Books
Max Gladstone’s Wicked Problems (Craft Wars #2, Craft Sequence #8)
Myriam Gurba’s Creep
Micaiah Johnson’s Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds #2)
Leila Mottley’s Woke Up No Light
Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Deep Dark
Rebecca Roanhorse’s Mirrored Heavens (Between Earth and Sky #3)
TV
Dimension 20’s A Crown of Candy
Dimension 20’s Fantasy High Junior Year + Adventuring Party
Game Changer S1
Music
Daymé Arocena’s Por ti
Ama Ríos’s Amarra
Beyoncé’s RIIVERDANCE
Desta French’s Algiuen
Nelly Furtado’s Tiny Desk Concert
Hiatus Kaiyote’s Dreamboat, Telescope, Make Friends, Dimitri, Longcat, How To Meet Yourself
Jordan Rakei’s Friend or Foe
Vienna Teng’s The Riversitter
Virg’s Deja Vu (Live from Our Living Room)
ZJP Mashups’ I’m a Nasty Girl 4 U
Misc.
Podcast (relisten): Greenhouse S1
Transcripts here
Articles
Leah Blaine’s Chaos Under the Corset: When Romance Covers Hide Revolution
“And this is why books are banned. Not because they teach children how to rebel, teenagers know full well how to rebel, but because they show that the choices laid out by their family and community aren’t choices at all, but rather acceptable options already chosen for them. The idea that children would dare to choose something not offered to them is downright offensive to many parents and must be avoided at all costs hence micromanaging even the fiction they may come across.”
Ashley C. Ford’s Not Having Kids Means Getting To Support My Friends Who Do
“My mother’s version of love was making sure no one thought of us as “in need” while we were all in need. She thought she was protecting us by denying herself friendship, assistance, and care. When I saw some of my friends who were becoming parents following a similar path — not reaching out, suffering in silence — I saw an opportunity to be useful in a way that finally felt right.”
“Because the best thing I can do for the children in my life, the children I care for the most, is be a really good friend to their parents. I can show up for them in ways their friends who have children can’t.”
Hayley Gleeson’s Hundreds of patients died after catching COVID in Victorian hospitals, new data shows
“”The numbers indicate that there is a big problem here — these infections and deaths are potentially preventable,” said Associate Professor Suman Majumdar, chief health officer for COVID and health emergencies at the Burnet Institute. “We’re talking about a specific setting where people are sicker, more vulnerable and more at risk. We need to drastically reduce the risk of people catching COVID in hospital when they don’t come in with it. I think we can all agree we can do better — that should be the starting point.”
Alarmingly, the proportion of hospitalised COVID patients who caught the virus in public hospitals was much higher last year than in 2022 — up from 13 per cent to 20 per cent, on average — coinciding with a reduction in COVID screening and healthcare worker mask use across the state. Most Victorian hospitals began scaling back infection prevention measures in late 2022, when pandemic public health orders were revoked.”
“As for the number of people catching COVID in hospital, Dr Bouchoucha said: “I think any hospital acquired infection is concerning”. There isn’t an “acceptable” number of golden staph or tuberculosis infections — “we aim for zero”, he said. “So why don’t we do that with COVID?”
He’s not the only one asking that question. Staphylococcus aureus or golden staph bloodstream infections can be life-threatening, which is why hospitals track and report them and aim to prevent them using hand hygiene strategies — it’s part of hospital accreditation standards and there are targets in every state. But there are no targets or reporting requirements for COVID, Dr Majumdar said.
As a point of comparison, he said, there are about 600 staph aureus bacteraemia infections in Victoria each year, with a similar death rate to COVID hospital-acquired infections. “So why aren’t we applying the same mindset and measures for airborne infections such as COVID and influenza?””
Juliana Ukiomogbe’s Akwaeke Emezi Won’t Tell You How to Feel
““I think there’s a media literacy issue that we’re experiencing everywhere where people think that because you write about something, it means you’re condoning it,” they say. “I’m like, ‘No, I write about it because it happens.’ With The Death of Vivek Oji, several people couldn’t believe there was incest in it. People think that this thing of marrying cousins is a redneck, white thing. And it’s very common in cultures outside of the West. That’s why I wrote it like that. With Little Rot, it’s much of the same. I’m just like, ‘What is the issue? There aren’t teenage sex workers in Nigeria?’ That’s not true. It’s something that happens and I write about it. That’s my job.”
Years ago, Emezi encountered a similar situation when they were taking a Toni Morrison seminar. “We were reading Song of Solomon and in the book, there’s a pedophile in the community. Everyone knows he’s there and no one does anything about it. One of the other students in the seminar got really agitated about it and said, ‘What does Morrison want us to think about this? Why would she write that?’ And the Professor just smiled and said, ‘Morrison is just showing you a thing. It is your job to decide how you feel about it. It is not the author’s job to tell you how to feel about it.’ People expect their media, their literature, their TV, and their movies to tell them how to feel about things. And I’m like, ‘No, I’m so sorry. I just show you the thing. You have to decide how you feel about it.””
Alex Wigglesworth’s Joshua Tree’s celebrity rattlesnake wrangler wants to change how you see reptiles
“Her work has earned her a front-row seat to the profound changes that have reshaped this slice of the Mojave Desert over the past few years, as pandemic-era policies attracted hordes of investors and new residents. In the process, Wall has also transformed how locals interact with the much-maligned — unfairly, she’s quick to point out — reptiles.
“I always tell people I’m afraid of two things: men and distracted drivers, and that’s it,” Wall said.”
Esther O. Lee 