Reading time: 1.25 334 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Do you have any weird little hobbies? Yesterday I was round at my neighbour’s house. They were packing things to take to Ireland to visit family next week, Christmas gifts and whatnot, and they invited me to peep into an old box. Inside was treasure. A radio transmission log book and a stack of QSL cards dating from the 1940s and 50s. Until yesterday, I knew virtually nothing about amateur radio. Now, I’m mildly...
2 days ago • 2 min read
Reading time: 0.54 211 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, You there. Yes, you! You’re doing great. You really are. You’re living in a timeline in which, frankly, fast zombies could pour out of the kettle at any moment to nobody’s suprise, and yet here you are, doing the thing. Even if today’s thing is “I got up” I celebrate you. You’ve survived billions of years of evolution, from single-celled organisms to your present magnificence, and every single one of your ancestors was...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: 3.03 722 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, “Advanced porridge spinning.” I stare at the scribbled sentence in my notebook, and snort. I’d almost forgotten. Back when Joe and I were first married, the first time we stayed over at his parents’ house oop north, I received an induction into “first on the right”, “hot-cold custard”, and “advanced porridge spinning.” Joe and his dad were advanced porridge spinners. It goes like this: Joe’s mom makes porridge on a...
4 days ago • 3 min read
Reading time: 4.38 1,102 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, “Would you like to go climbing?” he asked. “Climbing? Like, rock climbing?” I said. “I don’t know how.” “I’ll teach you.” 17 years ago (ish) I met the most handsome guy and we became friends. We both rode motorbikes and we both liked adventures and we both had no idea what we were doing. He flirted with me; I was, as always, oblivious. He taught me how to climb and I taught him that chaos can be fun. I cooked him...
8 days ago • 5 min read
Reading time: 0.56 220 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, It was sunny out, but I was inside, in the dining room, burrowed under the table in a pile of cushions. The long tablecloth formed a den around me and my book. Nothing existed outside the little patch of light from my torch, which is why I didn’t notice my parents mobilising the neighbourhood to look for me. While the grownups grew increasingly frantic, I disappeared into my story. Stepping through the book and into the...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Reading time: 2.10 512 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Stop using the yoghurt brand method to define your audience, please for the love of Odin. I know what you’ve been told: NICHE NICHE NICHE! Niche so hard you need a candle and a shrine to the madonna. Niche until you end up with Sandra. She’s 38 years old, lives in a town, married with two children aged under 10, has a dog, wants to lose some weight so she can strut around in last year’s LBD, loves avocado toast and an...
10 days ago • 2 min read
Reading time: 3.12 758 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, “Using ChatGPT can rot your brain!” “ChatGPT is making people dumber!” “ChatGPT use significantly reduces brain activity!” ^^ Scary headlines, right? They’re supposed to be. That’s how headlines work. But they’re not the full story. There’s a study out of MIT that everyone seems to be talking about at the moment called “Your Brain on ChatGPT” and we need to talk about it too. It’s making everyone ask: “Will AI destroy...
11 days ago • 3 min read
Reading time: 1.52 441 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, Let’s not stay on the safe side. “Just to be on the safe side” is the embarrassing cousin of “bide your time,” “good things come to those who wait,” and “be grateful for what you’ve got.” And of all of those phrases, “be grateful for what you’ve got” is the big daddy. It says get back in your box. It warns don’t you dare hope for anything more. It whispers who do you think you are, getting too big for your boots? So we...
12 days ago • 2 min read
Reading time: 4.19 1,025 words Read this email in your browser. Hey Reader, When I was at school, I didn’t really have friends. I had a stamp collection. I hovered on the periphery like a weird little moth, waiting to be invited in — to parties, to sports teams, to life. The library was my playground and I ate most of my lunches there, lurking in the stacks with my Marmite sandwiches and my Penguin biscuit and my apple and my wet wipes for my sticky fingers, shrinking myself into corners,...
15 days ago • 5 min read