1. Why People Are So Awful Online by Roxane Gay on The New York Times.

2. New York Bodega Worker Gives Free Snacks To Customers Who Solve His Math Problems.

3. New Documentary Seeks to Understand Anthony Bourdain and His Death on The New York Times. In related news, The new Anthony Bourdain doc is ethically thorny but worth watching, and AI Brought Anthony Bourdain’s Voice Back To Life. Should It Have?, and Bourdain Documentary’s Use of A.I. to Mimic Voice Draws Questions on The New York Times, and Hoax Diaries Were the Original Deepfakes.

4. The spiritual bankruptcy of bottled water. “Selling out a national resource, at 75 billion bottles every year.”

5. The Hidden Costs of Dollar General. When we were in Oregon, I noticed every small town we went to either had one or was building one. 

6. What It Feels Like to Lose Your Favorite Season. “I’m so sad for us, for the story that we’ll have to tell ourselves and whatever generations remain: that the opportunity for change was and there, and we failed to take it every day, even as our understanding of the world, the parts that made it most precious and sustaining, crumbled before us.”

7. What Item Is Giving You Joy In A Pandemic? Your Beautiful And Quirky Answers.

8. If You Hate Meditating, Try These Alternatives. Then, read The Truth About Mindfulness: 6 Things You Need to Know and try meditating again. 🙂

9. But seriously on Rita’s Notebook. “Action is not always our best option; if we find ourselves lost in the wilderness, the best thing we can do is stop.” Amen.

10. Take more outdoor walks: Neuroscientists say they’re great for your brain.

11. The Lisa Congdon Sessions, “a podcast for creative folks about living and working with more intention, curiosity, and joy. Most interesting to Lisa is what happens at the intersection between life as an artist and life as a human, with all our baggage, aspirations, hopes and dreams. From big questions to practical ones about business, social media, time management, and finding your way through the winding creative path- each episode Lisa will share stories, tips, insights, and conversations from the heart.”

12. A depressed comedian does a mental health podcast. The punchline is a profound hour of radio.

13. Why It Feels So Damn Good to Laugh at a Funeral. “When my brother died too young, an unexpected dark joke helped my family deal with the grief.”

14. How To Wrap Using A Furoshiki. (video)

15. Recipe I want to try: Breakfast Burritos.