Traditionally, the term "narco-terrorism" has been used to describe people trafficking drugs to fund terrorist activities. The drugs were only a means to an end. I am not sure if the Administration is using it that way and is implying that Venezuela is planning terrorist attacks on the US, or if they are doing their usual thing of playing fast and loose with their words.
@Beth Silvers -- I (at age 57) watched KPop Demon Hunters all by myself one Saturday. My Girl Scout girls had come in talking and singing and I thought I'd better try to keep up with what they were so obsessed with! I'm happy to tell anyone -- I enjoyed it. And I loved being able to bring up some of the lessons from it the next time the girls were talking about it!
On empathy… I care so much about who is being hurt by all of this chaos and devastated by some in my (former) religious community’s mental gymnastics around supporting this administration’s actions. And yet, when charities contact me with requests for money for yet another group in need, I feel exhausted and like I’m reaching a saturation point - Which sounds terrible. I definitely keep going back to “why do we have to convince you to care about people?”
I’m horrified about the bombings of the boats and killing people! And I also wonder what the truth is. Is there so much to care about that people get overwhelmed and instead, just ignore everything?
I have a number of Christians in my feeds doing the mental gymnastics around toxic empathy that I just find exhausting and weird. I think it's part of the ongoing mismatch between helping and enabling, but I also think two things:
1. This is related to the death of expertise. Someone's "lived experience" can now trump factual expertise.
2. It's fine if you don't want to be part of a solution, but for the love, just say so instead of throwing your religion under the bus. Or just define your religion accurately.
What infuriates me more than anything since Trump’s first election campaign is how ‘christian’ people use their ‘faith’ to support him. JD Vance’s layers of who we care about -family, community, country, then the world - is BS. To quote the Bible they love to selectively ignore, “who is my neighbor?” (the Good Samaritan story)
Also, I think the boat bombings don’t bubble up because frankly, a whole lot of US Americans really don’t care what happens out there. It has to impact them personally before they will care.
I'm looking back through my book list and realizing that while I enjoyed a lot of what I read, none of them stand out as much as the Wild Robot and One and Only series I read with my 6 year old. This was the year we really started reading chapter books together and it has just been so, so good. He and I both really got into the stories and continue to talk about them. I'm forever blown away at how many small details he can pick up. It's just the best.
I also really liked What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Ayoama, Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin, Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson, and the Gillian McAllister mysteries I listened to. I'm no good at naming what it is I love about a book, so that's all I have to say about it, lol.
Oh, and I really enjoyed the FX show "Alien: Earth"! The cast was fantastic (Sydney Chandler was a delightful surprise), and I absolutely loved the references to Peter Pan and Wendy.
Also loving Sugar on AppleTV. It's a real treat to see Colin Farrell in another TV series; we were blown away by his work in The Penguin last year.
Listening with my husband to "I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom," a Gen Z road trip to DC as we were moving across the country to the DC area. Pargin deftly explores the isolation of our modern world and how it affects young men and women while being just as bonkers as he always is in his novels. Fun and thought-provoking.
Reading and discussing "A Room with a View" in a diy pilgrimage with pilgrims I met through Common Ground pilgrimages three years ago. Y'all, try to go on one of these literary retreats! You just might make some of the best friends of your life and find yourself navigating a foreign country with them several years later. One of the best travel experiences of my life.
Reading and discussing books and a TV show (Crazy Ex-girlfriend) within an intentional practice and community at regular Zoom meetings throughout the year.
My best experiences of art and media this year have been within community. I'm an only child who has always valued her solitude, but this year every movie, show, and book has been made better by experiencing it alongside other people. I think that may be why I had a problem with the "worst list" exercise: I really didn't want to sully my group experiences by complaining. I still don't like "The Great Gatsby," but I gained so much by discussing it with other pilgrims and friends. And sometimes the things we dislike give us the most to talk about - more bang for our bucks!
Common Ground is doing a pilgrimage with A Room With a View and it's soooooo tempting, but I just can't spend that much on travel in 2026. I love that book (and film)!!!!
We did our diy pilgrimage for about $1k per person, not including flights. It was in the Italian Alps instead of Florence, but otherwise worked out very well. It helped that one of the group lives in Italy and vacations in the area every summer, and that we all know each other well enough now to see rooming together as a blessing not a curse. Every day we went on long walks and did sacred text practices. We had a movie night and a sacred dinner on the last day. We ate in restaurants for lunch and mostly fixed "girl dinner" in the evenings; one night we made pasta from scratch! And every night, without fail, we'd wind up laughing hysterically together about something (before or after shedding tears about something deep and personal). It was the best extended slumber party ever.
When I think of MTG and other MAGA politicians, I actually think first about how there's no way in hell I would place myself or my family in the crosshairs of the current president. How terrifying.
I agree with Beth that I would like to remove Toxic from the lexicon for a while. It's too much.
KPop Demon Hunters is the movie of the year for me (and yes my kids loved it). But MY GOD! Hamnet was INCREDIBLE. Jessie Buckley should win all the awards for that performance. My husband made my kids give me tissues to put in my pocket when I went to watch it and I think they were being over the top...but I used every one of those tissues.
