1. Trying is always worth it, wisdom from Alexandra Franzen.

2. How do you want to fill your day? Wisdom from Paul Jarvis.

3. Women Aren’t Nags—We’re Just Fed Up. “Emotional labor is the unpaid job men still don’t understand.” In related news, Ask Agatha, or Don’t: Unsolicited Advice to a Woman Who’s Afraid to Be a Nag.

4. Everything You Need to Know About Indigenous Peoples Day. In order to get to a better place together, we need to face (and teach) our true history. There are terrible things we continue to try and gloss over, even deny, and it’s not doing any of us any good, is actually doing direct harm to some. For starters, we need to stop honoring Columbus Day. Stop celebrating this person. Stop taking advantage of discounts and sales in his honor. Work to have your city, state, country reframe or get rid of this “holiday” altogether. In related news, 8 Myths and Atrocities About Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day.

5. The Space Between Lives and Why I Don’t Feel Proud of America from Jena Schwartz.

6. Why LGBT Spaces Can Be Uncomfortable for Queer People of Colour.

7. 10 Ways White Liberals Perpetuate Racism.

8. Why do we feel so guilty all the time? “Food, sex, money, work, family, friends, health, politics: there’s nothing we can’t feel guilty about, including our own feelings of guilt.”

9. 10 Things Fat Babes With Eating Disorders Need You To Know. In related news, When You’re Both Overweight and Anorexic.

10. This White Cop Slamming a Little Black Boy to The Ground is Why Black Athletes Are Taking The Knee. “If you don’t get it yet just admit it’s because you don’t want to.”

11. As Overdose Deaths Pile Up, a Medical Examiner Quits the Morgue on The New York Times. Should we have done more, cared more when crack was decimating communities of color? Yes, absolutely. Should we do better now? Yes, for sure. Do we really know what to do? I don’t know. Addiction has been around me my whole life, and it’s one of the most confusing, confounding things, so I hope a whole lot of people know and do better than me, (<– I could say that about just about everything).

12. “The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson” Creator Accused of Stealing Work from Filmmaker Reina Gossett.

13. Dove apologises for ad showing black woman turning into white one. In related news, The Black Model In The Controversial Dove Ad Responds To The Backlash.

14. Dirty John. A six part narrative series, which includes a six part podcast. “This series is based on multiple interviews with Debra Newell, Jacquelyn Newell, Terra Newell, Arlane Hart, Shad Vickers, Tonia Sells Bales, Karen Douvillier, Donna Meehan Stewart, investigators, attorneys and other sources. Christopher Goffard also reviewed thousands of pages of court documents, police reports, restraining orders and prison records, as well as text messages and emails.”

15. 21 Hilarious Tweets That Accurately Reflect Life With Toddlers.

16. Every Single Cognitive Bias in One Infographic.

17. 11-Year-Old Starts Club For Young Black Boys To See Themselves In Books.

18. The Root: 100 Most Influential African Americans in 2017. “The Root 100 is our annual list of the most influential African Americans, ages 25 to 45. It’s our way of honoring the innovators, the leaders, the public figures and game changers whose work from the past year is breaking down barriers and paving the way for the next generation. This year’s list of honorees are a reminder of the beauty and brilliance of blackness, at a time when the political and cultural landscape has grown even more hostile to the idea of black achievement.”

19. Ellen DeGeneres always knows how to remind us of all the good people in the world. (video)

20. Despite claims in the media, the Las Vegas massacre was not the deadliest mass shooting in history. (video)

21. Huge butterfly swarm detected by weather radar in Colorado. They really have been everywhere.

22. Recipe I want to try: Veggie Nuggets.

23. White Male Terrorists Are an Issue We Should Discuss.

24. How To Help Las Vegas Shooting Victims Right Now.

25. There’s not “a thin person inside you, trying to get out” and that’s a good thing.

26. Nathaniel Russell’s Fliers and Fake Books.

27. The final four lines of Maya Stein’s 10-Line Tuesday poem “Another Elegy,”

What to say, now, in the silence that remains after the bullets have struck?
What shred of grace or beauty still clings to the mouth of this October
and its devastating blue sky? I am out of ideas, but here: Take my shatter
of grief and twine it to yours. Let us swallow this bitterness together.

28. Thank You, Michael. “Carina Stone on the tragic death of her husband, the Buddhist teacher Michael Stone, the challenges he faced, and the gifts he gave.”

This is an all too common theme in yoga and dharma worlds: If you practice deeply enough, you will heal, and if you don’t heal, your practice or something in you is flawed. But meditation is not a panacea, and can even be counterproductive for people with severe challenges.

29. Giant Straw Animals Invade Japanese Fields After Rice Harvest And They Are Absolutely Badass.

30. If You Ever Feel Sad, These 10+ Highland Cattle Calves Will Make You Smile.