5SR - August 14, 2023

Hitha on Maui, oil's enduring profitability, and tipping

Author

Hitha Palepu
August 14, 2023

Today’s curator is the founder of #5SmartReads, Hitha Palepu. She’s a consummate multihyphenate - CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, author of WE’RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris and How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip, and professional speaker. Hitha is an unabashed fan of Taco Bell, Philadelphia sports teams & F1, romance novels, and is a mediocre crafter. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

At this point, the immense tragedy of the wildfires in Maui has been widely reported.

I do want to share this collection of mutual aid funds supporting relief efforts directly, which our family donated to. Every single penny helps, and I hope these funds help the rebuild this slice of heaven on Earth.

I’m always curious to unpack the how and why behind a major news story, and learned a lot from this piece about how these wildfires had the severity they did.

In the case of this wildfire, it’s the result of longer term climate change as well as immediate effects from a relatively nearby hurricane.

“The simplest reason why parts of Maui are burning is that it’s hot and dry — summer is the dry season. And dry, hot weather provides the foundation for extreme wildfires by sucking moisture out of vegetation and essentially turning it into kindling. (That’s partly why the Canada wildfires have been so severe this year, too.)

Zooming out, carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are making the planet hotter and deepening droughts around the world. Hawaii is no exception. Today, there’s less rainfall in 90 percent of the state compared to a century ago, according to the state government.”

The most responsible thing any of us can do right now is to support local relief efforts and plan to travel elsewhere, to not strain Hawaii’s resources as they rebuild Maui. And if Hawai’i is on your travel bucket list, I would heed Aja’s advice and travel responsibly in Hawai’i (if you choose to travel there in the first place):

What happens when you’re ridiculously profitable, but not as profitable as the previous quarter? And sitting on billions that you’re using to enrich your shareholders?

Hello, Big Oil.

Just because something is legal and the fiduciary obligation based on corporate bylaws doesn’t mean it’s right (I feel this way about my own industry too), especially when the world is literally on fire.

I appreciate equally detailed and succinct this analysis is, especially in the context of the multiple climate disasters we’re all living in

R. Eric Thomas is one of my favorite observers of humanity. Calling him a writer seems like a disservice, given how thoughtful, deep, and hilarious (quietly and literal LOL) his work is.

I’m saving Here For It to savor in the weird transitional frenzy that is September, though this interview has me itching to start it immediately.

The theme of “how do you go back home without going backward” is something I think about often, as someone who’s moved most of her life but claims Pennsylvania (and now, Bucks County) as her home. To read someone else’s account - and someone I respect and admire to much - is helpful in that mental journey, and this book seems to be even more hilarious than his previous one.

“And so with places—I think it sounds corny, but I’m so mid—it’s really useful to treat a place that you know really well as if you were a tourist, and go to the dumb tourist thing, or join the stupid kickball league.

I think cities, particularly, are kind of for younger people, whether they have kids or not. But people in their 30s and 40s—I’ve decided that those are younger people, and I will not entertain any other ideas—they’re organized around this loneliness. There are ways of sort of jumping [out] of it, but it always feels so awkward.”

In an effort to not be awkward come next summer, where are my Bucks County folks at? Can we plan something fun where you will not judge me for being weird or wearing all black? Thank you, and I’m excited to spend more time at the place I’ve been calling home before I ever had a home there.

“Just before midnight on Aug. 4, 2021, Haley tried to cross the border from Mexico back into Arizona, where she lived. She was carrying 1,000 fentanyl pills inside her body.

"That was the first time I've ever done it," Haley says. "It was just a sudden decision that I made at the last moment."

At the time, Haley was struggling with addiction to methamphetamine. She'd lost her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and then lost custody of her three children. (Haley, 32, asked not to use her last name in order to protect her children's privacy.)

When a man she knew offered her a chance to make $500, Haley took it.

"I'm very ashamed that I didn't know better with carrying it over," she says. "When you're on drugs, your mind's not fully there. You're not fully thinking. You're just like, OK, I can get this over with and get my bills paid, you know? You're not thinking about what you're doing to your body, what you're doing to others."“

For all we hear about the opioid epidemic, we don’t hear about stories like these nearly enough.

And I think it’s necessary to understand the desperation that so many people trapped by this epidemic feel in order to create sustainable solutions.

The stories of the couriers are those we don’t hear about at all, and I hope you take the time to read this and learn about the part of this issue we need to build policy around - because we’re not. At all.

A tip about tips (The Purse)

How do you feel about the automated tipping screens?

I do end up tipping when prompted, out of habit and of gratitude to the person who’s made my latte or salad or burrito bowl or served me a wonderful meal.

But I also recognize my own privilege in being able to do so without thinking, and I appreciate Lindsey’s thoughtful analysis of unprompted tipping becoming a norm, and how we participate in it.

How are you tipping these days? I’d love to know.

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