# What Would You Teach the World? (I asked Twitter and got amazing answers)

- Show: [Stillness in the Storms](https://stillnessinthestorms.com/), a podcast with Steven Webb
- Episode: 56
- Published: 5 April 2021
- Length: 18:38 (about 19 minutes)
- Subject: Love, Empathy & Other People
- Web page: https://stillnessinthestorms.com/episode/what-would-you-teach-the-world-i-asked-twitter-and-got-amazing-answers
- Listen: [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-would-you-teach-the-world-i-asked-twitter-and/id1467889656?i=1000515867914), [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/5Q4LN7Ev2CwTMzxj8jlFmN), [MP3](https://podcasts.captivate.fm/media/1fdaf66e-6c91-4019-9255-fb7afc80cca3/56-teach-the-world-one-thing-final-with-music.mp3)

If you could teach the whole world one thing, what would it be? I asked Twitter and read out every answer. Not one person said maths.

To fish. Be kind. Communication. Gratitude, which took a surprisingly long time to come up. Your ego is not your amigo. And my favourite, crochet, because it is relaxing, therapeutic and you end up with a blanket. I read out some genuinely good news first as well, because the world is not only going downhill, whatever it feels like.

**One thing to try:** Answer it yourself. One thing, for everybody. See what actually comes out.

## In this episode

- (0:04) Doing something a bit different this week
- (1:28) The world is not only going downhill, and here is the proof
- (3:17) Hydrogen planes, and a fifty seater on the way
- (5:46) The Twitter question, and the answers starting to come in
- (7:19) To fish, and why we need all sorts of teachers
- (10:39) Your ego is not your amigo
- (13:01) Be kind, do not be an idiot, and crochet
- (15:56) Not one answer was a school subject

Support the podcast and join the Weekly Calm: [stevenwebb.uk](https://stevenwebb.uk)

Thank you for listening.

Steven

## The question this answers

If you could teach the whole world one thing, what would it be?

I put that to my followers on Twitter without any plan to make an episode of it, got about sixty answers, and read out every single one.

## The heart of it

- Nobody said maths. Nobody said English. Sixty answers and not one school subject.
- Almost everything people chose lives in the heart rather than the head.
- The best answer of the lot was a word I had never heard before.

The obvious ones came in waves. Love, from a good dozen people. Kindness, from as many again. Confidence. Forgiveness. Trusting your instincts. Manners, which my parents said cost you nothing and are still saying to me now.

Then the practical ones, which I liked more than I expected. To fish. Guitar. Swimming. Graphic design. How to negotiate. Golf cart battery maintenance, which came from somebody who sells golf cart batteries, and fair enough. The world needs all its skills or there is a hole where one used to be.

Some I keep thinking about. Talk to your body in a grateful and encouraging way. Make your identity your strength. Your ego is not your amigo. The value of your own time, which is one I recognise in myself and do badly at.

Gratitude took nearly the whole list to come up, which surprised me.

My favourite for sheer honesty was crochet, because it is oddly relaxing, therapeutic, and you end up with a blanket.

And then the one that stopped me. Sonder.

> The realisation that each random passer by is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

That is the whole spiritual journey in one word.

I also read out some genuinely good news at the start, from Positive News, because the world is not only ever going downhill whatever it feels like. Beavers back in Wales after four hundred years. A Scottish community buying five thousand acres to turn into a nature reserve.

## One small thing to try

Answer it yourself. One thing, for everybody. See what actually comes out.

Then notice which department it came from. Almost nobody reaches for the things we spent eleven years being taught. Useful as those are, we do not live from there.

## Questions people ask

### Why does it matter what people picked?

Because the pattern is the finding. Sixty people, no coordination, and almost all of it about how to treat yourself and each other. That tells you what we all know we are short of.

### What is sonder?

The realisation that every stranger you pass has a life as full and complicated as yours. It is not an old word, and it does more work than most old ones.

### What would you teach?

Take a deep breath, slow down, and stop talking. Then live from the heart rather than the head. I am aware of the irony of saying that at the end of eighteen minutes of talking.

