SC Weekly – May 2026 – #3
~ 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 Notes :::
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I’m reluctant to say much of anything personal oftentimes… The world isn’t about me.
I’ve continued to have quite a lot of health struggles—even more than usual. There’s never a good time to have health issues though something about being in a weakened state given all that’s going on in the world is extra troubling. Of course, a decade of Trump in power is unquestionably a reason for some of us to find ourselves more unwell. Perhaps expectedly so.
I’m sad about our system. How a person can be in poor shape, in great pain, and still have to spend limited cognitive bandwidth brainstorming about ways to bring in more funds. Life is expensive. Even a simple life. Even a life where all you really want to do is read and take walks. It appears almost anything is asking too much.
As usual, I have few answers, only many questions.
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::: ONE ART :::
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>> Past recordings of ONE ART readings
>> ONE ART ~ Poetry Community (on Facebook)
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ONE ART’s Pride Month Reading (June 2026)
Date: Sunday, June 7
Time: 2pm Eastern
Duration: 1.5 – 2 hours
Featured Poets: Julie Weiss, Ren Wilding, Moudy Sbeity, Nicole Caruso Garcia, Abby E Murray, Kai Coggin
>> Register Here <<
Tickets are FREE!
(donations appreciated)
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::: The Literary Community & Beyond :::
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‘The Luna Moth that Saved Me’ (TIME)
Kai Coggin in TIME!
“The daily ritual of care showed me the nurturing I needed to give my own emotional growth and metamorphosis.”
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‘Students Secretly Collected Their Professor’s Best Life Advice. The Quotes Have Gone Viral’ (Today)
Notably, this article is making rounds in aggregated newsletters.
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Artot: Get your fortune read with an Art themed Tarot Deck
Tarot as life advice and, perhaps, writing prompt.
“Artot is a game created by Pippin Barr, an Associate Professor at Concordia University with a PhD in Computer Science and experimental game designer. He made Artot as a way to explore the idea of “interpretation” when looking at works of art.”
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‘Meet the Psychologist Who Reads People Through the Art They Live With’ (Artsy)
Counts as clickbait.
Clearly, a genuine Sherlock Holmes...
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::: Podcasts :::
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Intelligence Squared: How Is Predictive AI Shaping Our World? With AI Philosopher Carissa Véliz
Highly quotable. I recommend listening &/or reading the transcript.
Making me rethink some Effective Altruism concepts.
I listened to several podcast episodes with Carissa Véliz but this was the best.
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LARB Radio Hour: Simon Critchley’s “Mysticism”
“Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher speak with writer and scholar Simon Critchley about his new book, Mysticism. Defining mysticism not as a religion but as a “tendency, a distillation of existing devotional practice,” the book begins by considering some of the great mystics of the Christian tradition. These include Critchley’s favorite mystic, Julian of Norwich, known as the first woman to ever write a book in English, Margery Kempe, Christina the Astonishing, and Meister Echkhart, a German theologian who influenced philosophers like Hegel and Heidegger and was tried as a heretic shortly after his death by Pope John in 1329. But more than a history or survey of mysticism, Critchley’s book is invested in isolating the loss of self and experience of ecstasy its practitioners describe, and looking for resonance within contemporary culture. He examines the work of writers such as Anne Carson and Annie Dillard, and the musician Nick Cave, suggesting that mysticism lives on as a secular aesthetic experience in the “world of enchantment opened in art, poetry and—especially—music.””
I listened to podcasts with Critchley when his book came out. I’m finally getting around to looking at the book itself. The podcasts are a fun way to engage with these ideas. Since Critchley is a philosopher, some of the material falls a bit dry on the page but makes for lively conversation.
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It’s Been a Minute: Breaking the cycle of overthinking
Notable focus on Art and audience.
Really, a fun listen. Doesn’t sound like it would be from the title but it is!
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Fresh Air: Inside a journalist’s year of using AI for (almost) everything
This was ok…
Some interesting parts.
It’s obviously extremely subjective… not serious journalism. I suppose it’s a modern kind of investigative journalism. Maybe the bland filterworld version of gonzo journalism.
I’m being overly negative here though I did find it worth a listen. I suspect some of my frustration is that it felt like I would have gone about this much differently.
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How to Be a Better Human: How to handle uncertainty (w/ Simone Stolzoff)
Touches on a lot of material that I think about and believe... even some of the anecdotes. This will be more of a refresher for some but certainly worth a listen nonetheless.
