My guest on the podcast this week is Ana Marie Cox. She’s a veteran journalist, political pundit, interviewer, podcaster, lots of other things. As of late, she’s also been a writing instructor, leading a series of classes called Third Story Workshop. It’s not a writing class that happens between the second and fourth floor of a building somewhere. It means that there are three stories one often comes across: what was it like, what happened, how is it today. The Alcoholics Anonymous (Ana is a person in recovery from alcoholism) version of that format tweaks the last story to be “what am I like today.”
So she applies that structure to helping people write their own stories of recovery. It could be recovery from a substance use disorder, could be trauma, could be toxic relationships, could be any number of things one needs to recover from.
I wanted to hold this conversation because, as I say on this episode, “ I just believe a lot in writing. I’m a fan of the creative act of getting your thoughts into words and those words on a page. For one thing, I believe it can really help unlock a lot of mysteries about why your mind works the way it does. That was my experience with my own memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, which came out in 2020.”
I understand that not everyone has the time or inclination to write a full-length memoir, nor does everyone have a book deal such that deadlines become a big motivator, but I think writing about one’s own experience can be a clarifying experience. When your main character is denied something essential on page 30, it can explain why they’re so desperate to pursue that thing on page 285.
I saw this pack of stickers at Walgreen’s
This is good news. The sentiment that mental health matters is so universally accepted that it can be included in a sticker pack with a smily face and a unicorn as Things We All Agree Are Good.
This is bad news. Mental health is lumped in with random images that have no real meaning or weight behind them. Sure, mental health matters but also… skateboard!
This is good news. Better to at least establish the concept of wellness as a thing. And having it as a sticker that might appear on a school folder means it will be something more solid in people’s minds.
This is bad news. Honey. Hamburger. Crown. What?
This is good news. Mental health does matter. Good for a giant corporation like Walgreen’s for at least putting forth this simple truth in this instance.
This is bad news. Price marked down!
Overall, sure. Good news. But WEIRD ASS NEWS.
Detroit Tigers’ Austin Meadows steps away from baseball
The outfielder is going to miss some games due to an anxiety disorder.
These injuries are becoming more routine across all sports and, as I’ve said before, what’s really noteworthy is how routine they seem to be. You don’t see controversy over whether its legitimate or whether he should or should not miss time, it’s just treated as if he sprained an ankle or something. Notably, people freak out a lot more when it’s a woman missing time, like Simone Biles or Naomi Osaka and that’s because we live in a sexist society.
Here is a video showing the relative size of all sorts of flying creatures.
I think you will enjoy us. I further think that YOU will think that the Quetzelcoatlus was really fucking big. 33 foot wingspan! That’s more than four Rudy Goberts stretched across!
What does color blindness look like?
One of my favorite collectors of Cool Things On The Internet is Andy Baio, who runs waxy.org. Andy is colorblind and writes about that experience in The Verge.
The other day, I was booking a flight on Kayak, trying to figure out which dates are the cheapest by looking at their low fare calendar. See any issues?
Oh, sorry — that’s what it looks like to me. You probably see it more like this.
The article is full of sliding pictures that let you see what Andy sees versus what most other people see. The illustration of avocado toast next to peanut butter toast (virtually identical to Andy) is particularly bracing.