As a person who spends a lot of time thinking about the endings of movies and books, and how to end stories, books, and essays, I thought this was a great watch (although there are some spoilers). (video)
Maybe you would not be surprised to find out that wildland firefighters exert as much energy as Tour de France riders, but the evidence presented in this article is a) detailed and b) mind-blowing.
My friend Ed Roberson interviewed legendary novelist David James Duncan about his writing career, and his new book, Sun House, a while back for the Mountain & Prairie podcast, and it’s a very interesting conversation that illuminates a bunch of things about Duncan, but mostly I find it fascinating how he thinks. (Here’s a good Washington Post article about DJD and the new book if you’d rather read than listen)
I spent a good chunk of last summer renovating an old shed into an office for Hilary, and insulating it was definitely one of my least favorite parts for several reasons. So I was quite interested in this film my friends Forest and Laura made about straw bale construction. (Yvon Chouinard, always good for a memorable soundbite: “The future of business, I think, is waste”)
As an avid wearer of Vans for non-athletic and semi-athletic activities (bike commuting, walking), I love this story. Phillies pitcher Michael Lorenzen threw a no-hitter while wearing custom Vans baseball cleats, and later he joked that maybe the shoes would be sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame. That’s exactly what happened.
Thanks to our friend Nick, Hilary found this new podcast interview with Rebecca Solnit, and I got to listen to it. I’d read her book Hope in the Dark a few years back, and loved it, but this was a great interview about her take on climate change, and the perspective of “we’re all connected” vs. the perspective of “I am an island.”
This is sort of a public service announcement, and it is definitely not new as it’s been a thing since 2017, but I finally paid 99 cents for this and it’s one of the best purchases I have ever made. The problem: Every time you plug in your phone in a car, it autoplays the alphabetical first song you own or have saved, so you’ve heard the first minute or so of that song like 1,000 times and you’re sick of it. The solution: A guy named Samir Mezrahi made a “song” that is just 10 minutes of recorded silence, and it’s titled “A a a a a Very Good Song (Silent Track).” So when you buy it (or I think save it on Spotify too, not 100% sure as I paid for it on Apple Music), it becomes your autoplayed song. So when you plug in your phone, you get: silence. Anyway, here it is on Apple Music and Spotify.