11 Things I Keep Thinking About
Conversation starters for your weekend
I don’t know what to say about 2025. It continues to be heartbreaking.
I’ve run through all the normal strategies for hope and beauty (both are present!) and yet everyday feels a little more surreal.
I’m coping by my usual rhythms of doomscrolling then breaking up with my phone (over and over again), sleeping like a rock then not sleeping at all, laughing so hard it feels like an orgasm, illegibly journaling, and binge reading novels to escape. You?
Anyway, I’ve been collecting interesting articles to share with you for months and am only now able to compile them. I hope they provide you with a little food for thought, or at the very least a break from all the other chaos.
Interesting Stuff To Click On:
*all of these except for one are free and not behind a paywall. Remember that the best way to show support to independent writers is with a like, comment, or share.
Train Your Brain To Be Rich from Down the Rabbit Hole
You don’t have to earn abundance. You don’t have to chase it like the one that got away, or bleed for it to prove you’re worthy.
You simply have to start noticing it.
Every time you recognize something as abundance and let yourself feel a little joy hit, you’re sending up a flare that says, “More of this, please.”
Diabolus Ex Machina from
AI is on everyone’s lips right now (see our Secret Stuff Symposium on the topic here) and this post is a series of screenshots of a “conversation” with ChatGPT that is…alarming.
In Defense of Not Living In the Moment from Embedded
…Influencer Jaz Smith posted more than 20 TikTok videos from her wedding. The videos, posted in real time to her over 400,000 followers, were, according to a follow-up video, meticulously planned in a spreadsheet and outsourced to an assistant.
The hook grabs your attention, but this piece goes in a really thoughtful direction. I have something I’ve been meaning to write that is adjacent to it, about sharing our lives as a way to be in them.
Why the French Don’t Obsess Over Purpose from
What’s your purpose? What are you building? What are you here for?
They’re good questions. But in France, they’re not humming in the background of every conversation. Most people I know don’t define themselves by what they do for a living. And if they work in a corporate setting, there’s often this quiet trust that things will evolve over time. No need to panic about your life path. Just do your job — and enjoy your life.
Sylvia Plath and the Hardest Part of Writing from Hello, Writer!
So she wrote a letter to her mama and said she’s going to be okay. She’s going to make it through this and learn to stand alone. She called her doctor and asked if they could find her a bed, just for a little bit. Until she could cope. But there were no beds.
And the next day, there was no Sylvia.
We’re reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath for the Secret Stuff Book Club in November. This piece gave me the chills all over.
Who is watching all these podcasts? (NY Times)
An audio-only medium spawned a giant industry that is now largely focused on video.
Okay, this article is behind a paywall, but you can imagine that I’m interested in this topic. Here’s a tiny excerpt that will give you the gist:
In February, YouTube announced that more than a billion people a month were viewing podcasts on its platform. According to Tim Katz, who oversees partnerships including news and podcasts at YouTube, that number is so large it must include users who are actually mainlining five-hour talk shows.
…At least one pillar of audio-first podcasting doesn’t see much to be alarmed about. Ira Glass, the creator of the foundational long-form radio show “This American Life,” said that the fact that the podcast tent has gotten bigger and thrown up a projector screen doesn’t threaten a program like his.
“That’s a strength, not a weakness — that both things exist and are both called the same thing,” Mr. Glass said.
He stressed that audio-only podcasting has formal strengths that video podcasts don’t.
“There’s a power to not seeing people,” Mr. Glass continued. “There’s a power to just hearing things. It just gets to you in a different way. But if people want to watch people on a talk show that seems fine to me. I don’t feel protective of podcasting in that way. I don’t have snowflake-y feelings about podcasts.”
The comfort chain restaurant Chilis is having a comeback moment (Slate)
I’m (almost?) embarrassed by how many times I’ve brought this article up in conversation in the last couple of months.
In my college years, I was a regular at the Chili’s on 15-501, just a few miles from campus. I had very specific opinions about the merits of Chili’s versus its direct competitors along that highway: Applebee’s, Tripps, TGI Fridays. I could distinguish an Awesome Blossom from a Bloomin’ Onion by mouthfeel alone.
How Gen Z Is Rewriting the Rules of Sobriety (Slate)
I continue to be interested in watching what we share and what we don’t (publicly and privately) and how it affects the greater course of our lives.
AA’s ubiquity has resulted in countless depictions of 12-step recovery on-screen, an entire subgenre of “quit lit” memoirs, podcasts, and celebrity interviews. It has even, controversially, become a staple of drug courts, with offenders sentenced to attend AA meetings. It’s hard to argue that any of this exposure has materially damaged the organization. AA’s language still dictates personal anonymity at the public level, but for many people, their involvement just doesn’t feel like a secret that needs to be kept.
10 Things I’d Tell You About Substack If I Wasn’t Afraid To Hurt Your Feelings from
Admittedly, this is aimed at Substack writers, but there are some real gems in there for creators of any kind.
We search for belonging as if it’s something we can earn, until you realize it’s like dropping an anchor into the water when you’ve decided on a good place to dock for the night. Belonging is actually a decision.
Celebrity Book Clubs Are No Longer Tastemakers from Publishing Confidential
Do you agree with this title? I wouldn’t have said yes a year-ish ago, but this year…I dunno. I think I might agree. It’s disconcerting.
I’m not dismissing the fact that these women get people reading; instead, I’m questioning the value of such book clubs if they continue to choose familiar titles instead of taking risks on unknown authors.
Stop Healing Yourself Into Oblivion from Gratitude Journal
This is my favorite of the bunch, and I needed these words:
And a few things from Secret Stuff…
In case you missed it:
A few places I’ve been…
I was a guest on my friend
’s podcast So, We Bought A Bookshop where I talk about all kinds of things, including why I think you should read horror // Find it on Apple PodcastsI loved answering these questions about midlife on the FORTYsomething Substack with
Talking writing and one of the most important songs of my life on We Should Write with my soul sister Lindsay Lawler // Find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
I’ve been hosting the 12-week journey through The Artist’s Way this fall. We’re already in Week 4, but you’re still welcome to jump in if you want. Or if you’ve done it in the past and just want to join us for the discussions and chat, it’s not too late!
Stay tuned for…
the 12th (!!!!) annual #OneDayHH is coming. This is the ONE DAY on social media when we document our lives and Instagram becomes fun again.
The Secret Stuff Book Club is reading Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara in October and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath in November
As I compiled this list tonight, it reminded me how nourishing it is to read or listen to thoughtful things and not just drink in headlines or social media hot takes.
If you have an article, book, or podcast episode you’d like to share, I’d love to hear it! Put it in the comments for everyone to benefit from good recommendations.
Thanks for reading!
I loved the article about French not obsessing over purpose; thank you for sharing. I need to implement some of that.
This hit me square today — I’ve been feeling the weight of 2025 too, and your rhythm of doomscroll → break up with the phone → repeat sounds way too familiar. Thanks for curating these — thoughtful beats instead of hot takes. Time to swap a scroll binge for something nourishing!