What's Good

Every week Samin & the team post 3 things (give or take) we find delightful, enriching, and worth encouraging you to check out for yourself. When we have them, this is where you’ll find updates too.

Hope you get as much joy from all this as we do!

THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND

Last weekend, in celebration of her birthday, our golden girl Samin set out to raise funds for Feeding America & the Alameda County Community Food Bank. These organizations always deserve our support, especially around this time of year, and given the chaos surrounding SNAP benefits the need for donations is at a premium. With your help, we raised $35,399 for Feeding America (enough to fund 353,990 meals), and Samin donated another $10k to the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Samin and the team want to extend a big group hug of gratitude for your overwhelming generosity! THANK YOU 🩷

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A IS FOR ALVARO

It’s hard to believe GOOD THINGS will be three months old tomorrow! So much has happened in a few short months, and so much of it has been truly wonderful. Samin just wrapped up her last far-flung leg of the tour on Friday (there’s one final event in Sacramento in December)— yes, Chicago, she did stop at Culver’s on the way to Iowa City, and yes, she loved it! We’ve loved hearing all the fun, funny, and heartwarming stories she’s shared from her time on the road, and the photos of your delight-filled faces. Hope you all had at least as much fun as she did!

As we close this chapter, it seems like a good time to share another short video featuring one of the very important people who made GOOD THINGS a reality: the visionary designer Alvaro Villanueva. Samin has said that it really wasn’t until she started working out the design with Alvaro that she began to see the book take shape. That’s when it became real. In the spirit of reflecting on that challenging yet joyful work, and celebrating all that’s yet to come, we hope you enjoy spending a little time with one of the magicians who makes it happen.

If you missed it, be sure to check out our earlier video featuring photographer Aya Brakett, the sorceress behind all our incredible food photography!

OUR COMMON NATURE

Earlier this year, Samin spent a week traveling and making a few surprise appearances with Yo-Yo Ma. In advance of this truly excellent adventure, they spent an afternoon together, having lunch in her garden and wandering around the neighborhood. While wandering, they bumped into a friend who stopped to update Samin on some neighborhood happenings. Midway through this chat, the friend suddenly took a deeper, harder look at Yo-Yo, who had amiably been listening along. “Wait a minute…” said the friend, “You’re Yo-Yo Ma!” As one does, Yo-Yo smiled and nodded in agreement, because it was true. Meanwhile, Samin’s friend was so flabbergasted tears literally began to fill his eyes. He gently took Yo-Yo’s hand and whispered, “You’re a national treasure.” And yes, that’s also true.

Now Yo-Yo has a brand new gift to share with all of you in the form of a podcasting project: Our Common Nature. So far, this episode—featuring environmentalist and drag performer Pattie Gonia—is our favorite, but we know you’re gonna love ‘em all.

OH, BABY, BABY, IT’S A WILD WORLD

The Aurora Borealis could be seen across a surprisingly large section of the US this week and were even visible as far south as Florida. Mother Nature’s out there reminding us there’s no one as perfect as her. Swoon!