Trash Talk

This book looks at the waste products humans create and how they affect the environment. Young readers learn why what you don’t see can hurt you...and also understand the innovative steps they can take now and in the future to make a difference in meeting the challenges posed by the planet’s garbage crisis.

“You’re mad at me, but I am killing you.”—NBA star Gary Payton “Find the hate.”—NFL star Warren Sapp “Why can’t you be more like Rafi Kohan?”—your mom, probably Whether in basketball, football, or MMA, athletes talk trash to each other—and sometimes to fans—like it’s their job. And in some ways, it is: sports only matter if we decide to care about them. And insulting your opponent, or playing the heel, is probably the fastest route to making someone care. Talking smack is as old as the bible; it’s perhaps the original sport. But until now, there’s never been a book about it. In this lively, often hilarious history, Rafi Kohan interviews some of the world’s top competitors—on the petty rivalries and mind games that fuel them. He talks to point guards and soccer strikers, cricketers and insult comedians, forming a theory along the way about the surprising and influential role that name-calling plays in our world. Brilliantly original and wide-ranging, Trash Talk is a book for sports fans, culture mavens, or anyone looking to get an edge.

I want to talk to you. I mean, I want to really talk to you. There is someone in your life who talks a lot of trash. It could be a friend, a brother or sister, a parent, an enemy, a frenemy, a celebrity, a politician, or some random person who is on your last nerve. This person flies under the radar. Her little comments, suggestions, and gestures get under your skin. You heard it. You know you heard it. It felt like a jab, a crack, a shot, but you cant put your finger on it. When he talks to you, you feel attacked, shamed, uncomfortable, or a little bit smaller. This book will help you spot the trash talk, and even better, this book will help you understand the trash talker. I hope you picked up this book because you are the trash talker in your life. Thats right. You. It probably is you, isnt it? Why? Because, I wrote this book for you. I also wrote it for me. Im a trash talker too. Weve all done our share of trash talking. Trash talk is everywhere. And surprise! Well do it again because no one is perfect.

North Americans are overwhelmed by the immense environmental problems our world faces yet studies report that 66% would do more if they knew it had a measurable impact. Psychologists have long known that simply performing one small step will aid in defining a positive outlook on life and will inspire further participation from the individual.Trash Talk is about changing people's mind-sets by providing thought-provoking ideas that inspire readers to participate from the ground level in their waste reduction efforts. All the ideas are relatively simple and do not require any special skills or tools.

A lively investigation of the intimate connections we maintain with the things we toss away It's hard to think of trash as anything but a growing menace. Our communities face crises over what to do with the mountains of rubbish we produce, the enormous amount of biological waste generated by humans and animals, and the truckloads of electronic equipment judged to be obsolete. All this effluvia poses widespread problems for human health, the well-being of the planet, and the quality of our lives. But though our notorious habits of disposal have put us well on the way to making the earth inhospitable to life, our relation to rejectamenta includes much more than shedding and tossing. In Trash Talks, philosopher Elizabeth V. Spelman explores the extent to which we rely on trash and waste to make sense of our lives. Examples are rich: We use people's rubbish to gain information about them. We trumpet wastefulness as a means of signaling social status. We take the occupation of handling trash and garbage as revelatory of possible moral or spiritual shortcomings. We are intrigued by or in distress over the idea that evolution is a prodigiously wasteful process and that it is to the dustbin that each of us, and our species, shall ultimately repair. In the heaps of our trash, some see consequences of dissatisfaction, while others find confirmation of a flourishing consumer economy. While we may want to shove debris and detritus out of sight, many of our most impassioned projects involve keeping these objects resolutely in mind. Trash talks, and there is much of which it speaks.

Humans have always generated garbage, whether it’s a chewed-on bone or a broken cell phone. Our landfills are overflowing, but with some creative thinking, stuff we once threw away can become a collection of valuable resources just waiting to be harvested. Trash Talk digs deep into the history of garbage, from Minoan trash pits to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and uncovers some of the many innovative ways people all over the world are dealing with waste.

This fascinating reference offers a unique take on recycling and trash, tracing the role of waste in public health, climate change, and sustainability around the world. As the popularity of sustainability grows and climate change becomes an accepted reality, experts point to trash and waste as the link between environmental and public health. This detailed reference—one of the most comprehensive resources available on the subject—examines garbage disposal on a global level, from the history of waste management, to the rise of green movements and recycling programs, to the environmental problems caused by incineration and overflowing landfills. According to urban planning scholar Robert William Collin, accounting for waste will improve the chances for environmental protection, public health, and sustainability. This country-by-country guide studies waste management practices and related topics from around the world, including garbage strikes in Italy, successful recycling programs in Switzerland, trash in the streets of India, and the garbage patch floating in the Pacific Ocean. Country entries cover a brief history of garbage disposal, current methods of removal, recycling, and waste management problems specific to the region. Additional content addresses air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, E-waste, and hazardous and nuclear wastes.

When The Phil Donahue Show topped the ratings in 1979, it ushered in a new era in daytime television. Mixing controversial social issues, light topics, and audience participation, it created a new genre, one that is still flourishing, despite being harshly criticized, over two decades later. Now, the daytime TV landscape is littered with talk shows. But why do people watch these shows? How do they make sense of them? And how do these shows affect their viewers' sense of what constitutes appropriate public debate? In Talking Trash, Julie Engel Manga offers a fascinating exploration of these questions and reveals the wide range of reasons viewers are drawn to “trash talk.” Focusing on such shows as Oprah!, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Jenny Jones, and Maury Povitch, and drawing upon interviews with women who watch these shows, Talking Trash is the first examination of the talk show phenomenon from the viewers’ perspective. In taking this approach, Manga is able to understand what talk shows mean to the women who watch them. And by refusing to judge either the shows or their viewers as good or bad, she is able to grasp how viewers relate to these shows-as escape, entertainment, uninhibited public discourse, or an accurate reflection of their own hardships and heartaches. Manga concludes that while the form of “trash-talk” shows may be relatively new, the socio-cultural experience they embody has been with us for a long time. Absorbing, entertaining, and keenly perceptive, Talking Trash illuminates the complex viewer response to “trash talk” and examines the cultural politics surrounding this wildly controversial popular phenomenon.