Which outdated technology do you miss the most, and why?

I miss cassette tapes.

The concept of recording songs off the radio is a lost phenomenon. Radio is almost a lost phenomenon at this point. All is now Spotify and Apple Music, and there’s no spontaneously hearing a song and recording it. Instead, I buy music off of Apple Music if I want it permanently or borrow it as long as I never leave Apple Music.

Mix tapes are not really a thing anymore. I can make a mix tape on Apple Music, but I can’t easily share it. I can share the playlist with someone, but they have to go and buy the music. I can’t share with someone who isn’t on Apple Music. I don’t know if Spotify is any different.

There was a certain democratization of music back in the days of cassette tapes. The quality of the music was poor when we recorded off the radio, but we didn’t really notice because of our lower expectations with AM radio.

I’m not one for nostalgia, and I know there are great advantages with services like Apple Music and Spotify, especially the sound quality. But I miss the old-fashioned mix tape and the heartfelt communication it represents.

Are you a lifelong learner?

I am a lifelong learner. I have to be to do my job. Being a professor means having a body of knowledge and updating it so we can be experts.

In addition, I am a voracious reader of articles. Some of what I read is really lowbrow, like those emotional heartbreak stories with a missing ending on Facebook. Others are informative stories about current events. And I will read anything medical I can get my hands on, and that’s how I know the cyclospora epidemic started with Taylor Farms’ bagged iceberg lettuce.

I want to learn calculus, the one class I nearly failed in college. I want to learn molecular biology, because I think it’s amazing that complex life came from one-celled organisms and my cells reflect that. I’d like to learn carpentry because I think my mother wanted me to marry a carpenter (didn’t happen, even though I’ve known a lot of people who did carpentry).

I don’t understand people who don’t want to learn. Curiosity is an innate human trait in most people, and I think we need to ignore our better nature if we decide not to learn.

What’s a lesson you’ve learned recently that shifted your perspective?

When I was growing up, I thought the United States was the best place on Earth to live. Over the years, my perspective has shifted, and recently, it has shifted rapidly.

When I was young, the country was Fourth of July celebrations and ice cream parlors. I was obviously naive back then, because it also was racism and the Vietnam War. Those things were far away from the rural childhood of a perpetual optimist.

As I grew up, I saw the downsides, but I comforted myself by saying “At least we’re trying to be our best.” It was a comforting idea, and there was plenty of evidence. Even as recently as Obama’s election, there was room to hope that America stood for true equality, at least in its ideals.

With Trump being voted into office twice, I have no illusions anymore. His very campaign promise was to take away from the people his constituents couldn’t stand. The opposite of equality. He has fulfilled this promise in a thousand petty acts on the national and international levels. His definition of freedom is predicated on it being granted to his sycophants, white nationalists and supremacists. As a country, we are bullies. We are no longer the good guys.

I think about moving to Canada, but I don’t have the independent wealth I would need. I don’t have the skills they need and I am too close to retirement. I don’t know if a blue wave would be enough to restore the country. I doubt it — the hatred is still here, still will survive. I do not live in the best country in the world

Which languages do you speak and how did that impact your life?

People in the US do languages wrong. We don’t teach other languages until junior high or high school, when children have more difficulty in learning them. I took French for two years in high school, and I barely know enough to get to the bathroom. I don’t know verb tenses, and I don’t know many verbs in the first place. But I have the first conversation in the French textbook memorized:

Bonjour, Guy.

Bonjour, Michel. Ca va?

Oui, ca va.

(My keyboard does not do cedillas.)

I also can say “Shall we go to the beach?” In French, which will come in handy perhaps never.

It disadvantages me that I do not speak other languages. Not only in international travel, but the fact that the more languages one knows, the easier one can learn new languages. So a lifetime of facility in languages has been denied me.

I went to graduate school with people who knew five languages. In many African countries, this is apparently the norm. I envied them their ability to communicate. I still do. The American Way is not ideal.

What’s the best advice you’d give to someone younger than you?

When I was in high school, I participated in various extracurricular activities. I tried out for school plays and musicals, I participated in the Madrigals group, and I even spent 20 minutes in track (I quit while I was ahead). I wanted to do these things and I found a sense of belongingness while doing them. They also helped me get into the University of Illinois.

When I was in college, however, I didn’t participate in groups or clubs. At the university, I was a small fish in a big pond and the size of the pond intimidated me. University of Illinois had about 40,000 students in 1981, and the groups were full of talented people with greater drive than I had.

As a professor, I encourage my students to participate in extracurricular activities, and I envy them their participation. I really feel I should have continued my participation in something during college, anything. Even if I was a tiny fish in the ocean.

So the advise I would give to someone younger than me is “get involved.” Whatever appeals — theater or chorus, political organizations or speaking clubs, sports or role-playing — participate.

What’s your top tip to be successful in life?

My top tip to be successful in life is simple: Be curious.

Curiosity is what brings us to the things we are interested in; the things we want to do. I can’t think about success without interest; I can’t think of interest without curiosity.

Curiosity is what drives us to learn. I can’t think of success without learning, either. And I can’t think of learning without curiosity.

Curiosity is what gets me up in the morning and drives my reading, my writing, my experiences. I want to know. And everything I learn opens up an avenue. Some I pursue, some I do not.

Being curious moves me forward. Without curiosity, I am an inert lump on a couch. Which is the opposite of successful.

I highly recommend being curious.