1. Irresistible Book: Prince’s memoir The Beautiful Ones. “In Prince’s cosmology, there are really only three reasons to pen a book that purports to flirt with autobiography: further demystification, education or deconstruction. While we will never know which of those goals Prince would have come down on, the book we have is somehow, and thankfully, all three.”

2. A Collection Of Zora Neale Hurston’s Lost Writings Will Be Released In 2020.

3. ‘I had to buy it and finish it’: Why 1,000 people offered to crowd-stitch the quilt of a dead woman none of them knew.

4. Is ‘Modern Love’ Only for White Women? “The omission of women of color as love interests in the new Amazon series is more than an oversight.”

5. The cost of leaving an abusive relationship.

6. Us Too on Lion’s Roar. “Sexual misconduct and abuse by Buddhist teachers — some high profile, others under the radar — are hurting women, splitting communities, destroying people’s faith in Buddhist practice, and damaging Buddhism’s reputation. Buddhist teacher Trudy Goodman looks at the history, the harm, and what we can do to stop it.”

7. How to Give People Advice They’ll Be Delighted to Take on The New York Times.

8. Pages from a finished diary from Austin Kleon.

9. Panic in Pakistani City After 900 Children Test Positive for H.I.V. on The New York Times. “Health workers say the reuse of syringes drove the outbreak in the city of Ratodero.”

10. How To Leave Toxic Diet Culture Behind And Pursue Actual Health. “The real data behind weight loss research points to a radically different approach to healthy living.” This article is a year old now, but it’s worth a reshare. In related news, and also now four years old but still relevant: Scientists now think that being overweight can protect your health.

11. A police officer has been sacked after he allegedly branded parents of trans kids “lunatics” and suggested they should be shot.

12. “A man of noble and good heart”: Read Barack Obama’s eulogy for Elijah Cummings.

13. Someone Sick Of Hearing Anti-Vaxxers’ Stupid Arguments Creates 31 Scientific Posters That Completely Destroy Their Logic.

14. Why Water Aerobics Should Be Part Of Your Fitness Routine.

15. Lynchings, 1921 Tulsa massacre, and 8 other things school didn’t teach you about race in America.

16. Tally of children split at border tops 5,400 in new count. In related news, More Than 700 Women Have Disappeared From A Texas ICE Detention Center And Their Lawyers Don’t Know Where They Are.

17. Impeachment Inquiry Catch-Up: Bombshell Testimony And Revelations From The East.

18. Muslim Student Athlete Disqualified From Race for Wearing Hijab on The New York Times. Compare that to this: After a soccer player’s hijab slipped off during a game, her opponents paused mid-play to huddle around her.

19. How to Be an Antiracist: A Conversation With Ibram X. Kendi. “In his new book, the professor challenges traditional definitions of racism, and who can be racist.”

20. Toxic Parents And Absent Parents Produce The Same Kind Of People. “…when children are raised with negative feedback, constant criticism and devaluation, they not only fail to develop a positive sense of self but learn to maintain the negative one.” *sigh*

21. How I got revenge on a plantation tour.

22. Summer Walker went from housekeeper to R&B it girl — and she’s still a mystery.

23. Ex Dallas Cop Amber Guyger Is Set to Appeal Her Murder Conviction in the Shooting Death of Botham Jean.

24. Fired for Repeating Racist Slur, School Guard Will Get Job Back, Union Says. “A student directed the slur at Marlon Anderson, who then repeated it as he was trying to explain why it was offensive.”

25. This came up in my Facebook memories this morning. (video) “This American Life asked Sara Bareilles to imagine what President Obama might be thinking about the 2016 election and Donald Trump, but can’t say publicly. Leslie Odom Jr. performs the song.” This seems like a million years ago, and 1000 times more heartbreaking than the first time I heard it.

