Tell me what you need (for the Easter Holidays)
Welcome to our pop culture pleasure match making extravaganza
Hi, so I want to try something special with ya’ll today!
With the Easter holidays coming up, many of us are (hopefully) looking at some blissful downtime, or maybe some time on the road while traveling to see friends and family. If you’re still looking for that perfect holiday read, a gripping road trip podcast or a comfort Netflix binge to tune out the noise – let’s get you sorted with your dream pop culture pleasure match asap.
How? In a team effort by this wonderful community. I will open the comment section for everyone and you can post a request for a recommendation, reply to a request or offer a completely unsolicited recommendation of something you loved recently.
In your requests, be as specific as possible: Are you looking for something to read? A book or a magazine feature? A podcast? Something to watch? Which genre? Do you want to laugh, cry, learn, all of the above? How much time do you have? It might also help to tell us what you have already enjoyed (or NOT enjoyed), and which publications and streaming services you are subscribed to.
I’ll go first with a request:
📺 I’m looking for the perfect follow-up show to Ted Lasso, something smart, kind and funny. I have already seen Schitt’s Creek multiple times and loved it, and started on The Good Place but that surprisingly didn’t work for me. So go on now, hit me!
And here are a handful of my unsolicited recommendations, or I guess if you’re subscribed to this newsletter they are somewhat solicited:
📝 This New Yorker feature on Mackenzie Fierceton had me in tears and up in arms at the same time. It‘s massive in size, mind blowing in its contents and simply a piece of outstanding journalism – which qualifies it as the perfect holiday read for anyone who is in the right headspace to deal with infuriating institutional injustice.
📝 This analysis also requires a certain amount of time and brain space: Why being underslept is a political injustice and not a matter of self-care: It’s a take I didn’t think I needed to read as badly as I did.
🎙 Over the past months, I have become very emotionally invested in the Girls Gotta Eat podcast. I love the candid girl talk, the interviews and witnessing two unapologetic women living their best lives. I know this is the opposite of an insider’s tipp, but I just think they’re perfect company for a long drive!
🎙 Deborah Frances-White and Hannah Gadsby are close friends and are having a conversation like close friends, on The Guilty Feminist podcast.
🎙 Brené Brown and Dan Pink explore “the power of regret” in the Dare to Lead podcast and I found it incredibly insightful.
📝 More psychology: Apparently, venting doesn’t work? It only makes you more resentful? Well, then what now, Slate?
🇩🇪 In eigener Sache: Wir haben eine neue Episode unseres Windmacher-Podcasts veröffentlicht, die filmreife Geschichte rund um den Hochstapler Hendrik Holt geht nun in die achte Runde. Wenn ihr den Podcast oder mich oder uns beide mögt, oder einfach nur Karma-Punkte sammeln wollt, dann freue ich mich außerdem über eure Stimme beim Deutschen Podcast Preis.
Alrighty, your turn! I can’t wait to see all your recs and requests in the comments and I’ll make sure to help where I can.
Until next time,
Inwards/Onwards #6
Play the hand you've been dealt
“[…] When I think about my personal summer of sadness, it’s like I’m remembering scenes from a movie I have watched a million times. I know every dialogue, I know which parts make me cry, I have compassion for the woman I see on screen, but I just cannot recognize myself in her.
It feels like I have been on this crazy shapeshifting joyride for the past eight to twelve years. I have tried on different identities and interests like dresses, and only few of them have turned into wardrobe staples. Most were packed away after a season or two.”
This is an extract from the latest issue of Inwards/Onwards, the bi-weekly essay series for paying subscribers of the Verve Letter. You can unlock access to this issue, the entire archive and all the ones to follow by upgrading your subscription today.
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As the times are really difficult right now, I love to watch TV series that are not complicated and also comforting with a simple, straight forward plot. Typical RomComs i.e. But I have a huge problem there: Many Rom Coms or "funny TV Series" (all of them that i know, except Fleabag of course <3) are really sexist and full of gender stereotype bullshit and toxic relationships. And then I get angry watching them. So I am looking for nice, funny, warm TV series or movies about love that do not offend feminists ;-)
This is perfect timing! I really want to get into reading again. I have been struggling to concentrate and recently finished „Nachtbeeren“ by Elina Penner (which I loved) and „Butter“ by Asako Yuzuki (loved it too). Both soaked me in and I was able to really follow the story. And both books have amazing covers as well (which I kind of think is important).
I love Podcasts. I really enjoy „maintenance phase“ a podcast debunking health& wellness myths - so anything science but fun.
Also I have been travelling and was looking for a good magazine at a german kiosk. Any hidden gems?
The last thing Iam looking for is instagram accounts, magazines, series of interior design.
This is wonderful @verveletter, thank you!