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::: Health & Wellness :::
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The algorithms are onto me…
‘8-Second Breathing Exercise for When You Wake Up in the Middle of the Night’ (Today)
Worth a shot…
I’ve learned on my own that it’s best not to check the time. It’s true, this brings you out of “sleep mode” and, perhaps even worse, easily starts an anxiety spiral.
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Are US adults having enough fun?
Surprise, surprise, they are not.
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‘FibroFog – An Overwhelmed Brain & How To Treat It’ (AFSA)
“The cognitive impairments were worse for fibromyalgia patients with higher pain scores. In addition, the study authors say the patients’ performance is “similar to that of older adults.” Yep, brain function is like that of your grandparents.”
They really make this sound like a jab but taken with a grain of curiosity about brain function and bandwidth and creativity I think they says something about taste, interests, alignment, how one moves through the world.
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Modafinil (Provigil) sounds appealing … but, alas, not if you have a history of cardiac issues in your genetics. (Or a mood disorder… among other concerns.)
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::: The Trump Regime :::
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“Let’s sum it up for everybody. The biggest bloc of middle and working class voters are Black people. When Republicans strip Black people’s political power away, it doesn’t just strip one community of power. It strips political power from every single middle and working class person and hands it over to billionaires and big corporations. That’s what redistricting means for you.”
— Harold Jones II
Further reading:
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Xi warned Trump about Taiwan and the Thucydides Trap.
I would advise the U.S. to avoid war with China at all costs.
Importantly, and to much relief, it sounds like Xi signaled China would prefer stable relations with the U.S.
Have we entered “The China Century” early? It’s not yet clear. Regardless, The U.S. needs to get over themselves and stop with the American exceptionalism bs that gives reasons for the rest of the world dislike us. America needs to get comfortable being on more even footing with other large powers around the world— especially those promoting value systems that we can get behind. China, unfortunately, isn’t quite on the same page in many respects. It would do us well to raise up other powers instead of our terrible recent turn towards isolationism in a global economy.
We need to stop talking in terms of winning and losing. This is Trumpian thinking. We don’t need to be the “Alpha” country. We’re already a massive superpower with a terrifying level of military supremacy.
The U.S. has other major exports— like Culture (emphasized watching a bit of Eurovision).
I want to see the U.S. get out of the habit of thinking in terms of Domination. Trump has also revived a colonialist mindset in his attempts at land grabs. We are all aware of the countless ways the U.S. has traveled back in time, regressed to outmoded and oftentimes misogynistic and racist and xenophobic ways of handling ourselves in domestic and global affairs. It’s disgusting. This may be the last gasp of old world white supremacism… I’ve heard the effect described as a “supernova”… but how longs does can that drag on and look at the fallout—how much ground we have already ceded to tyranny.
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“History doesn’t repeat, it rhymes. Nixon went to China in 1972 from a position of strength, and it changed the world. Trump went to China in 2026 needing a win, trailing an entourage of American executives auditioning for access to 1.4 billion consumers. The world is changing again — just not in the direction we expected. And here’s the tell: The U.S. brought its CEOs. China brought its demands. When you need the other side’s market more than they need yours, you’re not negotiating — you’re applying.” (Prof G Media)
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China vs. America: Who the World Trades With Most
You will not be surprised it has shifted quite a bit from 2000-2025.
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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I’m really getting sick of hearing about the majority of us being destined to become part of the “permanent underclass”.
Blame Big Tech.
“In China, ordinary workers describe themselves as shechu (“corporate cattle”) and jiabangou (“overtime dogs.”) These same workers have long used the viral term ‘involution’ to capture the feeling of being trapped in a cycle of meaningless competition. In both countries, those disaffected by A.I. identify with the gaming meme of the ‘NPC’ or ‘non-player character.’ They feel like the background role in someone else’s video game, existing only to fill the world but not to shape it.”” (NextDraft / Dave Pell)
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Estimating how much text on the internet is generated (Flowing Data)
“Researchers analyzed newly published websites from 2022 through mid-2025 to estimate what percentage used generated text and how this might affect future information online.”
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How religious is your state? (Pew Research)
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Prediction Market update
There’s a lot of data coming out about who wins on prediction markets… something like 0.5% of users… many if not most of them bots.