## Transcript

[0:04] Hey, how's it going this week? I'm Steven Webb and this is Stillness in the Storms podcast. And this week I'm going to do something a little different. And if you guys like it, I think I'll do it more often. But before we get on to that, today's show is what one thing would you teach the world? I put out to my Twitter followers this question and I got about 60 responses. And some of them were really fascinated. Some of them were... Very much what I would say. Very much the things I would like to teach the world. And some of them were just a little different. And I love them. They're so they're so honest and so awesome that I I just wanted to do a podcast sharing them with you guys. And I want you to think about while I go through the list a little later in the podcast, what you would teach the world. But before that, I said I wanted to do something a little bit different. And I'm going to tell you some positive news stories this week. And I found a website. And they don't sponsor this podcast in any way. They don't even know I regularly go to their website. It's called Positive.news. I think most weeks they do an article that basically the positive news this week. I just wanted to go through a couple of them.

[1:21] And I just think it's a really nice thing to do. As well as a nice thing, it's like nice to have news that picks us up. Very often we think the world's dire and it's always going downhill and it's always getting worse. And that's just not the case actually. There's many things that are happening in the world that are positive and pushing the world in the right direction and We don't focus on that enough. So I'm going to. And the first one is Netflix committed to a net zero emissions. So Netflix, you no longer have to feel guilty about binge watching Netflix because as from next year, 2022, and I like this because it's ambitious. So from next year, they're going to be net zero. So they're going to offset some carbon and they're going to make sure they move to all electric vehicles, Led lighting they're going to Cut international travel. They're going to employ people locally and all that. So they're going to do all sorts. So that's what that's the first good positive news story. The next one is a little closer to home for me. Beavers were reintroduced in wells After 400 years, they were wiped out across most of the Uk. In actual fact if not all of the Uk, I think. I might need to check on that one. But an adult male and his offspring has been released into the cause die feed National Reserve in Powers this week. So that's good. You know, we need beavers that They are the natural keepers of the waterways. And they build up habitats and everything like that. And they prevent flooding. And just driving them out of the waterways like we have really doesn't help. And I'm in a city that suffers from flooding and I think we've introduced beavers just outside of Truro I might be wrong on that, but I think we have down at daubers somewhere But anyway um I digress. Another good news.

[3:18] Hydrogen planes were scheduled for takeoff. So a startup company, Zero Avia, a us uk aviation company, claimed it's ambitious for a 50 seat hydrogen plane to be propelled towards, they've just received 24.3 million dollars funding that is going to help them to deliver by 2026. So a plane that isn't putting any more chemicals in the atmosphere. How awesome is that? I don't understand why we don't have more hydrogen cars and hydrogen and everything. So you might wonder, what has this got to do with stillness in the storms? Isn't this exactly what stillness in the storms is? There'll be a good news in the middle of the storm. Google Maps is to show eco-friendly routes from now on. In America, especially at the moment, I think it's going to come out to the rest of the world. When you put in a journey in your car and all that, it's going to show the most eco-friendly way of getting there, avoiding hills, avoiding things like that. There are more than 900 blue plaques on buildings across London, but pitiful few, just 14 are dedicated to women in a bid to... Even this out. English Heritage has been calling on public to nominate female candidates. And it was announced that Princess Diana, Ellen Craft are among the women to be remembered. Diana would have celebrated her 60th birthday this year.

[4:50] It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah. Anyway. And finally, conservationists achieved the impossible in Scotland. A community in Scotland has completed one of the country's largest ever grassroots land buyout and is now turning the estate into a nature reserve. They basically fundraised 3.8 million pounds to buy 5 200 acres of land. How cool is that? And they're gonna make it into a nature reserve. We need more of that, don't we? We need more of our land looking after. So that's the positive news and you can head over to positive.news. It's a great website and it's so much better to sit and listen to that or sit and read that while I'm eating my lunch as opposed to go to the other news stories that tend to be quite negative.

