What's Working: vol 33
curated links & our monthly sharing space
Each month I share what’s been working well in my life plus a curated list of links to what I’ve been reading, listening to, watching, and cooking.
In the comments I’d love to hear what’s been working well for you, plus your own links & recs!
What’s Working
Spring sunshine. Spring rain. Spring cleaning. The delightful chaos of seasonal rebirth. Sinking deeper into gap year. Fully disabling my Instagram account so that no part of me remains on that platform. Reading in the evenings. Journaling/list-making in the mornings. Moving slowly, with everything. Not pushing myself to get back into hard exercise too soon after my hike. Building up the pantry and moving ever closer to my goal of having three months of food stored away. Garden season! Planting lots of greens — arugula, spinach, various types of lettuce — and eagerly awaiting the deliciousness of freshly picked salads. Collecting books from friends to donate to the Prison Book Program. Giving things away in my local Buy Nothing group. Continuing to surrender the dreams of capitalism.
Reading, Watching, Listening
You know that feeling you get when you read something and your whole body is like YES! THIS! YES! That’s exactly how I felt about Carvell Wallace’s contribution to the 100 Days of Creative Resistance project.
Relatedly, I’m currently devoted to a personal undertaking that I’ve named Project: Integrity (more on this soon), which is the framing I’m using as I take concrete steps to get my behavior in better alignment with the vision I hold for a more liberated world. Some tangible resources that have helped me with the tech/online side of this project so far include: this guide to breaking up with Amazon; this guide to leaving Spotify; this guide to migrating from Google to Proton. I’m also seriously looking into alternatives to Substack (which I’ll share more about if/when I decide to make that move).
In all this thinking about integrity, I’m finding myself deeply drawn to stories of (regular, imperfect) people who are living their values and message in deep ways, such as Robin Greenfield. I first found him through this podcast conversation, and am now reading his (freely available in the gift economy) ebook, Food Freedom. His choices are certainly extreme (on purpose) and I’m not necessarily looking to emulate them, but I’ve found that delving into the archives of his digital world over the past month has already inspired me so much (and provoked fascinating conversations with loved ones!)
One of the signs of good writing (to me) is when I keep thinking about the piece long after I’m done reading it. Two recent examples are this essay by
on divesting from the West, and this essay by Price on abolishing age.Continuing on with that thread of media I’m still thinking about well after finishing it are two podcast conversations — both of which seemingly cover a specific thing (trans law and mass deportation, respectively), but are really so much bigger and more expansive on the themes of belonging, safety, and the dangers of criminalization.