Author: CareContent Team

The Top 15 Digital Marketing Terms For Healthcare Organizations

Black History Month 2022: Black Health And Wellness

From Our Team To Yours, Happy Thanksgiving

At CareContent, we are obsessed with work-life balance, so we know how important it is to spend time with your loved ones and to take a break from your daily routine. Thanksgiving is the perfect time of year to love on your family and friends— and enjoy some great food while you’re at it. It is also a great reminder that even with all of life’s challenges, there is plenty to be grateful for.

4 Websites That Say “Nope”: Lessons In Good Web Design

In my industry, we call it your “bounce rate”: the percentage of visitors who land on your homepage, then hop on down the bunny trail to some other website.

That means they never click on any of your links. Never look around. Never get to know who you are. And never become your client.

What causes it? Many things, even just typing in the wrong web address. But visitors also tend to switch channels when they see outdated content, eccentric design, links drowning in a sea of copy … visual blunders.

This is why smart web design is so important.

Good Web Design Gets You Good Metrics … Relatively Speaking

Now, it’s true that about 55% of people spend 15 seconds or fewer on most webpages. So don’t feel bad if your bounce rate is high. We all seem to have a shorter attention span than a goldfish these days.

On the other hand, some websites do hold visitors longer. What’s a “good” span of time? Viewers who spend 3 minutes on your website are twice as likely to return as viewers who spent just 1 minute there, researchers have found.

Three minutes. Not really a long time. So, here’s the question: How do you grab them?

Generally, your website has to:

• Interest your target audience
• Answer questions with up-to-date content
• Inspire trust
• Be easy to use
• Be visually attractive, with things like bullet points (see what I did there?)

You can find dozens of tips to make a website user-friendly on the web. But it starts by asking a basic question: At first glance, what does our website say about us, as an organization?

That said, here are 4 statements to avoid at all costs.

1. “We forgot to take our Adderall.”

This is the Yale University School of Art, so we’ll give them a pass for the, er, outre design. However, a business needs to be more “Bill Gates” and less “Andy Warhol,” obviously. Being taken seriously is kind of a prerequisite to inspiring trust.

Here’s a far more powerful design from Cardinal Health’s website:

A splash of color, some beautiful imagery, and a message that goes to the heart. Nothing wrong with this artistic approach.

The takeaway: It’s best if “artful” is also tasteful.

2. “We’ll give you 3 guesses to figure out what we do here. Ha! Strike one.”

This is AintWet.com, and it takes several clicks to understand what they’re actually selling. (It’s hats and T-shirts, by the way. I think.)

This website is an extreme example of a communication breakdown. Forget brand identity: Your website can’t make any statement at all if the nature of your business isn’t clear.

That seems obvious, but it’s a basic step that gets overlooked. Compare Aintwet to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital:

They could have picked a generic hospital building. Instead, they picked a kid. This really says “we’re all about children,” and it hits a home run. (Bonus points for matching the kid’s shirt with the U.S. News and World Report badge.)

The takeaway: Your website should communicate who you are, instantly.

3. “Working with us is as exciting as watching paint dry.”

I don’t know Suzanne Collins, and I’m sure she’s a nice woman. But glancing at her website, you’d never know she authored the best-selling novel The Hunger Games.

You’ve got a great company with great people, products, and services. Don’t turn visitors off with a boring “opening act.” Put on your top hat and coattails, and have some stage presence.

When you get a second, pay a visit to Clarity.io:

Air quality data could be boring. So could the technology that measures it. But Clarity launched a website with sparkling filaments, spinning globes, orbiting electrons, and other eye-catching animation. The Clarity website even won an award this year.

The takeaway: Even a “dry” product or service doesn’t have to mean a dull website. The sky’s the limit on design.

4. “Walk into our lobby and you might see Granny Clampett in a rocking chair.”

This is Mortimer Lumber, a company in Michigan. If their website works for them, more power to them. But I wouldn’t recommend rolling out the “ye olde jalopy” look for your own website.

There are fine antiques, and then there’s old junk. Here are a few signs your website is evoking the Internet’s “Wild West” days from the early ’90s:

• Busy, jumbled pages
• Flash animation
• Tiny fonts
• Wild colors
• Slow loading
• The word “welcome” on your homepage
• No call to action
• A lack of responsive design for tablets and smartphones (Google actually penalizes you for this)

If you’re going for a “classic” look, try something like this, from Kraud.de:

Basic, but sleek and beautiful. Just enough color to make you click. This website got it right.

