Yum
Hello, hello, hello,
Greetings from the beginning of summer’s dramatic third act. The part of the season where the plot threads finally come together, the theme becomes clear, where soon enough, the credits will roll (they’ll look like leaves).
But first:
Are microplastics really a problem?Our listener Louisa is very annoyed by her sister’s preoccupation with keeping her children away from microplastics. Louisa wonders: are people with microplastic anxiety kind of overdoing it?
Search Engine investigates.
Some recommendations from JulyWe had a whole month out of the studio. I found myself with time to think, read, talk to people, watch and listen to new things. It was wonderful.
Some recommendations!
I watched Eddington and thought it was very sharp. It’s so hard to make art about the internet, but this worked for me. Dark, funny, surprising and it somehow managed to capture and clarify a lot of what life online felt like, in 2020 and afterwards.
I laughed, I yelped, I made a weird surprised bark noise (this at the one quick scene that happens on a jet.) Also, crucially for me, Eddington is not a horror movie, so it was something that I could actually watch.
I’m reading Lost and Found, one of those books you find yourself reading as slowly as possible, hanging out in the sentences like they’re a very nice hotel room.
I heard about it from this interview. (I also recommend the interview, which is one of those rare book interviews that doesn’t repeat the book much and stands alone as a very worthwhile listen.)
I rode the ferry a few times from Brooklyn to Manhattan, which you should do if you find yourself in New York while it’s still warm.
I bought a pair of big pants but was too nervous to wear them right away, which is a mistake. Into King Tut’s tomb they go. I guess this is more of a warning than a recommendation. If you buy something weird, wear it before you lose your fragile nerve. And if you see me in public in big pants, please come up to me and say: “those pants look remarkably normal on you, you’re being very normal here right now, please continue to feel normal.” I think something like that could help.
Here are some songs that friends and algorithms sent my way, and which I listened to a lot:
What else? I met some dogs, saw a lot of friends and found myself, at the end, standing at an airport luggage carousel where, somehow, everyone but me apparently may’ve had the exact same suitcase?
Very curious.
That’s all from me this week. We’ll be back with a new one for you this Friday. Thank you for reading. Please tell your friends, family, workplace HR department, and acquaintances that we are back.
Happy to be here for another year,
PJ
subscribe to this newsletter
More description
Yum
Hello, hello, hello,
Greetings from the beginning of summer’s dramatic third act. The part of the season where the plot threads finally come together, the theme becomes clear, where soon enough, the credits will roll (they’ll look like leaves).
But first:
Are microplastics really a problem?Our listener Louisa is very annoyed by her sister’s preoccupation with keeping her children away from microplastics. Louisa wonders: are people with microplastic anxiety kind of overdoing it?
Search Engine investigates.
Some recommendations from JulyWe had a whole month out of the studio. I found myself with time to think, read, talk to people, watch and listen to new things. It was wonderful.
Some recommendations!
I watched Eddington and thought it was very sharp. It’s so hard to make art about the internet, but this worked for me. Dark, funny, surprising and it somehow managed to capture and clarify a lot of what life online felt like, in 2020 and afterwards.
I laughed, I yelped, I made a weird surprised bark noise (this at the one quick scene that happens on a jet.) Also, crucially for me, Eddington is not a horror movie, so it was something that I could actually watch.
I’m reading Lost and Found, one of those books you find yourself reading as slowly as possible, hanging out in the sentences like they’re a very nice hotel room.
I heard about it from this interview. (I also recommend the interview, which is one of those rare book interviews that doesn’t repeat the book much and stands alone as a very worthwhile listen.)
I rode the ferry a few times from Brooklyn to Manhattan, which you should do if you find yourself in New York while it’s still warm.
I bought a pair of big pants but was too nervous to wear them right away, which is a mistake. Into King Tut’s tomb they go. I guess this is more of a warning than a recommendation. If you buy something weird, wear it before you lose your fragile nerve. And if you see me in public in big pants, please come up to me and say: “those pants look remarkably normal on you, you’re being very normal here right now, please continue to feel normal.” I think something like that could help.
Here are some songs that friends and algorithms sent my way, and which I listened to a lot:
What else? I met some dogs, saw a lot of friends and found myself, at the end, standing at an airport luggage carousel where, somehow, everyone but me apparently may’ve had the exact same suitcase?
Very curious.
That’s all from me this week. We’ll be back with a new one for you this Friday. Thank you for reading. Please tell your friends, family, workplace HR department, and acquaintances that we are back.
Happy to be here for another year,
PJ
subscribe to this newsletter
