Wear is the Love Episode 27: That One Time Melissa Accidentally Crashed An Interview with the President

Wear is the Love, Episode 27

On this week’s Wear is the Love, we return to our love story. The last episode where we shared a bit about our relationship (#15) seems to be a fan-favorite, and so we thought we’d pick up where we left off. This will hopefully be a welcome break from a pretty intense news cycle, though rest-assured we’ll be back to break down the news next week.

Episode notes:

From A New Brain:

The Top 5 articles for your week:

1. “You Can Spot Climate Change in Old Restaurant Menus” (The Atlantic)

   Because seafood-heavy Vancouver is mostly serving squid these days, due to warming water temperatures. Restaurant menus are now a major marker for those measuring climate change.

2. “Cognitive Behavioral Soulcraft” (Hedgehog Review)

   Because we’ve gone from self-help books to Cognitive Wellness Culture (CWC), a movement for dealing with distraction and the attention economy.

3. “A New Americanism” (Foreign Affairs)

   Because while this essay is from 2019, it is an excellent history of the definition of nationalism, how it’s evolved, and how myth-making and the nation-state go hand-in-hand. It’s pertinent for today, when the term (nationalism) is thrown around a lot in current commentary.

4. “What Happened to Consensus Reality?” (The New Atlantis)

   Because the opening salvo of this essay is a good chaser to the two articles above: “Do you feel that people you love and respect are going insane? That formerly serious thinkers or commentators are increasingly unhinged, willing to subscribe to wild speculations or even conspiracy theories? Do you feel that, even if there’s some blame to go around, it’s the people on the other side of the aisle who have truly lost their minds? Do you wonder how they can possibly be so blind? Do you feel bewildered by how absurd everything has gotten? Do many of your compatriots seem in some sense unintelligible to you? Do you still consider them your compatriots?”

5. “Hot regression summer” (Dirt - Substack)

   Because - are we experiencing the end of original pop culturemaking? (I don’t think so; I think we’re in a time of looking back - or nostalgia - in order to make sense of the chaos right now, but I’m open to this essay’s argument)