20 articles that will make you smarter & more interesting

& a quote about media & temporality that i cannot stop thinking about...

Over the past six-ish weeks, I've delved into a treasure trove of writings that cut across culture, technology, science, and the intricacies of human emotion. Excited to share some of my favorites… can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

1. The State of the Culture, 2024

   “The tech platforms aren’t like the Medici in Florence, or those other rich patrons of the arts. They don’t want to find the next Michelangelo or Mozart. They want to create a world of junkies — because they will be the dealers. Addiction is the goal.” Ted Gioia on ‘the dopamine cartel’, the tech companies that turn everything we interact with, be it art or politics or our personal lives, into an addiction-driven and gamified experience that messes with our brains.

2. How to Break Free from Dopamine Culture

   His follow-up provides a list of ways to mitigate this. They include immersive experiences, music and otherwise, using paper maps, disconnecting, and more antidotes to the madness. Very, very, very up my alley.

3. The Most Fun Way to Learn a Language (no paywall link here)

   "Language learning need not be an ego-boosting pursuit of perfection; instead, think of it as a messy attempt to reach for the world." This approach celebrates language as a living, evolving tool of expression, making the learning process more engaging and less daunting.

4. Everything’s a Cult Now

   Sean Illing explores how the internet has fragmented American culture into a myriad of cult-like groups, effectively ending the era of a unified national consciousness. This shift, prompted by digital technologies, disperses what was once a cohesive monoculture into diverse, often conflicting subcultures, each with its own version of reality. Thompson posits that this isn't a new crisis but a return to a pre-20th-century norm, where diverse, localized cultural narratives existed before mass media created an illusion of a unified national narrative.

5. Who’s Afraid of Women’s Pleasure? (no paywall link here)

   This piece, talking about a 50-year old documentary and its modern-day relevance, makes me think of a few things…

   • Firstly, the dependency of media outlets on advertising revenues is a sharp double-edged sword, especially when it comes to covering sensitive or controversial topics like sexuality and feminism. This financial reliance can seriously challenge the autonomy and integrity of feminist media. Think about it — when advertisers shy away from backing content that delves into 'debated sensitive social issues', media outlets face a daunting choice: soften the discourse and keep the lights on, or stick to their editorial guns and potentially struggle to survive. It’s a dynamic that puts the very essence of feminist media at risk, forcing publications to navigate the tricky waters between staying financially viable and maintaining their mission's purity.

   • Then there's the troubling trend of the closure of many feminist publications. This phenomenon really forces us to question the future of feminist discourse in both mainstream and alternative media. As traditional feminist platforms disappear, what will take their place? Will the void be filled by new voices, or will the silence spread, leaving unchallenged spaces where critical issues should be discussed? I guess that’s why I love Substack so dearly…

6. Language Doesn’t Perfectly Describe Consciousness. Can Math?

   I’m easy to please. Anything about the limits of language to fully capture the complexities of human experience, I devour.

   Despite centuries of philosophical and artistic attempts to express the ineffable qualities of consciousness, traditional linguistic tools fall short. Recent scientific endeavors have shifted towards mathematical models, hoping to better quantify and describe the subjective phenomena of the mind. This "structural turn in consciousness science" suggests that while language provides a poetic but vague description of experiences, some mathematical models offer a more precise and testable framework that could revolutionize our understanding of consciousness in both healthy and altered states such as coma. Insane, right!!!

7. Welcome To Me Mountain

   “If we want to change the way election year news is disseminated, we will have to do more than stand in our bubble, hollering at the bubble. In the months ahead, we can continue to direct our fury and umbrage at the clickbait corporate media and the social media companies and algorithms that have built the bubbles. Or we can ask ourselves what matters to us, and why we aren’t seeing it, and how we might find it.”

   On the media's failures during a critical juncture in journalism.

8. Adolescent Anxiety Is Hard to Treat. New Drug-Free Approaches May Help

   An incredible read. This article explores new drug-free approaches to treat adolescent anxiety, highlighting how recent research into the developing brain reveals innovative methods to potentially enhance therapy effectiveness. Here are a couple of tangible takeaways for therapists, you, or someone you love:

   • Retrieving and then modifying a memory can change its emotional impact. For instance, therapists might begin a session by gently reminding adolescents of past anxieties or fears, allowing these memories to surface before engaging in activities designed to alter the emotional response associated with those memories. This method aims to weaken the old fear responses by creating new, less fearful associations.

   • Introducing safety cues—objects, images, or sounds that signal safety to the adolescent—can help modulate fear responses during therapy sessions. These cues can activate brain regions that are more developed in adolescents and help reduce anxiety during potentially triggering discussions or exposures. Therapists might encourage patients to bring personal objects that they associate with comfort or safety, using these as tools to create a sense of security during sessions.