[5:44] So yeah, on to today's podcast. Okay, I've got a list and I haven't got this in any particular order. I was going through them and I just really enjoyed. Reading the results. And I didn't know that I was going to do a podcast when I put it out there. I just basically asked a question. If you had to teach someone one thing, what would you teach? And I was quite overwhelmed by the amount of response, actually. I was quite blown away. So I'm going to go through a few of the names and I will go through a few of the results and give you my thoughts. And I'll give you my thoughts at the end. It was quite interesting, actually, some of them. So the first one, Lynn lassad Talk to your body in grateful and encouraging way. Oh yes, we don't do that often enough, do we? We all need to look at ourselves sometimes and go, do you know what? This is the body I've got and I should love it and appreciate it a little more. And there's a rizuka Yuka says, help people who are in need in any way we can, no matter who you are, who they are. Yeah, I like that. And help them no matter who they are. I think that's the key there. And then quite a few people said love or love in some way, loving ourselves or love is everything. Nancy, Jennifer, Mama Martin, Suzanne, Dawn, Cola, Zara.

[7:07] And a few other people said about confidence as well. Josephine was one of them. Building up confidence and teaching confidence. And I think that would make a big impact on the world. If only my life were that simple. I suppose to fish. Philly Cheese Eagle says to fish. I like that. You know, teach the world something. I would teach the world to fish we need all sorts of different people to teach all sorts of different things, don't we? It's no good everybody teaching one thing because there's going to be a huge void in skills. And a few, Lorraine and Caroline Babs Charlotte and Catherine all said a similar thing to to be kind. To be kind to one another. Kindness in some way. And absolutely. Yvette says to love ourselves. Yes. Understand his or her feelings. This is important jose says to understand other people's feelings. And our own, of course.

[8:05] And a few people mentioned about God. Teach people about God and religion. And not that I would be a big advocate of religion, but I think everything needs to be included in some way. Mark says a golf cart battery maintenance, of course I I think his account is, that's exactly what they do. Sell batteries for golf carts. But yeah, absolutely we need golf cart battery maintenance. Of course. Who doesn't need that in a world going forward? A few people also mention forgiveness. It's necessary for inner peace. And there's no peace without forgiveness. And trusting our instincts. Tedra, Maggie, Brian all mention that in some way. Dark Side Johnny. Dark Side Johnny. He says, Guitar. Teach people guitar. Yes. What would the world be without guitar players? It would be a lot dollar that's for sure. Smiley Rose says, Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose. That's a quote by Lyndon B. Johnson. Yes, absolutely.

[9:15] And a few other people said about truth. To be true to oneself. And the art had been honest paul paulette strofa Martin The art had been honest. Tony mayor says manners. Yeah, that's my parents used to say all the time. Manners, dear boy, cost you nothing. I think I've still got my parents to say that to me now, actually. Where's the please? Where's the thank you? Melanie says, finding the capacity, the depth of understanding and sharing compassionate love. Yes, I love that. Definitely. Make your identity your strength. Shafiq says, yeah, make your identity your strength. I cannot pronounce this guy's name or this person's name. My son, the power of being selfless. I like that. The power of being selfless. Selfless. So make it about other people jesson says swimming.

[10:21] Swimming. I like that. How to negotiate, Gary says. The value of one's time. Yeah. We don't value our time enough, do we? We spend time just wasting time doing stuff. Procrastinating, avoiding life. We just don't value our time enough. I I really do. Yeah. I resonate with that one. Graphic Design. Yeah, we need that, Ezra. The Ego is Not Your Amigo. Your Ego is Not Your Amigo. I like that true jello I I don't know the first his first name or their first name. Positive One says Empathy. Amicable Comedian says Forex Trading. Yeah, we need that. I don't know if we need it, but yeah, it would be handy someone that in Forex Trading. The Unusual Buddha says meditation. Oh, I'm in agreement there. I think meditation would lead to many of these other things.

