Ms Informed Newsletter | Languishing, Hustle Culture, and New Words
What is it called when you aren't depressed, but you also aren't flourishing? And how does hustle culture affect us?
This Week's Show
Show Notes
Vice on monetizing your hobbies
Jenny Odell’s ‘How To Do Nothing’
The New Yorker on what it takes to put your phone away
The BBC on tragic optimism
The New York Times on languishing
The BBC on extreme work culture
The BBC on revenge bedtime procrastination
DW on news German words invented during the Pandemic
Leibniz Institute für Sprache list of new German corona words
This week’s distraction
This week’s distraction is the Palestinian Nakba. The Nakba, also known as the Palestinian Catastrophe, which comprised the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948, and the permanent displacement of a majority of the Palestinian people. It is generally commemorated on 15 May, the day after the End of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel in its place.
The 1948 Palestinian exodus occurred when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of prewar Palestine's Arab population – fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. The exodus was a central component of the fracturing, dispossession, and displacement of Palestinian society, known as the Nakba in which between 400 and 600 Palestinian villages were destroyed and Palestinian history erased, and also refers to the wider period of war itself and the subsequent oppression up to the present day.
This week Madhvi has been reading
This week Madhvi has been reading about North Korean hackers! Did you know that North Korean hackers are among the best in the world, and raise money from their illegal online activities for the country’s nuclear program. North Korea is one of the most secret places in the world, and I am fascinated by the place. I read everything about the country I can get my hands on, like this recent article in the New Yorker, which is filled with fascinating information, like the fact that one of their official information gathering offices is called Enemy Collapse Sabotage Bureau. Another great read is Without You There is No Us, a memoir by Suki Kim, who taught English to the son’s of North Korea’s elite.
This week Rina has been watching
This week Rina started watching videos by YouTuber Jack Edwards. I stumbled across his channel by accident and it was the best accident ever! Jack is a recent English graduate who spends his time reading books celebrities have recommended and then offering his honest opinion. Want to hear his thoughts on Taylor Swift’s favourite books? Have no fear click here
This week Inspiration
This week’s inspiration is the Palestinian artist Maryam al-Afifi. You may recognise Maryam al-Afifi from the viral photo of her smiling at the camera after being beaten and arrested last week. Maryam Al-Afifi, who is a member of the Palestine Youth Orchestra, was arrested during a protest against the imminent forcible eviction of residents of the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The video of her being dragged by her Hijabi and subsequently smiling as she is arrested has gone viral.
Watch it here
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Until next time...