🍭The Truth About Candyland 🍭
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OMG yesterday was such a soul-enriching day!! I met so many of you during/ after the events I was speaking at and it was wholesome as hell. But damn, I'm not gonna lie to you - I'm TIRED!!! I was lucky that when I got covid I didn't really get it that bad at all, but I'll tell you what - the lingering fatigueeeeee will get ya!!
I'm off to Wellington today to chat a Vic Uni (my old uni!!!) at lunchtime, so if you're welly based plz come thru!!! Would love to meet/ vibe out with you.
On another note, I'm really considering re-watching Ted Lasso. I feel like it's what my soul needs right now.
What ✨ SYSCA Supporters✨ are up to:
It’s a great time to be a ✨SYSCA supporter!!✨ Last week we released our HUUUUGE bumper book list to all our supporters (so if you love reading and what every rec under the sun - including the books we hated - you should come and be a supporter!!)
This week we’re giving you something else you all said you wanted in our survey… SYSCA playlists!! If you’re a recurring supporter you’ll be getting a Luce, Liv and Rubes themed playlist (not gonna lie, ever since making mine I’ve had it on REPEAT, IT’S SO GOOD.) These will be coming your way at the end of the week, so there’s plenty of time to come and support us, or change your plan from a one-off to an annual/ monthly supporter!!
Candyland Was Invented for Polio Wards
Can Virtual Reality Help Ease Chronic Pain?
Netflix is making some layoffs
The Search for an Extremely Online Therapist
How do you pronounce heirloom?
Candyland Was Invented for Polio Wards
As you know I had a LOT of time on my hands this weekend, and this was one of the best things I read all weekend. It’s a story about Eleanor Abbott, a schoolteacher, in a polio ward during the epidemic of the 1940s and ’50s.
This piece looks at how Candyland was invented for the children who were confined by equipment in the hospital after contracting polio, or who were confined to their homes for fear of it.
“Seeing children suffer around her, Abbott set out to concoct some escapist entertainment for her young wardmates, a game that left behind the strictures of the hospital ward for an adventure that spoke to their wants: the desire to move freely in the pursuit of delights, an easy privilege polio had stolen from them.”
For anyone who’s ever played Candyland (I have, with my little brothers, a lot) it’s not about skill at all - it’s all down to how the deck of cards are shuffled. But it’s not actually about winning. It’s about using your imagination, and going on a journey, even if you don’t have control over the outcome. Knowing the context that the was invented under, moved me in a big way for some reason, and I wanted to leave you with this beautiful excerpt:
“Eventually, children recognize that they don’t have a hand in winning or losing. The deck chooses for them. An ordained victory is an empty one, without the satisfaction of triumph through skills or smarts.
When children want a more challenging experience, they leave Candy Land behind. And that, in the end, is what makes Candy Land priceless: It is designed to be outgrown. Abbott’s game originally taught children, immobilized and separated from family, to envision a world beyond the polio ward, where opportunities for growth and adventure could still materialize.”
You should totally read the full piece here!
Can Virtual Reality Help Ease Chronic Pain?
I listened to the podcast version of this amazing article yesterday, quite fittingly before I spoke at an event about how tech impacts our day to day lives, and honestly, if you're not one for listening to things, you should read it. It's all about chronic pain - the type of pain that isn't a symptom of a problem - it is the problem.
"Chronic pain is generally defined as pain that has lasted three months or longer. It is one of the leading causes of long-term disability in the world. By some measures, 50 million Americans live with chronic pain in part because the power of medicine to relieve pain remains woefully inadequate."
This piece talks about how VR can alleviate patients of their pain by lessening their cognitive load and relaxing them - a healthcare innovation that I wouldn't be surprised if we see more and more of in the future.
This piece also looks at the opioid epidemic and how the remedies/medication being used right now (for things like chronic pain) often lead to the use of stronger drugs, and cause far bigger problems in someone's life than the pain they were experiencing in the first place. The role that tech/ VR could have in changing that is seriously fascinating!
WTF IS HAPPENING IN THE MARKETS RN?
This section is brought to you by the wonderful humans at For What It’s Worth.
And more importantly... what even are ‘the markets??’ There are no stupid questions around here - and when I need help answering mine (well, at least the ones about money or investing) do you know where I go?? To my fave financial newsletter For What It’s Worth - duh!!
Nothing makes me feel smarter than sitting down to a sub-5-minute read (in words I can actually understand) all about busting the money and market myths - I’d recommend it!
You can sign up to ‘For What It’s Worth’ here (and you really should!)
Netflix is making some layoffs
So Netflix has kinda been... up shit creek lately (way more info on that here) - they just announced that they've lost subscribers for the first time in a decade, meaning their stock price collapsed by over 35% (this means they lost more than $50billion in value in ONE DAY.)
Naturally, when you’re losing money, something has to happen - and in this case, it's layoffs. Netflix is cutting about 150 employees from their US team (about 2% of its US workforce), and with that, they've cut dozens of contract writers - a bunch of them being part of their diversity initiatives (which were really pushed after that whole Dave Chappelle thing.)
I run a much smaller company than Netflix (obv), but I can understand that when you’re losing money you have to make decisions that will hurt, and you have to lay people off. I also know that people on social media are going to pick and choose the things they tweet and spread, which is the way I found out about this - I saw all over my timeline that Netflix had 'fired their entire diversity departments' - tweets and headlines like this play right into the outrage/ algorithms machine.
But I think this story is bigger than contextless headlines and tweets. I think the more important thing to look at is why diversity groups or initiatives are seen as 'additional,' and seem to be 'easy to axe' in situations like this, rather than being at the core of a company (I do get that this is easier said than done especially when a company is already established.) But like - hire the people that you're telling stories for and about for all the roles- not just for a separate role of 'diversity and inclusion coordinator' or whatever, but in your core jobs at each level of the business!!! The exec team, the writers, the PR people, the developers! That way, when you need to make layoffs, you aren't going to be getting rid of some of the most important voices you've got, because you (hopefully) have representatives at every level of the business!!
Liv and I probs spoke about this in a much more concise way on this week's episode of Culture Vulture (out tomorrow) but I just wanted to put it here too!!
The Search for an Extremely Online Therapist
Just a good piece about trying to find a therapist that gets the memes.
'The Great Replacement' & the shooting in Buffalo, explained
New Episode of The Shit Show — open.spotify.com
A big episode of the show this week! We give you all the context and details you need on the latest mass shooting in America, discuss the symbolism behind McDonalds leaving Russia, North Korea's latest covid updates, and introduce you to the duck who ran a marathon.
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How do you pronounce heirloom?
91% say the H is silent
9% say the H (including Evie who inspired this poll)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
What TikTok’s obsession with nepotism babies says about class (The Face)
The Illuminati, Explained (Culture Vulture)
Making Sense Of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard (Culture Vulture)