Recommended Reading on the Current News Cycle, December 2024
Volume 1 of 3
A dear friend texted me a birth announcement for her second daughter on Tuesday, November 5th. I don’t know if she arrived early morning, midday, or afternoon, because I was in London and the new baby was in NYC and so the timestamp on my phone text messaging app is suspect to me, but we had the usual excited-congratulations-everyone’s-healthy friend exchange. The next morning I woke up, and I don’t need to describe to you my full body reaction to waking up in the world I did, even physically in another country. And I texted that friend, “Happy birthday to D—, and happy end of democracy day!”
My body remembers this feeling, the physical anxiety and the fight or flight response on reading the news. I’m back in the United States now after being in the U.K. for all of Sept., Oct., and most of Nov. I read the 1440 Newsletter and Letters from an American in my inbox daily, though sometimes think I need to stop because of the very real physical reactions I am having. I don’t need to keep describing this feeling; you know. I do keep reading though. Richardson’s historical context and global insights are extremely insightful, and for my international friends who are curious as to why or how or what is happening - and why this is SUCH a big deal, and not just another all-politics-is-bad-as-usual-everywhere, I highly recommend her writing.
“. . . According to Rick Noack of the Washington Post, such restrictions surprised men, who were accustomed to enjoying power in their society. Some have been wondering if they should have spoken up to defend the freedoms of their wives and daughters.
One man who had supported the Taliban said he now feels bullied. “We all are practicing Muslims and know what is mandatory or not. But it’s unacceptable to use force on us,” he said. Speaking on the condition of anonymity because he feared drawing the attention of the regime, another man from Kabul said: “If men had raised their voices, we might also be in a different situation now.”"
From Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, November 11, 2024
This is volume 1 of 3 posts I have to share with you all the backlog of articles I have been reading the past few months. I DID separate them this time. (Take note: I have also set myself the mission, the same as every year, to read and close all my open tabs before the end of the year. So January will be a long list of articles as well!)
Volume 1: Recommended Reading on the Current News Cycle, December 2024 (with links to articles on News/Long-form journalism, Brain/Mind/Health, Film/Other/Personal Interest/Random)
Volume 2: Recommended Reading on Art, Literature, and Surviving Through Fiction (with links to articles on Art/Literature, Fiction/Poetry, and Science/History)
Volume 3: Recommended Reading on the Anonymity of the Internet, or the Anonymity of AI? (with sections on Business/Startups/Investing and Tech/AI/Web3/Crypto)
Keep an eye out for volumes 2 & 3 in the next few days.
RECOMMENDED READING - Top of Mind
Chaos and cause Can a butterfly’s wings trigger a distant hurricane? The answer depends on the perspective you take: physics or human agency Erik Van Aken (June 2024)
"Imagine that Sam and Suzy are standing near a fire. Each bystander desires to extinguish the flame. Imagine further that Suzy decides to spray the fire with a hose, and that Sam decides to pray for the fire to go out. From a physical perspective, Sam and Suzy – one spraying and one praying – affect the fire by their mere presence and, thus, by their actions. Yet, from a macro-level human perspective, only one individual affects the fire. That is, only Suzy’s spraying makes a difference to the flames.
Our actions are simultaneously bound by the determinism of physical laws and enriched with intention
…
When we shift our perspective from physics to agency and difference-making, we land on the most intuitive assessment of the butterfly effect. From our perspective, the butterfly is not a cause of the storm because we cannot affect storms by manipulating butterflies. And while the butterfly could have an effect on a storm, it does not make a difference to the occurrence of storms in a way that we can predict or control."
Make Your Own Luck It’s better to be lucky than to be good, so if you’re good, get yourself some luck Deb Liu (March 2024)
Twenty Years Later, Still Haunted by ‘Super Size Me’ Gyasi Hall (5 Sept. 2024)
Was Ozempic right for me? Em Win (6 Aug. 2024)
“Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonists are only a tiny example of the many intricate injustices in the U.S. healthcare system affecting marginalized folks the most. The wealthy have always had more access to medical care than poor people, and Ozempic’s rise will continue to exacerbate that. Fat people have long been stigmatized and harshly judged as not “doing enough” to take care of themselves, disregarding the impact of socioeconomic factors on people’s access to healthy food or even having time to exercise. Now, when all that can be fixed with just a simple drug, we’ll be judged for not taking it, disregarding the socioeconomic reality that not all of us can afford it.”
