Just a list this week!

I’m taking a little break this weekend to get away with some old friends. So just the list this week. I’ll be back with a new essay and the full newsletter next Saturday!

My upcoming events and other projects:

MY BOOK: Humor Me is out in bookstores everywhere

MY PODCAST: Katina Bajaj is a researcher who studies “creative health.” She looks at what makes people feel happy and fulfilled in their lives and work. I think her research is fascinating and I loved getting to hear the scientific case for play and inspiration. You can listen here: Why you are starved for creativity—and how to fix it (w/ Katina Bajaj)

This week’s list

GREAT:

I’ve been really enjoying the Semi-Rad newsletter recently. This essay about going camping with your family and adjusting to being in a new phase of life resonated with me. “Sometimes I joke that growing up is just building your own prison out of things you love” is a line I will be thinking about for a long time to come. Life Stage: Big Tent

FUNNY:

Lenka Clayton’s “The Distance I Can Be From My Son” is such a funny and beautiful work of art. I wasn’t familiar with her work before coming across this video but now I’m a big fan. Lenka Clayton

INTERESTING:

Ryan Broderick is one of the writers who most astutely captures trends in tech and popular culture. His recent essay about why it’s so hard to be creative and make work you’re proud of that ALSO does well on social media has been getting shared a lot this week. For good reason! He’s captured something I haven’t been able to articulate myself but feel all the time. “If you follow the data you will eventually just make mass appeal nothingness. And if you do that for too long, people will just stop coming back.” Netflix and the value of streaming shovelware

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading! Please share Bright Spots with anyone you think might enjoy it.

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Thanks for reading,

Chris Duffy

This has been Bright Spots, a newsletter.

…wait, who are you?

I’m Chris Duffy. I’m a comedian, I host TED’s How to Be a Better Human podcast, and I’m both a former fifth grade teacher and a former fifth grade student. I wrote a book called Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy that’s out now from Doubleday.