1. Why Did the World Fall in Love With Elyse Myers? Great Question, I’d Love to Tell You on Vanity Fair. “The comedian has conquered social media with her honest and hilarious tales of mental health and awkward encounters, and she’s coming for the podcast world.” If you know, you already love her.

2. 10 ways to have a better conversation, from TEDx. “When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations — and that most of us don’t converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. In this insightful talk, she shares 10 useful rules for having better conversations. ‘Go out, talk to people, listen to people,’ she says. ‘And, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed.'” In what seems like related news from Seth Godin, Naysayers (and the grifters).

3. Wisdom from David Whyte: “We often hate ourselves for our procrastination, when it is often only the deeply disguised need to rest deeply enough to reconstitute and reimagine our approach.” In related news, wisdom from Traci Skuce, “Procrastination is not laziness. It’s often your nervous system’s reaction to OVERWHELM.”

4. A Tall Glass of Anxiety on Instagram. “Stuffed Animal/Puppet Restoration, Mending Fabric and Hearts.” This video is how I first found her work.

5. Fostering Dogs Saves Lives (and Makes Your Heart Hurt).

6. StoryCorps: Five Years Later, Two Ferguson Protestors Reflect on the Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photo that Captured their Anguish — and Connection. “There needs to be more than swords and shields; you need blankets and hugs too.”

7. Melissa & Doug co-founder opens up about her secret struggle on CBS Sunday Morning. “Despite the trappings of success, Melissa Bernstein, co-founder of the iconic toy company, Melissa & Doug, still experienced a lifelong depression. Now she’s created a mental health hub LifeLines to help others.”

8. Recipes I want to try: Choriqueso with Homemade Flour Tortillas, and
blackberry cheesecake galette, and Overnight, Refrigerator Focaccia. I also tried this recipe this week: Easy Zucchini Slice. It was so good, even cold, super easy to make, and I can see how you could add all kinds of other veggies and even meat to customize it. It reminds me of this breakfast bake I make but without the extra step of the biscuits.

9. Therapist on TikTok perfectly explains ‘glimmering’ and how it’s vital for our health. “Glimmers are anything that sparks a sense of joy, awe, or belongingness. It can be noticing the warmth of the sun, something beautiful around you, or seeing a kind face.”

10. I Just Met a Girl Named Maria (Bamford), an interview with one of my favorite comics.

11. Andrew Bird and Iron & Wine: Tiny Desk Concert. (video)

12. Angelina Jordan (13) – All performances – America’s Got Talent: the Champions Season 2. (video) She reminds me of Nora Jones a bit, but is also 100% herself.

13. David Sedaris Eats Until He Hates Himself. “Too much lunch puts me in a stupor, but at night, I really take the gloves off.”

14. Olivia Newton-John, Australian Songstress and ‘Grease’ Star, Dies at 73. 

15. Obsessed: Woodstock ’99’s Fire Fest of White Boys Mad About Stuff. “Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 Netflix Documentary Tells The Story of ‘The Day The ’90s Died.'”

16. 13 Diet ‘Truths’ That Are Doing More Harm Than Good. An older article but still relevant. 

17. Wilderness First Aid: Colorado, a really cool course that I need to take which “includes the live or recorded session, exam, three-year certification, and 40+ hours of wilderness medicine podcasts,” all for only $35!

18. How to Fall Out of Love With Your Lawn on The New York Times. “In this video essay we argue that it’s time to kill your lawn, not just to save the planet, but for your own health and sanity too. And while the idea of euthanizing such a beloved member of the family might seem harsh, we show the alternatives that could make the loss more bearable.”

19. Extra-special: Ryan O’Connell’s ‘Just By Looking At Him.’ “2022 has been a triumphant year for Ryan O’Connell. The gay writer/actor/director/disability advocate is not only one of the stars of Peacock’s reimagining of ‘Queer as Folk,’ but he wrote the best episode of the series, ‘F—Disabled People,’ which featured a disabled sex party orgy or crip rave. Now he’s penned his debut novel, scoring another home run.”

20. Subverting a Preppy Classic on The New York Times. “Customized L.L. Bean tote bags have become blank canvases for a contemporary sense of humor.”

21. People shared the important lessons of the pandemic. Here are 21 of the most cathartic. “It changed how we worked, socialized and saw humanity.” Some of these are really good, but #14 is petty af, implying that while parents were home with their kids during the pandemic, they had “time off” with their kids and should have been teaching them all the things so the kids were more “advanced” when they returned. Um, that’s not how it worked, in particular for working parents who were still actively working.

22. Jo Koy on Comedy They Told Him Wouldn’t Work on The New York Times. “The standup’s breakthrough film, ‘Easter Sunday,’ focuses on Filipino family themes dear to him, especially after naysayers said audiences couldn’t relate.” If going to a movie theater were a thing I still did, I’d want to see his new flick.

