Hey there,

Some housekeeping: Next week, I'm going to be switching this newsletter from Mailchimp to Substack. You don't need to do anything, but if, for some reason, you don't see this email next week, check your spam or promotion tab, or go directly to my Substack site here.

What a week. I hope you are safe and healthy and that we can hold the tragedy and the triumph of this week at the same moment. Georgia elected a Black preacher and a Jewish man as senators. On that same day, white supremacists and neo-nazis attacked the Capitol. There's a common tendency to want to respond with "This is not who we are. This is not what America is." But, as Andrew Marantz writes so eloquently, this is who we are. He's been covering and reporting on the extremists openly advocating for this kind of action on social media for years. 

It's only by acknowledging that white supremacist violence and terrorism is nothing new in America that we can attempt to fix anything. James Baldwin wrote that “not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Or as comedian Ziwe put it on Twitter, "fun fact: the majority of southerners who fought and died during the civil war couldn’t even afford slaves, they were just convinced by white aristocracy that black liberation would negatively effect them if this sounds familiar well then idk girl history has like 9 themes."

Upcoming Shows

How to Be a Better Human - This is a new weekly podcast from TED that I'm hosting. The show launches this Monday (1/11) and our feed is live now wherever you get podcasts. Links here for Apple or Spotify

You're the Expert - You can find all past episodes online or our latest video episode about a remote Canadian lake full of birth control is here.  

Social Media - After a long mental health pause on posting, I'm back on Instagram and my favorite of all social networks, LinkedIn.

This week's list

GREAT:
Julio Torres has the clearest and most distinctive aesthetic of any comedian I know. Los Espookys, the HBO show he co-created and co-stars in with Ana Fabrega, is must watch TV. Julio's SNL sketches are legendary (like Wells for Boys, Papyrus, or Diego Calls His Mom). And his standup makes me laugh so much. His special, My Favorite Shapes, is probably the most creative standup hour I've ever seen. Every time I pour a glass of water, I think of Julio's impression of a Brita filter. "Do not rush me! The water will be ready when it's ready." As with everything he does, this Architectural Digest tour of Julio's apartment is full of great visuals and laugh out loud jokes. Julio Torres’s Brooklyn Apartment Is Filled With Futuristic Furniture


FUNNY:
I'm launching a new podcast this week. And I've hosted one podcast or another for the entire time I've done comedy professionally. So let me just say that this impression by Jonathan Ogden of the meaningless host chatter that fills most audio is so spot on. It cut me to my core. It's also hilarious. Podcasters saying literally nothing for 20 minutes 


INTERESTING:
Katie Okamoto is a brilliant writer and journalist. She's written for The Atlantic, Bon Appétit, Newsweek, and is currently at work on a memoir. Katie manages to take big emotional and cultural forces and examine them through small objects, meals, routines, or gestures. She's able to pull the profound out of the ordinary in a way that no other writer I know can. Her most recent piece is about a particular brand of dish scrubbing brush from Japan. But really it's about culture and desire and how we create our identity around certain objects and the unreliability of our memories. It's beautiful. And it also definitely makes me want to buy that scrub brush. An Ode to the Kamenoko Tawashi, the Turtle Brush


That's it for this week. Thanks for reading! If you're enjoying these emails, please forward to a friend or spread the word. If someone forwarded you this email but you're not yet on the list, you can sign up on Substack here. 

Stay safe and be well,
Chris