My dear reader.

First, a quick update on last week’s mutual aid fundraising effort to support families in need in Minneapolis:

• This is the fundraiser we collectively contributed to, and this is my post from last week about it and other actions we can take right now in solidarity with ICE resistance efforts.

• As promised, I matched your first $650 in donations, and the receipt for transparency is here.

• So far, including my personal match, we have contributed $1,798 to the fundraiser, which has almost reached its $350k goal! Funds are already being dispersed directly to hundreds of impacted families, both those who are unhoused and those for whom it is unsafe to leave their homes due to the very real risk of being kidnapped by ICE.

• It means the world to me to be in digital community with folks like you, who care about and show up for others in all kinds of ways. Thank you, truly, for joining me in this act of financial redistribution and care!

And now, onto our regular ‘first Tuesday of each month’ series: my free offering for all subscribers in which I share what’s been working well in my life plus a curated list of links to what I’ve been reading, listening to, watching, and cooking.

In the comments I’d love to hear what’s been working well for you (even/especially amidst hard times), as well as any of your own recommended links.

Enjoy!

What’s Working

Annie’s mac & cheese, with extra butter. Wearing the same big, thick, cozy fleece hoodie every single day in these freezing temps. The way the morning sunlight sparkles on the snow. Long voice notes with friends. Weekly afternoon movie dates with my partner. Continuing to build up my shelf-stable food stores. Taking my feelings and concerns about the state of the country/world seriously, instead of gaslighting myself that “everything will be fine.” The local library – just, like, every aspect of this beautiful, freely available place. Telling my friends when things are hard, instead of defaulting to “I can handle this on my own.” Spearmint and nettle tea. Having the money to pay for my dog’s emergency hospitalization last week, as well as the time to drop literally everything else to be there for her 24/7. (She is going to be okay, thankfully!)

Top 10: Reading, Listening, Watching

1. Let’s start with books. For something charming, heart-warming, and darkly funny I loved Annie Hartnett’s The Road to Tender Hearts. And on the non-fiction side I learned a ton from Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, by Yanis Varoufakis.

2. For folks who are protesting in the streets, this guide to how to do so (more) safely in the age of surveillance is useful. And if you want some gorgeous, powerful resistance art to print for protest signs (or just for displaying in your neighborhood or elsewhere), Justseeds has this plentiful collection of free, high-res, downloadable graphics.

3. I’ve been thankful for stand-up comedy specials lately – an hour of laughing feels so cathartic to me. A+ recommend Marcello Hernández: American Boy (2026) and Hasan Minhaj: Off with His Head (2024).

4. If you are vibing with/appreciating/learning from the series I recently started about collapse (which continues next week!) and are craving a truly thorough and well-researched breakdown of it all, this essay has got you covered. (And then this essay, on coping with the difficult emotions that are often experienced by people who awaken to metacrisis and collapse, is supportive too.)

5. Need a quick, wholesome palate cleanser? Here are this month’s feel-good contributions from my partner, who is still on social media and sends me things like this and this and this :)

6. What does it mean to live well during the fractured end of modernity? This interview with Vanessa Andreotti sheds light on what she calls hospicing modernity – the act of bearing witness to a system that is unraveling.

7. For my fellow endurance sport fans, I loooved The Finisher, a (free!) documentary about Jasmin Paris, who made history in 2024 by becoming the first woman to finish the Barkley Marathons — widely known as one of the hardest races in the world.

8. Two pieces of writing that helped me with the cognitive dissonance of looking around at so much of the business-as-usual world and being like ???? were this one: You Are Not Crazy, and this one: And Corporate American Doesn’t Flinch.

9. If you are self-employed and feeling very “wtf is the point of my work in these times” then let me share this free recorded class from my beloved friend Amelia Hruby, called Crystal Clear: How Our Businesses Create Change.

10. Lastly, something that has genuinely been helping my nervous system lately is yoga nidra. Here’s a 20-minute guided session I’ve done a bunch of times over the past few weeks. I hope it soothes you too!

Cooking & Baking

Literally the only thing I have to offer you this month by way of recipes is: cookies. I keep baking them, eating them, sharing them, stocking my freezer with them. (Cookies as coping: a 2026 memoir)

These chocolate chip ones are delicious, as are these gluten-free almond (or peanut) butter chocolate chip ones. I used creamy Skippy peanut butter and they were legit perfect.

Your turn!

What’s been working well for you lately? Do you have any reading, listening, watching, or cooking recommendations of your own to share? Tell us, tell us!

<3

Nic