Finer Things
Summer weekend readings, recipes, and travel plans.
Laikipia, Kenya
Happy Friday, readers! Here are some readings, recipes, and listens to start your weekend off right.
Fine Reads (from around the internet)
The Invention of the Male Gaze, by Lauren Michele Jackson in the New Yorker
The Struggle to Care for Patients When No One Knows What’s Legal, by friend of the newsletter Abigail Higgins in Lux Magazine.
Some Anorexia Patients Want the Right to Die. A Few Doctors Are Willing to Listen, by Carrie Arnold in the Guardian.
The Vanishing Family, by Robert Kolker in the New York Times Magazine.
Fine Reads (that you might have missed from me):
“Wellness” culture has replaced beauty culture. But I’m suspicious. Let’s guard against new versions of the demand that women work to be hyper-attractive while pretending it’s no work at all. (the Guardian)
Musicians like Jason Aldean love to glorify ‘small-town’ America. It’s embarrassing. America’s cities are often safer and more diverse. Perhaps that’s why Aldean, who claims to despise big-city values, lives in one? (the Guardian)
The Boring Truth Behind “Lazy-Girl” Jobs. (CNN)
The Southern Border is a National Shame. (CNN)
Girl Bond Summer: Taylor, Barbie, and the Ecstatic Power of Collective Joy. (Substack)
Texas Banned Abortion. More Babies Died. Infant mortality in Texas was dropping for nearly a decade -- until 2021, the year the state criminalized abortion. (Substack)
Conservative Attorneys General Want Your Private Reproductive Health Information. It's so they can prosecute abortions. (Substack)
Travel is Beautiful. And travel is also political. (Substack)
Only in America. "Family annihilators" show how conservative America's fetish for guns and patriarchy turns deadly. (Substack)
The Girls Are Not Ok. What a teenage mental health decline can teach all of us (Substack)
An Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill is Here. Where’s the Pro-Life Movement? The anti-abortion movement is curiously uninterested in preventing abortions. (Substack)
You Are Not the Main Character. Jonah Hill, boundaries, and learning how to be a person in the world. (Substack)
Fine Foods
I love a good pasta salad, but have you tried rice salad? This one by friend of the newsletter Colu Henry is an absolute delight, and all I want to do is snack on it while sipping a spritz on a porch.
I recently moved, and my home has a pretty terrible kitchen, so I’ve been relying on the grill for most of my summer meals. This grilled salmon with parsley sauce has turned into a weeknight go-to, and omg crispy salmon skin is the best. I’ve also used Melissa Clark’s green garlic salsa verde from this pork cutlet recipe over grilled salmon (and grilled chicken and grilled shrimp and grilled halibut and of course pork as recommended) because it’s just such a winner. I’ve never actually made it with green garlic, just a clove of regular minced garlic, and I usually add more mint, many more chili flakes, and some lemon zest because why not — and sometimes I’ll throw in dill, basil, or whatever other herbs I have sitting around. It’s also really great to mix into rice, and I always make extra so I can put it over fried eggs the next morning. Can you tell I love this sauce? I love this sauce.
Fine Tunes
Well, not exactly tunes, but podcasts: The new(ish) Slow Burn about Clarence Thomas is equal parts infuriating and captivating. Lost Hills season 3 dives into the history and impact of the Miki Dora, the Dark Prince of Malibu, and how he shaped global surf culture (fascinating!). And my absolute number-one podcast recommendation (I binged it in roughly 48 hours) is Cover Up: The Pill Plot, about how the abortion pill came to the US. And stay tuned to this newsletter, because next week I’ll publish a great Q&A with Pill Plot host T.J. Raphael. Seriously her podcast is so good.
Fine Tuning
Laikipia, Kenya
In the past few weeks I’ve been back to teaching yoga (occasionally) in a studio, which feels really, really wonderful. At some point my classes will be live-streamed and you will be able to practice with me online — I won’t spam you all with that info, but if you want it, you can sign up for yogawithjill.substack.com. I only send those newsletters out every few months, always with new announcements for classes or retreats.
And if you’re interested in attending writing + yoga retreats around the world, I’m hosting a bunch in the next year. You can find all of the info here. You do not have to be a writer or a yogi to come on these retreats, just a decent human with an open mind who wants to travel some place cool and try something new. On each retreat, there are daily writing workshops, where we work on skill-building and have interesting conversations, and I work with you one-on-one to edit and polish a piece you’re working on (or just chat about career / life / anything).
Here is the basic rundown of retreats in fall 2023 and spring 2024:
Lamu, Kenya. You are not expected to do a single handstand on any retreat, this is just one of the beautiful houses we stay in.
September 11-17, 2023: Tuscany! Yoga + Writing with me and my friend and teacher Emily Shapiro on a woman-owned organic farm. Eat all the pasta, ride your bike to the beach, bask under the Tuscan sun.
October 13-22, 2023: South Africa! Yoga + Storytelling on an epic adventure across the country, with me and National Geographic photographer Nichole Sobecki. Explore the rich history of Cape Town, wine taste across the Cape Winelands, visit a cheetah sanctuary, then set out on safari at a private camp.
March 2024: Kenya! Yoga + Storytelling with me and Nat Geo photographer Nichole Sobecki. We’ll see baby elephants and eat amazing food in Nairobi, travel to a magical little fishing village on the coast, and safari our heats out. We’re finalizing dates and details this week, and all will be announced at Yoga With Jill soon.
June 1-6, 2024: Scotland! This retreat has already sold out(!) but if you want to get on the waitlist, lemme know.
June 9-15, 2024: Morocco! We’ll spend a week in a beautiful Moroccan fishing village (I have a thing for fishing villages). There will be surf and yoga and day trips to a cool nearby city and some sand dunes, and I personally plan to eat all the tagine I can get my hands on.
If any of these are of interest, click the links for full information, and then reply to this email if you’d like to join us.
…and that’s it! Have a beautiful weekend, readers.
xx Jill
I am really glad you started sending Finer Things again, thank you Jill!
Thank you for including me, Jill! So pleased you like the salad! xx