SC Weekly – April 2025 – #2
~ a curated selection of discoveries ~
::: The Open :::
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy this edition of SC Weekly (published on Sundays).
Please consider sharing with a friend who you think may enjoy this newsletter.
Thank you for reading and for your time.
With Gratitude,
~ Mark
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::: Personal :::
Chronic pain sucks.
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::: ONE ART :::
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Call for Submissions: Poems About Work
The Book of Jobs: An Anthology of Poems About Work (Online)
Edited by Erin Murphy
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ONE ART’s next reading is Sunday, May 4.
Featured Readers: Jennifer Mills Kerr, Terri Kirby Erickson, Dick Westheimer, Ann E. Michael, Kai Coggin
A link to acquire tickets will be available this week! (possibly tomorrow)
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Work-in-progress…
Upcoming workshops from ONE ART.
That being said, hopefully some will be excited to hear that I’m planning to return to offering weekly workshops. Initially, these will be ‘Unpacking Poems’ workshops that will be 1.5 hours long— but they will have a new structure. I’ll be sharing more about this soon!
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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
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‘2024 Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems — Long List’ (The Haiku Foundation)
Kat Lehmann’s poem from the 2024 ONE ART Haiku Anthology made the list!
Congratulations to Kat and fingers crossed!!
Note: ONE ART’s 2025 Haiku Anthology is forthcoming on International Haiku Day, April 17!
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‘Most Americans want to read more books. We just don't.’ (NPR)
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::: Podcasts :::
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How to Be a Better Human: How Sikh wisdom can transform your life (w/ Simran Jeet Singh)
Really gentle, kind, thoughtful way to engage with the world that feels particularly amazing in our cruel and twisted times.
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I’ve been taking a deep dive into conversations with Jaron Lanier.
‘The Gray Area with Sean Illing: Jaron Lanier’s case for deleting social media right now’
Tech guru Jaron Lanier: ‘The danger isn’t that AI destroys us. It’s that it drives us insane’ (Guardian)
Jaron Lanier: ‘The solution is to double down on being human’ (Guardian)
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I was inclined to share this little known podcast with a few poets I corresponded with this week.
Given this is an area that doesn’t receive enough attention (or understanding), I wanted to share.
Make Visible: Understanding Complex Illness
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Relatedly, thanks to Louisa, I’ve been investing Jayne Mattingly’s book ‘Body Grief’. In my way, I started by listening to podcast interviews with the author. (Update: I was disappointed by the text itself… not uncommon… but I do recommend listening to Mattingly’s interviews.)
Here’s one:
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Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad"? (It's Been a Minute)
Short listen & a reminder we need more women critics.
I was just having a conversation the other day about the desperate need for more poetry critics who are willing to write valuable reviews that are genuine, candid critiques.
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::: Music :::
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Shout-out to Pitchfork for this pitch:
The Weather Station: Humanhood
RIYL: Re-reading Braiding Sweetgrass; somatic therapy; social media detoxes; Joni Mitchell deep cuts; long life-affirming conversations with friends; a little jazz, a little banjo; quilting as a metaphor
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The 1975's Matty Healy shares his favourite albums of all time
Many of the influences make sense.
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::: Health & Wellness :::
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Organ transplant advancements.
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::: The Trump Regime :::
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‘The real reason Trump is destroying the economy’ (Vox)
“This is what a hybrid political system looks like in practice. The United States still has free and fair elections at all levels of government, and is in that sense democratic. But elections don’t matter in the way that they’re supposed to, because the people’s representatives in Congress are not playing their constitutionally assigned policymaking role. This is the autocratic component of the current American system, one that enables the president to sabotage the global economy if he so wishes.”
“The transformation of America, from democracy to Frankensteinian amalgam, has been in the works for decades.”
“Political scientists have long found that, on average, democracies produce better outcomes for citizens than authoritarian states. They produce higher rates of economic growth, superior technological innovation, better public health services, and are even more likely to win wars.”
“One of the key reasons for democracy’s success has been its formalized policymaking process. Because laws are changed through legal and transparent processes, ones subject to public debate and legal oversight, they are more likely to both be well-informed by the best available evidence and corrected if something goes badly.”
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‘What the Comfort Class Doesn’t Get: People with generational wealth control a society that they don’t understand.’ (The Atlantic)
“The dissonance between the way the powerful think and how the rest of America lives is creating a lot of chaos.”
