https://jackashepherd.medium.com/?source=post_page-----f39427e5098a-----------------------------------

Jack Shepherd

https://jackashepherd.medium.com/thirteen-things-a-middle-aged-man-can-learn-from-the-baby-sitters-club-f39427e5098a?source=post_page-----f39427e5098a-----------------------------------

Dec 29, 2021·15 min read

All photos: The Baby-Sitters Club series

*I’m the host of the Baby-Sitters Club Club podcast (now called Strange Bedfellows). This essay is reprinted from the excellent collection *We Are the Baby-Sitters Club: Essays and Artwork from Grown-Up…

https://jackashepherd.medium.com/?source=post_page-----f39427e5098a-----------------------------------

Jack Shepherd

https://jackashepherd.medium.com/thirteen-things-a-middle-aged-man-can-learn-from-the-baby-sitters-club-f39427e5098a?source=post_page-----f39427e5098a-----------------------------------

Dec 29, 2021·15 min read

All photos: The Baby-Sitters Club series

*I’m the host of the Baby-Sitters Club Club podcast (now called Strange Bedfellows). This essay is reprinted from the excellent collection *We Are the Baby-Sitters Club: Essays and Artwork from Grown-Up…

https://matthigginson.medium.com/?source=post_page-----195ff7296af3-----------------------------------

Matt Higginson

https://gen.medium.com/harry-reid-and-bananas-195ff7296af3?source=post_page-----195ff7296af3-----------------------------------

Dec 29, 2021·3 min read

My last week in the Senate

The two most well-documented idiosyncrasies of Senator Harry Reid were his shockingly dry sense of humor, and his abrupt endings to every phone call he’s ever been on. The stories from Reid World are legion. I’ll share just two.

One day in 2005, a fruit basket was delivered to his office in the US Capitol. I love fruit and the bananas in this…

https://stephenmoore.medium.com/?source=post_page-----463cc4682b10-----------------------------------

Stephen Moore

https://marker.medium.com/the-fall-of-theranos-fraud-not-failure-463cc4682b10?source=post_page-----463cc4682b10-----------------------------------

1 day ago·4 min read

Photo: HBO

First they think you’re crazy, then they fight you, then… you get found guilty of committing wire fraud to the tune of billions of dollars.

One of the most enthralling business sagas of all time has drawn to a close, at least…

https://medium.com/@catherinevictoriakapphahn?source=post_page-----3a5cdfdf6535-----------------------------------

Catherine Kapphahn

https://medium.com/invisible-the-fault-lines-of-motherhood-3a5cdfdf6535?source=post_page-----3a5cdfdf6535-----------------------------------

Dec 22, 2021·8 min read

We take a few steps from our beds to remote teaching and remote learning, to four desks in three rooms. In our Queens, New York City apartment, we endure lock down, our entry into the pandemic. I hear eight-year old giggling and then I tell him to get off YouTube for the millionth time. I want to slam the lid shut. But he’s supposed to be in school; he needs it to connect with…

https://ryanfan.medium.com/?source=post_page-----1f6329f1f2ff-----------------------------------

Ryan Fan

https://index.medium.com/i-had-perfect-attendance-at-work-and-have-gained-nothing-for-it-1f6329f1f2ff?source=post_page-----1f6329f1f2ff-----------------------------------

Dec 24, 2021·6 min read

Photo: krakenimages/Unsplash

Before yesterday, I had almost perfect attendance at work in my two and a half years of teaching. But I finally called out to get a COVID test after my fiancee tested positive for COVID.

