Dr. Peter J. Weiss

Today I’d like to talk to you about our news and infor­ma­tion media, where we get our infor­ma­tion. I’m talk­ing about TV, radio, mag­a­zines, the inter­net, things like that.  Where do you get your infor­ma­tion? It mat­ters because that’s where we get our health infor­ma­tion from, too.

So how good is the health infor­ma­tion you’re get­ting? Even if it’s good, is it help­ing you change your life? Because if it’s not help­ing you change your life, even if it’s good infor­ma­tion, it’s not doing you any good. And the whole idea, I think, of get­ting infor­ma­tion is to have it do you some good.

I’ve recently been asked to do some inter­views on radio and TV and they’ve been very, very short. “Dr. Pete, we’d like to talk to you about child­hood obe­sity in two min­utes and we’re going to ask you three ques­tions.” OK.  Pub­lic­ity is great, but how are three answers on child­hood obe­sity in two min­utes really going to help any par­ents out there change their fam­ily?  Look at how they’re liv­ing and be able to help them­selves and their kids get bet­ter? Prob­a­bly not too much.

We have a sound bite cul­ture. We’re look­ing for very quick, short snip­pets of infor­ma­tion, and it’s just not really help­ful. It’s not going to help us change our lives, which is what we need to do. So I’m really not look­ing to do that any­more. I’m look­ing to con­nect with you on a deeper level and do much more than enter­tain you.

That’s where a lot of our media comes down to today – enter­tain­ment. I’m look­ing to edu­cate you.  And beyond edu­ca­tion, to enlighten you — give you new ways of see­ing things.  And beyond enlight­en­ment, to empower you — to give you what you need to actu­ally take charge of your health and make improve­ments to become healthy and well. Isn’t that what you want?

It’s going to take longer than two min­utes.  It’s going to take some focus and con­cen­tra­tion on your part.  And some study and some research in build­ing a plan that you can use in your life.  You’re really not going to get that on the aver­age radio or TV show on health and well­ness. But that’s what I’m going to try to do with these videos.  That’s what I’m going to try to do on my blog.  That’s what I’m going to try to do on the new web­site I’m build­ing.

I’m going to start a radio show, and we’re going to stick with top­ics for a long time.  That way more peo­ple can really lis­ten, get some new insights and empower them­selves to take charge of their health and well­ness. So stay tuned, and keep watch­ing. And we’ll try to have a con­ver­sa­tion.

If there are top­ics that you’d like me to address, drop me an email on the web­site, and if you hap­pen to be one of those enlight­ened TV or radio pro­duc­ers out there, you’d like to do a long inter­view or a long show about how peo­ple can actu­ally change their lives, give me a call, I’d love to talk to you.