2026-10-20

I thoroughly enjoyed this discussion of the Renaissance with Ada Palmer. Let's be honest, it's not really an interview, it's mostly just her dialoging, and I'm here for it. She's interesting and engergetic and clearly knows and loves her subject matter. This is a long read, in video form, and I was never bored for a second.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAIhVfGbREA

Off to hunt down a copy of her book on the subject...

2026-10-19

This was a fantastic interview! (On the Long Thread podcast)

https://longthread.fireside.fm/s15e8

Sally Pointer is an experimental archaeologist, and while this discussion started with her work on nalbinding, which is an interesting craft all on its own, what grabbed me about the episode was her joy and excitement about how much we can learn about the people of the past by looking at their textile crafts. She has a beautiful way of looking at the crafts and the study of these crafts.

Nalbinding is one of those yarn-looping crafts that I have tried and thrown away in frustration before (knitting and crochet are in the same bag), but listening to this made me want to give it another go!

2026-10-19

Today I want to share a couple of links related to American agriculture. Ok, this is not my area of expertise, but these two women have been doing a lot to open my eyes to understanding what's happening in rural America, with our food, with our farmers and farm laborers, and how we talk about it.

The first is a newsletter/blog from Sarah Mock, author of Farm (And other F Words). She writes about farming and agriculture, but for n00bs like me who have driven through miles of wheat without really understanding what we're seeing. Not all of her posts are 'on topic', but she periodically posts things like this that really fill in some blanks for me. Here's her latest post:

https://sarahmock.substack.com/p/the-farmers-share-of-the-food-dollar

She also released a podcast (mini-series?) called 'The Only Thing that Lasts' where she talked through the history of agriculture in America, from the founding to the modern day.

https://ambrook.com/offrange/podcast/the-only-thing-that-lasts

The second person I want to point you to is Sarah Taber. Her background is in food science and safety, and she is a small farmer in the southeastern US. I started reading her newsletter when she was running for office, and it seems like now she's mostly working on YouTube videos (well, and her real job). I find her blunt style very refreshing. She's spent some of the last summer talking about food safety in the framing of our latest lettuce debacle, but if you go back further there are videos on biological sexism, the fertilizer 'crisis', Ballerina Farm, raw milk, and regular bouts of of ag-related politics.

https://www.youtube.com/@FarmToTaber