On the podcast, we have a conversation about what to do when your idealism runs smack into the news, and you feel like everything is just getting worse despite your best efforts. And Amina interviews Samantha Power about her new book, The Education of an Idealist. 

Why powerful people cast themselves as victims. Designing abortion clinics for a post-Roe world. Inside the U.S. Marshal service, which runs a vast pretrial detention system in jails and private facilities. There has been a George Soros for every era of anti-Semitic panic. How a 1961 massacre in Paris disappeared from popular history. The case for walking tours. Apparently Bach was a rebel? A history of outsiders who have made music great. Tracee Ellis Ross on hair and wellness. The appeal of astrology in the age of uncertainty. "Are we hesitant to bring new life into the world because we are more morally upright than previous generations, or because we are more selfish?" Workers are dying on Amazon's warehouse floors. "Limbic capitalism" is when spending is a reflex, an addiction. Zadie Smith on New York vs London fashion. The case for checking a bag. Getting Asian hair cut in an L.A. barbershop. A story about the power of lavender hand sanitizer. How salads became feminized. And wow, do I. Love. Bread.

Become a paying member for just $5/year to support my link-curating, pie-chart-drawing, and, this week, my extensive search for the internet's best alias generators. Subscribers see extra delightful things in this space! Today you're missing a pie chart inspired by seagulls with questionable taste.

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It's KXVO Pumpkin Dance season! Dolly Parton's America. Feeling My Flo, a new podcast about menstruation across the gender spectrum. And this haunting photo album of Nazi officers enjoying their time at Auschwitz. 

For eight years, my good friend and collaborator Lara Shipley has been working on a photo project, The Passersby, about the past and present of migration across and around the U.S.-Mexico border. She's now a finalist for a photobook prize (which is awarded based on votes from the public) and winning would enable her to publish this work.

Do me a favor: Click here and "like" this YouTube video of her project. One like = one vote.

(A note: As a general rule, I think it's annoying when awards are structured as popularity contests. But I ask you, what's the point of having a newsletter if you can't use it to help one of your oldest and dearest friends publish the project they've been working on for years??)

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Alias generators, inspired by Pierre Delecto.

My finsta name is @JacquesSnack. My pen name is Avery Cobbett. My early-aughts blogger pseudonym is TheAdamantWriter. My witch name is Gothic Craft. My Wu-Tang name is Wizard Reputable. (It's no Childish Gambino, but I like it.) My Harry Potter name is Amelia Fortescue. My Finnish tourism name is Meri Mäki. My Christmas elf name is Tickle Sparklepants. My superhero name is The Witty Wonder. My exes call me a pretentious cold-hearted assreek. I am sad to report that I don't have a Traveling Wilburys name, as the generator is no longer available. Guess that's the end of the line.

"After a lifetime of trying to figure out my mother, I'm looking for resources (film, books, podcasts, both fiction and nonfiction) that explore this complicated relationship. Would love to know what the AF readership recommends." -Jess

What media do you recommend about mother/child relationships? Click here to submit an answer.

Tomorrow is the last date of our CYG fall tour! We'll be in Washington, D.C. as part of the Bentzen Ball. If you're feeling spontaneous, you can still grab a ticket.