This week I finished: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo: Engaging, intimate, researched, poignant. It’s hard to imagine it was written by an American, not someone who lived there. This book recounts a period in a Mumbai slum from the perspectives of a few of its residents. Their lives interact. The global economy affects them. Some things they can control, others[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Educated, by Tara Westover: I didn’t know about this book except seeing the cover in bookstores and the library. I looked it up and saw how many people and institutions put it on their “best of” lists. I found it riveting. I almost couldn’t believe someone lived through it. I read it toward the end of my first year since my father died. That year brought[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina, by podcast guest Manisha Sinha: A comprehensive and thoroughly researched review of how slaveholders thought from around 1820 to secession. The book prompted my recent post about how we study Lincoln and abolitionists because we want to be like them or at least have them as role models. We would help ourselves to learn about[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920, Manisha Sinha: From the author of The Slave’s Cause: a History of Abolition, winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and other awards, and one of my undergraduate teachers. Like The Slave’s Cause, this book is encyclopedic in detail and being comprehensive. It treats the Civil War and Reconstruction as a different period, as the[…] Keep reading →

Often I hear a someone say their opponents form a new religion, implying the other side doesn’t think through their beliefs or come up with them on their own. They just believe what they’re told to. Anyone can lob that grenade at anyone they disagree with. From anyone’s perspective, anyone with different beliefs or values seems ungrounded. To call the other side “a new religion” just shows the speaker lacks[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Planet of the Humans, written, directed, and produced by Jeff Gibbs, executive produced by Michael Moore: I watched this movie in 2020 when they released it on YouTube. I remember thinking that solar and wind might not be perfect, but they’re better than fossil fuels. Before saying my reaction this time, I should mention after watching it this week, I read, watched, and listened to about[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World, by Admiral William H. McRaven: I saw the video of McRaven’s commencement speech to the University of Texas years ago. It resonated with me because My sidchas, standard operating procedures, and preferences include waking up, making my bed, and crossing the room to turn off my alarm within sixty seconds. Also, I had[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The joint course in urban planning between the video series Not Just Bikes (hosted by podcast guest Jason Slaughter) and Strong Towns: I can’t recommend Not Just Bikes or Strong Towns enough. If you live in an American city, know and act on these resources. The course comprised nine videos (I think I counted right) plus dozens of articles. They repeated a fair amount, but you’ll[…] Keep reading →

I heard someone talking about suicide describe it as a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I looked it up and it seems a well-known concept. Many people seem to have given up on trying to live more sustainably or sustainability in general. We can solve it. Dropping your impact over ninety percent, if done with the right mindset, will improve your life. Combining it with having at most two[…] Keep reading →