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A Conversation Across 67 Years

A Conversation Across 67 Years

Ernie, 80 and Cedar, 13, show off the rocks they decorated with symbols based on their conversation.Last month, I traveled to Chautauqua, a 150-year-old institute in western New York that brings thousands of people together for summer programs focused on lifelong...

Overheard on Text: The Diversity Nobody Wants to Measure

Overheard on Text: The Diversity Nobody Wants to Measure

As colleagues from different generations (X and millennial), Marci Alboher and Duncan Magidson have been leading talks and workshops sharing their insights about working across generations. As they plan, they often text furiously, sharing ideas and reflections. In...

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Joe Garagiola

National Spit Tobacco Education Program
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006

Educating the baseball family and the public about the dangers of smokeless tobacco

Half a century ago, Joe Garagiola played baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals and witnessed firsthand the danger of “spit” tobacco use. Since then, the anti-tobacco movement has grown in strength, yet the focus has largely been on cigarettes. In the mid-90s, Garagiola became chair of the National Spit Tobacco Education Program and decided to use professional baseball players to educate kids and their parents on the dangers of chewing tobacco. His goal was to help ballplayers quit their use of spit tobacco, and then enlist them, their trainers, their managers, and broadcast media to send the message that the stimulant has no place in baseball, athletics, or a healthy lifestyle. Garagiola’s work is paying off, as several star players with the power of influence have become vocal advocates of the program, and tobacco use among American youth and adults continues to drop at a significant rate. The recent first time decline in U.S. cancer deaths has been attributed in large part to the decline in tobacco use and exposure.