Delightfully Random Recommendations: Summer Edition

Here is a crowd-sourced mix of things people (and I) genuinely love and keep recommending. Enjoy! 

🎧 Podcasts

Culture Study, by Anne Helen Petersen: I'm a longtime fan. If you're new to her, start here.

Material Girls Podcast: KT recommended this for fans of Anne Helen Petersen. I think I'll start with this episode.

Who's With Me? with W. Kamau Bell. His episode with Ted Danson gives a great lesson in public apology. 

Priya Parker with Mel Robbins. Joanna said she recently enjoyed this episode about building connection with the people in your life.   

Anne Patchett with Kate Bowler. Joanna has this one queued up. 

📚 Books

The Other Side of Change or When Things Fall Apart. Great for when you're in the middle of some big change. An older person in my life recently read these. She said When Things Fall Apart resonated better with her. I really love The Other Side of Change's podcast.  

The Artist's Way - Julia Cameron. Ana, a self-described person with zero creativity, uses it as a way to clear her head in the morning before the day starts. 

Meet the Newmans - Jennifer Niven. My current beach read. It's fun and not dumb. 

Unmasking for Life - Devon Price. Not just for autistics. A helpful read if you ever find yourself performing for others and sometimes lose yourself.

☕ Small Joys

Dutch Tosti Kaas: My daughter's ultimate small joy. Cheese and bread in a tosti maker (or panini press). To do it her way, use old-Amsterdam Cheese and put cheese on the top of the bread too for some extra cheesy crunch. 

Rewatch of 30-Rock. Most of it aged pretty well, and yes, I use it for this.

Arrested Development. Joanna did a rewatch while recoving from some health issues and said it hit the spot. 

🍽️ Habits & Ways of Living

Host a party: We hosted two end-of-school-year parties this year, one for each kid. In the Netherlands, it's not custom to host a party just because. But everyone loved it, and we did too. Was it exhausting? Yes. Did it make us feel more connected to our community? Also yes. 

Do something unexpected: I recently went SUPing the Utrecht canals with a friend. We met at 8pm, which for me is not too far from bedtime. It was a push to do something for me that late. But a good reminder that I can get too stuck in my routine and miss out on fun. 

🧠 Planning, Focus & Work Systems

HabitShare: Linda has had initaial success with HabitShare to give her extra motivation and accontability.

You can also see my full tech-stack here for recommendations, and my update with Claude. 

Thanks to everyone for sharing! What did we miss? Let me know in the comments.