Early 2020 has been a season for reading about the dark corners of cults, gurus, and fundamentalist religious beliefs, and the middle of February was where it all came to a head.
reading
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (about fundamentalist Mormons and the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints generally). On a similar (though less directly violent) note, I also read the three most recent editions of my friend Tony’s newsletter Grift of the Holy Spirit, where he digs into “the weirdest, dumbest, and saddest members of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
On a less dark note, I also read A Zion Canyon Reader. I’m currently making my first pass through Alan Jacobs’s The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. I’m already planning to buy my own copy so that I can annotate it properly.
watching
Getting Clear (on scientology), Icarus (on the Russian doping scandal), and McMillion$ (on the McDonald’s Monopoly scam).
And Bob’s Burgers, always.
listening
This section is meant to be for music, but the podcast Games Studies Study Buddies is really tempting me to go back to grad school so I have a reasonable excuse to write essays about (for example) the Grunt Birthday Party cheat code in Halo 3.
food and drink
Beets. I spent literally years thinking that beets were gross and soapy because I had only ever encountered canned beets on a school salad bar. These are not the only beets! There are better beets! You can make them in your own house, and then add them to your salads, where they will shine like jewels!