So much culture!
A wee link round up for this Fall Friday.
It feels like family culture is in the ether. It’s either that, or the algo has me well-pinned right now. Or both! In honor of the sheer volume of links I’ve texted myself to save for reading later (you have your habits, I have mine), Sarah and I thought we’d drop everything we’re reading and watching this week here, in case you’re curious.
We have our eyes and ears on:
That “The Case For Having A Lot Of Kids” piece on The New Yorker.
“London saw a surprising benefit to fining high-polluting cars: More active kids” on Grist.
The new Natasha Lyonne movie, His Three Daughters.
The WNBA Playoffs (a la
’s Basketball Feelings substack)- ’s funny, evocative novel Sandwich about a mother on vacation with her adult children and aging parents (Sarah just finished and only understood the title 200 pages in!)
Friend of the pod
wrote a brilliant deep dive on ‘Industry’ over at The New Republic. (OK, but do they live in actual hell?).- Manley’s gorgeous piece on dadfluencer culture over at The Cut. (Stay tuned to hear Janet chat about it — and everything that didn’t make it into the final piece! — on the podcast soon).
What are you reading, watching and thinking about this week? Tell us in the comments!
I am going to be honest -- I really hated Sandwich. I LOVE Catherine Newman's vibe, and I enjoyed her last book, but this book did not feel realistic to me at all. Every character felt like a caricature except for the male characters who were incredibly flat. It just felt so forced, and I hate saying that because I did feel like it came from a sincere place.
I was a little scared to click on the New Yorker link, as someone who doesn’t *want* to encounter compelling arguments for having any more children than the one great one I already have. Luckily the article, uh, didn’t do that…to put it mildly 😅