This was supposed to go out Sunday night. Sorry it’s late! More from me this week :)
May 25: Emily Sundberg dropped a Summer Novel Reading List on Feed Me — or an “optional summer-reading curriculum,” as she later called it. It’s filled with great picks. And she included my rec: A Feather on the Breath of God by Sigrid Nunez, which I read during the early summer of 2024. Read it and weep!
May 25: In an encyclical letter, Pope Leo raised concerns about AI. Notably, he called for progress to be decelerated. (I didn’t know he had it like that!!!) According to Wired, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah spoke at the event at the Vatican.
With the heart of a shepherd and a father, I ask everyone to abandon the construction of yet another Tower of Babel and to join forces in building up the common good, so that humanity will never lose its beauty, and the world once again will come to recognize the human heart as the place where God desires to dwell.
May 26: Suddenly everyone’s talking about two new horror flicks: Obsession and Backrooms. Several ~trusted sources~ are liking them. I’ll report back.
May 26: Bella Hadid was seen eating the new David Protein ice cream on a yacht in Cannes. Very 2016 Victoria’s Secret show prep energy. Dark.
May 26: Harper’s Bazaar dubbed the “The Rise of Ragebait Lit,” noting the Lena Dunham, Belle Burden, Yesteryear, Lindy West phenomena of this spring. Caro Claire Book, author of Yesteryear, responded on Instagram:
According to Chris Bustamante, who runs a “girth-enhancement clinic” called Lushful Aesthetics in midtown, the majority of his patients are average size. The men he sees, he says, are rarely seeking to enhance their performance in the bedroom. Rather, they’re simply looking to look bigger — the finance bros in the locker room, the gay guys in their Speedos on Fire Island. Both want to look as packed as Jon Hamm while walking down the street in their sweatpants.
May 27: Everlane founder and former CEO, Michael Preyslane, spoke to Puck about Everlane’s $100M sale to Shein. “I found out probably 20 minutes before the news broke from Puck,” Preyslane told Lauren Sherman. Kyle Chayka covered the deal in The New Yorker. I enjoyed how he connects the near-dissolution of so many 2010s DTC brands to the slop era we’re in now. Preyslane is using the moment to launch a new, still unnamed brand.
May 27: The Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn voted “yes” to boycotting Israeli goods.
May 28: Olivia Rodrigo addressed the babydoll dress controversy on Popcast. More on the controversy from me soon, but I was so impressed by how she handled it and I only wish more senior pop stars were as clear-eyed, self aware and well-spoken as she is.
What’s really disturbing is I feel like I have worn outfits that are revealing onstage — I’ve been onstage in a sparkly bra and little shorts. I felt cool and comfortable in that and that wasn’t inappropriate, but me fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be childlike was inappropriate. I just think it just shows how we normalize pedophilia in our culture. It’s just this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is like, don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualize your body and it’s your fault. I didn’t think that I looked sexy in that at all. I was like, this is so cool. I feel like Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love, all these people who are my heroes.
May 28: The Condé Nast and New Yorker union members who were illegally fired and suspended in November 2025 after participating in a “march on the boss” have been “vindicated as part of a substantial agreement we won today,” per the News Guild of New York. The three members were “reinstated as employees in good standing, awarded significant financial settlements totaling more than $400K, provided positive letters of reference, with all disciplinary records expunged.” And they’re not the only labor success of the week: As of the 25th, rideshare drivers for apps like Uber and Lyft have formally unionized in Massachusetts.
May 29: Dumbo residents are getting annoyed by all the tourists, food trucks, and traffic in their neighborhood, and they’re taking matters into their own hands with an 11-page petition. I recommend reading the Instagram comments for a pulse check on NYC housing morale.
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Love this!! I have a niche comment and it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. When I read (aka listened to on audible) yesteryear, i felt a “mean girl” energy coming from the writer. Now, i am highly sensitive to energy and it’s a beautiful thing for the work that I do (psychic readings) but i have done way too many psychic readings and i understand what is happening here in regards to how the book was received. Some readers are simply responding to its energy, which is why it has received some backlash. I see this happening often in people’s lives. Sometimes i have women do a spiritual read and they are completely unaware that judgment energy brings to us judgment energy. It’s a quite simple law of the universe. I thought yesteryear was clever, and I didn’t mind it, but I can feel the author had some harsh personal judgments about the topic. So that’s what’s coming through energetically. Take it or leave it. 🫶🏼