“These phenomena might not be rational. But anxiety isn’t rational. Studies have found that working through a challenging financial time can affect one’s brain as much as missing an entire night’s sleep, or a loss of 13 IQ points. Financial anxiety is linked with higher rates of depression and psychological distress, which can manifest in physical health issues such as heart disease and reduced immune response. The feeling of scarcity can also affect people’s ability to make sound decisions and retain information—not helpful when you can’t afford the late fee on a bill. In short, the haves are literally in a different head space than the have-nots.”
“Exacerbating the problem is widespread class dysmorphia. One reason so many well-off Americans feel capable of opining about less well-off Americans is because they don’t realize that they are, in fact, well-off in the first place.”
“In short: No one wants to be perceived as poor, and no one rich ever feels rich enough.”
“As a result, the very term middle class has become a meaningless catchall for a disparate range of lived financial experiences.”
“Members of the comfort class are not necessarily wealthy. Perhaps one day they will earn or inherit sums that will put them in that category. But wealth is not the marker of the comfort class. Security is.”
“This helps explain why the comfort class tends to vote differently. Someone who feels they don’t fundamentally need to worry about money if things go south will be more willing to vote on their values—issues like democratic norms or reproductive rights—than someone whose week-to-week concern is how inflation affects her grocery budget.”
“Many things drove voters to Trump, including xenophobia, transphobia, and racism. But the feeling that the Democratic Party had been hijacked by the comfort class was one of them.”
“To many Americans, classism is the last socially acceptable prejudice. It’s not hard to understand the resentment of a working-class person who sees Democrats as careful to use the right pronouns and acknowledge that we live on stolen Indigenous land while happily mocking people for worrying about putting food on the table.” (emphasis added)
“I move in circles now where everyone’s zip code and alma mater alludes to a homogeneity of experience, but when I start discussing policy or politics with people—be they on the left or the right—I often feel that invisible gap yawn between us.”
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“Boys will be boys.”
Luckily this never gets old…
“Asked about the public fight between two of Trump’s advisors—two of the most powerful men in the world—White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters: “Boys will be boys.”” (Heather Cox Richardson)
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“While a trade war will likely hurt China more, that misses a key point: China is willing to endure more pain. Remember, we left Vietnam after losing 58,000 men compared with more than 1 million for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. I love the U.S., but the notion that Americans are going to tolerate 50% fewer toys under the Christmas tree and $3,500 iPhones is laughable.” – Scott Galloway
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Notable statement by Timothy Snyder (author of 'On Tyranny')
He's been accused of fleeing the U.S. and essentially breaking the first rule of his own guidelines-- not obeying in advance.
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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“Wonder is a choice, and we can find it if we look for it.”
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A Day of Activity on the Internet
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Regarding the “Dire Wolves”…
“Functional de-extinction uses the safest and most effective approach to bring back the lost phenotypes that make an extinct species unique.” (Gizmodo)
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‘Which Movies Have "Aged Poorly"? A Statistical Analysis’ (Stat Significant)
Crash (2004) didn’t exactly age poorly. It was cringe in its own time.
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Solid tech advice from the great Wendell Berry (circa 1987!)
‘9 Rules for New Technology’ (Ted Gioia)
Get back to this.
“It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.”
Cars. iPhones. Most tech is not something a regular person can repair. Sadly, yes, not even with YouTube videos.
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Cute + Utility
Thanks to Louisa for the rec!
‘Doggles and dog booties: Anchorage residents prep pets for volcanic explosion’ (NPR)
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Fun list.
‘The best sci-fi movies of all time, ranked’ (TimeOut)
Lots of good inclusions. The ordering is highly debatable, of course. Maybe the best conversation is what’s missing?
There’s also an argument to be made about what is really first and foremost “sci-fi”.
I’ll start.
This list should have included:
eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor, Vanilla Sky, The City of Lost Children, Cube, The Cell, The Faculty…
Some films are more philosophical…
The Truman Show, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation… and so it would be a little odd to call them “sci-fi”.
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‘U.K. version of 'Saturday Night Live' featuring British cast due in 2026’ (NBC News)
I expect this will be funnier.
That being said, I’ve never been an SNL person… so I’ve only seen clips from time to time.
Rumor has it that it’s gone way downhill since its heyday.
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Corvid math geniuses?
Crows continue to prove their frightening level of intelligence.
Thanks to Louisa for calling my attention to this article.
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News of kindness in the world!
‘Dying US man uses his last months for community service in all 50 states’ (Guardian)
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Thank you for being so in touch with the times and providing these extracts. I esp. appreciate the many quotes from the Atlantic article. Chronic pain is a subject unto itself.
Always interesting.