#5SmartReads - March 16, 2022

Hitha on the Asian-American duality, the fascinating end-of-life of batteries, and the grandmother of modern romance

March 16, 2022

This week’s #5SmartReads is sponsored by Blue Apron.

I keep thinking about something my friend Sany said during our panel a couple of weeks back:

“[White] Americans love our food, but they don’t necessarily love the people who make it or serve it.”

The duality that Asian-Americans have been living with since the beginning of the pandemic - increasing rise of attacks and hate crimes against us along with unprecedented representation in the media and culture - is straight out of a Dickens’ book.

The highest of highs, lowest of lows - and completely exhausting. And still, we are painted as a monolith despite having such different experiences and realities within each of our own countries, let alone the entire continent.

Just a gentle reminder for you all to check in with your Asian-American friends, and to dig a little deeper when trying new foods, watching different shows and movies, and learning about the hundreds of cultures that fall within Asia.

Elizabeth’s newsletter is one of the best I’m subscribed to, so please sign up if you haven’t already!

Have you? Good.

Her deep dive on the Commonwealth and its role today is so smart. Obviously imperialism and colonialism changed the world and left a negative impact on so many Commonwealth countries, so that this ‘voluntary’ association still exists requires further education, which Holmes brilliantly unpacks for us.

“Whereas global reporting has largely focused on the suffering of Ukrainian civilians, Russians are offered a starkly different story at home. Their screens present accounts of a humanitarian Kremlin mission — one in which "surgical" airstrikes target Ukrainian nationalists and spare civilians, where American agents seek to deploy anti-Russian bioweapons and where Ukraine's leaders are hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons to attack the Russian homeland.”

Hearts and minds are not moved by facts or reporting, but how one feels and the power of a simple message delivered over and over and over again.

It’s an effective playbook that some media companies effectively deploy here in the United States, and it’s the MO of Russia’s state media, which has become the only reporting that Russians have access to these days.

I’m a little more gentle with myself on Wednesdays - I treat myself to a latte and a park walk after dropping off the kids, order them pizza for dinner, and try to avoid calls and meetings with the exception of therapy and coaching. It’s the day I’m glad I opt for the 4 serving Blue Apron plan, because Wednesdays are also leftover days, and so many of my meals (especially the pastas!) taste even better a day or two later, when the flavors have had more time to combine.

Want to give Blue Apron a try? Get $120 across your first 6 boxes and free shipping on your first box with this link.

I was today years old when I learned who Georgette Heyer is - the grandmother of the romance genre whose work was published from the 1920s-1970s.

Her deep research and attention to detail had her lecturing the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on the battle of Waterloo in addition to penning over 50 novels.

It is important to note that some of Heyer’s work has troubling themes (pronounced homophobia throughout her work, anti-Semitism in The Grand Sophy), which may be a reason why her name and work isn’t as well known as Agatha Christie (who rose to prominence at the same time).

The unbearable Whiteness of Regency is something I do think about, especially given how Bridgerton, The Gilded Age, and modern screen adaptations are choosing to showcase these stories with diverse casts and new storylines, and not how they were originally published. And Heyer, as the creator of this sub-genre, certainly is a reason why the genre is overwhelmingly White, Protestant, and straight.

I digress. In any case, I think you should read this very smart piece, and join me in starting a Heyer novel. I’m starting with The Convenient Marriage.

We won’t reap the full benefits of electric vehicles until we resolve one major issue - the batteries.

Mercifully, there are companies being launched to recycle and properly dispose of these lithium-ion batteries, which is far more complicated and cumbersome than recycling the lead-acid batteries used to start gas-powered vehicles.

I learned a LOT from this article, both on the end-of-life journey of batteries and to think more broadly when thinking about energy and power, today and into the future.

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