30.03.25 media roundup
Notes on motherhood, community, meditation, loss, and more.
This is the first installment of my weekly round up of the media I consumed instead of doomscrolling. This started as a series on my TikTok and since so many of you were asking, I decided to make a newsletter out of it! I am beyond excited to embark on this journey and to be able to continue building a community where we are working together towards more mindful media consumption <3 Hope you enjoy!
Video essay discussing the devaluation of motherhood through different feminist perspectives and how we can give mothers the respect they deserve without promoting restrictive gender roles.
I found this video essay while I was reflecting on the discourse that is going on regarding Chappell Roan’s comments on motherhood on the Call Her Daddy podcast, and how all of her friends that are parents seem to be miserable. Furthermore, my current read (Abyss by Pilar Quintana) deals with a complex mother-daughter dynamic in which there is a very raw depiction of mental illness linked to the realities of the societal pressure on women to have children.
In this video, Olivia provides a beautifully well-rounded view of the inner-workings of the relationship between motherhood and identity, and ultimately, the direct link of these to the value of women existing in a patriarchal society. She does an incredible job at breaking down these concepts that I mentioned previously, creating space for criticism of the system which women have been forced to navigate.
Substack post arguing that creating a “village” among friends is essential to fight back the current social discourse of the hyper-individualistic take on protecting our peace.
This has been a reoccurring topic among my friends lately, especially as most of us live half the way across the world from our families. We have been reflecting, more specifically, on how we were raised in places where community is the foundation of life and how moving a way has shown us the contrast between our childhoods and life among people of our generation.
This goes back to a great part of Gen Z prioritizing comfort and convenience over having a willingness to be uncomfortable at times for the sake of other people’s wellbeing. Friends, especially as we grow older and grow as people, are such an essential part of the safety net that we build to navigate the calamities of life.
User Behaviour on Aeon
Essay exploring the idea of regulating the internet as it can be understood as an addictive stimulus-response cycle, seen through the lens of B F Skinner’s experiments.
I see first hand how addictive the internet is, that is why I am building this community in the first place. I found it quite funny and somehow pathetic how similar we behave to these hungry and desperate pigeons banging and banging on a plexiglass, full of a perpetual, insatiable hunger for more.
As a chronically online person and avid social media user, I think some of the ideas proposed in the essay are definitely interesting. However, it is deeply unrealistic as these measures are not for the benefit of the corporations that run these addictive platforms. The idea of creating more tools for users to self-regulate, though, I find to be a more realistic fix to the issue at hand. I still think it would act as more of a band-aid than anything else, but at least creating more effective regulatory options will create the choice for users to gain some control back.
Podcast Featuring Dr. Dorsa Amir, an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, where she proposes possible “pathways” by which culture might shape cognition.
This was such a brilliant breakdown of the impact of culture on cognition. It dives into the subjectivity of what culture is, identifying the gaps that exist in the current academic landscape and proposing new frameworks that could potentially fill these gaps.
What I found particularly interesting is how our understanding of the world seen through our cognitive processes varies wildly depending on our environment. I believe this is one of the great joys of existing in multicultural environments. It allows us to imagine and challenge our own bounds of reality and perception. I feel so lucky to have been able to interact with so many people from so many different backgrounds throughout my life, as it has allowed me to experience this phenomenon first-hand.
The Power of Absence: How Loss Can Help Fuel a Creative Life on Lit Hub
Essay exploring the experience of loss and absence as a propelling force that creates space to channel creative energy.
Lately, I have been really exploring and tapping into my creative energy, allowing myself to create and to connect. While I was reading this essay, something clicked about this process that I have been going through. I have been able to unlock all of this pent-up energy because of the mere fact that I am finally grieving past losses and transmuting my pain.
This isn’t only about losing people; I believe it's about losing parts of one's identity, losing connections, missing places that no longer exist and futures that will never happen. The agitation and the void felt when dealing with uncertainty is what ultimately creates room for discovery.
Video of excerpts from the doc “Meditation, Creativity, Peace.” in which the late director David Lynch explains transcendental meditation and consciousness.
This video was recommended to me by a friend during a philosophical conversation where we gather with a group of people a couple of times a month to discuss some very important questions. In that night’s session, the question was “what is love?”. The dynamic was to write down our thoughts and pass the paper around every few minutes to collaborate on our answers. In my paper I drew a pyramid in which love was the foundation and the essence of life.
Once I handed my paper over to her, she told me my perspective reminded her of this video, and after watching it, I have to say I agree. This resonated with me on so many levels, I won’t delve into it too much, but I think everyone can take something away from David’s wise words.
Patriarchal Bargains on The New York Review of Books
Essay revisiting Andrea Dworkin’s work as it remains relevant in contemporary society, more specifically, regarding right-wing women’s illusion of their position in the patriarchy.
I have always struggled with the idea of some women not considering themselves feminists. Leaving out the specifics of the branches and politics behind the ideology, upholding the system that is actively oppressing you is quite disheartening.
This essay does a great job at exploring this phenomenon through the lens of the controversial radical feminist Andrea Dworkin. I also think it is important to highlight how the author manages to navigate Dworkin’s perspective with nuance, where she understands where her views and opinions may have been wrong and problematic while comprehending the importance and relevancy of the central ideas she advocated for throughout her life.