Year: 2025

Crip tips for planet earth

Getting weepy about Violet Affleck pointing out that Planet Earth experiences post-exertion malaise, and people with ME/CFS know the hard truths about how to deal with that.

Because pwME know that a crash is unpredictable and impossible to reverse, the goal of pacing is to not encounter the symptoms at all. Success is measured not by a fast and furious response at the moment of crisis but by the absence of a need for intervention. But US society, like a new pwME still unfamiliar with the costs of PEM, is staring down a cycle of “crashes” from which we won’t be able to easily return

Quirks and Quarks for Long Covid Awareness Day

Huge shout out to Bob McDonald for asking David Putrino all the good naive questions about covid on mainstream public radio. Starts at 19:30 or scroll down to that section.

Quirks & Quarks Mar 15: The silent, long-term effects of COVID, and more…

“Wow is that nervous system damage permanent?”

“What is special about covid that allows it to spread through the body, when we think of it infecting the lungs?”

“If covid has the ability to suppress the immune system, how does that affect our ability to fight off other pathogens?”

“What about people who think since they are living a healthy lifestyle, covid isn’t really a worry for them?”

“How far do you think this might go towards explaining the huge spike in excess deaths?”

And the biggie:

“What should we do with all this information, now that most people think the threat of covid is gone?”

I’m pretty into this framing of “new information about silent health damage from every covid infection”, even though it is not new or very silent. I hope it helps some covid deniers rejoin the evidence-based world. Nice one, Quirks and Quarks.

Enemy Feminisms

Ahhh I knew I would love this latest Death Panel podcast with Sophie Lewis talking about their book Enemy Feminisms but it’s so so fun.

I appreciate Sophie Lewis for being willing to take things to their logical conclusion. If there are all these historical examples of feminists collaborating with fascist groups (cops, kkk, imperialists, nazis, alt-right transphobes…) why can’t we describe those forms of feminism as fascist?

Is there a book award for best book titles? I would nominate Sophie Lewis for lifetime achievement. (Enemy Feminisms, Full Surrogacy Now, Abolish the Family…)

Bespoke audiobook narration

Every now and then an audiobook has a feature I didn’t know I needed. This morning I am listening to a chapter about (political) organizing with a chronic illness, and you can hear the author-narrator yawning as she gets through it. Big love from this reader who is also too tired today.

Book is Overcoming Burnout, by Nicole Rose, done as a free private podcast feed. (Nicole is a herbalist I admire, who also wrote The Prisoner’s Herbal, and Herbalism and State Violence.)

Grieve, ground, imagine, strategize

For anybody who needs support to stop spiralling these days, here is my current favourite active meditation practice for lefties. Kristianna Smith aka Mocha Einstein offers “Grieve, Ground, Imagine, Strategize”. Gently redirect that anxiety spiral into forward momentum.

I appreciate that you can do longer or shorter versions of this. I appreciate that it is oriented towards organizing and strategizing, without ignoring or bottling up the pain and grief. Organizing and strategizing are so good for mental and community health! But skipping over grief leads to bad organizing. The combo is much better.

I appreciate having a structured, somatic activity to move through a little bit of grief at a time. Keep things moving. I appreciate having directions for moving forward instead of spiraling. It is much easier to do “something else” rather than “stop”.

Not sure Kristianna would call themself a witch, but this is also some really solid time magic for any interested witches.