Granted, Kraud is a home decor firm, so they’re starting with a visual advantage. But your website can soar creatively, too. Ask a web designer about the possibilities.

The takeaway: Simple, elegant web design is always welcome to the eye.

In the end, it’s your website. You can do whatever you want with it. But when you have only a few seconds to capture a visitor’s interest, it’s important to make an instant impression.

Your website says everything about you. Let it make a statement that says, “We’re smart, we’re savvy, we’re on top of the world. And we’re the company you want.”

Need to talk about a website revamp for your healthcare organization? We’re here for you. Get in touch with us and set up a consultation.

Emoji Outreach: How To Touch A Millennial Employee’s Heart <3

Start texting with a Millennial, and you’ll quickly find your conversation peppered with goofy faces, unicorns, flying pizzas, and even an occasional pile of poo. The visual fusillade is hard to escape.

Emojis have plastered the globe, and that’s a direct result of the digital revolution: More than 85% of Millennials own a smartphone, Nielsen reported in a 2014 study.

Twitter says its users have tweeted some 110 billion emojis since 2014. Some 6 billion emojis are sent per day, Digiday reports. Emojis are the language we speak.

That’s not surprising. Emojis transmit volumes of information in one character space, and add lightness and empathy to an otherwise sterile block of text.

There are right and wrong ways to deploy emojis in your marketing efforts, Entrepreneur magazine noted in February 2017. While you can find plenty of articles online about this topic, I thought I’d take a lighter approach.

Here are 13 ways I “talk” with my Millennial staff, using this vast society of little cartoon people. Feel free to use these as a springboard for ideas of your own, whether you’re coaching young employees or thinking ahead to a holiday marketing campaign.

At CareContent, we’re all about getting creative to reach our clients’ target audience. Contact us to find out how we can help you do just that.

Successful Content Marketing Starts With A Solid Content Strategy

Today on the CareContent blog, we have a guest post by Rebecca Steurer. Rebecca is the founder of ContentRS and the co-founder of Content Academy, both of which focus on helping organizations understand and implement successful content strategy and content marketing practices. Here’s what she has to say about the relationship between these two key concepts.

What comes first: content marketing or content strategy? My answer is content strategy—and I’m not just saying that because I am a 16-year content strategy veteran. I say this because developing a strategy for your content will have a significant impact on reaching your audience—while also saving you time and money.

To understand why this is, let me first explain what I see as the main differences between content marketing and content strategy.

The Difference Between Content Marketing And Content Strategy

Content Marketing Defined

Content marketing is what you do to share your brand message, knowledge, and experience with your audience. It puts your services within the context of your audience’s needs through storytelling.

In healthcare, content marketing might include:

• Blogs that share patient stories, doctor stories, and clinical stories
• Infographics that explain complicated procedures
• Behind-the-scenes videos that help patients understand how the medical team prepares for surgery
• Podcasts that share thought leadership

Content Strategy Defined

Content strategy is what you do to define what you want your content to achieve, how you’ll develop the content, where and when you’ll post the content, and what you’ll measure to determine if your content is successful. It helps you focus on developing the right information at the right time for the right audience and in the right presentation style.

While there is clearly a difference between content marketing and content strategy, the two must complement each other in order to be successful.

Why It’s Important To Have A Content Strategy For Content Marketing Efforts

I love the word “strategy” because it’s about having a plan to take action. It helps you define what you need to do so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel over and over again, which wastes time—and in this case, time is money.

There are several key content strategy tasks that you’ll want to complete to make your content marketing efforts successful:

1. Define Your Business Goals

According to a May 2017 report by MDG Advertising, healthcare organizations are budgeting more and more money for content marketing. This increased funding might be used to develop more blog posts throughout the year.

Before you begin developing your content, it’s critical to have a clear understanding of what you want your content marketing to achieve so that the budgeted funds are well spent. For instance, do you want your readers to:

• Call for an appointment?
• Share your story with their friends?
• Visit your website?

2. Define The Content Elements To Include On Your Blog And/Or Website

Ensuring you have the right content elements in your blog posts and website to guide your audience to achieve the desired outcomes is the key to success.

