Month of Joy: Sharing Pop Culture by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Something that has brought me a great deal of joy over the years — but particularly in 2017, a year that has us grasping for crumbs of joy among the embers and the schrapnel — is sharing pop culture with my kids. My eldest turned 12 last January. It hit me that I remembered exactly what I was reading at 12 — Stephen King’s IT, for one, along with a whole bunch of other adult texts. So… my policy on reading matter, always fairly casual, meant that I removed all filters and left R to it. My policy on other media shifted a bit too, especially when I realised that 12 is an awesome age to experience teen media that didn’t come along until I was… well. Older than 12.
Month of Joy: Podcasts by Adam Callaway
I’d like to talk about one of the main things that got me through 2017. Beyond all of the horrible real world shit that was going on in the real world, I was diagnosed as bipolar in March of 2017. It wasn’t a huge surprise; I had been dealing with depression and anxiety for years up to that point. It was nice to have a firm diagnosis though. It helped narrow down the possible medications I could take to help me. And, after maybe six months, I finally hit on a combo of meds that have significantly improved my life. But before that, and still to this day, I’ve used art both to escape my own mind, as well as to help control my moods. Of all the art forms that I consume, that one that provided the most consistent relief was: podcasts.
