Treat Yourself
find the people who think your weirdness is cool
ROCK PAPER RADIO is a dispatch for misfits & unlikely optimists by your favorite hapa haole, beet-pickling, public radio nerd. It’s a weekly email newsletter that shares three curiosities every Thursday - something to hold on to (that’s the ‘rock’), something to read (that’s the ‘paper‘), and something to listen to (you guessed it, that’s the ‘radio’). Themes include but are not limited to: rebel violinists, immortal jellyfish, revolution. Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word.
SOMETHING TO LISTEN TO
It’s been a big week. Ukrainian civilians are training with wooden guns to prepare for a Russian invasion. Schools across the U.S. are warming up the fires for a good ol’ fashioned book burning. Salads are killing people.
With all of that in mind, I hope this week’s audio feature brings you a bit of joy and reminds you that when the world is losing its mind, you should burrow underground with the people who make you feel like your weirdness is cool.
I love this Third Coast Award-winning 9-minute feature from NPR’s Invisibilia host Yowei Shaw, who I am extremely fortunate to have as my mentor: My Parents' Extreme Tango Makeover.
On one hand, this story is about Shaw’s parents deciding in middle age to trade their usual evenings at home listening to Mozart, for a spicy nightlife ruled by the dance of passion. But on the other, it’s also about the wonder of getting to know the people we love the most in new ways, even after a lifetime together. Plus, Shaw and her parents and sisters are so funny. Her parents’ fight over the “close embrace” stance around the 6-minute mark is especially amazing. Shout out to Asian parents forever.
SOMETHING TO READ
Recently, writer Rax King called out media peeps in her signature boldness. The former bartender/server/go-go dancer in me nodded sagely at my Twitter feed:
As I pause in my newfound unemployment to reflect on where I’ve come from and what might be next for me, one response to King’s tweet from user @motorcruft keeps echoing in my brain like some kind of clue: “Relatively speaking, it’s high prestige and low pay; perfect for the already-rich.”
Which got me thinking—you know what else is a great gig for people who don’t have to worry about paychecks? College! Attending one. Working* for one.
I don’t know what Educated author Tara Westover’s stance is on the media industry, but she makes a striking argument for the price of privilege and professionalism in her powerhouse of an essay on grinding her way through college in yesterday’s New York Times: I Am Not Proof of the American Dream.
As someone who, like Westover, also worked my way through my education as a first-generation undergrad and graduate student (and also through multiple unpaid NYC media internships!), and now finds myself going on two decades(!) of being incurably enamored with both the media world and academia, I felt both seen and crushed while reading her words.
Especially at this moment, where Westover shares how a $4,000 undergraduate grant allowed her to finally focus on who she wanted to become instead of on surviving:
The day I cashed that check is the day I became a student. It’s the day the current of my thoughts shifted from obsessively tracking the balance of my bank account, down to the dime, to obsessively tracking my coursework. It was an experience not of wealth but of security, and with security, the freedom to ask questions about what I wanted from my life. What did I enjoy doing, or thinking about? What was I good at? I started seeking out and studying books outside the required reading; I took courses that were not required, for the simple reason I was interested in them, and I had the time.
If you’re still hustling to pull yourself up by bootstraps you’re not sure exist too, this essay’s for you.
SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO
February 1st marked the start of the Year of Tiger, which means I am still eating my way though New Year celebrations as I point my intentions towards courage and good fortune.
If you too are feeling hungry in multiple ways, I enthusiastically recommend getting your hands on a jar of Fly by Jing and spooning the “this tastes different” chili crisp in embarrassingly generous heaps onto a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
While you lick the bowl clean and try to wrap your brain around how something can be so unfathomably salty/sweet/spicy/cold/hot/DELICIOUS, I recommend reading this essay by the condiment’s founder, Jing Gao: How I Built a Radically Personal Hot Sauce Brand and Found Myself in the Process. It’s as much a fascinating ride through Gao’s journey as an entrepreneur as it is a moving look into the evolution of Gao’s bicultural identity. Gung hay fat choy, all.
LET’S GO, YEAR OF THE TIGER
That’s a wrap on issue 69, friends. Thanks for listening, reading, holding on.
After a much needed break, I’m (bravely yet tentatively!) dipping my toe back into social media. If you’re on Instagram, I’d love it if you’d show our misfit crew some love @rockpaperradio. And if you have ideas for the kinds of conversations/sweepstakes/anything-but-memes that might fuel your unlikely optimism on social media, don’t hesitate to reach out. If this issue arrived in your inbox, feel free to hit reply and let me know what you think.
See you next Thursday.
K.
*This 2020 AFT survey of over 3,000 contingent faculty members found that one-third of adjunct professors earn less than $25,000 a year, placing them below the poverty line for a family of four.