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never get bored

2020-08-11 · review / recommendation · John · 3:52 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Pop culture, Personal life) · mode: Advice & reviews · tags: heavy topic, self promotion, self correction

John, having a hard time with his chronic mental health problems, shares what is helping him get through: feeling the wind, niche-sport documentaries, Rubik's Cubes, Connected and podcasts, rereading loved books and Life's Library; he concludes they are all ways of learning and listening.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — John is not holding up okay amid his chronic mental health problems; asks viewers what helps them

  • ★★★ John says he is not holding up okay: like many people he knows with chronic mental health problems, he is having a hard time. — 00:00:02 · mental disorder
  • ★★ John shares what helps him get through and asks viewers to say in comments what helps them, so they can learn from each other and get through better. — 00:00:02

00:00:32 — Feeling the wind on his skin; sharing air

  • ★★ John finds it very helpful to go outside and feel the wind on his skin, breeze or gale; wind is weird and wondrous and makes him aware of his aliveness. — 00:00:32
  • ★★ Wind reminds John that the Earth holds a lot of air: while sharing air in the narrowest sense is now very dangerous, sharing air in the largest sense remains essential. — 00:00:47 · Earth, COVID-19 pandemic

00:01:01 — Documentaries Foosballers and The Speedcubers, Rubik's Cubes and flow, Latif Nasser's Netflix show

  • ★★ John has been watching documentaries and enjoyed Foosballers and Sue Kim's short film The Speedcubers, both about people obsessed with niche sports, his genre. — 00:01:01
  • ★★ John says he loves stories about humans making meaning where none inherently exists, like at a foosball table. — 00:01:01
  • ★★ John is not a speedcuber but can now reliably solve a Rubik's Cube in under three minutes. — 00:01:01
  • ★★ John finds it helpful to take up an activity that occupies part of his mind; Rubik's Cubes, like Tetris or trail running, put him in a calm flow state he needs now. — 00:01:30
  • ★★ John loves the Netflix show hosted by Radiolab's Latif Nasser (he calls it Connections): whether on sewage or dust, it gives him wonder and models how inquiry happens for him. — 00:01:30
  • ★★ John says learning becomes exciting for him when he is making and finding connections. — 00:01:30

00:02:00 — The Other Latif and other podcasts; rereading The Bell Jar, Behind You and Frankie Landau-Banks; Life's Library's Blonde Roots and Space Struck

  • ★★ John highly recommends Latif Nasser's Radiolab series The Other Latif as brilliant. — 00:02:00
  • ★★ John listens to the podcasts Invisibilia and Heavyweight when he needs to cry, which is often. — 00:02:00
  • ★★ John has found Planet Money really helpful for understanding the knock-on effects of the pandemic. — 00:02:00 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ In hard times John returns to books he loved; he reread The Bell Jar in Sarah's high-school copy and loved seeing her underlinings and margin notes. — 00:02:00 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John reread young adult novels he loves, including Jacqueline Woodson's Behind You, which made him cry so hard he could not see the page. — 00:02:00
  • ★★ John also reread E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, maybe his favorite boarding school novel ever. (hedged) — 00:02:34
  • ★★ John always loved the Life's Library Book Club, where Nerdfighteria reads together while raising money to fight maternal mortality, but really loves it right now. — 00:02:34 · Nerdfighteria, maternal death
  • ★★ The book club just read Bernardine Evaristo's novel Blonde Roots, which John calls brilliant. — 00:02:34
  • ★★ The club is now reading Paige Lewis's Space Struck, an exploration of anxiety and dread among other things, which makes John feel less alone. — 00:02:34

00:03:04 — Space Struck on panic, book club plug, and the list's lesson: learning and listening give meaning and comfort; sign-off

  • ★★ John repeats lines from Space Struck he has quoted in a vlog before, about a slow leak in a spacesuit and being vice president of panic, as perfectly describing how he feels. — 00:03:04
  • ★★ John invites viewers to join the book club, with more at lifeslibrarybookclub.com. — 00:03:04
  • ★ John says making this list has made him feel better. — 00:03:04
  • ★★★ Making the list, John realises documentaries, reading in community and practicing the Rubik's Cube are all ways of learning and listening, where he now finds meaning and comfort. — 00:03:33

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description and John's comment correct the show's name: Latif Nasser's Netflix show is called Connected, not Connections. — video description
  • ★★ Asked in comments, John calls Smash Mouth's August 2020 live concert in South Dakota idiotic and harmful amid the worst pandemic in over a century and tells its lead singer to stay home. — creator comment · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★ Replying to a commenter, John says walking helps him too: not a miracle cure, but it definitely helps. — creator comment
  • ★ John says he made a chili from Sarah's grandmother's recipe and has found warm food really comforting. — creator comment · Sarah Urist Green

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Life's Library · mental disorder

Also: People: Paige Lewis · Sarah Urist Green

Works: Behind You · Blonde Roots · Connected · Foosballers · Heavyweight · Invisibilia · Planet Money · Radiolab · Space Struck · Tetris · The Bell Jar · The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks · The Other Latif · The Speed Cubers

Organizations: Netflix

Concepts: anxiety disorder · documentary film · flow (psychology) · maternal death · Running · young adult literature

Places: Earth

Events: COVID-19 pandemic

Products: Rubik's Cube

Only in the description or credits: Bernardine Evaristo · E. Lockhart · Jacqueline Woodson · Latif Nasser · Smash Mouth · South Dakota · Steve Harwell · Sue Kim · Sylvia Plath

Also centred on Life's Library: Life's Library · I took a year off social media. Here's what happened.

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