Say you’re creating a new blog post to highlight a physician, Dr. Bob. The goal is to fill up his schedule for the next few months.

Your blog post will showcase Dr. Bob’s clinical expertise and compassionate care. While your copywriter will write a beautifully written story about Dr. Bob, your content strategist will also be working to include several key items.

3. Create A Content Development And Posting Schedule

This is the step where organizational, planning, and communications skills are required. Use this step to help you schedule relevant information that is useful to your audience and supports your business goals.

4. Define The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Determine what you think makes your blog post a success—and then measure it. KPI can include:

• Number of page visits
• Number of shares
• Number of likes
• Number of appointments made

Once you determine the KPIs, create an easy-to-understand report to track findings over time, so you’ll know which content types work and which don’t.

5. Develop The Sharing Strategy

This step helps you determine where and when you’re going to let people know about the blog post.

For example, you might decide that sharing the latest stories on your hospital’s Facebook page is the best way to reach potential patients. Or maybe Twitter is more effective. Or it might be the case that sharing the content across several social networks is best. The answer all depends on your audience and goals.

Now You’re Ready For Content Marketing

Now that your content strategy is in place, all you have to focus on is developing the copy. Because you’ve created a stellar content strategy, your content marketing efforts should pay off.  This is why successful content marketing starts with a solid content strategy.

At CareContent, we’ve got your content strategy and content marketing needs covered. Contact us today to find out how to take your healthcare organization’s content marketing to the next level.

When You Have An Abnormal Mammogram: Grand New Adventures In Fear

It wasn’t exactly a surprise when they said I had an abnormal mammogram. I am, as they say, no spring chicken, and generally, the older women get, the higher their risk for breast cancer.

But I admit there was still a part of me shouting, “I’m too YOUNG! I’m barely out of college! This is crazy!” …Even though college is far behind me, and, as my aunt (a nurse) always reminds me sweetly, my arteries always know how old I really am.

Aging is the buzzard that sits on your bedpost…with a mean grin. I’ll get you eventually. No hurry.

But ready or not, I got the call last month that women dread. There was something unusual about my annual screening mammogram, and the hospital needed me to come back for additional scans. Oh, wow. This can’t be good.

What Next?

I was scheduled for a diagnostic mammogram—the heavy-duty kind with mix-and-match compression plates, multiple scans from different angles, and a radiologist who reads the results immediately.

If there was a lump, I was headed for a nice, long needle in the biopsy room.

“Disgruntled” is one word to describe my feelings. So are “vexed,” “alarmed,” and “appalled.” Especially knowing they’d be compressing, and re-compressing, certain parts of my anatomy with all the dignity of a marshmallow in a s’more.

Still, I figured I could make the best of it. So, I’m sharing my thoughts for any health specialist who might want to peek into the mind of a VNP (Very Nervous Patient)—someone who’s caught a possible sighting of the Grim Reaper in her crystal ball.

Scariest Show Under The Big Top

What is it like? Your mind is a circus of thoughts, questions, and doubts. Funhouse mirrors show you a distorted future, and sinister clowns juggle plates that say, “Haha, now you’re in for it.” The acrobat on the highwire is you. There is no safety net below.

In good moments, you hold on to logic: The odds are in my favor. About 80% of all lumps are benign, BreastCancer.org says. In bad moments, you brood and think the worst. It’s Stage 4 for sure. I should set up that trust fund for my cats.

The waiting is the worst part, of course. When I finally walked in for my diagnostic mammogram at Rush University Medical Center, in Chicago, I was relieved. And ready for answers.

At least I thought I was—until I started the trek back to the great Boob-o-Matic and my mind flooded with new questions.

This Time, They Mean Business

The diagnostic mammograms are held on the seventh floor at Rush, unlike the annual screening ones, which are held on the ground floor. Both offices are beautifully decorated and full of friendly, professional staff.

But at this appointment, I didn’t have to wait for my test. A receptionist checked me in immediately, and before I even sat down, a staff member led me to the changing area. Oh, that’s nice. They’re not wasting any time. Wait, is that good or bad?

After donning a maroon gown, I was led down a hallway past a series of interview rooms—cozy, rose-colored offices full of cushy chairs, subdued lighting, and Kleenexes.