23. Mark Manson, the Self-Help Guru Who Burned Out on New York Magazine. “Mark Manson sold 12 million copies of his self-help hit, ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck.’ Then he started taking his own advice.”

24. Heartstopper Season 2: Everything We Know So Far. “Alice Oseman’s cozy queer rom-com is coming back to Netflix.”

25. The Sandman review – Neil Gaiman has created 2022’s single greatest hour of TV drama. “This dark, engrossing comic book adaptation is utterly lavish, and features an emotional depth that’s almost unheard of in fantasy epics. It should delight fans and newcomers alike.” 

26. 4 Behaviors Are The Most Reliable Predictors Of Divorce.

27. On the Link Between Great Thinking and Obsessive Walking. “From Charles Darwin to Toni Morrison, Jeremy DeSilva Looks at Our Need to Move.”

28. Writers and Liars: On Fact, Fiction, and Truth. “Leslye Penelope Considers the Line Between ‘Truthy’ and Truth.”

29. Two Years from Anne Helen Petersen on Culture Study. I love how she talks about her work and the community that’s formed around it, and I ADORE this sentiment in particular, “You all help me see the stars as constellations, to continue to seek meaning and narrative amidst that vast, swallowing unknown.” Also from Anne, Inside the Complex “Social Lab” of PE Class: An interview with Sherri Spelic.

30. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön, “The innocent mistake that keeps us caught in our own particular style of ignorance, unkindness, and shut-downness is that we are never encouraged to see clearly what is, with gentleness. Instead, there’s a kind of basic misunderstanding that we should try to be better than we already are, that we should try to improve ourselves, that we should try to get away from painful things, and that if we could just learn how to get away from the painful things, then we would be happy. That is the innocent, naive misunderstanding that we all share, which keeps us unhappy.”

31. Plufl: The Dog Bed for Humans. 

32. What is Mutual Aid? “While folks from neighborhoods that have faced social and environmental injustices or climate disasters may already be quite familiar with mutual aid, for some of us, this is a new term.”

33. Good stuff from Lion’s Roar: May You Be Safe (“As Barbara Gates struggles to protect her adventurous dog Tony from danger, she contemplates the deep aspiration at the heart of loving-kindness practice—may all beings be safe and protected—and wonders what real safety means in this world”) and All Alone or One With Everything? (“Are we all alone in this world or at one with everything? Nick Walser shines a spotlight on the paradoxical nature of loneliness”).

34. Don’t Show Up To Your Dream Half-Assed: Lessons and Lyrics From a Great Friend & Musician – Chris Pureka from Andrea Gibson.

35. Six Years In the Making, the Elaborate ‘Grand Jardin’ by Lisa Nilsson Pushes the Boundaries of Paper.

36. 54 Best Consumable Gift Ideas: Ultimate List.

37. 8 Cleaning Methods and Traditions From Around the World.

38. The Fascinating Things People Leave Behind in Library Books. “An Oakland librarian and a French teacher in Oklahoma City collect ephemera they discover in returned and used books, from photos and recipes to love letters.”

39. Your Guide to Lillördag [“Little Saturday”], the Swedish Word That Makes Every Day Feel Like the Weekend. 

40. Beauty Finding: it’s an everyday kind of thing from Iridescent Ordinary.

1. Why You Should Try Crevice Gardening: ‘This Is the Future’ on The New York Times. “In a world where water is increasingly scarce, these rock gardens are not only pretty, but surprisingly resilient.”

2. Just 2 Minutes of Walking After a Meal Is Surprisingly Good for You on The New York Times. “A new paper suggests that it takes far less exercise than was previously thought to lower blood sugar after eating.”

3. The Dog Actor In Prey Was Adopted Especially For The Movie ⁠⁠– And She Was A ‘Hot Mess’. She reminds me of my Ringo Blue, also a hot mess. 🙂

4. A tale of lost and found. (video) “In 2006, Jason and Liz McKenry’s baby – their cat, Ritz – bolted out the door of their Annapolis, Md., apartment building, and never returned. Their sliver of hope that they would see Ritz again lasted for 16 years, until an automated text message was received.” Yet another great argument for chipping your pets.

5. How the Indian Action Spectacular ‘RRR’ Became a Smash in America on The New York Times. “The unusual decision to rerelease the film a few weeks after its initial run has drawn enthusiastic audiences even though it’s available on Netflix.”

6. Celebrating 25 Years of Ani DiFranco’s Living in Clip. “Today we celebrate 25 years of Ani DiFranco’s Living in Clip. An album that not only empowered millions of women, but rewrote the record industry playbook.”

