A really thoughtful case for sticking with using «pregnant women» instead of the more inclusive «pregnant people» (not everyone who is pregnant identifies as a woman). It is not your usual rant against inclusive language — quite the opposite. It manages to show the complexities of inclusive language and undesired side-effects it might have, while accepting the premise that inclusive language is, of course, desirable.

«She’d found out she had leukemia right about when I started trying to get pregnant. Her cells divided. My cells divided. Our selves divided.» A gem from pre-pandemic times. Jill Lepore’s beautiful, slow-paced reflections on friendship, on life, and death.

An essay by the London Design Museum’s chief curator. Waste is not an unfortunate byproduct, but central to everything we design — «deliberately generated as the very metabolism behind economic growth». Recognising this, he argues, is key to transforming the future.

«The ones who thrive long term are those who understand the real world is a neverending chain of absurdity, confusions, messy relationships, and imperfect people.» An essay on numbers and stories, and why numbers alone can’t be counted on.

If I asked you to name the worst year in your life, you’d probably be able to come up with a shortlist fairly quickly. But what about…the worst year ever to be a human on this planet? How do you even define that? In absolute terms? Relative to what could reasonably be expected at the time? Radiolab has answers — they make 2020 and 2021 look a bit better in comparison.

I’ve managed to read (and listen to) quite a few books this year, and would recommend most of them. If you’d like to see them all, here’s my digital bookshelf, and here’s a list with a mini-review for each. But to help you pick one or two for yourself — these are the books that got me thinking the most, and keep resonating: (more…)

One thing is clear by now: The latest SARS-CoV-2 variant makes cases skyrocket across the globe. Apart from that, we’re still piecing together what Omicron means for the weeks and months ahead. As in mid-December, for a measured and concise update, I recommend a series of tweets by The Financial Times’ John Burn-Murdoch. Clear wherever possible, with caveats wherever needed. The only way to really make sense of what’s happening.

I’m on the fence whether I think this is worthy of a recommendation. I’ve looked at it multiple times and can’t decide whether it’s useful-and-charming or mostly cheesy. I’ll let you be the judge (but by all means, don’t accept advice #17. You either load your dishwasher properly like a decent human being, or you’ve completely lost control over your life.)

An interview with a guy who got rich off cryptocurrencies is just about the most boring thing imaginable. Unless it’s not about the getting rich part, but about giving it all away again. I found this conversation between Sam Harris and Sam Bankman-Fried, mostly about effective altruism, surprisingly insightful.

New year, same old problem: The planet is heating, and we need to fix it, fast. I found this an interesting take, from the BBC’s Climate Question podcast: How can fiction — the collective narratives we create through novels and movies — help with climate action? It explores how science fiction has often used climate catastrophe as a storyline without going into what caused it. Thus the story becomes «a battle against a foe instead of a battle against our habits».