They were gorgeous, impeccable. Part of me was impressed. And part of me was cringing. How many women have received bad news in those rooms? Will I be one of them soon?

I decided I’d rather take the doctor down to the Au Bon Pain cafe. Flapping gown and all.

Blissed Out … Not

In the waiting room, I watched a large-screen TV that showed a series of landscapes—waterfalls, mountains, flowers swaying gently in the wind. Violins and flutes serenaded us. It was elegantly produced. And I was instantly suspicious.

They’re trying to relax us, I thought. Why? This is creepy. Like a hospice for dying boobs. Geez, I can’t think straight.

I was having nonsensical thoughts about breast insurance when they called me back for the mammogram. I don’t remember the technician’s name, but I do remember that she shook my hand and smiled. It did have a calming effect.

As she set up the scanning machine—a sophisticated, oblong device that never fails to remind me of the space monster in Alien—I stood awkwardly. I babbled about my cats and how their veterinarians, amazingly, get them to sit still for X-rays.

The technician agreed that was amazing, and I said vets were amazing people. Who did amazing things. Really amazing. And pretty soon, we were off and running with my scans.

And Squish, 2, 3, 4 …

At the sixth compression, I was visualizing the machine as a cute baby shark that had swum by and clamped onto me affectionately. I wuv you. It helped a little.

“How are you doing? Are you okay?” the technician asked as she tightened the plates once again.

“Yep. I’m good,” I said, not looking down. Nice sharkie. Don’t bite any harder, now.

“You’re a tough one,” she said, and I grinned. Or maybe grimaced.

After the final round of hold-your-breath-and-don’t-move, I covered myself and sat down. The technician said she’d return in a few minutes. I was quiet, wondering what they’d find. It really could have been anything. Small lump? Big lump? Lots of lumps? Frankentumor?

There was another large-screen TV on the wall, and this time, there were animals in the landscapes. A butterfly, an elk, a gnu chewing on something. The New Age-y music wafted out. Animals die in nature, I thought. Circle of life. Happens all the time, nothing to fear. God, what am I thinking?

Finally, the technician reappeared. “We don’t need to do any more compressions,” she said. I hoped that meant good news. She led me back to the quiet, dark den where the radiologist did her diagnostics.

The Final Frontier

The doctor introduced herself and kindly invited me to sit down next to her at her desk. Peering through her eyeglasses, she brought up different views of my left breast on three large computer screens. They looked like giant, glowing moonscapes.

“You see these tiny calcifications here?” she said. “There are three together, very faint.”

They looked like small, white ice chips, and they were maybe a just a smidge larger than, say, a dot that a ballpoint pen could make. Ridiculously tiny.

As we zoomed in to see them more closely, breast tissue flew past us like clouds and space dust, reminding me of the Astrometrics lab on Star Trek. I was boggled by the magnifying power of this software.

“When a patient has ductal carcinoma in situ, it often starts out this way, as a cluster of calcifications,” the radiologist said. She explained that ductal carcinoma in situ is a form of cancer that’s usually very treatable.

“However, these calcifications are very small,” she continued. “If we were to try to get a tissue sample, we might not even be able to find them. And we cannot say for certain that they will evolve into ductal carcinoma in situ.

“So, we’re going to bring you back every 6 months, for 2 years, and keep scanning you, and watch them carefully.”

I had a million questions, and this crackerjack radiologist answered them all. In summary, she said if the calcifications started to multiply, it would be time to take a tissue sample. But for now, there was no reason to be alarmed. And she smiled.

I didn’t have cancer. Yet. Maybe I never would.

I wanted to hug her.

That’s All, For Now—Really

I walked back to the waiting room with a definite lighter-than-air feeling. I sat and waited for them to print my report.

Next to me, a woman named Tamika was watching the TV screen, with its floaty landscapes.

“This music creeps me out,” she said.

“I know what you mean,” I said, with a wry smile.

We talked, and she told me her mother was there for a biopsy. I told her I’d say a prayer for her mom, and she thanked me. I wished I could do more.

I suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for the health professionals who work with patients with dicey test results and uncertain futures. They did their best to make us comfortable. It couldn’t be an easy job.

Mischief Managed

I definitely have a new respect for mammograms. Meanwhile, I’ve named my calcifications Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy—after the bratty kids in the Harry Potter novels.

