Hi all!
Today I’ll share a pocketful things that have inspired or fascinated me lately.
When it comes to content, I am a pretty voracious, tenacious and wide-ranging forager. I’ll be practicing curating the best of it for you here.
I’d love to hear what’s sparked for you by the things I share, and what you think of this new newsletter format. I hope it will allow me to stay in touch with you more regularly while I am putting my long-form energy into my book.
Most of all, I hope you find this stuff as valuable, enchanting, or uplifting as I have, and that through it you discover sources of optimism that the algorithms won’t serve you.
I read this and loved it
Finished Mothers and Others by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. What an incredible work! It shows that humans are the way we are — empathic and cooperative — as a result of millennia of cooperative child-rearing. Spreading the work of parenting among many adults, also called alloparenting, has been a way of life for humans since the Pleistocene Age. Let’s get back to it! Super well-researched and very readable.
Something I’m listening to
Obsessed with Jacob Collier’s new Bridge Over Troubled Water, featuring John Legend and Tori Kelly, sailing on the silver of Jacob’s harmonization of YEBBA’s iconic solo. May you find comfort and strength in this gorgeous, loving collaboration.
In honor of Jacob Collier’s 4th album of the Djesse series coming out this Thursday (!!) I am putting together a playlist of my favorite music of his and/or a playlist of my favorite interviews. And I just might share it in the next edition if all goes well!
More people should know about this thing!
One of my housemates dances lots of social dances other than Argentine Tango. Through him I learned about Angolan Kizomba. Wow! Check out this video below, full of joy and goofiness and technique and hilarity! And if you love the one below, check out the next generation rocking the Kizomba too. Happy Black History Month!
And, Happy Year of the Dragon! Every time I see this art by dear Nesli I am touched anew. Let’s roar!
With love, Mitra