Ali Velshi is a journalist often seen on MSNBC. Promoting a new book, he appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air. The program covers much ground and is worth our attention. The end segment resonates since it cautions us to know the difference between news and nonsense.

Velshi’s Indian family spent years in Africa before moving to Ontario when he was a small child. A 1994 graduate of Kingston’s Queens University, Velshi began his news career in Toronto. In 2001, he moved to New York to join CNN.

Velshi’s book is Small Acts of Courage. According to the publisher:

Small acts of courage matter. Sometimes, they change the world. Our history books are filled with the stories of those who fought for democracy and freedom—for idealism itself—against all odds, from Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. These iconic struggles for social change illustrate the importance of engagement and activism, and offer a template for the battles we are fighting today. But using the right words is often easier than taking action; action can be hard, and costly.

More than a century ago MSNBC host Ali Velshi’s great-grandfather sent his seven-year-old son to live at Tolstoy Farm, Gandhi’s ashram in South Africa. This difficult decision would change the trajectory of his family history forever. From childhood, Velshi’s grandfather was imbued with an ethos of public service and social justice, and a belief in absolute equality among all people—ideals that his children carried forward as they escaped apartheid, emigrating to Kenya and ultimately Canada and the United States…

On Fresh Air, Ali Velshi discussed his family’s intriguing history. In the final minutes, he offered advice for news consumers. Host Dave Davies regrets that people tend to stay inside information silos that align with their existing political perspectives. He believes this is unhealthy for democracy and asked Velshi for a solution. Part of Velshi’s response was:

Triangulation. A cell phone knows where you are because it pings three towers. You should ping three towers for your news. Different sources, that is the answer. Consume more information. Become more critical consumers of information.

We can teach our kids to be critical consumers of information and hopefully, they can discern the difference between news and nonsense.

Provided here is the short audio segment in which Velshi talks about triangulation of news sources. It is a good suggestion because it is too easy to focus on information that agrees with what we already believe. We are not well informed if we close our minds to ideas that conflict with positions that we find comfortable..

The confirmation bias describes our underlying tendency to notice, focus on, and give greater credence to evidence that fits with our existing beliefs.

Image from sketchplanations; confirmation bias explained by The Decision Lab.