SC Weekly – January 2025 – #2

~ a curated selection of discoveries ~

Jan 12, 2025

::: The Open :::

Dear Reader,

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::: Personal Notes :::

The New York Times asked “15 Very Different People” about what they hope to see in 2025… and I keep thinking about what Colson Whitehead said:

“I have no hopes for 2025. Humanity is disappointing. We killed the Earth. Villains triumph and the innocents suffer. I imagine these trends will continue.”

This isn’t the end of the story, thankfully.

Austin Kleon made this post with a great reference about approaching every day “without hope and without despair.” Granted, this was in the context of trying to write a little bit every day. Stepping back from writing advice, this is (sadly) some almost middle-of-the-road life advice for 2025.

We should have hope though. Hope is important.

Avoiding despair is probably even more important in the years to come. Because despair can lead people down dark paths. There are powers that are just fine having The People despair… if that will result in compliance.

Don’t let them win.

...On a lighter note, a debate as to whether or not the “Medium Talent!” lore is true or stranger than fiction or a secret third thing.

If you don’t know or have half-forgotten the story (which admittedly took place before my time), the story I was told is that Bill Murray and Chevy Chase got in a fight (possibly because Billy Murray is much funnier) and in the middle of this Murray yells “Medium Talent!” at Chase which I was personally told in the context of it being “the best comeback of all time” and, for sure, a brutal jab from one artist to another.

Alright folks, so what did we learn?

That’s right, we learned that you must avoid mediocrity at all costs.

::: ONE ART :::

A February ONE ART reading will be announced soon! Keep an eye out.

I’m in the process of getting lineups prepared for readings in Spring/Summer.

“Stealth Formalism”: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Formal Verse
Instructor: Nicole Caruso Garcia
Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Time: 6:00-8:00pm Eastern
Price: $25 (payment options – Stripe / PayPal / Venmo / CashApp)

Crossing Thresholds: Poetry and Mindfulness
Instructor: Gloria Heffernan
Date/Details: TBA soon
Time: 7:00-9:00pm Eastern
Price: $25 (payment options – Stripe / PayPal / Venmo / CashApp)

A ONE ART workshop with Donna Hilbert is on the horizon, too!

I’m in talks with a few other poets about hosting workshops.

If you’re a workshop leader and have a 2-hour workshop that you believe is well-suited to ONE ART’s audience, please get in touch to discuss.

::: Podcasts :::

How to Save the Environment from Trump and Project 2025 (Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams)

Accountability for writers.

How a buddy system can help you reach your goals (Life Kit)

Nora McInerny talks about a version of this as she transitions ‘Terrible, Thanks For Asking’ (TTFA) into ‘Thanks For Asking’ which, it sounds like, will be Substack-centered. Nora is wisely taking her own advice and focusing on the here & now and where she is as a person. And also focusing energy on what feels like appropriate use of your time and how you can best be in service to yourself and others.

Artist dates, morning pages, burnout, & & & …

Nice remembrance of Jimmy Carter with an emphasis on missing good, decent, hardworking role models like this in the Presidency. Also, Carter’s life offers a mostly positive model of masculinity. (Raging Moderates)

::: Music :::

After 4 years, we’re finally getting a new album from Japanese Breakfast!

I’m excited since tracks on her album Jubilee remain on my regular rotation.

The new album, ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’ is set to drop as Spring arrives on March 21.

A few other upcoming album release announcements:

1/17 – The Weather Station

1/24 – FKA twigs & The Weekend

5/21 – Lana Del Rey

‘The Gamification of Pop Music’ (The Ringer)

“In 2024, fandoms had more agency than ever to manipulate, influence, and gamify pop music. This power comes from the popularization of music streaming, the growth of stan communities, and more access than ever to music data. The result is something like the data-driven, analytically minded sports fandom for music.”

::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::

Ben Davis of Chill Subs interviews the CEO of Medium (Tony Stubblebine)!

A thoughtful reflection on the limitations of algorithms and why the human factor has unique value. Also, a good pitch for why Medium will continue to remain relevant even if much of “the old internet” devolves due to inundation of AI slop.

A few excerpts:

“My belief coming into Medium was that there's a lot of untapped knowledge and wisdom in the people of the world, and blogging is one of the best ways to unlock that.”

“There’s sort of the gray area of AI assist, which I still think is not generating very high quality, but it sometimes has a lot of validity in that it helps someone express themselves who otherwise wouldn't be able to express themselves.”

“The algorithm is still there for people who love algorithms for whatever reason. I don't love them. I love humans. I love being human. I love being around humans. I love hearing from humans.”

