A little bit of patience

The signs of late August in the Pacific Northwest

I’ve been working on a piece on the misconception (and invisibility) of wealth — and how it connects to, well, a whole lot of things, but especially the anger over student loan cancellation. It’s one of those pieces that flows out of you when you sit down to write, and you realize just how much your brain has been working on it in the background — for days, for weeks, for years. I was frantically trying to get it ready for tomorrow, but I realized, today, that one of the benefits of running my own newsletter is that in moments like this, I can trust in reader patience. So I’m going to keep working on this week, making it less sprawling and more pointed, fact-checking stats and copy-editing and making sure all the links work, and it’ll come to you next week.

And in the meantime: subscribers are still getting their weekly links attached to this email, and if you haven’t taken some time with the Friday thread on concepts of familial wealth, it’s a very good one. (The Tuesday Thread on card memories, also precious and good). If you want to be part of those conversations, even as a loyal lurker, here’s how to subscribe.

We also have a few fun projects going on in the Culture Study Extended Universe:

• A few months ago, I asked to hear about your work quandaries for a podcast project I was workshopping. GREAT NEWS, IT IS NOW A REAL THING, and I will be able to tell you more about it in a few weeks. But in the meantime: I need more quandaries! All of kinds, but especially: struggles with remote managing, failed and flailing DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives, whether or not it's time to quit your toxic workplace, and implicit and explicit norms in your workplace that make it hard to be the parent you want to be. Click here to submit. 

• A whimsical Twitter idea on a map of all the good green spaces (parks, playgrounds, etc) off roadways has become a Culture Study crowdsourcing project. The more places we can add, the better — so if you have a place you love to stop (or that you can remember being great) on a past roadtrip, submit it here. (And if you want to help out with the project itself come join us in the Green Spaces Project thread on Discord)

• Culture Study member Siena Chiang continues their author talks about workers and organizing next Tuesday (8/30) with Max Alvarez and his new book, The Work of Living. Max chronicles the experiences of ten workers who lived through COVID-19, in their own words. Courtney Smith, one of the interviewees and also an organizer herself, will join too. Attendees get a complimentary copy of the book via Reparations Club.

• This is the last day to be part of the Run/Walk the Culture Study Abortion Fund 5K, which is raising money for ARC Southeast. We’ll have a final tally of all donations listed in next week’s newsletter — and you can always *retroactively* make a run/walk part of it (and donate anyway). Here’s how.

• I’m going to do a Mailbag newsletter soon, because I get a lot of random questions in my email that I know more than one person would like to know the answer to. Do you have your own question for the Culture Study Mailbag? Submit here.