I've got some ideas

I checked the news and it's still the news, but we're here now, blinking at each other through this screen, and I've gathered some things to read, try, and listen to.

Adjust your frequency accordingly:

1. My friends and I made a bit of radio for you. It's a sonic essay with elements of poetry and field recordings, plus isolated birdsong files from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (known around here as the RSPB) and some Imogen Heap, Cosmo Sheldrake, and Nick Drake to round things out. It's about recognizing lost ecological knowledge, then mourning and reclaiming it. It aired live on Resonance FM last week, and you can stream it here. (As will always be the case with my work and work I've collaborated on, every speck of it was conceived and created by humans with actual souls—no AI in this house, please and thank you.)
2. On the topic of good sounds and souls, did you know Florence Welch has a book club? Well, she does!
3. Please behold this art supply store lyric video for the new Lucy Dacus, incidentally titled "Planting Tomatoes" which is something I deeply miss doing and want to do again soon.
4. Here's the great Suleika Jaouad introducing a gorgeous short essay from Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (author of What If We Get It Right) on wonder, biophilia, and glass-bottomed boats.
5. Here’s Jessica de Fino doing what she does, digging into pointless beauty standards and offering thoughts on how to move with clarity around them in our conversations with one another.
6. And I have one more piece of writing to put in front of you, but this one's a whole book: I'm currently reading Dog Days by Emily LaBarge, one of the tutors for my writing program (omg Santa! I know her!). It's everything everybody on the book jacket says it is, and it may well have you reconsidering how you think about memoir, and storytelling, and living through terrible things. That's what it's doing for me.
7. If it's hot as an armpit where you are and you're mad about it, here's what I want you to do: I want you to put on the Olivia Dean cover of "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" (or whatever song compels you to hum along) and pour yourself a glass of ice water. Then I want you to mash some feta with a fork in a bowl, drizzle some olive oil on it, add the juice of at least half a lemon and a big dash of salt and pepper. Now please slice and smash a cucumber—couple of Persians if you got 'em—and crush some pistachios and tear some lettuce (little gem, romaine, spinach, whatever) and lots of fresh dill and chives. Mix it all up. Season to taste (with Maldon flakes and dried sumac for extra credit). Take a lactase tablet if you must! You're most welcome, and hopefully feeling the slightest bit chilled out.

A hug or a high-five, whichever you like. 'Til June...

“Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.”

—Doris Lessing 

23 May 2026

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