#5SmartReads - June 2, 2023

Marisa is a corporate employee benefits account executive, a freelance writer and #5SmartReads contributor, a sometimes reluctant Midwesterner, and a mom to one. Currently reading: The Lion's Den by Katherine St. John and Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture by Sara Petersen.

3 Ways To Protect Your Money If The U.S. Defaults On Its Debt (NPR)

Frankly, everything going on in Washington right now is really stressing me out, and pieces like this one just don't help.

Shore up your savings so that you have three months of expenses saved between now and June 1? Sure, yeah, that'll work for folks who only have $500 in the bank. Pay off your credit card debt before the government defaults so that you don't pay extra interest on that $5k on your store credit card that already has a 22% interest rate? Yeah, the average American family with a $43k annual household income can definitely do that one too.

This piece is as tone deaf and obtuse as the folks who are playing Russian roulette with the American economy and the financial security of the working class who are keeping it going, and the entire thing is really just INFURIATING.

How Public Schools Cherry Pick Their Students (TIME)

Here in Kansas City, the public schools in the urban core have historically been... not good. In fact, the namesake school district spent years unaccredited by the state. To put it simply, families with the means to send their children elsewhere... do. But that doesn't include the charter schools.

In a school district with falling enrollment and low achievement scores, the charter schools are actually HARD to get into. In fact, I'm tempted to argue that at least one of them (a French magnet school) is one of the most coveted schools in the metro. It's part of the same school district, and it accepts the same public funding... and yet to send your child there, you have to know how to apply for enrollment well in advance of your child's kindergarten year (because you won't get in otherwise), have access to the internet in order to complete a application, and then have the means to purchase uniforms, provide transportation, etc.

This read gives some additional insight into the charter school phenomenon, as well as other ways that public schools don't live up to the promise of equal education and equal opportunity for all students.

Surgeon General Issues Advisory About Social Media Risks For Kids (Axios)

Last year, a colleague's child lost her best friend to suicide.

The child in question was 11 years old. Read that again: 11.

I can't say for sure that social media was the reason why that little boy died by suicide, but the evidence is clear: despite some benefits, unrestricted access to and use of social media is having a devastating impact on the mental health of our young people, and as parents, aunts, uncles, and trusted adults, we need to be stepping in when and how we can.

We’re All Shopping Addicts Now (The Cut)

Is the internet making us shop more? Between this article and Momfluenced, which I am about two chapters into, I have been spending a fair amount of time thinking about this question, and I'm pretty sure the answer is a depressing - and resounding - YES.

As Michelle Santiago Cortes writes in this piece, "We build our identities, in large part, through shopping. And the internet. Social media demands we constantly self-optimize, hone our presentation, and always offer the world a better version of ourselves. To the extent that our social-media feeds position themselves as mediums of self-discovery and self-presentation, this cycle tightens into a choke hold.

There is always a newer, cooler, more desirable version of ourselves to become, if only we buy the right products." More than that, even, she says, "we shop recklessly when we feel it's all we have."

As someone trying to grapple with her own internet shopping overindulgences, this is incredibly enlightening... and more than a little bit sad.

Scientists Think This Is Why Humpback Whales Save Other Animals (Xplore Our Planet)

My four almost-five year old is deep into a wildlife kick. Her favorites are currently alligators and crocodiles, but we've also spent a fair amount of time on marine wildlife.

After learning with her that orcas will attack and kill blue whales (BLUE WHALES?!?), and that only adult humpback whales seem to be impervious to orca attacks (why????), I went deep down the internet rabbit hole and learned that, in a surprise twist, humpbacks actually have a long and storied history of SAVING other animals during orca attacks!

An interesting read about why humpback whales will protect their own and other species from orcas, and some fun facts to share with any little wildlife lovers in your own homes.