Articles curated by JSL - Issue #195

This is the best text I read this past week and for a long time before that. It's fiction, so not strictly an article. But it's so good. In fact, it deals, indirectly, with some of the questions arising from what I said above. But don't let that scare you if you're not into the whole free will thing. It's from the collection of short stories '10th of December' by George Saunders, which I'm reading right now and honestly everything that man touches is golden. Please read this and contemplate what it means to be human.

When we talk about how everything is fucked in Africa, generically speaking, let's keep in mind (that this isn't the case, but also:) who the actors are who contribute to perpetually fucking things up. This is also a story of the interconnectedness of today's world where one war is entangled with the next.

This is going to be interesting for you if you care about the ongoing culture wars, 'corporate social responsibility', political communication, and the like. Also if you like reading about the staggering inequality we've allowed to fester in our societies. It's also just a really well-crafted portrait of a wild dude.

BREAKING NEWS!

Apropos the point above re: the myriad actors fucking up African countries. I also include this article so that I can once again pitch this documentary (on netflix), which I really think you should watch!

Non-article bonus link I: Ok, the time has come for me to promote Sam Harris' podcast once and for all. I know there are a lot of people with a lot of reservations. Particularly the most woke amongst you woill frown at this recommendation. I'm jkust gonna say this: I think you're wrong. Sure, there are things to disagree with Sam Harris on (Israel/Palestine comes to mind). And sure, he spends a lot of time criticizing the American left. But I can honestly say that I've learned more from listening to his conversations with world class brains over the past ten years than any one university course I've taken. He speaks with the world's absolute leading experts on the human mind and the war in Ukraine and death and dying and what a 'good life' means and religion and anger and forgiveness and inequality and meditation and global politics and so much more. Recently--over the past few months--I've just been blown away by the constant stream of fascinating conversation with some of these experts. This latest one--the one I link to here--is with Roland Griffiths, one of our planet's leading research scientists on psychedelic drugs who also happens to have stage four cancer, which honestly provides for one of the most informative and moving conversations I've been privy to for a long time. All this to say: Buying a subscription to this podcast series is very much worth your money. And if you can't afford it, you can have it for free; you just need to write them and tell them you're poor. No shame (I used to do it when I was poor). Pleae bro, just listen to it, bro, I promise, bro.

Non-article bonus link II: I discovered this pianist this past week and I'm so happy I did and now you can, too. Enjoy.

Non-article bonus link III: ...And that led me to discover this dude, which I'm equally happy I did. You can just listen to it but honestly it'll improve your mood by 20% if you look at the video at the same time because there's something so peaceful and joyful about this gentleman.

Non-article bonus link IV: Pure bliss