“[…] It makes me sad…. The more trash, the more toxic, the more unreliable and untrustworthy the rest of the internet becomes, the more we [Medium] succeed and stand out. So it doesn't worry me in any sort of competitive way. It's actually, unfortunately, probably good for Medium the worse the rest of the internet gets.”

“Something massive happened to us earlier this year, where the number of posts on Medium went up 10x. And it was almost entirely spam—we think spam enabled by AI generators. So the volume went up, but the volume of what we ended up recommending to our readers didn't change at all, because that stuff is pretty easy to filter out. Because the problem isn’t Is it AI-generated or not, it's Is this worth reading or not? And we're just not seeing pure AI generated [writing] that ever is.”

“A human story is already the most efficient delivery vehicle for knowledge and wisdom. And all the people that have ever tried to optimize it have just found out that they're wrong.”

‘How to Enjoy Your Writing Life in 2025’ (Maya C. Popa)

31 writing prompts (Maya C. Popa)

I just learned that Maya C. Popa offers ‘Conscious Writers Collective’ online writing community-oriented poetry classes. Impressive guest faculty!

I must agree— a steal at $99/month

Think of these sorts of programs like a gym membership.

We’re fortunate these days that so many good writers/teachers/mentors offer instruction outside of the conventional classroom.

Check out Rattle’s ‘Most-Read Poems in 2024’ and ‘Most-Read Poems All-Time’.

I wish more lit mags would make lists like this!

Rattle’s reads are even higher than reported since it’s a print journal. Online lit mags certainly have clear analytics available to share lists of material that has been most popular. While I agree that popularity does not equal quality, there is something to be said for data providing useful and thought-provoking metrics.

And, as humans, we love lists.

The one detractor I see, and I don’t think it’s massive, is that Top / Best of lists result in the most popular poems becoming even more popular than the poems that almost made the lists. This seems a little unfair. But, of course, life is not fair.

For ONE ART, I’ve been putting together the Top 10 Most-Read Poets of the Month (which is actually the most read posts) for a while now as well as the Top 25 Most-Read Poets of the Year (which is more nuanced as some poets appear more than once in ONE ART during the same calendar year).

“Raymond Carver liked to quote Isak Dinesen, who said that she wrote a little every day, without hope and without despair. “Someday,” he wrote, “I’ll put that on a three-by-five-card and tape it to the wall beside my desk.” The poet Tess Gallagher said Dinesen’s words were a “quiet banner of determination” that flew over the last decade of Carver’s life.” (Austin Kleon)

‘Why I’m making 2025 my year of dead-tree books’ (Fast Company)

“…paper books are the ultimate purpose-built devices—free of competing distractions such as notifications and social media, delightfully bespoke in format, and sometimes fascinating just as objects”

“Another benefit of leaning into printed books is that it’ll create a clear boundary between business hours and personal time. I spend something like 98% of my workday staring at various screens. Only rarely do I find myself touching paper.”

All news is local— especially Poetry Community news, right?

Philadelphia poet Eleanor Wilner has been named as a new Chancellor by the Academy of American Poets. Who else was named? Our brilliant current Poet Laureate Ada Limón!

An Atticus Review Update: A New Publishing Model

Atticus Review is pivoting to the blockchain and minting NFTs in lieu of traditional publication.

::: Health & Wellness :::

‘Earth breaches 1.5 °C climate limit for the first time: what does it mean?’ (Nature)

Hint: Something bad.

The West Coast is on fire and a chunk of the East is frozen.

Some U.S. Scientists even seem a bit baffled by the more obvious climate repercussions. After reading several recent articles, it’s evident that although anyone studying the issue has long been well-aware of the long-term (think: 2050) impacts on humans, it was not entirely expected that humanity would have to deal with consistent in-your-face natural disasters (eg. Asheville, LA fires) quite so soon.

‘New study reveals that sleep prevents unwanted memories from intruding’ (UEA)

Sadly, I can attest that this certainly seems true from personal experience.

Turns out paper straws may not be the answer…

Good reminder for marketers not to overreach when it comes to making promises. You can do an exceptional job without insisting that you're flawless and that your product guarantees seamlessness.

An industry problem I've noted is that it's difficult for marketing companies to get out of the startup mindset. They will run down their staff in the pursuit of maintaining client relationships.

My suggestion? Find better clients.

The Problem with “Budget Culture” (Culture Study)

First, this video went viral recently for pointing out economic differences experienced by older generations and younger generations that have resulted in misguided conversations about how skipping your daily Starbucks (or insert similar small treat or form of self-care) is the reason why millennials cannot afford to buy a house.

Ok. Now the essay.

“I call the dominant approach budget culture, because it’s rooted in the restriction and shame inherent in budgeting behavior. But, just like diet culture, it’s not about the act of budgeting; it’s about the cultural posture that makes budgeting seem like useful and necessary behavior.”

