125 Comments
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me, myself, & irena's avatar

This is truly amazing! Thank you so much for creating this list. I can only imagine how much time and effort this took. It’s not unnoticed and it’s extremely appreciated!

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Mapu's avatar

thank you so much this means the world 🥹

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Kane Cooper's avatar

I love this, and am keen to pick through some of the ones I’m less familiar with. Discovering new stuff is fun and I’m really grateful to have discovered your Substack.

I have a question, which is how do you filter what you decide to read/listen to watch without getting overwhelmed? Whenever I’m on any of these sites I find myself wanting to read everything, then rushing through it all without taking it in, and then getting burnout and ignoring this part of my life for months on end ad infinitum

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Mapu's avatar

Thank you Kane for the kind words! I totally understand how you’re feeling as it is something I find myself struggling with at times as well, so here are some of the ways I have been able to manage it.

First I diversify what I consume, so I know every week I usually will read at least 3 essays/articles, 2 substack posts, 1 video, and 1 podcast. This leaves me to check off one piece of long form media per day of the week. Some times it’s more depending on what is going on in my life at the moment but I try my best to not over do it because when I do, I find that I stop reflecting on them and forming my own thoughts and opinions on them.

Another thing I do is I generally seek out pieces regarding topics or themes I am particularly interested by at the moment. I noticed that throughout my life there are things that seem to take a forefront in my interests, it could be because of personal circumstances, books I’m reading or just general current events. Holding on to this thread not only provides a guide but also a deeper understanding and ability to make connections with other topics I have explored previously.

Linking this to what I said previously, whenever you have the time or the “itch” to consume a lot of media, doing deep dives is so so fun as you jump from reference to reference and internalize whatever topic you’re researching significantly better.

Finally, knowing that there is always time is really important. Even though some times I feel like I want to read absolutely everything that I find, I know it is not realistic or sustainable. Bookmarking and saving things has been a total game changer (Arca is really useful for this), whether I just leave some tabs open for later or add videos to my watch later folder on youtube, I always know that there is no rush as there are always pieces waiting for me.

Hope you found this useful and thank you so much for reading 🌟🌟🌟

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Kane Cooper's avatar

Wow okay thank you so much for the very thorough reply. What an absolute diamond. This is really helpful and I’ll take some time to digest and start putting into practice. Extremely useful, and much appreciated ❤️

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opiaaa_99's avatar

I also highly recommend The Marginalian by Maria Popova. It's a newsletter covering wide array of topics from arts, philosophy, writing, culture and many more. Her articles are just the embodiment of passion and grit for writing and arts. From what I can remember, she is also working alone in maintaining the newsletter which makes it exponentially impressive. To arts, I also recommend reading through Art's and Culture by Google! Almost everything that you need to know about arts are situated there, and I really like their interface.

Overall, this was such a prolific lists! I admire your thirst for knowledge to have reach this kind of list. I owe you a ton for my brain picks 🤗

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Mapu's avatar

I adore The Marginalian !!! I remember in high school I used to use the Art’s and Culture site by google sooo much but I completely forgot about it until I read your comment, will definitely dive back into it and thank you for the reminder <3

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giovana's avatar

I am sooooo impressed by Arts and Culture by Google. Thanks!

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Josip Dečur's avatar

This is so useful, great list. If you're into video essays on anything film related, I'd like to recommend CinemaStix on youtube. He makes great content on a diverse set of topics ranging from acting and directing to cinematography and sound design, and it's always interesting to see which film he covers next. I've learned a lot from him about things I never really even thought about before, highly recommend.

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Mapu's avatar

sounds super interesting, will for sure check it out thank you !!!

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Mirko's avatar
2dEdited

Such a great list!!

Adding WaterBear (.com or app) for the Nature & Systems category. A 100% free platform leveraging storytelling for inspiration and education, and

action to create collective impact at scale.

Go check it out!

www.waterbear.com

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caitlin's avatar

Such a detailed list omg! Let's Talk about Myths Baby is a long time fave so I'll be sure to check out some of the rest of these recommendations

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Mapu's avatar

hope you found some fun things to add to your rotation :)

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Clara Brown's avatar

Ologies by Alie Ward is also a fantastic podcast about a bunch of different science themed things! Would definitely recommend to any curious folks!

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Mapu's avatar

sounds super interesting, will definitely check it out !!!

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Shiana's avatar

This is amazing!

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girl with the bird tattoo's avatar

so helpful! thank youuuuuu <3

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junkee's avatar

love love love this!!

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Juno's avatar

This is such a great list!! You should get paid for this omg

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Roshel Anton's avatar

Love this! I needed it, thank you!

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Thalia's avatar

omg thanks! 🫶🏻✨

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BionicMan's avatar

Thanks for compiling this so diligently. Could you also share how you deduce their independency from main stream? Reason being, I want to see if I can use the same methodology against what I am consuming.

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Mapu's avatar

thank you for reading !! my best tip for you is whenever you find a new publication make sure to do a bit of research on it, usually just going to their about page or a quick google search tells me everything I need to know. Some times it also happens to be through trial and error, I may come across a piece whose arguments seem a bit skewed and I then realize they are backed by large corporations whose values don’t necessarily align with mine. Hope this answered your question :)

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Lindsey Layton's avatar

What a great list. Saving these and can’t wait to come back to them. I’ve downloaded most of the podcast episodes!

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Mapu's avatar

hope you enjoy them as much as I did :)

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Monika's avatar

Just WOW. Thanks so much for putting this together - the effort&time… simply incredible. Thank you

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