In 6 months, we’ll see if they’ve magically multiplied. Hopefully not.

The only thing I might change about my experience is switching those waiting-room TV videos to something maybe a little, er, lighter.

At my vet’s office, they show HGTV with continuous “flip-this-house/flip-this-condo” type content. It’s weirdly interesting. Something like this might work, on low volume—just a quiet distraction, if you want it.

The message would be less “We’re trying to comfort you,” and more “We assume you’re going to live. You should, too. So, you might as well think about ways to upgrade your bathroom.”

Life goes on, after all. Might as well embrace it, at any age.

We don’t just tell our own medical tales. We write about patients’ stories, too. Get in touch with CareContent to talk about some testimonials for your website. Nobody says it better than a patient who’s had a good experience.

Starting A Healthcare Blog: 3 Factors To Keep In Mind Before Launching

It probably seems like everyone and their mom has a blog these days. And maybe that’s true. But that doesn’t mean that all blogs are created equal. Blogging can be a powerful marketing tool for your healthcare organization—if it’s done right.

So, how can you set your company’s healthcare blog up for success? Here are 3 factors to keep in mind before you even think about publishing that first post.

1. Figure Out Your Target Audience.

As an August 2013 Forbes article explains, having a clear target audience is key to creating a winning content strategy. And, as the second point in this post (see below) will explain, a strong content strategy is critical if you want your organization’s healthcare blog to succeed.

Instead, ask yourself: Is there a specific service line that we should focus on?

For example, let’s say your organization is about to build a new diabetes clinic that will offer comprehensive, multi-speciality care and support to adult patients. Maybe your target audience is working people with Type 2 diabetes who are struggling to balance jobs, family, and taking care of their own health.

2. Start With A Strong Content Strategy.

According to Forbes, identifying your target audience allows you to do the in-depth research and planning needed to create a content strategy that will set your healthcare blog up for success.

But what on earth is a content strategy?

Orbit Media’s Andy Crestodina sums it up best when he says:

“Content strategy is about planning the creation, promotion, and measurement of content. This content attracts visitors to our website, creating meaningful interactions that meet the needs of our audience and our business.”

Creating a great content strategy means really getting to know the wants and needs of your target audience. It requires knowing the ins and outs of search engine optimization and keyword research. The content strategy should include a content calendar full of engaging post ideas. Your organization will also need to know how to track and interpret analytics—and adjust the strategy as needed.

And no successful content strategy is complete without a solid promotion plan.

3. Produce Less, Promote More.

It goes without saying that your organization’s healthcare blog content should be top-of-the-line as far as quality is concerned. But while it would be great if standout blog content spoke for itself and attracted readers through osmosis, unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

This is where the promotion part of a successful content strategy comes in.

In fact, as an August 2016 Content Marketing Institute article makes clear, the majority of a marketing team’s efforts should go toward promoting content, not creating it.

Think about it this way: If your organization’s blog is pumping out blog posts daily, you’ll want to promote each post thoroughly. But not only is it very difficult to produce that much quality content at that rate, promoting it might actually be harmful to your company’s cause.

This is because trying to promote that many posts at a time will quickly saturate your organization’s social media feeds—and drive people away. And that’s the exact opposite of what you’re trying to achieve.

Instead, take time to create quality content, then dedicate even more time to promoting that content.

This might seem like a lot of work just to launch a healthcare blog. But a well-planned blog can help your organization meet its marketing goals. In the end, all of this up-front effort will be well worth it.

At CareContent, these three points are always on our mind when we help our clients launch new healthcare blogs. Let us help your hospital or healthcare organization create and promote standout web content. Contact us today to get started.

Read/Watch/Listen/Follow: Content We’re Into (November 2016)

As content creators, we’re constantly on the hunt for interesting and inspiring stories from wherever we can find them—the internet, a podcast, television. This enables us not only to keep up with but to lead relevant conversations on the people, events, and discoveries that are impacting our world.

Here’s what we’ve been devouring lately.

Jennifer, Content Director

Reading: Thank You For Being Late by Thomas L. Friedman. The author of From Beirut to Jerusalem explains why humankind’s legendary ability to adapt is now being outpaced by three “supernova” forces: technology, the market, and climate change.

Watching: NCIS: Los Angeles—just a dose of escapism. I occasionally fantasize about being Hetty Lange when I grow up.