7. ‘The Golden Age of Thrifting Is Over’ on The New York Times. “A glut of fast fashion has made its way into local thrift stores, making it hard for women who have been purchasing secondhand for decades to find quality garments they can wear.”

8. ‘Draw This Again’ Challenge Proves That Practice Makes Perfect. So cool.

9. You can stop intermittent fasting now, new research says. “In a year-long study, time-restricted eating didn’t help people lose weight.”

10. The Excruciating Echo of Grief in Uvalde on The New York Times. “The community buried 21 people after the Robb Elementary School massacre. In the weeks that followed, the aftershocks only compounded the agony.”

11. The Remarkable Lesson of Grief. “This psychologist created her own mantra to help manage profound grief after the sudden death of her husband.”

12. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Before and After the Bombs. “Before the 1945 atomic blasts, they were thriving cities. In a flash, they became desolate wastelands.”

13. The drugs don’t work (and other mental health myths). “Our attitudes to mental health are changing but much of the stigma that surrounds conditions such as schizophrenia remains – along with some enduring and often damaging untruths.”

14. 11 brutally honest reasons millenials don’t want kids. “When it comes to embarking on the journey of parenthood, lots of millennials are saying, ‘Meh. No, thanks.'” I may be Gen X, but a lot of these reasons make sense to me too.

15. Weatherman is overcome with contagious joy after learning his map has a touchscreen. I have watched this clip many times. It’s just so sweet, genuine, and funny, and I need reminded that those things still exist.

16. 120 Things To Remove From Your Life from Courtney Carver on Be More With Less.

17. Wild Fox Comes To Hear This Guy Play Banjo Every Day. (video)

18. Manufacturers use ‘shrinkflation’ to pass costs on to consumers. “With inflation at a 40-year high in the U.S., we are all spending more when we go to the store. But there is another dimension of inflation these days called ‘shrinkflation.'”

19. Colorado’s first dedicated ‘green cemetery’ helps people return to the earth once they’ve passed.

20. The Sandman: ingenious TV that will inspire an entire generation of goths. “The enduringly popular comic book series about gods and the afterlife gets the big-bucks, amazing-cast Netflix treatment. And it’s good. Very good, in fact.”

21. Regina Spektor: Tiny Desk Concert (video). 

22. RE: [YOUR SUBMISSION] (spoiler alert, the news is bad). “Rejection erasure poems by R.L. Maizes.”

23. Quilting Your Memoir: Your Turning Points and Timeline by Linda Joy Myers.

24. 4 Steps to Making a Successful Career Change. “If you’re looking to switch careers, now may be a good time. Opportunities are plentiful, especially in the U.S. with workers driving the Great Resignation. Moreover, employers are now looking for candidates from diverse professional backgrounds, and therefore willing to make big accommodations. Here’s a four-step framework to help you get started.”

25. In Bhutan, they dream of rainbows from Seth Godin, which includes an infographic of “The most common dream in every country.”

26. Crickets also from Seth Godin. “The body of work you’re creating adds up over time. The consistency and empathy of your vision will seep through. Drip by drip, you’ll create something worth noticing.”

27. The Wild by Summer Brennan.

28. The Capitalist Origins of #Manifestation. “Ideas about changing your life by vibrating at a higher frequency with positive thoughts are popular in this economic downturn for the same reason they were popular when Hill published Think and Grow Rich during the Great Depression, because they feel personally empowering at a time when the masses are grappling with terrifying economic precarity.”

29. How truthful are memoirs? “Roy Peter Clark, a journalist and Senior Scholar at the Poynter Institute, offers a detailed list of ten ‘rigorous steps to an honest form of writing,’ making a firm argument that there is a clear line between fact and fiction in memoir.”

30. Renovations by Laura Pritchett.

31. In Rare Interview, Kate Bush Raves About ‘Stranger Things,’ Reveals Meaning of ‘Running Up That Hill’.

32. Critical Race Theory FAQ. When I read the answer to “What is CRT” I can’t understand how anyone reasonable and aware could possibly disagree with it.

33. The pandemic impulse purchases we grew to hate. “From Pelotons to pets, the Covid buys people wish they’d left on the shelves.”

34. Reading Room: Austin Kleon’s top Substack reads. “Great writers are great readers first, as the maxim goes. In this series, we explore what Substack writers are reading by asking them for a tour of their reading list.”

35. An end-of-life doula’s advice on how to make the most of your time on earth.

36. Second Opinion, a cartoon from Gemma Correll.

37. Vivid Botanics and Butterflies Encircle Photographer Fares Micue in Striking Self-Portraits.

38. Animator Anna Samo Scripts a Love Letter to Artists in Her Short Film ‘Conversations With a Whale’.