Photo by Raghavendra V. Konkathi on Unsplash

Apparently, debt cancellation isn’t the most popular topic in Christianity.

https://scottcdunn.medium.com/?source=post_page-----c9c4f95b8ab3-----------------------------------

ScottCDunn

https://scottcdunn.medium.com/the-very-first-sermon-christ-gave-taught-us-about-the-jubilee-c9c4f95b8ab3?source=post_page-----c9c4f95b8ab3-----------------------------------

Dec 25, 2021·5 min read

It’s early Christmas morning as I write this. I just could not sleep with this story dancing around in my head. The sugarplums are really upset at being pushed aside. I’m thinking about why we celebrate the birth of a man who preached…

Jessie Waddell

Dec 27, 2021

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5

min read

Image by Nickola_Che on Shutterstock

As I write this article, it’s noon on Monday 27th of December. It’s the eve of my 31st birthday, and I’m exhausted, but my brain won’t stop running miles. I feel grateful this year because I have this outlet. When my brain gets too busy, I can write, process and make sense of the chaos. Before I started writing, it was…

https://barackobama.medium.com/?source=post_page-----c54927e7c7cc-----------------------------------

Barack Obama

https://barackobama.medium.com/my-statement-on-the-passing-of-archbishop-desmond-tutu-c54927e7c7cc?source=post_page-----c54927e7c7cc-----------------------------------

·6 days ago

Photo by Pete Souza

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a mentor, a friend, and a moral compass for me and so many others. A universal spirit, Archbishop Tutu was grounded in the struggle for liberation and justice in his own country, but also concerned with injustice everywhere. He never lost his impish sense of humor and willingness to find humanity in his adversaries, and Michelle and I will miss him dearly.

By Scott Dunn

What we do with this holiday is dependent on the choices we make.

https://scottcdunn.medium.com/?source=post_page-----814fbf01eaa8-----------------------------------

ScottCDunn

https://scottcdunn.medium.com/we-create-the-magic-of-christmas-814fbf01eaa8?source=post_page-----814fbf01eaa8-----------------------------------

Dec 24·4 min read

I can remember Christmas in childhood. My mom got these incandescent Christmas lights that would just randomly blink. I loved how those clear glass lights would blink in a way that I could never predict. They mesmerized me. I also loved the way the lights cast multicolored shadows onto the walls…

https://jessicalexicus.medium.com/?source=post_page-----b5074687e9bf-----------------------------------

Jessica Wildfire

https://index.medium.com/we-were-always-disposable-and-we-cant-ignore-it-anymore-b5074687e9bf?source=post_page-----b5074687e9bf-----------------------------------

Dec 20·6 min read

Photo: Shi Min Teh/Unsplash

“It’s just a warning.”

That’s what a supervisor told a delivery driver for a certain mega-company run by a guy who models himself after Lex Luther, when tornado sirens started to wail. If she tried to return to the warehouse without dropping off her packages, they’d…

Rosie Alderson, PhD

Dec 22

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5

min read

Photo by Sandra Seitamaa on Unsplash

A couple of winters ago, I travelled to the ski resort of Levi, in Finland. Nestled in the arctic circle, the landscape is awe-inspiring— great swathes of white, punctuated only by majestic snow-laden trees and small, charming settlements populated with cosy wooden buildings.

Increasingly independent lifestyles aren’t good for all of us, and especially not for families.

https://medium.com/@RhianninB?source=post_page-----dcfd0a1da74d-----------------------------------

Rhiannin Bunney

https://medium.com/in-losing-the-village-we-abandoned-societys-parents-dcfd0a1da74d?source=post_page-----dcfd0a1da74d-----------------------------------

Dec 17·10 min read

Photo by Benjamin Manley on Unsplash

It takes a village to raise a child.

I had a very different experience of growing up in the United States. I wasn’t…

https://nabil-alouani.medium.com/?source=post_page-----1ff08137c2b2-----------------------------------

Nabil Alouani

https://onezero.medium.com/an-ancient-greek-weapon-could-become-the-future-of-solar-energy-1ff08137c2b2?source=post_page-----1ff08137c2b2-----------------------------------

5 days ago·8 min read

Canva

Some 2,200 years ago, the Roman Empire decided to take over Sicily, an island located in modern-day Italy. It was a strategic move against the Carthaginians, whose influence spread over the Mediterranean basin.

https://medium.com/@lindacastrilli?source=post_page-----942da44c924-----------------------------------

Linda Castrilli

https://index.medium.com/i-took-an-extended-break-from-the-rat-race-here-are-lessons-learned-that-i-never-want-to-lose-942da44c924?source=post_page-----942da44c924-----------------------------------

Dec 16·6 min read

Photo: GettyImages

In the spring of 2021, I left the corporate job I had been in for the prior seventeen years.