Listening to: “Simon: Easy to See Why Some Loved Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Many More Fled“—an NPR piece on a reporter’s ambivalence during his trips to Cuba.

Following: All the new Joe Biden memes. Which are a scream.

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Ros, Web Content Specialist

Reading: The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers by Thomas Fleming, which talks about the relationships several of our country’s original leading politicians had with the women in their lives, from their mothers to their wives.

Watching: The Galapagos Affair, a bizarre documentary about a group of men and women who moved to the Galapagos in the early 20th century to escape the hustle and bustle of early 20th century Europe, only for things to take a tragic turn when a mysterious woman arrived with two men (rumored to be her lovers) in tow.

Listening to: Justin Timberlake (*heart emoji*)

Following: Pretty much every BuzzFeed story about cats

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Sammi, Web Content Specialist

Reading: About the electoral college. I’ve always known the basics, but I’m learning more about its creation and its purpose.

Watching: The Amanda Knox documentary on Netflix. Totally not guilty.

Listening to: “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays” by NSYNC. Best. Christmas. Song. Ever.

Following: The Epilepsy Foundation. November is Epilepsy Awareness Month, and I am so grateful for everything the Foundation has done.

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Nicole, Multimedia Content Designer

Reading: “Vitamin D Linked to Longer Breast Cancer Survival.” A close family member of mine just underwent a double mastectomy to combat early-stage breast cancer, so this piece in The New York Times—based on research published in The Journal of the American Medical Association—hits close to home.

Watching: How Fidel Castro Went From Revolutionary to Ruler. One of the most polarizing political figures in history has passed away, and his legacy is now being questioned by many Cubans, Cuban Americans, and world leaders. This TIME Magazine video illustrates his rebel beginnings and political turns throughout his decades-long reign.

Listening to: Trinity Health’s Gilfillan optimistic about progress for healthcare. This podcast Q&A on Modern Healthcare talks to Livonia, Michigan-based Trinity Health CEO Dr. Richard Gilfillan on the prospects for healthcare system reform should the Affordable Care Act be repealed.

Following: Aaron Walter on Twitter. This guy is VP of Design Education at InVision, an innovative design prototyping company, and he actually started UX practice at MailChimp. Pretty cool stuff.

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Katie, Engagement and Analytics

Reading: The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai, which is a pick from my book club that highlights exactly why I love book clubs. They expose you to books you may not have known about otherwise—in this case, the story of a haunted family and a haunted house, written by a local Chicago writer.

Watching: Black Mirror, a tech/sci-fi/thriller series that Netflix recently picked up. Each vignette is incredibly well written and acted—and all too possible.

Listening to: CBC’s podcast Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams? This series zooms in on the murder of an indigenous woman, Alberta Williams, in northern Canada. However, the coverage also touches on the disturbingly high number of missing and murdered indigenous women throughout the country.

Following: @LindaBlackElk on Twitter. Linda is an ethnobotanist on the front lines at the anti-pipeline camps at Standing Rock. She also runs the Medic and Healer Council at the camps.

Read/Watch/Listen/Follow: Content We’re Into (October 2016)

As content creators, we’re constantly on the hunt for interesting and inspiring stories from wherever we can find them—the internet, a podcast, television. This enables us not only to keep up with but to lead relevant conversations on the people, events, and discoveries that are impacting our world.

Here’s what we’ve been devouring lately.

Kadesha, Founder/CEO

Reading: The collection of Clifford the Big Red Dog stories in Spanish with my son because we’re working on his colors, counting, and his Spanish—three birds, one stone.

Watching: I lost the remote to my TV, so I’m not currently watching anything, and it’s been great.

Listening to: Tim Ferriss’ Four-Hour Work Week podcast about project and time management. As a new mom and a business owner, I have to not do as much and learn to delegate better.

Following: The hashtag #HCIC16 for the Healthcare Internet Conference that I’ll be attending next week in Las Vegas.

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Jennifer, Content Director

Reading: Celebrities Who Cheer For The Chicago Cubs. Sorry, Indians fans. Cubs Fever has made Chicago delirious.

Watching: Bull—an interesting new TV drama on jury psychology. Who knew we humans are so predictable?

Listening to: Useful Science. The science of getting drunk, getting full, and attracting mosquitos, all in one podcast. Cool.

