On difficult subjects
Preview of this week's episode, what we're reading and friends who ski together
Talk About Emerging Form: This is image is of a project Rosemerry’s family spontaneously jumped into—picking up huge slabs of river ice from an ice floe on the San Miguel, playing with them, then lighting them up with candles later that night.
Looking Ahead
Hey friends, this Thursday, we release Episode 11: Working with emotionally difficult topics. Believe it or not, Christie and I have a lot of fun talking about the tough times. In this episode, we’ll share many techniques for working with subjects that make us uneasy—from changing perspective to creating rituals. Then we talk with Thea Deley, speaker, writer and improviser, and ask her two questions: 1) When do you know you are ready to make art out of something difficult—what is the role of perspective? And 2) How do you navigate stories that might hurt someone? We are interested in your answers to these questions, too! You can post your answers on our Emerging Form Facebook page or here on Substack. Tell us how you tackle difficult topics.
We Want Your Ideas
What subjects do you wish we would tackle on our podcast? You can leave us a message here on Substack or on our Facebook page.
What Are We Reading?
Rosemerry:
Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection—Wow, do I love this collection, edited by James Crews. If you are feeling deadened and hopeless from the news, here’s a great way to help heal your hope for humankind.
The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have—To be clear, I have been reading this book for years. Almost every day. But if you are looking for a guide to your emotionally difficult life, well, this is the ticket.
The Craft of Science Writing: Selections from The Open Notebook—Edited by Siri Carpenter and featuring a chapter introduced by Christie, this recently released collection of articles features advice and wisdom for science journalists from some of the most skillful people in the field today.
Christie:
Spirit Run: A 6,000Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez. The moving and beautifully told story of Álvarez’s crossing of North America with a Native American/First Nations movement called Peace and Dignity Journeys. His four-month run from Canada to Guatemala changes his relationship with the land in a way that only running can. But the book also explores the connections that indigenous and immigrant people have with the land and how our economic and political system tramples cultural connections. I am just a few pages from the end, and the book has taught me so many things I didn’t know I needed to learn. It has achieved what every book aspires to: it’s changed my perspective and pushed me to think in new ways.
Half Broke: A memoir by Ginger Gaffney. Just starting this one, but having grown up in New Mexico, I’m a sucker for stories set there. This book is about a horse trainer at a ranch in New Mexico where prisoners work to retrain troubled horses.
Hope you’re enjoying the podcast as much as we enjoyed racing in the Butch Cassidy Ski Chase last weekend in Telluride!