Things I Like - July
I promise I like things besides books and podcasts, but none immediately come to mind. So here's another round of books and podcasts that I like.
1. Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too: A Book (Jonny Sun)
My sister Allison told me I should follow Jonny Sun on twitter some time last year and she was not wrong. Writing from the perspective of an alien who is confused about human language, Jonny has created an expression for everyone who feels a little like an outsider in regular life.
Blending humor and off-beat philosophical musings, Sun is a bright spot on a platform that is often a stream of negativity.
All that to say, when I heard he was writing a book I obviously pre-ordered it. The book, which follows an alien named Jomny who was sent to earth to study humans, has been compared to Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. With minimalist drawings and simple text, the story is a collection of interactions between the alien and earth's creatures who all feel like aliens in some way, putting to words thoughts and feelings most of us have had at one point in our lives. This is the kind of book that you can breeze through in a sitting, or in little snatches like a good cup of tea. A delightful and oddly thought-provoking read.
2. "The Culture Inside"- Invisibilia Podcast (NPR)
I love podcasts. If you don't know that about me by now, you have clearly not been listening to me when I talk and now I'm upset.
That said, "Invisibilia" is a show produced by NPR that explores all the invisible forces that shape our lives. This episode, "The Culture Inside" is one that I have been thinking about since I listened to it in my car a few weeks ago. The episode explores how much hidden parts of our own brains can affect the ways we act. They dive deep into the minds of well-intentioned people who are realizing how much they are influenced by implicit bias.
In the aftermath of too many racially charged acts of violence, more people are talking about implicit bias than ever, but it's an issue that does not have an easy solution. Biases are deeply engrained and largely invisible. Biases that slip in unnoticed until one day someone snaps and acts from the buried part of their brain that instinctually senses danger where there is none.
In the past few years I have worked with children from diverse backgrounds and races. And I will be the first to admit that I am still wrestling through my biases. I have absorbed a lot of half-truths and straight out lies about people that are based on race or social class or religion. And even while the conscious, well-read, open-minded part of me knows better than to make generalizations based on appearances, there is a part of my brain that continues to jump to conclusions before the rest of me has time to catch up.
While the podcast does not claim to solve this problem, it does provide a place to start. With conversations where we acknowledge where we know we are wrong. With noticing in the moment when we've assumed something that we had no right or reason to assume. And with intentionally replacing those thoughts with different associations that don't minimize people to only their most visible features.
3. Forget Me Not (Ellie Terry)
I make it no secret that I love to read children's and teen literature. They are not all worth the time I devote to them, but this book was. A novel written in sparse prose and verse format, the surface story is about a girl named Calliope who has been through countless moves from city to city and state to state following her mother's string of romantic interests. To further complicate her life, Calli struggles to hide her tics caused by Tourette's Syndrome. Told from the alternating perspectives of Calli and her next-door neighbor, popular and charming Jinsong, the story explores friendship and growing up in a way that is new and deeply empathetic. Terry's compelling insight into the heart and mind of a person with Tourette's Syndrome springs from her own experience as a person with TS. A great read for understanding life from a different perspective.
