After the election, I can’t do more analysis of what is going wrong or how messed up things are. All my online spaces have gotten so bleak.
The theme of this thread is, I guess you’d say inspirational stories, but I want for it to be more real than that…stories that give a sense of encouragement that change can happen.
A lot of my own interests center around women and women’s rights.
Here’s a few stories that have helped me lately.
This is about Elizabeth Packard, a woman who was put into an asylum by her husband. She went on to lead a reform movement for the rights of the mentally ill. Her life in the asylum was brutally difficult, and her husband and the doctor who oversaw the asylum had so much power over her, but it’s amazing how she used her privilege and the power of her story to change the laws and to be seen as a human worthy of respect despite being kept in an asylum for so long. Her life was one of those Life of Job lives where every time you think she’s about to get back up, she gets knocked down again, so it’s a hard core listen (I listened to the audiobook), but she still managed to do so much once she finally got out of the institutions.
Financial Feminist podcast
https://herfirst100k.com/financial-feminist-podcast/
I like this podcast in general, but specifically I just finished episode 202 “Whose Afraid of Vaginas” about research and tech innovation in women’s health. It was, yes, sad to hear how little women’s health has advanced and the challenges facing that, but also good to hear some of the new tech that is coming out. I liked the tone of the episode.
Anti Chef on YouTube
I’ve been watching a lot of this home chef who tackles challenging recipes, like Julia Child’s stuff. I like that he is getting better over the years, not only is his video production getting slicker, but he keeps upping his cooking game. Lately, in his videos, he will revisit some previous recipes as his skills are improving, and sometimes he makes the recipe several times because of errors he runs into, and it’s cool to see him go through so much effort to get better and to show the process. He’s funny and entertaining, and he cooks a lot like I do - able to get stuff done with a good recipe, but not pro-chef.