Hi all,
What’s Helping Today: Baby artichokes!!!
For a few years, I’ve been dreaming of growing artichokes here in Upstate New York. The artichokes one tends to find in East Coast grocery stores, on the occasion one indeed finds them, are often a bummer — in my admittedly snobbish Californian opinion — bulbous and bland as styrofoam.
As a kid in the Bay Area, some of my favorite meals involved fresh artichokes — steamed, their flesh dipped in mayonnaise. On special occasions, artichokes with Dungeness crab and clarified butter and a loaf of sourdough.
This year I finally decided to give growing artichokes a try. I bought the seeds from a Vermont nursery and started them under lights, very early in the spring. Last weekend, I noticed the alien-looking plants had sprouted, well, miniature artichokes! I shrieked with delight.
Soon, hopefully, I will harvest and eat homegrown artichokes. What joy this brings my Californian heart.
I often wind up recommending certain previous pieces of mine to people wanting to go deeper on one topic or another, especially related to mental health and to gender. I therefore thought I’d (re)share some links with you all, in case anything’s of interest.
When it comes to my work about mental health… I tend to recommend my essay published by The Cut introducing the movement for psychiatric patient rights. I frequently share my interview on the TED podcast How to be a Better Human, on which I discussed a lot of my core ideas about our ‘mental health’ and how we might better care for it. This episode of 99% Invisible I produced about a forgotten chapter in the history of American mental health care is a bit older but remains recommended. I also always encourage everyone to read (or listen to) my first book, AKOMP.
When it comes to my work on gender and being trans and such… I highly recommend my essays for Esquire — about mourning the boyhood I never got, and about learning to talk like a man. I often share my Them columns about deciding to get top surgery and recovering from it. I still hear from people who’ve resonated with my essay for Them about Marie Kondo inspiring me to admit I wasn’t cis. And of course the This American Life story about my singing voice and Testosterone.
My aforementioned latest essay for Esquire about speech therapy was one of the most popular on Apple News+ audio after its release, which was rad! The essay is for subscribers-only on Esquire itself. If you didn’t get a chance to check it out, you can subscribe there of course, or, to hear me read it, you can free trial Apple News+ for a month.
Some recommended podcast episodes: Maintenance Phase on the bullshit that is The Cass Report aka the latest in anti-trans moral panic. I enjoyed Taylor Lorenz on You’re Wrong About discussing how phones are good, actually (???). I appreciated these eps of We Can Do Hard Things on friendship. Great TAL episode: Children of Dave. I’ve enjoyed the new cooking show The Recipe with Kenji and Deb, which just completed its first season. I am often found chuckling at the Handsome pod. I adored Hacks’ Poppy Liu on Why Won’t You Date Me. Speaking of, has anything ever been more iconic/cringe than Hannah Einbinder just bursting into genuine tears when she started her Las Culturistas interview? Why do we have so many big feelings about big jeans?? Did PJ get into Berghain???
Love,
Sandy
p.s. To send in a query for a future advice column, email whatshelpingtoday@gmail.com. Back with more of that soon.
p.p.s. A new subscriber asked how to support my work, which I appreciate. The best way still is to buy my first book. Otherwise, if you are a fan of this newsletter, consider sharing it on social media (if you do that kind of thing) or forwarding it to some potentially interested friends. Thanks so much.
Subscribe to What's Helping Today
Occasional thoughts about staying alive on earth, by author Sandy Ernest Allen