Following: The Presidential debates. And I’m glad they’re over.

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Ros, Web Content Specialist

Reading: Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, which was an Oprah’s Book Club pick and not at all like anything I would normally read. But I found it in the laundry room of my old apartment building and figured I’d give it a shot. It’s a historical novel that follows four sisters as they grow up on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia in the early 20th century. There’s more to it than that, obviously, or else I’d have given up on this 500-pager by now. But you’ll have to read it yourself to find out.

Watching: All of the crime and “I escaped from a crazy cult” documentaries on Netflix, from The Imposter to Holy Hell. I have no idea why I can’t stop watching these, considering how easily frightened and sensitive to gory visuals I am. And yet several times a week I find myself wondering which of these documentaries I should watch next.

Listening to: Justin Timberlake.

Following: BuzzFeed’s coverage of the second presidential debate, which they (and probably everyone else) are calling “the craziest and most surreal debate in modern history.”

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Sammi, Web Content Specialist

Reading: Several articles about whether or not doctors should turn away unvaccinated kids to protect other patients and families. It’s an interesting debate. Is it choosing one child’s care over another?

Watching: Designated Survivor. It’s completely unrealistic and pretty cheesy, but it is very entertaining—also pretty relevant in terms of combatting Islamophobia and balancing power.

Listening to: More Hamilton! I finally saw the show, and now I am listening to it even more. I’m also listening to a lot of Beatles music lately. My sister just got married, and she and her husband love the Beatles, so there have been Beatles songs on replay.

Following: The election and the Cubs—not sure which I am more interested in at the moment!

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Nicole, Multimedia Content Designer

Reading: “Parents Should Sleep in Same Room as Newborns to Prevent SIDS, Doctors Say.” Time Magazine reports new guidelines that suggest parents be in close quarters with their babies until about 6 months to 1 year old.

Watching: Opioids: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. This is a late-night take on the nation’s growing opioid epidemic, shedding light on where the addiction problem tends to start: prescription drug use.

Listening to: Out Of This World: How Artists Imagine Planets Yet Unseen. We already have actual photo documentation of what our own solar system looks like. NPR explains how artists envision and create visuals of newly discovered, unknown worlds in faraway galaxies.

Following: Matt Wiley on Twitter. He’s a Brooklyn-based designer from the UK who is currently Art Director for The New York Times Magazine. He prefers a bold, art deco design style, and he has a thing for typography (like me).

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LaToya, Content Design Specialist

Reading: Who We Were Before, a story about a couple who loses their son in a tragic accident. Instead of grieving together, the wife disconnects from the husband, and the life that they knew before is slowly fading away.

Watching: Shameless, Season 7. A television series starring William H. Macy, the story takes place in Chicago and is about a very dysfunctional family. The mother suffers from bipolar disorder, and the father is an alcoholic and drug addict. The story follows the family of seven as they each face their own life obstacles as well as those of their parents.

Listening to: Various artists, from Hezekiah Walker to Toni Braxton

Following: @tonibraxton who is currently touring and also spreading awareness about Autism Speaks and her constant battle with Lupus.

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Katie, Engagement and Analytics

Reading: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is Coates’ letter to his son, about the history of race in the U.S., what it means to be black today, and how we all move forward. Toni Morrison called this book required reading, so I couldn’t pass it by.

Watching: Dallas Goldtooth’s and Didi Banerji’s Facebook live streams from the front lines at Standing Rock. These two have been reporting extensively about what’s happening on the ground as the self-proclaimed water protectors battle construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. If completed, the pipeline would cross the Missouri River and put drinking water at risk for millions of people, as well as desecrate sacred Native burial land.

Listening to: This American Life episode 599, “Seriously?” A fascinating analysis of the way we currently view “facts” as a society and how journalists and the Presidential candidates portray them. As someone who spent her college education studying journalism, I’m so entirely frustrated, flabbergasted, and frightened by where people get their information and what they consider to be true.

Following: @SickOfWolves on Twitter makes me laugh daily. So glad this wolf masquerading as a man decided to use social media to keep the world updated on his trials and successes. Those updates include gems such as, “WELL IF I DO NOT HAVE ANY HUMAN FRIENDS WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FRAMED PHOTOS OF MARK RUFFALO IN MY HOME.”