Proof You Can Do Hard Things An Essential Piece to Your Life Resume. Nat Eliason (10 July 2023)
Without humans, what would happen to Earth? 'After every extinction event the place is devastated, but life is so resilient.' Lauren Leffer (4 Nov. 2024)
When Eve and Eve Bit the Apple Modern Love essay, by Kristen Scharold (originally published 2016)
NEWS / LONG-FORM JOURNALISM
Fate or convenience? Why work is one of life’s most powerful matchmakers Inga Ting, Katia Shatoba, Brody Smith and Thomas Brettell (17 Sept 2024)
Meet the Trans Actress Who Could Make Oscar History Kyle Buchanan (8 Aug. 2024)
My Family Taught Me To Hide The Truth About My Brother. I Wish They Hadn't. It wasn’t until my sister was in college that any of us learned what was wrong with Joel. Mimi Nichter (Oct. 2024)
The Incredible History of Trans and Intersex Olympians Michael Waters discusses the origins of gender surveillance in sports and what queer history can teach us about the present moment. Jacqueline Alnes (29 July 2024)
"MW: From a historical vantage point, what struck me while doing this research was that there were several different Olympic sports that were originally conceived of as mixed-gender sports. Officials instituted male-female binaries after women won those sports. In the early 1900s, figure skating was a mixed sport and this woman, Madge Syers, won silver. She was the first woman to medal highly in this competition. As a result, figure skating decided to split into male and female categories. More recently, at the Olympics in the skeet shooting category, a woman won and set a new world record, and the governing body first stopped allowing women to compete and eventually split it into male and female categories. "
The Kidnapping I Can’t Escape Fifty years ago, my father’s friend was taken at gunpoint on Long Island. Then he went on with his life — and that’s the part that haunts me. Taffy Brodesser-Akner (7 July 2024)
A Father’s Search for a Son Who Didn’t Want to Be Found Shawn Hubler (Aug. 2024)
I Just Want a Normal Drink Who asked for seltzer with ashwagandha? Yasmin Tayag (March 2024)
An I.V.F. Mix-Up, a Shocking Discovery and an Unbearable Choice Susan Dominus (Nov. 2024)
Inside the New World of Luxury Kids’ Parties, Where Parents Are Plus-Ones Kara Baskin (Nov. 2024)
‘In China, builders don’t look at drawings’: the architect challenging his country’s rampant urban obsession China is moving mountains and flattening neighbourhoods. But Dong Gong is sparking a revolution – by working slowly with what’s already there. As a book of his great projects appears, he shares his philosophy Oliver Wainwright (Nov. 2024)
BRAIN / MIND / HEALTH
What Happens in a Mind That Can’t ‘See’ Mental Images Neuroscience research into people with aphantasia, who don’t experience mental imagery, is revealing how imagination works and demonstrating the sweeping variety in our subjective experiences. Yasemin Saplakoglu (1 Aug. 2024)
How medical research is failing women For years, the process for developing and testing new drugs has focused disproportionately on male bodies — to the detriment of female patients Sarah Neville (2 Aug. 2024)
Human brain can process certain sentences in ‘blink of an eye’, says study Researchers say findings differ from previous theories that words are understood one by one. Nicola Davis (Oct. 2024)
An Addict Is Only a Tourist in the Land of the Living I lived on the threshold, oscillating between wakefulness and perhaps-permanent oblivion. Adam Spiegelman (Oct. 2024)
The swolest generation Gen Z loves the gym. That's a big problem for gyms. Eve Upton-Clark (Aug. 2024)
New Method Tracks How Psychedelics Affect Neurons in Minutes Greg Watry (5 Aug. 2024)
Psychedelic Outlaws by Joanna Kempner review – a compelling case for the use of magic mushrooms in pain relief. The US sociologist’s study of psychoactive fungi to treat little-known medical conditions such as cluster headaches is well researched and wide-ranging. Mark Honigsbaum (Oct 2024)
The Science of Why Your Body Takes Longer to Bounce Back After 40 Injuries, colds, restless nights and alcohol can hit harder when we get into midlife. Alex Janin (Oct. 2024)
I attended the world's first official Blue Zone retreat – here’s what I learned During a week-long wellness trip to Costa Rica's stunning Papagayo Peninsula, writer Maria Yagoda finds that living well is just as important as living longer Maria Yogoda (18 Sept. 2024)
The Insidious Scrutiny of Female Athletes’ Bodies Lindsay Gibbs (2 Aug. 2024)
“At the elite level, especially the Olympics, sports are all about celebrating the extraordinary. None of the athletes we are seeing competing in Paris or in any other Olympiad are “normal.” They are the best in the world at their sport. And while it certainly takes hard work, passion, relentlessness, and a top-tier support system to make it to the biggest stage in sports, it also takes some form of biological superiority, especially for the record-setters.
