I’ve spent this week catching up with family and friends here in London, with some writing thrown in too. I know I’m lucky to be able to do so in the week that New Zealand opened up its borders further. Today, I made a pilgrimage to Hyde Park - one of my favourite places, where I learned to run far enough to start tackling marathons with Serpentine Running Club. Just walking today.
It’s local elections day here for many places in the UK - we will see what kind of signal that brings. More signals that times are tough are rampant - interest rates and the cost of living are on the rise around the world. Change keeps happening. It always will.
I’ll be chatting with people at the London Writer’s Salon early next week - you can RSVP / buy tickets here.
US Supreme Court draft majority opinion leak
The US Supreme Court is poised to strike down the right to abortion in the country, according to a leaked draft of a majority opinion that would remove nearly 50 years of constitutional protections. It’s a huge potential change that is even causing strong disagreements amongst conservatives. Here’s an article focusing on the Turnaway Study explaining how being denied an abortion had lasting negative effects on those who were forced to carry their pregnancies to term and on their children.
How are you working?
The 9 to 5 looks much more fractured these days - what does it look like for you? For many people, it’s morphed into a 9 to 2, followed by evening work, say 8 to 10, with maybe a short session snatched while waiting for the kids in the car. Here’s Emma Goldberg from the New York Times on the emergence of the triple peak day.
There’s lot’s more for paid subscribers in this edition, including:
The benefits of rejection
How cough-drops were doomed and are rising again
How we unconsciously think about money shapes how we manage it
Who’s the better navigator? A person who grew up in the city, or someone raised in rural surrounds?
Plus more tweet links and fun stuff
Please consider joining my community to help support my writing. Thanks to all my paid subscribers who already have.
The benefits of getting a ‘no’
If we are wise we can see that success comes from a long line of rejections. Sometimes, it’s hard to access that wisdom. Here’s a handy guide to the benefits of rejection, just in case you need a reframe right now.
Changing the story
Imagine unwrapping a cough sweet or lozenge over the past two years. Then imagine people stepping away from you pretty quickly. What used to be almost bullying in its tone of pushing on through your symptoms has changed to offering micro-doses of medicated relief in a crazy world. This is an interesting story on how Halls and other cough-drop firms are changing the narrative - and their packaging - to reinvent themselves for these modern times.
Listen: Internal forces and our money story
Money worries are one of the biggest sources of anxiety in our lives. Psychologist Brad Klontz says that while external economic forces often shape our financial well-being, our unconscious beliefs about money also contribute to how well we manage our money. Listen here.
Let’s settle this: Who’s the better navigator?
I feel so seen in this story. The environment in which you grew up can have a long-lasting effect on your navigational skills, according to an analysis of data from nearly 400,000 players of a mobile game. Read here to find out who did better: the city slicker vs the farmhand.
Play Yeardle
Yeardle gives you some historical events, and you have to guess the year. It then gives you extra clues and lets you know roughly how close you are as you use up your guesses.
Thanks for reading - please feel free to comment - I’d love to join you in conversation about some of these stories.