Also another note for podcast this year is Beth's Dead (from Monica Padman and Elizabeth Laime). I'd be so interested in hearing your takes from it because the parasocial relationships and catfishing is blowing my mind. I haven't finished the series yet but it's SO GOOD.
Do you need to have read the book to enjoy the Hamnet movie? The book is sitting in my TBR pile, but the movie is playing near my house right now, and who knows how long it will stay there.
My Bests for podcasts (besides Pantsuit Politics) is Armchair Anonymous (part of Armchair Expert comes out on Fridays). These are all funny or interesting stories from listeners, so even if Armchair Expert isn't exactly your thing, it's mostly other people talking. I love to listen with my kids. Each episode is 4 stories based on a prompt. My kids find these stories so engaging. Many of them are truly embarrassing or even terrifying, but it helps them see that life can be hard and unpredictable (in good and bad ways) but you can get to the other side of it: If it's not a good time; it's a good story.
Great for listening in the car for medium or long drives. This podcast has prompted my own kids to tell me stories about things that have happened to them that I don't think they would have ever mentioned. They are also interested in my husband's and my own stories. There is a fair amount of swearing and some inappropriate topics. Also, some stories are amazing and others are just ok. Some recent episode suggestions are: Babysitting, Valet Driver, Substitute Teacher. Good older ones for younger kids: Snow Day, Job interview
It's not for everyone, but if it is for you, you'll love it.
Side note: There was one prompt for Movie Theater stories from a while ago that involved a man exposing himself to a group of young girls (the story teller is an adult now). It is told from a place of humor but does not ignore the horror of the situation. It was a great prompt for me to tell my boys about a similar experience I had with a guy that exposed himself to me and a friend at the mall. I never told anyone because it was embarrassing and we just laughed it off (like the girls in the story). It was a great way to bring up the issue and to let them know not to be embarrassed if something like that happened to them and that sadly it's not uncommon. (There is also a truly wild movie theater injury in that same set of stories that has changed the way I walk down movie theater aisles.)
Traditionally, the term "narco-terrorism" has been used to describe people trafficking drugs to fund terrorist activities. The drugs were only a means to an end. I am not sure if the Administration is using it that way and is implying that Venezuela is planning terrorist attacks on the US, or if they are doing their usual thing of playing fast and loose with their words.
If theology is your thing, check out this blog post about K-pop demon hunters… it’s very cool!
https://churchanew.org/blog/posts/miriam-samuelson-roberts-renouncing-evil-remix-style
I love hearing how you both do life. Adult sleepovers… yes please! That’s on my list for 2026 and y’all gotta hold me to it!
@Beth Silvers -- I (at age 57) watched KPop Demon Hunters all by myself one Saturday. My Girl Scout girls had come in talking and singing and I thought I'd better try to keep up with what they were so obsessed with! I'm happy to tell anyone -- I enjoyed it. And I loved being able to bring up some of the lessons from it the next time the girls were talking about it!
Although it wouldn’t make my list of “favorites” anyone watching South Park this year? Some of that has been spot on.
South Park's poking of the bear has been giving me life this year!
Surprised that the tanker wasn’t discussed at all. Did you record after that? I was hoping for some processing of that news.
On empathy… I care so much about who is being hurt by all of this chaos and devastated by some in my (former) religious community’s mental gymnastics around supporting this administration’s actions. And yet, when charities contact me with requests for money for yet another group in need, I feel exhausted and like I’m reaching a saturation point - Which sounds terrible. I definitely keep going back to “why do we have to convince you to care about people?”
I’m horrified about the bombings of the boats and killing people! And I also wonder what the truth is. Is there so much to care about that people get overwhelmed and instead, just ignore everything?
Who is my neighbor?
re: toxic empathy
I have a number of Christians in my feeds doing the mental gymnastics around toxic empathy that I just find exhausting and weird. I think it's part of the ongoing mismatch between helping and enabling, but I also think two things:
1. This is related to the death of expertise. Someone's "lived experience" can now trump factual expertise.
2. It's fine if you don't want to be part of a solution, but for the love, just say so instead of throwing your religion under the bus. Or just define your religion accurately.
What infuriates me more than anything since Trump’s first election campaign is how ‘christian’ people use their ‘faith’ to support him. JD Vance’s layers of who we care about -family, community, country, then the world - is BS. To quote the Bible they love to selectively ignore, “who is my neighbor?” (the Good Samaritan story)
Also, I think the boat bombings don’t bubble up because frankly, a whole lot of US Americans really don’t care what happens out there. It has to impact them personally before they will care.
I'm looking back through my book list and realizing that while I enjoyed a lot of what I read, none of them stand out as much as the Wild Robot and One and Only series I read with my 6 year old. This was the year we really started reading chapter books together and it has just been so, so good. He and I both really got into the stories and continue to talk about them. I'm forever blown away at how many small details he can pick up. It's just the best.
I also really liked What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Ayoama, Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin, Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson, and the Gillian McAllister mysteries I listened to. I'm no good at naming what it is I love about a book, so that's all I have to say about it, lol.
