I Highly Recommend

I told myself I was going to blog more, and well, I intend to do that. As we continue to deal with the new normal that is life during a pandemic, I thought I might share with you a few of the things that I like that you might like too. None of these are particularly new, so maybe you know all about them.

BOOK

I have a goal to read 12 books this year. I am doing ok on that, just a little behind. One of the books that I read recently and give my highest recommendation is called Factfulness by Hans Rosling. It is really easy to feel like the world seems terrible right now. But according to Dr. Rosling and his data, life is better than it has ever been.

"It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn't mean there aren't real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most."



SHOW

I have heard that in uncertain times people revert to comfortable things, things that are familiar in our choices. I have been rewatching a show that I love, but I'm not sure other people have seen, it's called Justified, and it is available on Hulu. Justified is the story of US Marshal Raylan Givens. Raylan is transferred home to Kentucky and thrown back into a world he tried to get away from. The show has great characters, stories, and dialogue. Give it a few episodes.



PODCAST

You may know that my favorite author and cultural commentator is Chuck Klosterman. When he tweeted this, I took notice.

WIND OF CHANGE is the most interesting podcast I’ve ever listened to.

— Chuck Klosterman (@CKlosterman) May 16, 2020

And you know what... I think he is right. It sounds crazy at first, but what if the CIA helped write a rock song that helped usher in the end of the Cold War. That is the premise of Wind of Change. I have always enjoyed the song, and this makes it all the better. You'll be whistling along for sure.

I encourage you to go to 4:15 and listen to a letter from a former CIA operative. It gave me goosebumps.

WEBSITE
And my final recommendation is a website called https://genius.com/. Do you ever listen to songs and wonder what the lyrics mean? You can look up just about every song, and there are annotated lyrics that you can follow along with. I enjoy it thoroughly.

So there you go. My recommendations. Let me know if you have any recommendations.