Famesickness. Random acts of singing. Human consciousness. It's Saturday, people.
Let's go deep.
Good morning, glories!
By the time this hits your inboxes, I’ll be watching my baby girl cross a stage and collect her high school diploma. Tears will be shed. Congratulations will be shared. Gratitude will be felt.
And whilst I am experiencing those precious moments, here are a few precious things I gathered this month to share with you. May was RICH from a content consumption standpoint.
Here we go:
Famesick: A Memoir, by Lena Dunham. There are few millennial voices more polarizing than Lena Dunham. You either love her or you absolutely do not. I am in the lover camp. Not because I think she’s flawless, but because she is unabashedly herself in all of her sometimes gruesome specificity. To me, Famesick is first and foremost a memoir about relentless creative excellence in the face of chronic illness. Did she make life hard for those who loved her and worked alongside her? Probably. But I’m sure Pablo Picasso and Martin Scorsese weren’t/aren’t exactly easy to live with either … so as the kids say, let her cook. Reading Famesick led me to rewatch Girls, which from the vantage point of 2026 continues to be a marvel right through to the last episode of the final season.
The Singers, on Netflix. Someone recommended this Oscar-winning short film and thank GOD I took the 18 minutes to watch it. It is a modern interpretation of a classic Russian short story written by Ivan Turgenev that tells the tale of an impromptu singing contest that breaks out in a remote Russian tavern among the local men. In this stunning adaptation, the singing contest erupts in a broken-down, vaguely urban American bar with present-day disaffected men. I read the original short story “The Singers” in George Saunders’ incredible book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Masterclass on Writing, Reading, and Life (another book I HIGHLY recommend). But you do not need to have read the original to fully appreciate the beauty of The Singers.
Michael Pollan’s Journey to the Borderlines of Consciousness — Ezra Klein Show. There are few things I enjoy more than a trip down the rabbit hole of consciousness. I mean … What even IS consciousness?? Is there such a thing as a collective unconscious, as Jung posited? What about the natural world? Those octopi seem pretty darn sentient. And what happens to our consciousness when we die? This interview was a splendid entry point into Pollan’s latest book, A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness, which I am planning to read this summer.
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love, by bell hooks. I am embarrassed to admit that until recently, I had never actually read any books by the feminist, philosopher, educator, and legend bell hooks. I figured it was high time, so I began with The Will to Change — a devastating and hopeful book about the effect of patriarchy on men and how love just might be the only way out of it. I triple underlined this quote:
In patriarchal culture males are not allowed simply to be who they are and to glory in their unique identity. Their value is always determined by what they do. In an anti-patriarchal culture males do not have to prove their value and worth. They know from birth that simply being gives them value, the right to be cherished and loved.
May we all feel cherished and loved.
Sending you hugs and high fives this gorgeous Saturday morning.
B