[11:26] Meditation leads to loving ourselves, loving others, empathy for others, growing strength, being selfless. Meditation teaches many of these things. Perhaps not guitar or battery maintenance, but it certainly grows. It certainly will grow wisdom in many other areas. Baby Bear and Dg dg Edai says love yourself. And shabu says self-respect arpin says and this is the first time gratitude's come up, which is quite interesting. We've only got about 10 to go, and it's quite interesting that gratitude took so long to come up arpin beg date says a sense of gratitude. Yes. Monica, to fight for freedom. Yeah, we need that. If you didn't have anybody fighting for freedom, we would all get... We would lose our freedoms, I guess. Life in Colorado says to simply always be polite. Comes back to the manners though and simply always be polite. Yes. If you haven't got nothing good to say, don't say anything at all. And it comes down to the kindness again. It's Just Me says common sense. Difficult one that because common sense is relative.

[12:38] And one person's common sense is not another person's common sense based on your experience in life. But I know where they're going for I know where they're going. I apologize now. This one's got a swear word. Judy Jewell says, don't fuck up other people's spirit. Yay all. I'm probably not saying that in the right accent. Be kind. That's it. Don't fuck up other people's spirit. You all. Be kind. That's it. Oh, I agree. Yes. Don't be an asshole. Ashley. Crochet. It's oddly relaxing, therapeutic and you can make sick blankets. That has to be my favourite and I love the way she's put it and my carer would say the same thing because if you ever see my video sometimes I'm wearing these awesome colored hats and one of my carers knits me them. I don't know if it's crochet or knitting. I have no idea but And Ashley says, crochet.

[13:38] It's oddly relaxing, therapeutic, and you can make sick blankets. How cool is that? Yvonne doughty says liberation psychology. Oh yes, freedom. Freedom of the mind. Liberation. And my teacher, Jun Po, says, your angst is your liberation. Yeah, I would go with that. Counsellor Moore says, Stop. There is power in the pause. Breathe. Yes. The power of the pause. Cheryl always says that. Yeah, totally. Dr. At Legal says, If people didn't want things this way, they would stop doing it. Hmm. If people didn't want things this way, they would stop doing it. I guess that's in reference to teach people to change their habits, change what they're doing. You know, if you're not happy with your life, do something about it. And Dami says, communication and networking.

[14:41] Communication and networking. And here's my ultimate favourite. And it's by Chris Brock. And I got to thank you, Chris, for this. It's a wonderful word. And it's one of those words that... You see and you look up the meaning of and you just go, yes, that's it. And the word sonder. S-o-n-d-e-r. Sonder. And it means the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. The realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid. And as complex as your own. How beautiful is that?

[15:32] Imagine how much that would lead to in freedoms and in love and self-respect and carelessness and kindness, compassion for others, that every passerby is living a vivid and complex life as your own. Wow. I think that just goes right to the heart of um the spiritual journey. Yes. And what's interesting is not one of those things about teaching. Comes up with English or maths or drama or It's just interesting those school lessons just don't come into bearing when it comes to real life. We leave school with these academic subjects. These very head subjects.

[16:25] But it's not from the head that you live your life. It's from your heart you live your life. It's from your whole body. And it isn't until you start living your life from your heart. That things really start making sense. The world starts making sense. The universe starts making sense. Others start making sense to us too. Nobody's totally wrong and nobody's totally right, including us. We recognise that we're all deeply perfect and deeply flawed. We recognise that everybody is looking for the same thing. Everybody wants to be loved. Everybody's trying to prove something to somebody. And no amount of English and maths is ever going to do is ever going to teach that. But they're valuable subjects to have the valuable subjects to have, especially when you're counting your money or when you're having to read a book. So that's my podcast this week. And let me know... By way of replying, if I post this on Twitter or post this on Facebook, please reply with your thoughts. And you can always go over to StevenWebb.com and message me and let me know what you think. I love having feedback. And you can always, if you're not up for typing and I'll always just go over to StevenWebb.com. Book him for a virtual coffee, 15 minutes, no charge. And he'll come up with a time in your time zone. And you pick a time and then... We can hook up and I can meet you. I love meeting new people. Give me your thoughts. Tell me what you would teach the world.

[18:01] What would I teach the world? Take a deep breath, slow down and just stop talking. Live from the heart. So on that note, stop talking. I love you guys and namaste.

---

Every episode of Stillness in the Storms is listed at https://stillnessinthestorms.com/llms.txt. Weekly Calm, one calm email from Steven every Sunday: https://stevenwebb.com/newsletter/