In men’s sport, the biological marvels are celebrated. Michael Phelps’ wingspan, long torso, and hyperextended joints in his chest, feet, and elbows give him an extreme advantage over his competitors, as do his high lung capacity and low lactic acid production. But he was never forced to minimize these traits he was born with in order to make things more “fair” for the other men in the competition. Nobody banned 7’6” Chinese center Yao Ming from basketball because he was so tall and big that it posed a danger to his competitors. Usain Bolt wasn’t forced to prove that his hormones were all in the normal ranges for an adult male before he was allowed to compete. A big reason why these athletes were so great was because they were built differently.”
‘I’m motivated by the puzzle’: how Courtney Dauwalter became ultrarunning’s GOAT Andy Cochrane (Sept 2024)
Study Finds Faces Evolve to Match Names Over Time Lital Ben Ari (29 July 2024)
Anxiety and depression is spiking among young people. No one knows why. Desperate to help record numbers of children suffering anxiety and depression, state and local governments are testing new interventions to get to the root of the crisis — even if they don’t know what that is. Daniel Payne (April 2024)
Craving snacks after a meal? It might be food-seeking neurons, not an overactive appetite Holly Ober (March 2024)
What's so special about the human brain? Torrents of data from cell atlases, brain organoids and other methods are finally delivering answers to an age-old question. Kerri Smith (Nov. 2024)
I bought into the idea that wellness guru Andrew Huberman could fix my life. Then I read about him Does it matter if the paragon of the scientifically optimized existence is actually kind of a jerk in real life? Mark O'Connell (April 2024)
Why Elon Musk's Neuralink brain implant reframes our ideas of self-identity Dvija Mehta (April 2024)
How to Protect Your Relationship With the '80/20 Principle' Not all moments in a relationship are created equally. Mark Travers (Nov. 2024)
3 Signs You Are ‘Too Independent’ For A Relationship, By A Psychologist Mark Travers (Nov. 2024)
The Number-One Problem with Being Single What to do when singlehood reminds you you're no one's number-one. Bruce Y. Lee (Oct. 2024)
I Gave Myself Three Months to Change My Personality The results were mixed. Olga Khazan (10 Feb. 2022)
The 22-year-old woman who was on the brink of being euthanised – and changed her mind Dutch psychiatric patient Romy’s last-minute change of heart teaches us a vital lesson regarding the UK’s proposed assisted dying Bill. Abigail Buchanan (Nov. 2024)
FILM / OTHER / PERSONAL INTEREST / RANDOM
It’s all I think about’: Stanley Tucci on love, grief and pasta Screen favourite, cocktail maker, cancer survivor, sex symbol… Stanley Tucci is a man of many parts. The ‘Tooch’ discusses fame, his new book – and the perils of cooking for children. Eva Wiseman (6 Oct 2024)
The Words People Write on Their Skin On a small boat in Thailand, a young Korean tourist showed me the word High tattooed on his torso. “It’s because I like to get high,” he said. David Diamond (25 Aug. 2024)
The World Wasn’t Made Straight Up and Down We Need To Rewrite Ourselves an Ethics of Care in the Classroom and Beyond: The school district used a rhetoric of scarcity to determine which kids it would support, and which kids it would eventually remove. Heather Lanier (12 Sept. 2024)
I earn £2m – my partner £20k. It’s a bit ridiculous’: the truth about wealth-gap relationships As inequalities widen, marrying into money can make the difference between surviving and thriving. But does happiness always follow? Elle Hunt (21 Sept. 2024)
Huh? Why we're all watching TV with subtitles on Aoife Ryan-Christensen (13 Sept. 2024)
The pleasures and sorrows of solo travelling Could I truly enjoy a trip to Lisbon on my own? Jonn Elledge (31 Aug. 2024)
No, English Teacher Isn’t Ripping Off Abbott Elementary Just because they’re both TV shows about teachers doesn’t mean they’re the same. Nadira Goffe (6 Sept. 2024)