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‘Why New York’s Second-Home Tax Is Smart Policy’ (Prof G Media)
“The wealth tax debate is escalating. Billionaire investor and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin is now publicly feuding with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over a proposed pied-à-terre tax. If passed, it would levy a new annual fee on properties worth more than $5 million that are not used as a primary residence.”
“I own a pied-à-terre in New York. Under this tax, it would cost me an additional $100,000 per year. I’m in favor of it anyway.” – Scott Galloway
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‘Americans Think Kindness Prevails in the U.S.’ (Gallup)
Not everything is terrible.
People have slightly different concepts of what kindness looks like. This reminds me of a recent podcast conversation I listened to about awe. Something that is awe-inspiring has a certain level of significance. Years ago, there was some frustration about the overuse of the word “awesome” for related reasons. Seeing a new type of Doritos on the supermarket shelves is not awesome. Seeing a magnificent work of art displayed in a gallery might be awesome. Witnessing the Northern Lights might be considered a classic example of awesome.
Bearing the above in mind, consider your position on true acts of kindness.
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Apparently hacky sacking is making a comeback. Yay! Really, this pleases me. My joints on the other hand…
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‘a monthly re-read list, in case you missed it’ (Hanna Horvath)
Lots of great essays here.
Great minds think alike? In all seriousness, I think it’s interesting that I finally got around to revisiting some of my older posts… I have some running lists. I wonder if many Substackers have been on the platform long enough now that it seems sensible to check in with yourself to see how patterns in the trajectory of what you’ve been sharing over the years.
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E-shaped Economy
(Example sources: NerdWallet / Fortune)
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I’ve been reading about this concept of the E-shaped Economy and trying to better understand what it means that Kevin Warsh is taking over as Fed Chair. Unsurprisingly, Fed monetary policy is convoluted and involves quite a bit of “ivory tower” speak that is not easily unpacked by laypersons.
Apparently, Warsh’s monetary approach is likely to be a bit bumpier. There is more chance of market swings. The nuts and bolts of policy is above my pay grade to properly unpack. Some of my research suggests Warsh’s thinking is simply a different approach whereas other takes make his positions seem batshit crazy. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how the cards fall.
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‘A Personal Finance Star on What Millennials Need From Their Boomer Parents’ (Ramit Sethi / NYT)
‘If getting ahead financially is harder for millennials and Gen Z-ers than it was for older generations, what advice would you give to parents for how best to help their kids? Give them as much money as you’re able? Yeah, write a big fat check if you can. [Laughs] It’s actually not too far from it. In the old days, the idea was, I’ll pass whatever I have along when I die. More sophisticated financial planners now know that if you have something to give, giving is much more impactful when your children are younger, particularly when they’re 35, 40, 45. Those are really tough financial times for people. But the best thing that older parents can do is to actually ask their children and legitimately learn what is going on financially because it is not the same. I am tired of hearing these comments: “Oh, we bought a house when it was 17 percent interest.” Yeah, the houses were a fraction of what they cost today! And if you look at what they were as a percentage of income, they were way lower. It was achievable. We know this because there were a lot of people who bought a very nice house on one income. That is effectively impossible today. So actually asking your children: “What’s it like? How much are you spending on food and housing, and how does that break down?” There is power in acknowledging and validating. There are so many young people who would love to hear their parents say, “Wow, that’s got to be really tough, I had no idea.”’
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Eurovision.
Eurovision is a strange thing for Americans. At least, I’m not about to pretend I understand the deal. It’s a bit like a music Olympics, in theory, and basically seem to be about camaraderie. Hard to imagine being in the live audience (even at home watching) these variety acts that are so wildly different… and, oftentimes, almost excruciatingly bad (imho).
Sadly, Israel’s presence has caused division. This is sad for everyone, really. Many articles do point out that Europe has had troubling increases in antisemitism in recent years.
Since I’m a confused American, maybe someone wants to tell me more about the 70 year history of Eurovision as an event that is somewhat the opposite of U.S. baseball’s so-called “World Series”. I’m kidding of course… this is a throwback Eddie Izzard joke about how the U.S. wins the World Series every year.
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All this “Super El Niño” talk is distressing… to say the least.
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[pseudo-] Science says, “The results suggest the typical American is a bit of a square.” (YouGov)
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A bit of fun.
‘Real-life Snuffleupagus found swimming in the Great Barrier Reef’ (Pop Sci)
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Seth has a point…
“Here’s a pillow the cat didn’t pee on”
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