5SR - November 27, 2023

Hitha on lessons from Iran, where your lost luggage goes, and how to be a creator

Author

Hitha Palepu
November 27, 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.

“Experts have pontificated over whether Iran had a hand in planning the October 7 attack. But perhaps more significant is the common ideology that Tehran’s rulers and Hamas share, composed of equal parts misogyny, anti-Semitism, and Islamism. Death, to them, is an aspiration rather than a destiny to forestall. And so their subjects become expendable pawns whose demise is never a loss. Sadegh Khalkhali, the Islamic Republic’s Sharia judge from the early revolutionary era, was once asked how he had so swiftly issued orders to execute so many political prisoners. He breezily replied that either the prisoners were guilty, in which case they’d received their due punishment, or they were innocent, in which case he had simply hastened their ascent to paradise.”

Roya Hakakian’s reporting on the Iranian women’s protests over the past year and half has been stellar, and I value her perspective on Hamas, which is supported by the Iran’s Islamic regime and who they share the same extremist, fundamentalist ideology.

By no means am I ignoring Netanyahu and his Likud party (I vehemently oppose the scale of his military response since 10/7, his longtime settlement efforts in the West Bank, his proposed judicial reform which would preserve the tyrannical rule of the minority party and thus protecting him, and his own record of corruption), and the majority of Israelis feel the same.

We must hold multiple truths at the same time and find a way to communicate them in order to hold onto our humanity and build the world we need. And I think it’s really important to remember other atrocities (such as the continued oppression and silencing of women in Iran, which we had all been so vocal in supporting) and learn from those whose perspectives are needed and not amplified in these times.

I spend more time than I’ll admit thinking about the house in Home Alone - how the bedrooms were divided up between the McCallister kids and cousins living with them, the myth of the basement radiator monster, the amount of stuff stored in the house to stage the “Christmas party” scene, and so much more.

This article does dispel some of the magic of the film, but also answers so many of my questions.

If this article isn’t the best endorsement of How to Pack, I don’t know what is. (It happens to make a great gift for yourself and for every overpacker in your life).

If you don’t, your stuff may end up in Scottsboro, Alabama, and sold to the customers of Unclaimed Baggage, an incredible family business.

In addition to clothing and shoes, electronics, luxury items (including Rolex watches), the store has some incredibly rare and sensitive items come through its doors.

We’re talking the guidance system for the F-14 Tomcat and space shuttle cameras.

The stories these items could tell (and the way this store would be the perfect setting for a romance novel) are endless. I loved this read, and I hope you will enjoy it as well.

I’ve been a creator for 14 years, and I’m always studying my peers and creators I admire to see how I can level my own content up.

Vivian - aka YourRichBFF - is at the top of that list. And this interview is a masterclass in building a content business with intention and focused on impact.

Some of the advice is what you’ve come to expect - post consistently, focus on a platform at a time. But Vivian’s why - “I want to be considered an educator, not just an influencer, and diversifying my platform is a way to let people learn about finance using whatever medium they prefer” - is what resonated so deeply with me, and reminded me to edit and reaffirm my own as I consider what’s next here.

If you haven’t listened to it yet, please check out my interview on Networth & Chill on why drug prices are so damn high.

The win for abortion rights in Ohio made national headlines this month. The women behind the effort deserve the same recognition and acclaim.

Meet Jordyn Close, a We Testify abortion storyteller and deputy director of Ohio Women’s Alliance. She was one of the leaders on the ground who helped activate voter turnout that led to this win, and her words are gold in activating voter bases to show up and vote.

“Black and brown voters are often discounted as a voting block that is disenfranchised, doesn’t turn out, and isn’t interested in issues like reproductive freedom. Issue 1 has proven that isn’t the case. When you give Black and brown people something real and tangible to vote for, we will turn out, because we know very intimately what our communities need to be safe and healthy.”

What happened in Ohio and Kansas will help establish a reproductive rights beachhead in the Midwest, both in offering care to those in neighboring states where abortion is banned, but also to help activate voters there to mount their own constitutional amendments.

Jordyn (and the hundreds of activists she works with) give me hope. More importantly, they also give us a playbook to adapt and activate on. And that’s the only way we’ll build the world we need - by doing it together, and doing it consistently.

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