~This week’s list of things worth reading, watching, listening to, contemplating, and sharing.

1. The Social Media Sea Change on Culture Study from Anne Helen Petersen. “What happens when the thing that structured so much of our lives loses its utility?”

2. Joy Comes From Within, But External Factors Significantly Impact How We Feel on The Gurdeep Magazine. “The practice of intentional disconnection serves as a form of emotional medicine, a therapeutic approach that can benefit everyone in our increasingly connected world.”

3. How to Make America Great: A Visionary Manifesto from the Woman Who Ran for President in 1872 on The Marginalian from Maria Popova. 

4. The ‘convoy of incredible people’ saving animals from California’s infernal fires. “As fires licked the Los Angeles landscape, a network of volunteers plunged into action to rescue pets and livestock.”

5. What’s the secret to Denmark’s happy work-life balance?

6. The devastating impact of 15 months of war on Gaza. “The Israeli response to Hamas’s attacks on 7 October 2023 has killed tens of thousands, left most schools and hospitals in ruins, and caused long-term damage to agricultural land in the territory.”

7. How we survive, “People who have lived through our greatest fears,” a series on The Guardian.

8. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Seven low-effort ways to feel happier in 2025. “Ignore the experts, be honest about jealousy, and turn your phone off for half a day – the doctor, who has spent years studying happiness, gives his ultimate guide.” 

9. 48 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2025.

10. The Shock of Loss, “And being seen in the mess” on Peace of Mind by Meg Josephson.

11. Poetry: The One Great Story and Steadfast from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Confession by Julie Barton and Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo.

12. How to Sit Down, “Two or Three Things I Know About Writing” from Lucy Sante.

13. 100 quotes that helped me write from Austin Kleon.

14. How to live a Quiet Life, in 2025, “It’s not about the right New Year’s resolution. It’s about where you direct your attention” on The Quiet Life with Susan Cain.

15. We Grew Up Hating Cottage Cheese. Now We’re All Eating It. “Americans are hungry for protein—and loading up on a food they haven’t bought since the 1970s.” In related news, How corn syrup took over America.

16. Chinese TikTok alternative RedNote tops app charts ahead of potential TikTok ban. “On Monday, Chinese users of RedNote, known as Xiaohongshu in China, welcomed ‘TikTok refugees’ to the platform.” 

17. There Is No Safe Word. “How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades.” In related news, One longtime Gaiman fan on where we go from here and Gaiman’s own response to the allegations on his blog, Breaking the Silence.

18. The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire #40: Elissa Altman. “As someone who teaches memoir, it’s probably the biggest issue that I see: writers, almost always women, who don’t believe that they have the right to create because of secrets and shame.”

19. It Must Suck to Be Such a Whiny Little Bitch. “One of the richest men in the world went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to complain that companies don’t have enough ‘masculine energy’ anymore, whatever that means.” 

20. Years ago, writer Pico Iyer lost everything in a wildfire. This is what he learned.

21. Red Dress. “It took 380 artists from 51 countries 14 years to complete the Red Dress exhibit that opened Wednesday at the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum.”

22. NPR asked readers “What would you wish for to improve life on Earth in 2025?” and this is what they said.

23. Here’s What I Think You Do Today, January 20th, 2025 from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds.

24. Some Run-On Sentences Instead of Watching the Inauguration from Jena Schwartz.

25. We Have Always Been Connected from Ijeoma Oluo: Behind the Book.

26. Biden commutes life sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, 80. 

27. And finally, some things I saved to my phone this week.

1. How to help victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. “As wildfires continue to devastate Los Angeles, leaving thousands displaced and causing widespread destruction, experts urge long-term support and careful giving.” In related news, Community groups provide relief as LA staggers from wildfire emergency, and Destruction of L.A. Fires Includes a Historic Black Community, and Fire survivors feel forgotten, and The Pain of Altadena Burning, “The Fight to Preserve Black History Amid California Wildfires” from Frederick Joseph, Displaced Black Families GoFund Me Directory (Google doc), and The California Fires are a Disaster. The American Cruelty is a Tragedy on The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz, and The Wildfires In LA from Chuck Wendig on Terrible Minds, and How do you love your neighbors when your houses are on fire? on The White Pages, and Only Indigenous ways prevent wildfires from Rowen White on Re-Seeding Imaginations.

