Quick Spin: Media Drama and the Productivity Celibacy Era
Workaholism is a disease, and the symptoms are getting weird.
Hey all. Like every week lately, it’s been a weeeek for the news and thte internet. It’s hard for me to stay on beat because there’s so much happening and it all seems related to our overall health and wellbeing. But I’m going to try!
I’m on a group trip to India with UK and Australian journalists, so it’s been (unsurprisingly) depressing to reflect on what’s happening in our country from a more distant lens. Getting outside perspectives is not always great for the stress levels. Anyway, I’m writing this newsletter from a very bumpy bus ride to Agra, so please bear with me if there are any typos:
In the last few weeks, I’ve uttered the words “why isn’t anyone doing anything?!” at least a dozen times. Well, today, someone finally has. A couple of federal judges ruled that the mass firings of federal employees under the Trump administration was unlawful—thousands of workers in the Department of Education, Agriculture, Energy, and Interior (National Parks, Forest Service) were dismissed under the guise of “performance issues”, which one of the judges straight-up called a sham. (Yep.) The ruling means many of these employees must be reinstated immediately.
Of course, it’s too early to tell if this will be a permanent win or if they’ll just find other ways to gut the workforce in a more, uh, legal way.
The EPA is already in dire straits under the leadership of a politician who has no background in environmental science or policy, but now they’ve eliminated all environmental justice divisions. Environmental justice programs were created to address the fact that environmental hazards (like air and water pollution) affect low-income folks far more than others. Because NIMBYism (not in my backyard) is strong in the U.S., most of the times, power plants, manufacturing facilities, and waste sites are located close to marginalized communities. These programs provided funding for technical assistance, monitoring tools, and research projects to communities dealing with environmental challenges.
Rollbacks gut environmental justice gains, Inside Climate News
Even if you’re not in the media, it’s in your best interest to pay attention to the Outside saga. Once a powerhouse of long-form outdoor journalism, the magazine took a nosedive when CEO Robin Thurston bought it in 2021—and gobbled up nearly every other outdoor-adjacent publication in the process. The industry collectively held its breath, but for a few years, some good reporting still managed to squeak through. Then, a few weeks ago, Thurston laid off any remaining veteran editors.
Now, the fallout is getting juicy. A bunch of long-term contributors sent a letter asking to be removed from the masthead. Thurston responded. And THEN, writer Hampton Sides sent his own scathing letter, which is just the right level of brutal. My favorite part is the P.S. (I’m attaching screenshots that writer Grayson Schaffer posted on his IG, but go to his page to read the full drama.) The question now is: Will Thurston have the balls to give a response now?
I got a PR pitch in my email this week from dating app Flure about their new survey: 6 in 10 adults either consider or already practice abstinence—and 1 in 4 of those do so to boost…. work productivity? Really guys? Now that I live (and date) in New York, I see how intense the culture around being busy is—it’s the ultimate status symbol. (Honestly, I think you’re hotter if you have free time.) But imagine thinking sex is what stands between you and that Q2 deadline.
2024 was absolutely the year for women’s sports and yet, in a not-shocking reality check, not a single woman made the list of 100 highest-paid athletes. This includes salaries, endorsements, sponsorships and other business ventures. Even with the explosion of interest and record-breaking attendance, money isn’t following at the same rate.
Things I’ve Liked This Week:
🧳 I packed everything I needed for nine days in Thule packing cubes, which are my fav I’ve ever used. Antler’s are almost tied—I also used a couple of these for this trip. The combo of shapes is perfect to fit in my carry-on.
👚 I’ve been using clothing rental subscription Nuuly for about six months to cut down on buying clothes (I usually thrift but I’m seriously running out of closet space.) It’s been so helpful on this trip to India where I needed to dress modestly in 90 degree temps. (So many pairs of linen pants.)
👟 ECCO isn’t usually a go-to brand for me, but I‘m loving this ballet-flat inspired collab with Natacha Ramsay-Levi.
Required Reading:
My ex-boyfriend once said he’s never experienced imposter syndrome. I wasn’t surprised at the time, because he was a white man raised in Kansas, after all. So finally someone—Shari Dunn for Time—reported on how it’s a systemic issue, not a personal flaw.
This piece by the Atlantic talks about ketamine’s affect on the brain while implying that it’s responsible for Musk’s erratic behavior: “Ketamine’s great strength has always been its ability to sever humans from the world around them.”
Speaking of what other countries think of us, the U.S. was added to the global human rights watchlist because of our “declining civil liberties,” as reported by Time.
A study came out last year about how gossip is a totally natural human tendency that may actually be good for you and the Guardian revisited the topic in an article recently. Honestly, I love it because I love the tea.
Cool, love you, bye!
The Outside drama is wild. Really fascinating to watch this pushback effort unfold transparently. On a lighter note… I consider Nuuly renting my superpower and have an amazing success rate!