Poison vs Antidote
Finding balance in my reading list
Dear Friend,
In our last letter we discussed the challenge of determining how much news one should inject into one’s veins in order to stay informed without overdosing, and how much “fun” media one should imbibe to maintain one’s will to live without becoming negligent of the rest of humanity. Here’s my current balance sheet:
The Poison:
Heather Cox Richardson‘s newsletter wherein she talks about current events and puts them in some historical context. It’s a gift.
Washington Post’s The 7. A summary of seven new stories for each day across a spectrum of topics—politics, sports, natural disasters, etc. They limit the Trump centered stories to about two, in order to give other news a chance, and, I think, realizing that all Trump all the time can be overwhelming and drive readers away. But for those who can’t stop watching the train wreck, they began a spin-off called The 7: Tracking Trump. I do not subscribe, but visit the link more than is healthy (see how you can scroll down the phone on the homepage).
Washington Post is a bit of a controversial choice since it’s owned by broligarch, Jeff Bezos, who when he first purchased it, said he wouldn’t influence what was published, but recently revamped the opinion page. I don’t read the opinion page. I mostly read The 7 and then daisy chain from its links to various articles which also have links. The writing feels pretty even-handed. They still rebelliously refer to the “Gulf of Mexico,” which wins them points.
Stories shared by friends on social media. I am cautious in this, and fortunate in that many (though certainly not all) of my friends are responsible curators of their content, and often bring certain events or perspectives to my attention, often in advance of coverage by more mainstream outlets.
The New York Times I’m signed up for a daily news digest called “The Morning,” but it isn’t as fast a read as “the 7” so I don’t open it daily, but catch up sporadically. Mostly I bought the digital NYT subscription so that I don’t hit a paywall every time someone posts a link on social media.
And I listen to National Public Radio on KCROW. This is where I get a good portion of my drive-time news.
I try to do about a 50-50 split between news and podcasts, which brings me to,
The Antidote
Sometimes I need to not think about disappearing environmental regulations, rights and social safety nets, as well as people being disappeared off our streets.
Short Fiction: The New Yorker Fiction Podcast. Authors choose and read (aloud) stories from The New Yorker archive, then discuss them with The New Yorker’s fiction editor. The podcast, which airs monthly, began in 2007 so it feels like there are an infinite number of episodes. The magazine began publishing in 1925 so it exposes me to a lot of authors from bygone eras who are new to me. Occasionally, I hear an historical artifact from more innocent times, like a conversation with Sherman Alexie that predates the 2018 sexual harassment allegations against him, or other conversations that enthusiastically laud Alice Munro before her fall from grace.
I’m not always a short fiction reader, but as I write this I realize I do have a pattern of turning toward it during times of turmoil. During the first months of Covid in 2020, I listened to dozens of episodes of another short fiction podcast, Levar Burton Reads, and in 2022, when I was recovering from cancer-related surgery and grieving some career and life-purpose losses, I was buoyed by A Swim in A Pond in the Rain.
With work at the moment, my days are full and I fall asleep quickly at night, making my visual reading sporadic, but I’ve recently read novels by Jenny Offill and Sally Rooney and a short story collection by Carmen Maria Machado. I’m also working my way through some sections of a non-fiction book by John Truby characterizing various genres in storytelling.
Something I’ve been thinking about is how my fiction-reading history has shaped my interpretation of events I’m reading about in the news today. A topic for another day.
Hope you are enjoying a good balance of media content!
Barrington