The Hello You Sunday Supplement, Issue 29
A veritable truckload of good stuff for you to read and enjoy. It's good for what ails yer
Hello, you. How’re you doing?
Welcome to the Hello You Sunday Supplement! If you’re one of the many new subscribers to Hello You (thank you soooo much if you are) a word of explanation: Every Sunday I compile a bunch of links and recommendations so you have some good stuff to enjoy that’s more engaging and uplifting than what’s flung at us by TV, papers and much social media. I hope you like it! If you do, share it with your friends?
Something to listen to while you read
Farewell, Jesse Colin Young. Often-overlooked folk-country-rock pioneer, made a handful of underrated solo albums, hung out with Lowell George, and sang lead on this cracking (and timely) tune:
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now
What went right this week
A guerilla ad campaign called time on ‘no ball games’ signs, a moth reintroduction effort got off to a glorious start, and 'deep brain stimulation' trials to help addiction, got under way plus more good news from the good people at Positive News
Herewith the good stuff, as promised …
This is beautiful. One note at a time ...
'Chronic people-pleasing prevented me from being real with others'
Faith, fasting and football
Love music? Love humanity? Watch this video ...
What happened to Covid key workers when the clapping stopped?
Coming soon on Hello You the Shropshire podcast …
You’ll hear the voice of someone you’re very unlikely to have heard before, sharing first-hand experiences that have been much discussed, argued about and pronounced upon by others.
It’s part of a story that’s brought national attention to our part of the world, some of it welcome, some of it less so. It’s the voice of someone who has been through some terrible things. They chose to tell me their story because they want you to know what happened.
It’s quite a lengthy interview, but it needs to be. It’s a hard listen, with some heavy stuff included. It may make you angry, it may break your heart, it may change your mind … as it did mine.
I’ll publish it on Friday morning. It’s likely to generate quite a lot of discussion. To make sure you don’t miss it, click this button:
Remembering Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s profound effect on music on her 110th birthday
Ever found yourself so exhausted that even thinking about your next task feels overwhelming?
Mobile phone bans in schools don't work
It’s time to open up your big fat mouths and push back against fatphobia
Inside Bluey’s world
This might be a good time to remind you …
If you’re in need of someone who can chair debates, Q&As and discussions with confidence, empathy and journalistic rigour, who can moderate the most spiky of panels, deal with audiences and stakeholders fairly and with good grace, and who can interview at the highest level, I’m now able to fulfil the sort of requests I've had to decline for years: event hosting, facilitation, moderation, taking the chair, interviewing and holding to account.
If you're planning your public or internal events for this year, let's talk soon. Message me?
He was a rising star of the NHS. Could his work have contributed to his death?
Vivian Jenna Wilson on being Elon Musk’s estranged daughter, protecting trans youth and taking on the right online
Happy 90th birthday, Mary Berry! Tremendous photos by Martin Parr alongside this Vogue interview
I like what this guy has to say
Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon, starting on Friday
Getting a headache and feeling sick are common side-effects for many medicines. Indulging in risky sexual behaviour or pathological gambling – not so common
Subscribe to Hello You for less! In fact … much less!
If you appreciate my work and you’d like to make sure I can carry on producing it, you can now take out a paid subscription to Hello You the Shropshire podcast for a massive 50% less than the usual rate!
Just one thing: This offer is only active until Sunday, March 30th!
So be quick and click here click here click here!
Words fail me. Well, they don't, but even if they did, I wouldn’t use this pile of shit
North Sea ... nurdles?!
A stark illustration of how the UK and USA are essentially on the same path
Sausage rolls made by a 90-year-old baker (not Mary Berry this time!) helped save a village church
‘We all wish art could counter the direction of US politics. But it can’t’
None of the top news organisations in the UK, Brazil or Germany has a senior editor of colour
This is Alex
I need to talk to Alex some more. Listen to this episode of Hello You the Shropshire podcast and you’ll find out why!
Generative AI spammers are brute-forcing the internet, and it's working (there's some seriously grim stuff illustrated here)
The UK has closed its flagship sustainable farming scheme, choosing short-term cuts over long-term security
Requiem for the voice that carried a nation’s conscience
‘If not me, then who?’ Meet the women reshaping local politics
Before you die, remember to live
A note on other news
I’m keeping up with what’s happening in America mostly via media correspondents and some well-informed Substack newsletters. It’s beyond scary, it’s sickening. Hence, I’m not including any of that here, but if you want to know what’s going on - it’s being frankly inadequately reported here in the UK - search my Bluesky, Facebook or LinkedIn for ‘Are You OK, America?’ which is how I tag anything of particular interest. If you’re interested, I’ll do a weekly pull-together of those posts in a separate newsletter, maybe on a Monday morning. Let me know?
If you read one thing this week, make it this
In the light of Adolescence: How do we raise boys to be good men in these garbage times?
Final Thought, à la Jerry Springer
Keeping Quiet
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be togetherin a sudden strangeness.
Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
Thank you for being there
I hope you enjoyed the Hello You Sunday Supplement, Issue 29. If you have thoughts, questions, suggestions, whatever then leave a comment
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Take care of yourself, and take care of the people around you. I hope they’re taking care of you, too
Love the Neruda quote you end with, Jim. Very true indeed.
Thank you also for alerting me to the sad news of Jesse Colin Young's passing. I bought The Youngbloods' record Darkness, Darkness as a single when it came out and I've loved that song throughout my entire life. He seemed like a very gentle soul.
Keep up the sterling work!