July 2020 Reading List! (Patreon)

Hello my reading list nerds! 

Here's some articles, podcasts and videos I've consumed recently. Don't forget we a have a private reading list channel in The Common Room discord server which you can use to discuss any of these and carry on the conversations :) 

Articles

Welcome To The Anti-Racism Movement - This article was published in 2017 so I’m really late and there’s lots of catching up to do.

Podcasts

For Harriet’s Kimberly Foster On Racism, Girlboss Feminism, Convincing Internet Strangers, And The Kardashians - yup this episode of The Financial Confessions really does cover all those topics. Really loved this episode and what Kimberly had to say about her career and online feminism and activism.

Why Didn’t Anyone Go to Prison for the Financial Crisis? - Leena got me on to this podcast. This is the episode I started with but then obviously I scoured through their backlog for other topics that interested me e.g. Sexting, Human Trafficking, Sex Offenders, which I was saving for the next Pleasure Trove reading list but also you should have a look through their episodes and see what topics take your fancy. Really great, nuanced deep dives into these topics (although from a US perspective). A lot of the ideas and principles are the same but they often go into detail about how the law in the US affects these issues which would be different in the UK.

Videos

Trying To Explain What Swings Do - I have always wondered this! Wft is the difference between an understudy/alternative/ensemble/swing?! Thanks Carrie and Oliver for doing their best to explain.

How I remain unbothered - Kelly Stamps is brilliant. Her deadpan humour, no fucks given videos are just brilliant. This is the self improvement content we all really need. Also, her editing and humour style is kind of similar to Micarah Tewers, so if you like her you’ll like Kelly.

Social Distance Public Shamers - Julie Nolke at it again with another hilarious pandemic sketch. 

Analysing the “Karen” meme - I feel like I’m always sharing Tiffany’s videos here but they’re just so damn good. And she takes this meme and just goes hard analysing it and talking about racism, white privilege and sense of entitlement.

Ranking World Leaders’ Responses to Coronavirus - yes, this video is exactly that. In the same way that Jazza ranked the Eurovision entries for this year, he’s also blessed us with this political ranking of how different governments have dealt with COVID19.

Why I only own 4 books? A chat on booktube consumerism - in the comments of my booktube oldie/newbie tag a lot of people recommended I watch this video. So thank you, really loved seeing this perspective on booktube. I’m still personally so conflicted between the aesthetics/sentimentality/practicality of owning physical books.

How Not to Fall for Bad Statistics - this should be a class we all have to do in school when we’re teenagers to help us navigate the world of misleading headlines and statistics and become more efficient critical thinkers. 

Antisemitism: An Analysis - what do you mean you don’t want to sit through an hour long video from Philosophy Tube about Antisemitism? This video really helped clarify a lot of my own thoughts and knowledge around being a non-practicing Jew whose relatives are German and who doesn’t support the occupation of Palestine. 

How the Hamilfilm Trailer Works - this appeared in my recommended because I’d watched the Hamilfilm trailer many times and oh boy this channel is AMAZING. So many videos on how Hamilton works (musically), albeit a lot of the technical stuff around the music goes over my head (it’s like bloody algebra!!) but I would also recommend watching How Hamilton Makes You Cry (3 part series) as it’s a bit more accessible to non-music expert folks than some of his other videos and is so interesting!

So, I made a decision… - Brie Larson has started a YouTube channel. What do you guys think? I love that you can really tell she’s a YouTube fan and spends a lot of time watching different YouTubers. But I’m always skeptical about these things… I guess we’ll see what she makes eh. All the YouTubers she interviewed are pretty mainstream and big though and when she asked for advice I wished they’d been a bit more real with her rather than “just be yourself and do it because you love it” because I hate that rhetoric if it isn’t followed by some real practical advice about the reality of being on YouTube.

We Need to Talk: The Race Issue Between Lesbian Creators - this is Jade Fox, she’s a comedian on YouTube and she made this really great video about racism within the LGBTQ+ community, specifically among lesbians and the divide there is between Black and white lesbians on the platform.

Calling myself out during lockdown - I’m sure a lot of you will have already seen this video but feel like it needs to be said again, now is not the time to be keeping calm and carrying on. Oh no.