The Hello You Sunday Supplement, Issue 4
Your weekly signpost to the good stuff
Hello, you. How’re you doing?
Welcome to the Hello You Sunday Supplement, Issue 4
A lot of social media’s gone to cock. Algorithms have flattened everything so it’s harder to find stuff to read that’s worth your time. Our newsfeeds are just a slop conduit serving us rubbish and nonsense.
Hence the Hello You Sunday Supplement. It’s a weekly delivery of links to articles that I think you’ll find interesting to read whilst enjoying your Sunday morning coffee.
If this newsletter hits the spot for you, please hit the Like button or little heart symbol, and share it with your friends using the convenient buttons provided?
And to make sure you don’t miss anything, whether it’s an episode of the Hello You podcast or the Sunday Supplement, why not subscribe?
Something to listen to while you read
A seven-minute groove with a killer drum solo. And it’s all on one chord. The Pointer Sisters, ‘Yes We Can Can’. Great gosh a’mighty!
News, starting with the good stuff from Positive News
Climate wins were there for the taking, England started building bison bridges, and California slowed down fast fashion, plus more good news
An Epidemic of Violence - A Full-Blown Crisis
Whether we’re policy makers, faith leaders or volunteers, we all have a part to play in creating a more just future
The good people at Full Fact have been hard at work again. I really don't know how they resist ending every headline with 'for fuck's sake' -
No, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has not pledged to build 46,000 new homes ‘just for Muslims’
There’s no evidence the government plans to ‘means test’ the state pension
Facebook posts about a ‘two-year-old boy found by police in Hereford’ are hoaxes, as are the ones about a ‘three-year-old boy in Hartlepool’
A supposed ‘list of United Nations Agenda 2030 mission goals’, circulating on Facebook, is - predictably - nonsense
Analysis
Imagining a world beyond racism
Amid a storm of misrepresentation, authentic photographic portraits reveal a community's true image
Here’s something I’ve been unhappy about in one particular public-service sector for a long time. ‘CEO-ification’ refers to the trend of nonprofits and charities to increasingly mirror corporate and military structures. Often they will adopt similar language, hierarchies, and strategic approaches
From nearly bare chests to icons of womanhood to an OnlyFans sponsorship, what are our clothes telling us about our relationship with sensuality?
Mind and brain, mental health and wellbeing
I was thrilled to have a conversation with my Dad recently about our family history. We’ve had a number over the years, but this was the first since I joined Ancestry and started getting more into it. These are the questions we often don’t ask our families, but should. And it’s good for us: exploring our ancestry can help our mental health
This is a breathtaking piece of writing. Honest, clear-eyed and unflinching, it's hard to read but it must've been harder to write: Drink, my father & me
Folk, tradition, history and heritage
Some timely observations - on harvest, September and the end of the festival season
Gratuitous cross-promotion interlude
This week’s episode of my Shrewsbury-based podcast Hello You is, if I say so myself, a corker. 'We repair objects, but we repair people first’ - Conversations from Shrewsbury's Repair Café
Hello You is about people, stories and ‘the complexities of life’. Catch every episode of Hello You by subscribing on Substack
Or follow me on Spotify
or Apple Podcasts
And tell your friends?
Nature and environment
We are taking climate change so unseriously, that every major tech firm in the US is planning to dramatically increase carbon-spewing datacenters just to run chatbots
Love this idea: The Dutch ‘tile whipping’ competition to green gardens and streets
Quirky
Darts. Classy. (Sound up, but hold your nose ...)
Someone in your household off to university shortly? Don’t leave them listening to the tiny speaker in their phone. Here’s a hi-fi guide for students
Kinda related to Shrewsbury’s Repair Café: The street stitching movement is tackling fast fashion
I really want to go to Las Vegas’s Neon Museum
Thought-provoking
Please, watch this film. It'll take you less than ten minutes. And you'll never forget it. Visible Mending - Emotional repair through wool
Music
Marking this week’s centennial of the incredible jazz pianist Bud Powell
‘This man was a living redemption story. He encountered darkness and met it with love’
Arts, culture etc
Been waiting eagerly for Intermezzo to come out?
Not many sitcoms from thirty years ago are even vaguely watchable (Did you see the reruns of The High Life on BBC Four this week? Yikes ...) so Friends deserves its place in the pantheon. But it still has The Janice Problem
Media and journalism
News organisations: "We gotta put lots of stuff on socials!" Meanwhile ...
Despite sexist attacks, these female journalists have built massive online audiences on their own. Here’s how
‘Sanewashing’ is the act of packaging radical and outrageous statements in a way that makes them seem normal. Here's how to avoid doing it (and yes, it applies as much in the UK as the US)
Social media, aka The Big World O’ Crazy
Has Elon Musk just started a new war on women?
'I can become addicted to any platform (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, even the Substack app), behaving like a rat in a lab, tapping the app to see if there’s a little treat for me that wasn’t there five minutes ago'
How cat memes went viral 100 years ago
How Shit is AI?
Let's be clear about this: I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again
Final Thought, à la Jerry Springer
‘Woke’ just means I’m aware of the fact, consequences and impact of racism, sexism, homophobia, inequality & intolerance. Trying to make the world a better place
How was that for you?
I hope you enjoyed the Hello You Sunday Supplement Issue 3. If you have thoughts, questions, suggestions then leave a comment
And I’m always glad to hear from you
Once again, I’d be thrilled beyond words if you could hit Like on this, or wherever you’ve found it, or both. And my joy would be complete if you would subscribe
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Thank you for being there
Take care of yourself, and take care of the people around you. I hope they’re taking care of you, too.