2. Poetry. From Julie Barton: Nose Dive, A Few of the Ways I’ve Failed, The Cormorant’s Dilemma, and After I Asked About The Stars and You Struggled to Answer. From Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Letter to the Others in the Dark. Also, poetry plus some: How Do We Bear It? from Jena Schwartz and Do Not Spare Yourself by Maria Popova on The Marginalian. Also, Three Poems to Live By. And this book from Ollie Schminkey, which is currently wrecking me: Dead Dad Jokes. Next up, I’m reading three of Rudy Francisco’s poetry books.

3. Good stuff from Seth Godin: Slow down to speed up and “That will never work.”

4. To resist the climate crisis, we must resist the billionaire class. “I choose to focus my energy on the climate crisis because a habitable planet is a prerequisite for everything worth fighting for, and because the prospect of losing a planet feels horrific and sad to me in a primal way that I can’t express with words. I’m also simply in love with the Earth. But planetary overheating is really just the most geophysical symptom of extractive colonial capitalism – ‘billionairism’ – a system designed to pump wealth from the poor to the rich, creating billionaires, the healthcare crisis, the housing crisis, genocide, hierarchies like racism and patriarchy, and a great deal of suffering.” Amen.

5. Good stuff on Be More With Less: How To Slow Down: 101 Ways To Adore Your Life This Year and 25 Ways To Simplify Your Life In 2025. 

6. The Seven Types of Rest Every Person Needs.

7. Five ways to bring more awe into your life.

8. ‘What have we here?’: how asking yourself a simple question can transform the way you think about your life. “Forget generic self-help advice and focus instead on the unique set of hang-ups, character traits and personal circumstances that stop you living your best life.”

9. 7 Ways To Have More Energy In 2025. “Doctors share the physical behaviors and emotional habits that can help you feel more ready for the day.”

10. Do you feel overwhelmed? Here’s why – and how to fix it. “Modern life is so demanding that it can lead us to feel chronically drained. How can we address the problem before everyday stress turns into burnout?”

11. 5 Organs Your Body Can Live Without.

12. Why Do We Say “Up the Wazoo”?

13. A university releases its 2025 list of banished words.

14. Meta SUCKS. A new era of lies: Mark Zuckerberg has just ushered in an extinction-level event for truth on social media (“The Meta boss’s decision to drastically change Facebook and Instagram’s factchecking programme has set the stage for a fact-free four years online”), and Meta is ushering in a ‘world without facts’, says Nobel peace prize winner (“Maria Ressa warns of ‘dangerous times’ for journalism and democracy after move to end factchecking in US”), and Meta has ‘heard the message’ from Trump, says whistleblower Frances Haugen (“Mark Zuckerberg’s move to end factchecking in US reflects president-elect’s views on social media, says Haugen”), and Meta terminates its DEI programs days before Trump inauguration (“Meta, fresh off announcement to end factchecking, follows McDonald’s and Walmart in rolling back diversity initiatives”).

15. Kindness of strangers, a new series on The Guardian. “Sometimes a random gesture or act of generosity can change the way you think about your day – or your life.”

16. From iced buns to brussels sprouts: nine nutritionists on what they really eat (it may surprise you). “Is it all green juice and overnight oats, or do health experts enjoy the occasional burger or chocolate eclair? They reveal their tips and treats.”

17. Artful opportunities: five ways to be creative every day.

18. What went right in 2024: the top 25 good news stories of the year.

19. Open Me: A Conversation with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer on Embodiment Matters. (podcast) “In our conversation, Rosemerry reads several of her gorgeous poems, from All the Honey and The Unfolding, and we move through many rich themes including grief and gratitude, ways to be with someone who is grieving, the power of poetry, holding paradox and the stretch of the human heart, and being opened by life.”

20. What 15 Very Different People Hope to See in 2025 on The New York Times. (gift link)

21. I’ve Been Making Ina Garten’s Tuscan Soup for Over 10 Winters—It’s Still My Favorite. And for dessert, these oatmeal cookies.

22. World Central Kitchen (WCK)  Founder José Andrés Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom. WCK is my current favorite place to donate money. 

23. “The paradox of staying online”: Talking screen time, digital detoxes and New Years resolutions with author and art therapist Amelia Knott.

24. These gorgeous photos of indigenous people dressed for powwow from Clark Dunbar.

25. And this collection of things I saved on my phone last week.