Something to read
Cozy is an action, not a description.
The importance of white space in our daily lives.
Something extraordinary happens every day.
Something to think about
Besides, Jake knew, as Eliot had known, as all artists ought to know, that every story, like every single work of art—from the cave paintings to whatever was playing at the Park Theater in Cobleskill to his own puny books—was in conversation with every other work of art: bouncing against its predecessors, drawing from its contemporaries, harmonizing with the patterns. All of it, paintings and choreography and poetry and photography and performance art and the ever-fluctuating novel, was whirling away in an unstoppable spin art machine of its own. And that was a beautiful, thrilling thing.
— Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Plot
Something else
A few new podcasts in my weekly rotation:
Work Appropriate, workplace advice from Anne Helen Petersen and a rotating cast of curated cohosts. Listen for smart takes on everything from toxic office culture to changing careers in midlife.
ICYMI, Slate’s internet culture show with Rachelle Hampton. Listen if you want to know what’s trending on TikTok, and why, without having to scroll through yourself.
Keep It, Crooked Media’s pop-culture-meets-politics show from “Princes of Pop Culture” Ira Madison III and Louis Virtel. Listen for the latest on TV, movies, music, and celebrities from a queer perspective.
Poetry Unbound, short, contemplative explorations of poems from On Being.
Have a great week,
Allison
P.S. I’m partnering with The Creative Factor on a new monthly Book Report series. Check out the first installment for three offbeat takeaways from one of my favorite reads of 2022, Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.