A few weeks ago I was chatting with my company’s General Counsel over a work dinner and somehow the conversation turned to cults. Still not totally sure how that happened. But she told me about a podcast called Zealot and now I’m obsessed. It’s hilarious (something you wouldn’t expect when the topic is cults) and fascinating. It’s hosted by an Australian woman and her friends, and often makes me laugh out loud. But has also taught me a lot about creepy leaders and mass suicides. It’s harder than you might think to find all these qualities in one podcast.
I just finished the book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen and LOVED it. If you don’t feel like reading the entire book, you can get the abbreviated and equally engaging version in this TED Talk from its author. Christopher McDougall’s “Are We Born to Run?” talk goes through three mysteries when it comes to running—then solves them all with a pretty cool answer. (I realize I’m like a decade behind on this book, by the way.)
For a little while there, between Syria and Trump, it seemed like refugees were front page news every day. Lately, it’s been a little more quiet on that front. Of course, the crisis continues—war and persecution continue to force people from their homes and the current administration has made America about the least welcoming developed nation on earth. I liked this “The True Story of Refugees in an American High School” article (which is an excerpt from a book) because it takes a different angle and does a good job of humanizing a few refugees and a teacher who helps them. I especially liked this line: “If so, everything would be new—running water, appliances, grocery stores, snow, freedom.”
Sarah Crosland 