-Buckle Up It's Soup Season

Surprise, it’s not Joy! It’s Kim. If you’re new here, hi, hello, I’m Joy’s friend from Nashville. If you’ve been around a minute, you may know me from my guest post on this here blog last month and from my podcast, Ladyland, where we have been hashtag: blessed to have Joy on as a guest twice now. Let’s get started!

•  Maybe you’ve thought about new homes being built for future pandemics, but I sure haven’t. Well, that is until I saw a series of stories on Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Instagram a few weeks ago from a parade of COVID-safe homes. If you missed the stories, don’t fret, she wrote about it for The New York Times.

•  I used to work as a bookseller and I take book recs from my former co-workers very seriously, which is why when a bunch of them, who weren’t alive in the nineties, told me to listen to the audiobook of Dave Grohl’s new memoir, I immediately downloaded it. Listen at Libro.fm. If you’re new to Libro.fm, get 2 books for the price of 1 ($14.99) by using code LADYLAND at checkout.

•  I will read almost anything Rebecca Traister writes, so I was thrilled to see her write about Katie Couric’s new memoir for The Cut. The internet is ablaze with discourse on this book. Messy! Chaotic! What do you think? Are you going to read it? Available at Bookshop.org.

•  You know how sometimes big cultural events happen during a busy week and you make a note to read about it all later? That’s what happened to me the week the Dave Chappelle Netflix special came out. I have since read all the think pieces and this is where you should start. Roxane Gay for The New York Times.

•  Not to get all passive aggressive on main, or whatever, but there are still people in the year of our lord, 2021, who truly do not know how to apologize. I mean, not us. We know. But forward this to that person in your life who, ahem, has some room to grow in this area. When I am President, we will all learn how to meditate, masturbate, and apologize. Kim Baldwin, 2024!

•  If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance we’re friends, and that you live in Tennessee. Good news! Joy THEE Baker is going to be at Williams-Sonoma in Knoxville on Saturday, November 6th. Get your (free) tickets here.

•  It’s soup season! If you subscribe to Culture Study, the newsletter by Anne Helen Petersen, then you may have seen her recent subscriber thread with 300+ soup recipes. I put my phone on DND and spent 2 hours reading every single recipe. I’m making Roberto for the first time this week. Won’t you join me?

•  Listen, times are hard and retail therapy is real, but it is Halloween and I would love nothing more than to tell you about the ghost stores of Instagram via Terry Nguyen for Vox. P.S. If you’re interested in this, you may also be interested in this book by Aja Barber.

•  OF COURSE Instagram is bad for teen mental health. Of course. But bravo to the group, Gen-Z for Change, for pushing back on the tech giant. Teen Vogue

•  Speaking of Instagram, shameless self-promotion time. I teach virtual Instagram 101 workshops on Zoom. If this is something you’re interested in, you can find more information here.

See you next month!

Kim Baldwin is a writer and social media strategist living in Nashville, TN. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @theblondemule and at theblondemule.com.