Sex, Plants, Swedes, Google, Beatles

Not a shopping list. A newsletter!

Jan 20

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Impending Sex

We’ve been talking about doing an episode of the show about sex for months. The topic arose in our Preshies discussion group on Facebook (join!) from people who were dealing with depression and other issues and found that these things were getting in the way of their sex lives. People who had partners, people who wanted to want to have sex but it wasn’t happening.

We did one interview pretty easily with a therapist in Minneapolis who specializes in working with couples on intimacy issues. But we also wanted someone who was good at talking about sex and mental health from a psychiatric/neurological perspective as well. Finally found one! That’s coming out on Monday.

The episode, as intended, is direct, honest, not bashful and or giggly, and really not very sexy in and of itself. But I think it can help people.

One of the people we talk to is Dr. Cindy Meston:

See this?

It’s a painting.

What I’m consuming

Parks - America’s National Parks are one of the best things about America. But it’s not like Theodore Roosevelt built the land itself out of nothing. And there had been people on that land before the parks were drawn up. This is a podcast about that situation.

Anxious People - A funny and humane Swedish television adaptation of a funny and humane Swedish book.

My email - Because I keep hearing from people about the Sad Dad Band piece I wrote for McSweeney’s. I got two writing offers this week, both very odd so of course I’m doing them. This is from Frank Bruni’s newsletter in the New York Times:

I’d heard of “dad jeans” and, without being a dad, own several pairs. But “dad bands”? More specifically, “sad dad bands”? That was not only new but also hilarious to me, at least as rendered in this McSweeney’s article. I am apparently a semi-sad dad: About half the musicians mentioned appear on my playlists, with one of the bands — The National — in very heavy rotation. Whether this article applies to you or not, it’s likely to make you chuckle.

Taylor Swift music - I don’t mean to, it’s just that I share a Spotify with my 13yo daughter and also I drive her places sometimes so it’s inescapable.

Wiki History Game - It’s Wordle for history majors. You get a timeline and you get items and you have to put them in order. My son, an actual history major, is much better at it than I am but I’m way better at it than my dogs.

Mental health crisis at Google

I learned about it while reading the news at Google!

Ewsh.

When Chewy Shaw left Google’s site reliability group in April, he told colleagues in a memo that interactions with his managers had made him depressed and suicidal.
“I no longer feel psychological safety on this team,” wrote Shaw, who is Black and had accused his leaders of racism. “I no longer have a manager focused on treating me in a ‘Googley’ manner,” he added, using his own shorthand to describe respect and fairness. “And so, with many tears, I am now looking for a Googley manager at the company who will take me.”

The article describes an environment very similar to what I experienced at Amazon over twenty years ago, right down to the French boss who destroys your soul.

That’s all in my book! I wrote a book!