What You Are Looking for in in the Library really warmed this librarian's heart. A very cozy read.
Oh, and I really enjoyed the FX show "Alien: Earth"! The cast was fantastic (Sydney Chandler was a delightful surprise), and I absolutely loved the references to Peter Pan and Wendy.
Also loving Sugar on AppleTV. It's a real treat to see Colin Farrell in another TV series; we were blown away by his work in The Penguin last year.
Standout experiences this year:
Listening with my husband to "I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom," a Gen Z road trip to DC as we were moving across the country to the DC area. Pargin deftly explores the isolation of our modern world and how it affects young men and women while being just as bonkers as he always is in his novels. Fun and thought-provoking.
Reading and discussing "A Room with a View" in a diy pilgrimage with pilgrims I met through Common Ground pilgrimages three years ago. Y'all, try to go on one of these literary retreats! You just might make some of the best friends of your life and find yourself navigating a foreign country with them several years later. One of the best travel experiences of my life.
Reading and discussing books and a TV show (Crazy Ex-girlfriend) within an intentional practice and community at regular Zoom meetings throughout the year.
My best experiences of art and media this year have been within community. I'm an only child who has always valued her solitude, but this year every movie, show, and book has been made better by experiencing it alongside other people. I think that may be why I had a problem with the "worst list" exercise: I really didn't want to sully my group experiences by complaining. I still don't like "The Great Gatsby," but I gained so much by discussing it with other pilgrims and friends. And sometimes the things we dislike give us the most to talk about - more bang for our bucks!
Common Ground is doing a pilgrimage with A Room With a View and it's soooooo tempting, but I just can't spend that much on travel in 2026. I love that book (and film)!!!!
We did our diy pilgrimage for about $1k per person, not including flights. It was in the Italian Alps instead of Florence, but otherwise worked out very well. It helped that one of the group lives in Italy and vacations in the area every summer, and that we all know each other well enough now to see rooming together as a blessing not a curse. Every day we went on long walks and did sacred text practices. We had a movie night and a sacred dinner on the last day. We ate in restaurants for lunch and mostly fixed "girl dinner" in the evenings; one night we made pasta from scratch! And every night, without fail, we'd wind up laughing hysterically together about something (before or after shedding tears about something deep and personal). It was the best extended slumber party ever.
When I think of MTG and other MAGA politicians, I actually think first about how there's no way in hell I would place myself or my family in the crosshairs of the current president. How terrifying.
I agree with Beth that I would like to remove Toxic from the lexicon for a while. It's too much.
KPop Demon Hunters is the movie of the year for me (and yes my kids loved it). But MY GOD! Hamnet was INCREDIBLE. Jessie Buckley should win all the awards for that performance. My husband made my kids give me tissues to put in my pocket when I went to watch it and I think they were being over the top...but I used every one of those tissues.
Also another note for podcast this year is Beth's Dead (from Monica Padman and Elizabeth Laime). I'd be so interested in hearing your takes from it because the parasocial relationships and catfishing is blowing my mind. I haven't finished the series yet but it's SO GOOD.
Do you need to have read the book to enjoy the Hamnet movie? The book is sitting in my TBR pile, but the movie is playing near my house right now, and who knows how long it will stay there.
I did not read the book first and Im usually the one to need to read it first but I couldn't pass on seeing it in theaters!
Hamnet isn’t playing in my market and I’m devastated!
This reframe of congress being in an abusive relationship is kind of blowing my mind. And I'm a little surprised about that.
My Bests for podcasts (besides Pantsuit Politics) is Armchair Anonymous (part of Armchair Expert comes out on Fridays). These are all funny or interesting stories from listeners, so even if Armchair Expert isn't exactly your thing, it's mostly other people talking. I love to listen with my kids. Each episode is 4 stories based on a prompt. My kids find these stories so engaging. Many of them are truly embarrassing or even terrifying, but it helps them see that life can be hard and unpredictable (in good and bad ways) but you can get to the other side of it: If it's not a good time; it's a good story.
Great for listening in the car for medium or long drives. This podcast has prompted my own kids to tell me stories about things that have happened to them that I don't think they would have ever mentioned. They are also interested in my husband's and my own stories. There is a fair amount of swearing and some inappropriate topics. Also, some stories are amazing and others are just ok. Some recent episode suggestions are: Babysitting, Valet Driver, Substitute Teacher. Good older ones for younger kids: Snow Day, Job interview
It's not for everyone, but if it is for you, you'll love it.
Side note: There was one prompt for Movie Theater stories from a while ago that involved a man exposing himself to a group of young girls (the story teller is an adult now). It is told from a place of humor but does not ignore the horror of the situation. It was a great prompt for me to tell my boys about a similar experience I had with a guy that exposed himself to me and a friend at the mall. I never told anyone because it was embarrassing and we just laughed it off (like the girls in the story). It was a great way to bring up the issue and to let them know not to be embarrassed if something like that happened to them and that sadly it's not uncommon. (There is also a truly wild movie theater injury in that same set of stories that has changed the way I walk down movie theater aisles.)
Ooo, I need some non-political podcasts this holiday season. Thank you for this!