David Sedaris and the Bovine Matrix
Also, air is all around you. Suck some in to not go bonkers.
If this enterprise can’t raise enough money from listeners/readers, I swear to God, I’ll turn this show around. And we’ll never get to Grandma’s. If you’ve already donated, thank you. If not, go here, pick a level that works for you, then select DEPRESH MODE from the list of shows. And thank you.
You can listen to the Depresh Mode podcast and hear me talk with David Sedaris
This week, we feature an episode from the archives on the podcast, going way back to the summer of 2021. Joe Biden was the president and America couldn’t get enough of, oh, let’s say Cardi B. Look, we’re not that old of a show.
But it’s an episode where I interview David Sedaris, which is a delightful interview for me to conduct and for you to hear. And yes, he’s funny. But it goes beyond that too. David’s latest book, Happy Go Lucky, is not always so happy go lucky, in that it contains a lot of stories about his late father that do not paint the family’s patriarch in the best light. That’s putting it perhaps a bit too mildly. Lou Sedaris took great pains to undermine and demean David, a fact that David didn’t feel comfortable writing about until Lou passed away in 2021.
The answer is: Oh Probably Absolutely Not
The question appeared as a headline for a BBC article: Mental health: Should driving instructors become therapists?
And while it’s a provocative headline, that’s not really what anyone’s suggesting.
The Beeb profiles Louise Dale, a Welsh driving instructor, who has taken some mental health training and says it’s helped her do a huge part of her job.
"It's kind of a standing joke at the test centre where we say 'oh, that's £30 for the lesson and 45 for the consultation'," she said.
"I think because people jump in the car and over the course of the weeks that we're training together they feel like that we're friends and it's a safe space and then they start to open up gradually."
She said over 50% of her students have conversations with her about their mental health and she worried in the past about what to do or how to respond.
"Without going into detail I see a lot of young people with social anxiety. They're worried about school, their appearance and there's the normal driving worries.
"I have different issues, people with personal problems at home, maybe right the way through to issues that I really would recommend speaking to the police about.
"I've had some quite horrific stories in my car."
Yikes. Dale also recommends training for other intimate professional relationships like tattoo artists and hairdressers.
Breathing: Important!, says science
Hopefully you know that it’s important to breathe. And not just inhaling, you have to exhale too. And alternate the two.
I kid.
But new research indicates that breath is even more important than a lot of people realize.
Understanding how breathing shapes our brain, and by extension, our mood, thoughts, and behaviors, is an important goal in order to better prevent and treat mental illness.
“Difficulty breathing is associated with a very large increase in the risk for mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. We know that respiration, respiratory illness, and psychiatric disorders are closely linked. Our study raises the possibility that the next treatments for these disorders might be found in the development of new ways to realign the rhythms of the brain and body, rather than treating either in isolation,” explains Micah Allen.
Stabilizing our mind through breathing is a well-known and used tactic in many traditions such as yoga and meditation. The new study sheds light on how the brain makes it possible. It suggests that there are three pathways in the brain that control this interaction between breathing and brain activity. It also suggests that our pattern of breathing makes the brain more “excitable”, meaning neurons are more likely to fire during certain times of breathing.
So remember: lungs! They’re not just for storing pencils and old mouse traps anymore. They’re useful for your mental health as well!
There aren’t a lot of newsletter items that can’t be improved with a Kate Bush video.
Cows fitted with VR headsets are happier, milkier, Matrixier
This was a story out of Turkey but it’s not about turkeys, it’s about cows. A Turkish farmer outfitted some of his cows with virtual reality goggles that simulated a big grassy meadow. Cows liked it because a) meadows are nice and b) cows are too stupid to realize that they’re only wearing goggles.
Anyway, production among the goggled cows went up from five gallons a day to seven gallons a day.
The VR headsets for cattle were initially tested in Moscow, Russia and were reportedly developed in coordination with veterinarians. Since the goggles proved to be a success on his farm, Kocak said that he's planning to order 10 more headsets from Russia and install them on his animals.
While the early results seem positive for the farmers, the process raises serious questions about ethical farming. Would more milk be worth putting animals in a bovine matrix where they have no perception of the real world (a cooped-up milk farm with tens of other cows)?
BOVINE MATRIX.
With apologies to Steven Wright: The Hardees is open 24 hours; just not all in a row.
The cows are in the mootrix. (Please forgive me)