali's Babbo Cookbook)

You can LISTEN TO CAST OF DADS EPISODE 32 BY CLICKING HERE.

The topics discussed in this episode include:

• Brad’s youngest takes his first steps
• Are we expected to capture every special moment?
• Rutgers Student Suicide due to a webcam
• Technology amplifies hate
• Emily Explains It
• How much to share of our kids online?
• Pick-up Passwords
• Americas Most Wanted
• NBC’s Education Nation
• Waiting For Superman
• Thoughts on education
• Need for diversity in schools
• TED Video on Education
• Splash
• Paying for coaches, so why not teachers?
• UC Berkley Athletic cuts
• Rugby
• CNN coverage of Dads
• Daddy Clay calls out the perception of Dads
• Michael is creative shopping for a car

If you have been enjoying the Cast of Dads podcast, please tell your friends about the show and have them subscribe to either our direct feed or via iTunes. Also, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Cast of Dads is a group of podcasting and blogging dads who gather to gab about fatherhood. The cast of dads includes C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, who collectively represent 13 kids from the youngest of babies to full grown adults. Each of them brings a unique perspective to being a father.

Jeff Sass is the proud dad of ZEO (Zach, 22, Ethan, 20 and Olivia, 19).  He is also a seasoned entertainment and technology exec and active social media enthusiast.  You can see more of Jeff’s writing at Sassholes! and Social Networking Rehab and you can listen to Jeff on the Cast of Dads podcast.



In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other.

In the following years they replicated the experiment in other parts of India, urban and rural, with similar results, challenging some of the key assumptions of formal education. The “Hole in the Wall” project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher,an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge. Mitra, who’s now a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (UK), calls it “minimally invasive education.”

If nothing else, this charming and enlightening video will open your eyes to the fact that kids are kids, no matter where and under what circumstances they live… and it may change the way you think about learning and appreciate even more the power of the Internet and the vast information accessible to us thanks to technology and our truly connected world.  As an added bonus there is a brief appearance by the late, great author Arthur C. Clarke, who eloquently says, “A Teacher who can be replaced by a machine, should be…” and “… when you have interest, you will have education.”  Please take a few minutes to watch.  You won’t be disappointed.  Oh, and I found an interesting tidbit on Wikipedia: “The Hole in the Wall experiment has left a mark on popular culture. Indian diplomat Vikas Swarup read about Mitra’s experiment and was inspired to write his debut novel Q & A – this subsequently went on to become the movie Slumdog Millionaire.”

What do you think? Can children with a computer and the Internet really teach themselves?  Do your kids learn on their own from the Internet?

Jeff Sass is the proud dad of ZEO (Zach, 22, Ethan, 20 and Olivia, 19).  He is also a seasoned entertainment and technology exec and active social media enthusiast.  You can see more of Jeff’s writing at Sassholes! and Social Networking Rehab and you can listen to Jeff on the Cast of Dads podcast.