It was the first time since graduating college — and we’re talking early 1990s here — that I had been unemployed. Back then, OJ Simpson wasn’t yet on trial for murder and Prince…

Here’s my annual list of favorite books, music, and movies. Art always sustains and nourishes the soul. But for me, music and storytelling felt especially urgent during this pandemic year — a way to connect even when we were cooped up.

Since these are works I have actually listened to, watched, or read, I’m sure I’ve missed some worthy stuff. So if you have your own recommendations to share, I’ll add them to the stack of books and movies I hope to catch up on over the holidays!

Favorite Books of 2021:

• Matrix — Lauren Groff

• How the Word Is Passed — Clint Smith

• The Final Revival of Opal & Nev — Dawnie Walton

• The Lincoln Highway — Amor Towles

• Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City — Andrea Elliott

• Harlem Shuffle — Colson Whitehead

• Cloud Cuckoo Land — Anthony Doerr

• These Precious Days — Ann Patchett

• Crying in H Mart — Michelle Zauner

• Aftershocks — Nadia Owusu

• Crossroads — Jonathan Franzen

• The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois — Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

• Beautiful Country — Qian Julie Wang

And here’s a reminder of books I recommended earlier this year:

• At Night All Blood Is Black — David Diop

• Land of Big Numbers — Te-Ping Chen

• Empire of Pain — Patrick Radden Keefe

• Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir

• When We Cease to Understand the World — Benjamín Labatut

• Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future — Elizabeth Kolbert

• Things We Lost to the Water — Eric Nguyen

• Leave The World Behind — Rumaan Alam

• Klara and the Sun — Kazuo Ishiguro

• The Sweetness of Water — Nathan Harris

• Intimacies — Katie Kitamura

Favorite Movies of 2021:

• Drive My Car

• Summer of Soul

• West Side Story

• The Power of the Dog

• Pig

• Passing

• The Card Counter

• Judas and the Black Messiah

• The Worst Person in the World

• Old Henry

• The Last Duel

• The Tragedy of Macbeth

• C’mon C’mon

• Quo Vadis, Aida?

Favorite Music of 2021:​​

• The Only Heartbreaker — Mitski

• I Don’t Live Here Anymore — The War On Drugs ft. Lucius

• Tala Tannam — Mdou Moctar

• Magnolia Blues — Adia Victoria

• Witchoo — Durand Jones & The Indications & Aaron Frazer

• Formwela 10 — Esperanza Spalding

• Gold Chains — Genesis Owusu

• Broken Horses — Brandi Carlile

• Woman — Little Simz ft. Cleo Sol

• Pepas — Farruko

• Go Down Deh — Spice ft. Sean Paul & Shaggy

• Freedom — Jon Batiste

• It’s Way with Me — Wye Oak

• Nobody- Nas ft. Ms. Lauryn Hill

• Nightflyer — Allison Russell

• Montero (Call Me By Your Name) — Lil Nas X

• Patria y Vida — Yotuel, Gente de Zona, Descemer Bueno, Maykel Osorbo, el Funky

• Notice — Tammy Lakkis

• Armash — Teddy Afro

• Write a List of Things To Look Forward To -Courtney Barnett

• Volví — Aventura & Bad Bunny

• Headshots (4r Da Locals) — Isaiah Rashad

• Boomerang — Yebba

• In My Blood — MO3 & Morray

• Ya — YEИDRY

• Rumors — Lizzo ft. Cardi B

• Walking at a Downtown Pace — Parquet Courts

And here’s a reminder of the songs I had on my summer playlist: