Brief Assortment of Interesting Stuff — 1st of February 2019

This week, a critical video on Elon Musk's "Loop" by donoteat, a brilliant article on Hawaii, tourism, and decolonization by Bani Amor, and a short Québecois podcast series on depression and anxiety.

Every two Fridays, I publish a brief round-up of some of the interesting articles/blogs/YouTube videos/books/music/games that have come across my metaphorical and actual desk. So, here we go.

• Lire ce billet de blogue en français.
• Read previous brief assortments of interesting stuff!

So without further ado, let’s jump off this assortment from the 18th January to the 1st of February 2019.

Donoteat1, "Elon Musk's "Loop" - It's bad, folks"

THIS VIDEO IS TOO FUNNY! (Embedded below.) I adore donoteat's videos. His YouTube channel uses the game Cities: Skylines to talk about the history of American cities, urban development, public transportation, and explains many historical concepts from a historical materialist perspective. This video in particular breaks down with care all the many problems of "Loop", the latest "fantastic" (as in completely disconnected from reality) project from Elon Musk which is also not at all a public transportation project... Anyways, this video is too good and I recommend it for everyone.

Bani Amor, "How Native Hawaiians Are Decolonizing Tourism" (read on Fodors.com)

Native Hawaiians living in the “vacation paradise” are caught between the state’s two major industries, the U.S. military and tourism. Through DeTours, they challenge both by showing tourists Hawaii from their perspective. (Bani Amor, 12 janvier 2019)

When people think of Hawaii, they think of beaches, blinding sun, and surf. But decolonial travel writer Bani Amor wants to shine a different light on this "paradise on earth" situated between the American tourism and military industries, and unveil a long history of anti-colonial resistance again American occupation. In a conversation with two Native Hawaiians Terry Keko‘olani and Kyle Kajihiro who run "DeTours", demilitarized tours of Hawaii that show how the tourism industry obscures the strategic and ongoing American occupation of the islands, and how a decolonial approach is necessary to reclaim their heritage and their islands.

La grande noirceur from BARONMAG.com (listen to the podcast series on Soundcloud)

My friend Gabrielle made me aware of this podcast on Facebook, a short podcast series made in Québec on depression and how it affects in particular independent workers and freelancers. In 8 episodes, the series covers the different aspects of depression by interviewing independent workers at different stages of their career and mental health, as well as by interviewing mental health professionals. I found the series particularly interesting as a freelancing independent worker who also lives with mental illness. The series is focused especially on anxiety and depression but also touches on addiction, suicidal ideation, suicide, anorexia, and even bipolar disorder. I really liked the in-depth discussion one the differences between depression and burnout. I would really like to see a similar series that focuses more on bipolar disorder, BPD, bulimia and anorexia, and other issues. It would also be cool to hear explicitly from queer and trans voices, or how mental health issues affect BIPOC. Before listening to the series I was truly worried it would be underwhelming. But for the most part I found the series well-researched and profound.

Content warning: The series is heavy, so please prepare yourselves before listening, as it contains detailed and frank discussions on mental illness and suicide.

🌱🌱🌱 Didn't you read anything, Gersande?!! Ooops. I didn't get to read as much as I wanted these last two weeks... But with a bit of luck, I should have books to share with you for next time! 🌱🌱🌱