Recently I was conducting an interview for a forthcoming edition of this newsletter and the subject asked me a question: What is the unifying theme of all these interviews?
It’s a fair question. The conceit and title of this newsletter project — What do we do now that we’re here? — is one I mean very literally. In 2020, like many people, I felt like I lost my north star. It suddenly felt undeniable that the problems we face — the climate emergency, inequality, the prevailing disconnectedness of modern life — are existential. I could no longer live under the illusion that focusing all my efforts on my own career ascension made sense. Not only did it feel unwise, but unhealthy too. Despite that realization, I didn’t know what to replace my once-insatiable career ambition with. Short of becoming a climate activist or homesteader, I didn’t see any alternate paths. I needed models for what to do next.
Since August 2021, everyone I’ve interviewed for this newsletter is living in a way that helps answers that question. They are people who are responding meaningfully and intentionally to the moment we live in, rather than acquiescing to the shitty norms of modern life, steeped in denial. They have helped me think through how to live now.
Last month, I decided to change the pay structure of this newsletter, which means that all these interviews are now available for all readers. (Thank you to the paid subscribers who support this ongoing work! It means a lot to me.) So in the reflective spirit of the last day of the year, I thought I’d send a look back at some of my favorite moments from those interviews, and invite you to read an interview or two as you look forward to 2023.
I hope you find something in here that helps direct your efforts in the next year.
Dr. Margaret Klein Salamon on grieving your old life
Margaret is a clinical psychologist turned climate warrior and the executive director of the Climate Emergency Fund.
Living in dissonance — you know something is true but you’re blocking it out, or you can’t apply it to this major area of your life — takes a lot of energy. Every day, you are having to actively not look. And so after you actually reckon with and feel the feelings associated with that, one of which is grief, you get a more authentic, mission-oriented life. I think there’s relief in dropping your defenses and attempts not to look at it. I think there’s tremendous value in having a mission in life.
Avni Trivedi on listening to your body’s intelligence
Avni is an osteopath, birth doula, zero balancer, and non-linear movement teacher
Everything that’s alive moves. That idea of sitting in a cubicle and not breathing and not moving — that’s not life. When we’re moving and connected with our bodies, the access we have physiologically or endorphin wise, all of those things … When you become an adult, you become restricted in what you do and you become more sedentary and movement is more controlled. That’s just not a way to live. Whereas the freedom of how toddlers explore, I think we’re meant to be like that. We’ve just been conditioned to numb everything.
Simone Stolzoff on diversifying where you find meaning
Simone is a writer, designer, and author of the forthcoming book, The Good Enough Job
[My professional idol once told me]: “Some people love what they do for work. And some people do what they have to do for work so that they can do what they love when they’re not working. Neither is more noble.” Right now I think the scales in our society are tipped. We’re very much idolizing the people whose work is a reflection of their identity — the painters and social entrepreneurs — as if this is the beacon of success in life. The point I’m trying to make in the book is that for some, there’s equivalency there. But not for everyone. I’m arguing that instead of subordinating life for the sake of work, to do the opposite.
Tyson Yunkaporta on building cultures of transition
Tyson is a member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland and author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
[Doomsday] prepping is all about practicing your relational skills and actually making meaningful connections and networks in your neighborhoods. Because really that’s where the loaves and fishes trick happens when the scarcity hits. That human pattern just emerges. There is a kind of dynamic where, even in real scarcity, everyone gets just what they need and then everyone works together to build up an abundance again … That’s the infrastructure that we need to be preparing, that infrastructure of relationships. That’s what you do. You increase your relatedness with the people around you, but also the non-humans.
Katherine May on working with the cyclical nature of life
Katherine is the author of multiple books, including the bestselling Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times.
I spent a long part of my life thinking that life ought to be linear. And it’s really interesting how telling ourselves a different story about it helps us perceive it differently. Because actually there are very few things in our lives that actually are linear. Except for the progress between birth and death. Most things within life are cyclical or circular … How is it that we’ve managed to live through this stretch called a year, through four seasons that we understand, and yet we don’t see our lives as fundamentally cyclical?
Sally Burt Jones on choosing activism that’s close to home
Sally is a sustainability consultant, year round sea-swimmer, and activist
I would always come back to having an emotional connection to something … I don’t manage to practice this all the time, but moving here, having that connection with the sea, moving into a career in sustainability, and building a life around what I need to feel good — and then fighting for a cause which is so directly relevant to that has been a journey, but it’s a been a logical one for me. So I would say to people to find the cause that they connect with on an emotional level and not worry about trying to solve the big problem.
Musa Okwonga on making art in difficult times
Musa is an author, journalist, poet, football podcaster, and musician
All my work, every book is a climate change book. In the End, It Was All About Love is a climate change book because it ends with a collective solution to a personal problem …I’m always thinking, in a world of climate collapse, what are we going to need? And all those apocalyptic visions of what climate collapse will look like, all these movies made by men of people becoming hunter gatherers and going town to town and killing people — that is just a male revenge fantasy. The real climate apocalypse is going to be people doing mass cookouts. It’s going to be like the pandemic … people can’t get essential supplies, people pooling their resources. You’re going to have people doing reading schools for kids, mass cookouts, delivering food for vulnerable people — that’s what it’s going to be like. And that’s what all my work is preparing for.
Samantha Rae on connecting with yourself
Sam is an antenatal educator, birth/parent coach, and post-natal doula
When you first emailed me about this interview and you mentioned the idea that matrescence might be bigger than just having a child—I’ve been thinking about that a lot. The three phases we go through in life are adolescence, matrescence and then menopause. All three have commonalities: a big hormonal shift, you can never go back etc. I thought, “Well what about those of us who don’t have children? Do they never develop into a more caring, nurturing person?” Of course they do … We talk about how when a child is born, a mother is born—I love that and experienced that myself. But I also think you can be re-birthed yourself. But, only if you are almost being maternal to yourself first—that’s the only way you can do it.
As ever, thanks for reading. If you have any recommendations of who I should interview next year, I’d love to hear them. Reply to this email or drop it in the comments below. Until then, I hope your entry into 2023 is restful.
Thank you Rosie