LISTENING

I got sick recently and during a 24-hour lay in bed sleep/wake cycle I binge-listened to my new favorite podcast: Wolf 359. I quickly fell in love with this podcast after hearing about it through another of my faves, Ars Parodoxica. Wolf 359 is about a crew on a small space station orbiting a red-dwarf star 7+ light years from Earth. Weird things begin happening. It’s part Odd Couple, part Solaris. The show features an extremely small cast, unlike Ars Parodoxica, but still manages to do interesting things narratively, running the gamut from comedy to heart-wrenching drama. 10/10 would highly recommend to my audiofiction and my sci-fi friends.

 

WATCHING

The Handmaid’s Tale. OBVIOUSLY YOU SHOULD WATCH THIS SHOW IMMEDIATELY. If it doesn’t win every Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and every other award possible then I really don’t understand the universe. The ensemble cast is EXCELLENT, helmed by one of the most underrated actresses of all time – Elisabeth Moss. The visuals are stunning due to the creative genius of cinematographer turned director Reed Morano. I read the book several years ago and the adaptation is – dare I say – better than the book.

The book is great, but there’s something about seeing the world and seeing how it appears so much like ours in some respects but is so much worse that is haunting. Additionally, the adaptation explores more of the backstory around the transition from USA to Gilead. Plus, since it’s a series, we see more of the lives of the other characters and this is the sort of fleshing out of world-building that I love. Honestly, it’s just amazing and you should watch it and read the book.

 

READING

Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren. I’d started this in the late summer / early fall, but it just wasn’t clicking for me. Recently I picked it up again and all of a sudden I can barely put it down. I’m not sure what’s changed. I think I’m in desperate need of some of the wonderful metaphors and aphorisms Jahren writes in her memoir about being a lab girl (aka highly regarded female geobiologist). I love metaphors drawn from science and so I really like these metaphors. Would highly recommend to anyone! Literally anyone! You don’t have to be a woman. You don’t have to be a scientist. You should probably at least be mildly interested in nature. And be interested in reading some beautiful metaphors about going through mental/emotional struggle. Regardless of who you are, I recommend this book to you!