‘It Ends With Us’ was already problematic. Blake Lively’s press tour made it worse. How Colleen Hoover’s "It Ends With Us" went from BookTok hit to the center of a Hollywood controversy. Hannah Holland (27 Aug. 2024)
The era of freeloading is officially over Costco and Disney this month took a page from the Netflix playbook and announced they are cracking down on account sharers. Allison Morrow (12 Aug. 2024)
This US woman drove solo from Georgia to Mongolia via Russia. It wasn’t the fun overlanding expedition she expected. Breanna Wilson (5 Aug. 2024)
Why ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Is the Year’s Most Depressing Success Story For all its self-deprecating quippery, the crossover superhero smash represents corporate brand synergy at its most ruthless. Guy Lodge (Aug. 2024)
Michael Cera came of age on-screen. Now he’s all grown up. As the ever-boyish actor matures, his cinematic personas — from ‘Life & Beth’ to ‘Barbie’ — follow suit. Thomas Floyd (15 Feb. 2024)
Welcome to the Rejected Housewives Suite! Maggie Slepian (2 Aug. 2024)
Decades of public messages about recycling in the US have crowded out more sustainable ways to manage waste Michaela Barnett, University of Virginia; Leidy Klotz, University of Virginia; Patrick I. Hancock, University of Virginia, and Shahzeen Attari, Indiana University (28 July 2024)
Skibidi Toilet: Exploring the dystopian Gen Alpha trend, from brain rot to Michael Bay movies Malavika Pradeep (29 July 2024)
The waiting is over! Have the times finally caught up with Godot? Samuel Beckett’s groundbreaking play is back again, this time starring Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati. Its tragicomic take on existence may match our cultural moment. Michael Billington (29 July 2024)
Can a troubled Victoria’s Secret successfully write its next chapter? It’s certainly pulling out all the stops Tara John (Oct. 2024)
France mulls law changes to include consent as mass rape case shakes nation Current French law makes no clear mention of the need for a partner’s consent and prosecutors must prove the intention to rape. Reuters & Agent France-Presse (Oct 2024)
How can we love fully in the face of inevitable loss? It starts with letting go It’s not easy to accept change, separation and heartbreak. But grief can pave the way for a new form of connection. Nadine Levy (Oct. 2024)
Katie Archibald: ‘My job satisfaction is a 10. The rest of my life is definitely not’ Katie Archibald, who returns to racing for GB at the worlds in Denmark, is eyeing the LA Olympics despite being upended by the death of her partner and a horrific injury. Donald McRae (13 Oct. 2024)
Will you marry me (again)?: the rise of ‘divorce regret’ Amelia Abraham (Sept. 2024)
She preyed upon that empathy’: the TV writer who faked having cancer Docuseries details stranger-than-fiction truth behind Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch’s extensive deceptions. Adrian Horton (Oct. 2024)
'A disabled South Park character from 24 years ago is getting me harassed today' Alex Taylor (Nov. 2024)
"In interviews Stone and Parker have spoken of how carefully and purposefully they integrated him into the show…But two decades later, the fact remains that on meeting Timmy, certainly at first glance, many find him outrageously offensive.
South Park has always worked on multiple levels - offering outrageous forbidden shock value for schoolchildren while delivering crunching adult satire.
None of this nuance is reflected in the TikTok trend, which reduces Timmy, and by extension wheelchair users and disability, to one-dimensional ridicule."
Experience: I’ve been to every country in the world Gina Morello (Nov. 2024)
‘I never want you around your grandchild’: the families torn apart when adult children decide to go ‘no contact’ Some cases of estrangement stem from a traumatic childhood. But in others it can come as a shock to parents who believe they did their best. People on both sides of family rifts share their stories. Gaby Hinsliff (Nov. 2024)
Generation Fido Millennials are raising pets instead of kids. It's not going well for the pets. Aimee Pearcy (Nov. 2024)