The Best Stuff I Read This Week

“If I lean in,
I can hear all the words said in your
life, now in a different order. There’s still
no love, even though I’ve looked through all the
words twice.

— Victoria Chang / “Today”

“Decades ago, our politicians and engineers and other problem-solvers failed to build us a bridge to the future when they had the chance. Now, stranded here in the early 21st century, a chasm opening up in front of us, we must find a different path between the worlds. Caught in the teeth of an unsolvable predicament, facing a future “dark and darkening further,” we must still walk forward. But how? Neither pessimism nor simple optimism is going to cut it for us. Something more robust is needed.”

— Andrew Boyd / I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor

“We are the cats inside. We are the cats who cannot walk alone, and for us there is only one place.”

— William S. Burroughs / The Cat Inside

“The less plastic in contact with your food the better, because even if it’s not breaking into microplastics, it could be leaching chemicals directly into the food.”

—Matt Simon / “Microplastics are everywhere. Here’s what that means for your health.” / Apple News In Conversation

“Reader, it breaks.
We are filled with faults.
Here it is again.
An embroidered wound.”

— Jennifer Sperry Steinorth / Her Read: A Graphic Poem

“… concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power, especially as the cost of elections continues to skyrocket. There is the shredding of the democratic system by the rapid increase in the ability to just buy elections.”

— Noam Chomsky / Requiem for the American Dream

“I spend the day in other people’s tears.”

— Victoria Chang / “Today”

What I’m Listening To:

“I am still falling, the earth is dying
Don’t stop the party, the world is spinning
And you’re just a body, you’re just a body”

— Lucinda Chua / “Somebody Who”