Recovering Roundup
Link Party, Week of February 27, 2022
I wrote a really long intro about why this newsletter is called Recovering. Then I deleted it because it didn’t make sense or do what I was trying to say justice but it did say something about what Peter Thiel and Dr. Bronner’s Soap have in common which felt like a fun sentence. I’ll try that again later but for now you can just jump to the goods.
Remember, the comments section here really loves your thoughts and your resources. Sharing is caring. Also: I highly recommend looking at the comments section with IFS resources in Sunday’s post.
Link Party, Week of February 27, 2022
Resources for donating to Ukraine and some NYT vetted resources; I’ve given to Together Rising (supporting Texas nonbinary and trans youth as well as Ukraine), Mercy Corps (which supports 40 different refugee crises including Afghanistan), International Rescue Committee. Also as a reminder 5% of all proceeds from this newsletter go to Drug Policy Alliance. Lastly, I recently gave money to David Poses family; I’ll write more about that in an upcoming email but you can also support them by purchasing his book, The Weight of Air, about his long battle with heroin addiction.
I’ve used Dr. Bronner’s for twenty years and never once read the label (I’ve always wanted to but no one sits on the toilet that long). This week it was revealed they are betting on psychedelics which makes total sense
This article on the lesser-known Musk made me laugh and want to start ending my sentences with “so just know that”
A slacker’s syllabus on how bad vaping really is
John Mulaney SNL opener delivers with intervention jokes
More psychedelic pros and cons for your list if you’re keeping one and this article here that basically says if you want to microdose just pop a sugar pill and pretend you are on LSD and you’ll get the same benefit. (To be clear I have no dog in this fight of whether to dose or microdose or not and that’s because just like anything we do to ourselves, it’s up to our own judgment over our own self; I do care, very much, about decrim and as many things as we can find that help people not suffer.)
We don’t talk about cannabis addiction nearly enough
What happens if you’re married to someone who won’t quit the thing you hate
👏 Brazil
Your work friend Roxane Gay talks to you about email
Maybe you read Jame’s Nestor’s Breathe and talked someone into mouth taping and by you I mean I did. Apparently I was wrong and we’re not supposed to mouth tape which brings me back to that article about what the TED talk has done to us
‘What Can I Do to Support My Newly Sober Partner?’ Ask Ana Marie Cox Your Sobriety Questions premiers!
I pick my cuticles relentlessly so this article on skin picking was nice to read
There’s a fucking global alcoholic ice cream market 🤯
If you’re into ASMR, unboxings, and cat lady humor this is for you (thank you Emily McDowell)
Sam Irby’s recommendations come once a month and are always good as is everything she ever writes ever
“The Peculiar Sadness of Animated Alcoholics” by Zan Romanoff (there’s a quote I’ve been obsessed with for a long time “Hope isn’t valid unless it’s being espoused by someone who is keenly aware of the stupid, shitty, petty pointlessness of life” that I read it in 2017 couldn’t remember its source and finally used google; I’d forgotten what a brilliant read it is)
Five Things I Loved
I didn’t always love Liz Gilbert; like I mean I did when I read EPL like we all did but then she got married and that felt like some kind of violation (they always fucking get married at the end!); worse yet, when I started going to Italy people accused me of EatPrayLoving, as in the verb that applies to all thirty year-old white single ladies who travel to the motherland so I felt like she ruined things for me. But then: I saw her TED talk in 2013 (if you haven’t watched this do yourself a favor and watch) and I was completely blown away; I had written her off as a one-act kind of person, and there she was at least three new versions of herself later, telling us the reason we get so fucked up about creating is because we think we are as good as our creations when we’re just vessels. I’ve been obsessed since, and she’s kind of my one, as in the one I just think is great and the one whose books I will always buy and I DO sometimes say to myself: WWLGD. This week, she wrote something for the first time in a long time (at least according to my LG alerts) and it was beautiful and funny and sad and glorious and made me wish she wrote all the things all the time; she’s also coming on Quitted as our second guest this week and next.
I don’t share a lot of things that I’m “doing for my mental health” and want to start that. Recently, The Class has been saving me (try this one for a good idea of what it is and a good teacher that I’ve been into lately). The Class is hard to explain: a combo of HIIT and yoga and pilates and Richard Simmons shit with lots of real talk combined with yelling screaming dancing and sometimes hysterical crying? At the end of it I feel like a completely different person. Thank you to my ex who got me into it. I also have been listening to Mitski’s new album, Laurel Hell, on repeat. Listen to Valentine, Texas three times to get hooked.
This changed my life in 2017. It resurfaced this week as all great things do.
Sometimes I feel like I need to shut up about AJ because every week I tell you about AJ’s writing but it’s really good always! I mean almost always but just subscribe to him already and I’ll stop. The reason I wait for his newsletter every week is because he’s so absolutely himself in this not self-deprecating way but in this painfully honest way that gives us a glimpse into the psyche and soul of a person who is really fucking trying; there is absolutely no distance between himself and the page and it’s searing and visceral. Also, he’s just stupidly lovable, like you want to be his friend and also hug him a lot and give him pep talks but also learn from him because he has this thing you want, this hard earned wisdom and humility and grace and ease in his discomfort.
Absolutely obsessed with Severance. Please watch it so we can talk about it. Thank you.
This email is the highlight of my week. It always helps me change my mind about something. Amazing collection of pieces as usual Holly
I’m just so happy and grateful that this space on the internet exists. That is all ❤️