26. A Critique of Byron Katie’s The Work. “Is Byron Katie’s method known as The Work harmful? Some believe so. There are numerous instances of Katie on stage blaming sexual abuse victims, denying racism, stifling efforts for social change, denying the reality of abuse and accusing people of things they didn’t do. It’s all done under the guise of spiritual growth. Katie claims to haven’t had a thought in 26 years and says she could walk into a gas chamber knowing it’s an ‘amazing day.'”

27. Two of the best Halloween costumes, ever: Dog dressed as ambulance complete with his own siren and this baby dressed as Elton John.

1. The digestive system from Austin Kleon, in which he explains why he does what he does in his newsletter and on his blog, in which he says something I feel like I could have written:

The longer I write this blog and the newsletter, the more I try to focus on what I genuinely love. The stuff that really nourishes and feeds me. I could probably grow a bigger “audience” with the most recent creativity tips and life hacks or whatever, but that’s not why I started doing this. I started doing this to find my people. The people who care about the same things that I do. In other words: You. Thanks for being here.

Thanks for being here, kind and gentle reader.

2. The limits of technique, wisdom from Seth Godin, in which he writes, “It’s possible that you no longer need to get better at your craft. That your craft is just fine. It’s possible that you need to be braver instead.” Oh snap…

3. Celebrating Genocide – Christopher Columbus’ Invasion of America. WHY can’t we be honest about who we really are? WHY do we continue to refuse to take responsibility for the things we’ve done? We would all be so much better off if we started telling the truth. Things will never change if we don’t. We will never ever ever “get over it.”

4. Photographer Spent Days Waiting For Museum Visitors To Match The Artworks They Observe, And it Was Worth It.

5. Adults Can Swim With Tiny Otters At This Animal Preserve, And The Photos Are Adorable.

6. Get Your Flu Shot Now, Doctors Advise, Especially If You’re Pregnant.

7. Cher Offers to Pay Legal Fees for Black Security Guard Fired for Telling Student to Stop Calling Him N-Word.

8. Watch: Pema Chödrön sits down for new Oprah interview; addresses Shambhala scandals.

9. Breakfast Burritos recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I’m making these this week. I want to try this one too, miso sweet potato and broccoli bowl.

10. Woman Broke The Plank World Record By Planking Over 4 Hours. I start to shake at 30 seconds, could maybe hold one two or three minutes on my best day, but FOUR HOURS?!

11. Standing Rock rancher runs nation’s largest native-owned buffalo herd.

12. The Whitewashing of “#WhitePeopleDoingYoga.” “My artwork was about appropriation. San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum tried to appropriate it.”

13. As A Black Man, Here’s How Yoga Helped Save My Life.

14. California Can Expect Blackouts For A Decade, Says PG&E CEO.

15. Summer Walker: Tiny Desk Concert. SO good.

16. Hear Prince’s Acoustic ‘I Feel For You’ Demo, Fresh From The Vault.

17. Five Indigenous Speculative Fiction Authors You Should Be Reading.

18. Fort Worth Officer Charged With Murder for Shooting Woman in Her Home. “Aaron Dean, who killed Atatiana Jefferson while she was home with her nephew, resigned hours before he was going to be fired.”

19. Elton John On Music, Addiction And Family: ‘I’m Proud Of Who I Am Now’.

20. The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI. “Body Mass Index has been used in recent decades as a referendum on individual health. But it was never meant to be.”

21. Police arrest black family twice for ‘loitering’ in their own front yard. TWICE.

22. The ‘Wellness Influencer’ Lifestyle Can Be a Gateway to Disordered Eating. “The corner of the internet that chronicles meticulous diets and ‘clean eating’ regimens is still a petri dish for orthorexia.”

23. Khalid – Fast Car (Tracy Chapman cover) (video)

24. The Tricky Argument That Dieting Makes People Fatter on Dances with Fat.

25. Kalen Allen’s on a mission to represent queer kids fighting to be seen.

26. He Traded Single Life To Be Foster ‘Pop’ To More Than 50 Kids.

27. Highly Sensitive People Have a Special Bond With Animals. Have I told you lately I’m a hsp?