“Individualism lays a foundation for our approach to money that relies on discipline and restraint and ignores our inherent understanding of ourselves. It sets you up to look for what you’re doing wrong instead of what’s wrong with the culture around you. It keeps you from asking questions and talking about financial struggles, so you feel isolated and ashamed of them.”

“Advice for “responsible” money management is focused on hoarding what you can, worrying about finding the next dollar and taking precautions to avoid losing everything you have. […] There’s no room for generosity in that mindset, because it convinces you that you inevitably get less when someone else gets more.”

“When you see money as a communal and transient resource, you don’t have to fear scarcity when you give it away or use it to benefit someone else. Their gain isn’t your loss, because there was never a difference between “your” money and “their” money in the first place.”

We all are trying to figure out what we can control in our lives and what we cannot. We can only control what is within our personal sphere of influence. This is actually a conversation I’ve been having in therapy recently.

You’re likely already aware that people often try to use food as a method of control. Why? Because it’s something we can control. But we also know this can lead to problems and disorders— which can be life-threatening in worst-case scenarios.

Figuring out what you can control (that is not about food) may relate to consumption habits or engagement habits. We can control how we use our time… to an extent.

Artists are constantly searching for ways to “buy back” their time. This is something I plan to expand upon more in future.

What’s the deal with egg yolk color?

::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::

The world is on fire.

This time, California.

It’s hard to look at these photos.

And these before and after images. Devastating.

We need solutions, and soon.

Trump 2.0

‘Highest Hopes for Trump on Immigration; Lowest, on Unity’ (Gallup)

Note what is at the bottom of the chart.

Joyce Vance:

"The concern isn’t that Trump will actually invade Greenland (at least not yet). It’s the damage he’s capable of doing to our relationships with key allies when he continues to talk smack like this. It’s lawlessness, it’s the talk of authoritarians, not American presidents, and that means we need to keep an eye on it."

"There’s a common theme running through all of these events: Trump’s cavalier lawlessness and his desire to have the powers of an authoritarian leader. That’s what we should be paying attention to. Many people are turning a blind eye to Trump’s behavior at this point. But democracy really could die in darkness."

‘Medical debt barred from credit scores under new federal rules’ (NPR)

Great news! And important. This has been an unfair “tax” that doubles down on punishing Working Class and impoverished Americans.

Undue Medical Debt (formerly, RIP Medical Debt) should not have to exist but for a corrupt and inadequate system.

Remember: Medical bills are ALWAYS negotiable. Don’t let a broken system take advantage of you.

“Corporations nickel and dime frontline workers over a $1 raise, but don’t haggle with McKinsey on a $20,000,000 contract.” – Seth Godin

‘Ancient Rome’s coin-making process may have lowered people’s IQs.’ (The Washington Post)

“Mining and extracting silver for coins made the air thick with lead pollution, a study found. It was so bad that it might have made the population slightly stupider.”

So what? This doesn’t give us excuses for terrible choices.

The search for a TikTok replacement

Former Google chief Eric Schmidt has quietly founded a new AI video generation and social media platform called Hooglee (not at all obvious that you can rearrange this to “google, eh?”

Polish film about Putin uses AI and sounds, well, intense.

‘The world's most powerful passports of 2025’

Spoiler: This list does not include the United States

‘Thanks to One Preteen’s Invention, Kids in Hospitals Can Look at Teddy Bears Instead of IV Bags’

This was a good invention.

::: Asides or B-Sides :::

Inside A Squirrel’s Nest (very short video)

‘Why Do Sheep Have Rectangular Pupils?’ (Science)

No one needs to read this article. We all already know the real reason sheep have eerie rectangular pupils is from their long history of conspiring with Satan.

‘Why Do Some People Look Like Their Dogs?’ (Nautilus)

This is one of those things where, personally, I think it’s more fun to think about as opposed to pretending we know “the truth”… which we do not, anyhow.

We like things that are kinda like us. But, also, kinda not like us. That’s part of the answer, inevitably. Not unlike the same reason we are magnetized towards certain people.

Which Celebrities Popularized (or Tarnished) Baby Names? A Statistical Analysis

::: Questions :::

Consistent Recommendations:

Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American – daily news with historical context

ONE ART: a journal of poetry – daily poems

Verse Daily – daily poems

Poetry Town – daily poems

Chill Subs – down to earth submissions resource

** Want to subscribe? Get a discount using this ONE ART exclusive affiliate link.

Becky Tuch’s LitMagNews – literary community news & essential resource

Trish Hopkinson – resource for the literary community

Erika Dreifus – resource for the literary community