Rebellions Are Built On Hope

One of the ways I’m taking care of myself right now, is curating where I find my news, and news-adjacent topics pertinent to community and social care. Some friends who were feeling overwhelmed asked me recently who they should listen to, since news right now is coming at us like a fire hose. I’d already been thinking of how to set up this page, but talking with them spurred me to move this publication to the top of my to-do list. This isn’t a complete list, just the places I’m putting my focus, and I’ll add things later as I come across them and vet them for a few weeks first.

Speaking of being face-to-face with an information fire-hose; you don’t have to click on every link you see all day long. You don’t have to read every story. You don’t even have to read every headline! Most headlines are written to get clicks, and many don’t even have stories other than repeating the headline in a few paragraphs. Real news takes time to research and write about. Do what’s best for you, and focus your energy on just a few things, not all the things. Take care of yourself. Take care of your loved ones. Pick one or two things you are either passionate about or have stake in, and follow stories on those things. Trust that if anything important happens in an area you’re not following, someone will tell you.

In fact, and this is an idea I’ve  seen somewhere else, a great idea to share the load with some of your loved ones might be to start a sort of “mutual news load” group — someone who’s into Veteran’s issues follow those news topics, someone who’s into Trans rights follow those news topics, someone who’s good with legal-speak follow Executive Orders, and so on, and once every few days send out an email or make a post on whatever social media channels you use, to inform the others.

News sources

• Under the Desk News
• The Daily Show
• SNL Weekend Update
• The 1400
• Rachel Maddow
• Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me

Here is a quick read on how to evaluate your news sources; here is another. Here is a Media Bias Chart, that shows top news sources and how left/center/right they are.

News podcasts (podcasts are notoriously hard to link to since they’re available on so many different platforms; I recommend plugging these names into the search bar of whatever podcast player you use – I use Podcast Addict, but you might use Apple Music, Spotify, PocketCast, etc)

• American Fever Dream
• The NewsWorthy
• The Daily Show Ears Edition
• The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

News-adjacent Voices of Reason

Sometimes you need a broader discussion of the news; how it affects people like you, how to handle things.

• Heather Cox Richardson; a historian who has been writing almost daily thoughtful essays about the way politics is going now and giving us historical context for what’s happening and what we can do about it.
• Corrbette Pasko; writer, comedian, actor. I came across her GenX Updates on TikTok and the way she talks about current events, especially the Rage Desk, is both helpful and inspiring to this fellow GenXer nearing burnout.
• Choice Words – podcast hosted by Samantha Bee, of The Daily Show and Full Frontal. These are interviews with various people (doctors, scientists, actors, politicians) about life choices and how we make them. Interviews almost always have some sort of tie-in to current events.
• If Books Could Kill – podcast hosted by Michael Hobbes (journalist) and Peter Shamshiri (lawyer), they critique popular non-fiction books and break down incorrect facts, incorrect conclusions, false data, and how these books have influenced culture in a negative way. Books they critique are usually “pop science/airport books” and are all ones that have at one point been in the news and/or are written by newsworthy individuals. They frequently reference current events in the news.
• Jennifer Walter; sociologist. The post she wrote about how “Your Overwhelm is the Goal” has calmed and inspired many in just a few days.
• Patrick Reis and the Vox newsletter, The Logoff. I know, I know. Another daily newsletter? But here’s what they say about it on their site: “an as-short-as-possible explanation of the most important news of the day regarding the new president. It’s not a hidden argument. It’s not an anti-Trump screed. It’s aimed at explaining, in the simplest and most efficient terms, what’s going on and why it matters.”
• We Can Do Hard Things – podcast hosted by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle. This is not a news podcast, but the three of them talk about current events – and how to handle them – as part of their discussions between themselves and guests. Guests have included women in politics, sports, the arts, and technology. Anxiety, overwhelm, and boundaries are frequently topics of discussion. This would be a good one for people looking to deal with the emotions and feelings they’re having in this new climate.
• What the Fuck Just Happened Today. Another daily newsletter (I wouldn’t promote those if they weren’t worth it, I know none of us needs more email). As my friend who introduced me to it said, “Each day it provides a shortlist of important news, followed by slightly expanded (not overwhelmingly) summaries of each individual event — with links to the full stories in reputable sources.. Read only the list; read the summary of an item if you want to know more, read the full story if you really want to get into it — take as much as you can handle, and ignore the rest.”
• You’re Wrong About – also not-a-news podcast, hosted by Sarah Marshall (writer and journalist). She frequently has guests. Like I said, this one isn’t about the news, but it is about things that have been in the news that have been misunderstood, or that most people don’t know the whole story of. Politicians, political scandals, serial killers, queer history, and the Satanic Panic. I’ve learned so much from this podcast, and learned that we almost never get the whole story of a newsworthy event while it’s happening.

Resistance (is not futile)

Resistbot – an easy way to contact all of your representatives at once. You can communicate with Resistbot via text message or by using Facebook Messenger.

Media for Troubled Times

I was going to list some books/movies/music here but writing just this much of the page has taken most of my day, and I need to finish up a few things. I will come back and add some things here later this week.

Got something you want me to add to this page? Let me know!