|
|
|
|
The other day, for no good reason, my husband and I were both stressed and irritable as we sat down to dinner. We were having trouble shaking the workday, until we decided to go around the table and all say one thing that was good about our days. It shifted the whole mood of the meal, which we followed with a fun joint baby bubble bath.
And, so, today, I'm doing that again. In no particular order, here are some things I've recently been grateful for:
Ramy. I just started watching this show on Hulu and it's great and I'm sad it took me so long to check it out! Friend of our show Mahershala Ali is also a fan.
|
|
|
Dairy Queen birthday cakes. The little crunch between the layers of ice cream? YUM. (Here is executive producer Katie Bishop recently enjoying her DQ birthday here in Wyoming.)
|
|
|
Live radio. I got to join the public radio show 1A on Monday to talk about our episodes on alcohol and it was a reminder of how intensely personal you can get on air. Host Joshua Johnson is wonderfully human, and Anne from Albany was clear and generous with her story at 13:30 about her mother's death from alcohol abuse.
Archival radio. The Fresh Air episode last week that pulled together three separate conversations between Toni Morrison and Terry Gross was captivating. Check it out here, and then dig into the newly organized Fresh Air archives for when you're really ready to go down a rabbit hole!
|
|
Mountain streams. I love the ice cold-ness of them that makes you feel so alive and like your feet are going to break/burn off/shut down.
|
|
|
Weeknight cookouts in August. No better way to feel like you're really doing summer right than gathering with friends on a soon-to-be school night.
—Anna and the Death, Sex & Money team
|
|
|
This Week on Death, Sex & Money
|
|
|
While we were working on our drinking episode, lots of you told us that even when you're trying to drink a little less, the urge to reach for that bottle or mix that cocktail can be overwhelming. So we asked you: when you're craving a drink, but trying to stave off alcohol, what do you do instead? This week, we share some of your alternatives to drinking in a special audio extra.
And over on Instagram, we're also sharing photos of what you do to "surf the urge" when the desire to drink hits—like the one above from a listener named Brandon. He told us that he's taken up home improvement projects, like reupholstering chairs, to keep himself busy instead of have a drink. See more of those over on our Instagram page, and send your own in, to deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. We might post it!
|
|
|
Your Responses: A Wake-Up Call
|
|
|
Some of you told us that our episode about drinking inspired you to think more carefully about how, when and why you drink. This listener wrote to us to say that the episode was a wake-up call for her, too— even though she's not a drinker:
|
|
"I was moved to hear people describe their challenges with drinking, and found myself reacting with, 'Glad that's not something I deal with.' After some reflection, I realized my feelings with weed use correspond to what the listeners were expressing with alcohol.
I started smoking weed at 15 (I'm 23 now). Between then and now, I've only been sober about 70 days in total— a couple of weeks here and there when I was traveling and didn't have access, along with a month I had to abstain to pass a drug test.
For some reason, I feel the need to be the 'successful stoner that proves them wrong.' I graduated from a top university with highest honors, while being high in class nearly every day one of those years. I hold a stable job, and successfully limit weed smoking to after work hours only. Well— more like, from the second I get home to the moment before I go to sleep.
I'm a very creative person, and have lots of projects I'd love to start, but weed makes me avoid all that I enjoy, friends and family included. Despite this, I can't seem to stop using it. I'm very pro-legalization, but it's frustrating to feel like I can't express this struggle. Or, worse, that talking about this gives fodder to the other side, so I shouldn't express it at all. I'm dismissed with 'weed isn't addictive' (despite research that says the opposite).
About 30 minutes ago I took my last hit of weed for...I don't know, a while? I fear insomnia tonight, the night sweats, the nightmares— things that often happen the first week off. But I'm trying to have courage, and turn to mindful techniques instead. I wrote a journal entry on the reasons why I'm quitting about half an hour ago.
And now I'm writing this e-mail to your team for a bit of existential external accountability."
—Mia, 23, GA
|
|
Listen to This: Audio We Love
|
|
This week, we got a tip for a drinking alternative that also happens to be a podcast recommendation! A listener who asked to go by Rebecca, who's 26 and lives in Boston, told us that she loves listening to the show Recovery Elevator, which features interviews with people in different stages of recovery. "I really like it because it keeps me occupied," Rebecca told us. "I figure that every minute I spend listening to this podcast is a minute that I'm not drinking!" She said she hopes that maybe some of you will like it, too.
Living #Ferguson: 5 Years After the Killing of Michael Brown Jr. is a new project launched by St. Louis Public Radio, to mark the five-year anniversary of the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, MO. The shooting fueled the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement and prompted dialogue about systemic racism in St. Louis and beyond. Living #Ferguson is an interactive audio project featuring photographs and conversations with Ferguson residents (including Michael Brown's dad) about how their community has (and hasn't) changed since 2014.
|
|
Don't forget to show us what you do instead of drink!
Dancing around your kitchen? Walking your dog? Send a photo of your drinking alternative to deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. You might see it on our Instagram!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
