Odessa’s Oddities & Curiosities | Week of 1/15/24

Dear friends,

I fear this newsletter will be on the longer side, but only because I’ve been so lucky to encounter such wonderful media and people in the past week.

I had the absolute honor of attending the On Being Gathering as a tagalong to my parents (talk about imposter syndrome!). The Gathering was teeming with what Krista termed Social Creatives. I have lots of interesting tidbits that I learned from these wonderful and brilliant people.

We heard from the US Surgeon General, who was somewhat unexpectedly extremely kind and earnest, who spoke about the epidemic of loneliness. I learned how the most important part of feeling in community is feeling seen and known…in summary, reach out to a friend!

In this hot tub overlooking the Redwoods, I learned all about the plastics in our food and how they affect our hormones from Dr. Susan Davidson, who travels across the country educating healthcare professionals and the public. She taught me about the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15 — basically which fruits you should buy organic if possible. Also in the hot tub, I met Scott Shigeoka, who recently released his book: Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World. I mean, perfect for my Oddities & Curiosities. Looking forward to practicing some deep curiosity this semester! tl;dr the important conversations happen in the hot tub, always.

I had a lovely conversation from R’Ariel Burger about Jewish folklore (he gave me some excellent reading material for my Jewish pirate project). Did you know King Solomon reportedly could talk to animals and demons??!?! And had a ring that could summon demons!?!? Where was that piece of juicy information in synagogue?! I also learned all about Rabbi Nachman’s stories within stories (feat. The Seven Beggars). And R’Sharon Brous educated us on the profound moment of mutual recognition that happens during the Kaddish (her new book came out last week).

In other moments, we made up haikus about Hannah Arendt in the Redwoods. I met Jennifer Brandel, the producer of this incredible Radiolab episode about the Interstitium (that Aunt Elena recommended a while back) — basically this major organ we only discovered a few years ago?!?!? And this organ may be the key tie-in between Eastern and Western medicine! I totally geeked out when I met her.

I got to spend great bonding time with former (as of 15 days ago!) Mayor of Sausalito Melissa Blaustein (a newish intergenerational friend!). Aside from her many political and environmental accomplishments, she is also a marathon swimmer (!?!??!?!??!??!??!). MISHUGANA (a Yiddish word that gives crazy a little more umph!) She swam in 48 degree water for 8 hours between Washington and Canada. There are no words…

After reading my newsletter a couple weeks ago, Ben recommended me this incredible book called 1491 by Charles C Mann — a nonfiction book about the history of the Americas before Columbus. It is so so good! Extremely readable and full of fascinating information. I’m only 5% in (it’s 560 pages), but I’m enjoying each delectable page. Mann breaks down the environmental movement’s myth that the Native Americans left the land unchanged during their long history. As he puts it, White people “implicitly depicted Indians as people who never changed their environment from its original wild state. Because history is change, they were people without history.” Instead, Native Americans changed their environment in these monumental ways, and their societies are much older, and way more complex than previously thought. Not to act as if it’s some new idea that archeology/anthropology can be racist, but I was astounded by all the research Mann covers in the book. Basically, I’m learning nearly everything I thought I knew is wrong — just superb! Side note: Getting your recommendations in response to my newsletter brings me such joy!

Okay, podcast time! Bear with me because I listened to A LOT of podcasts this week with all my travel getting back to Yale. Get ready to get outraged at how gun disposal is really gun recycling that just leads to the sale of more guns. AGH! Listen to the episode here. In that vein, did you know how clothing return works? Read here.

Now that it’s an election year, I’m ready to be subsumed by election media. You all should know, I have parasocial relationships with political correspondents. The hosts of Pod Save America are basically my close friends with all the time we’ve spent “together.” I feel similarly about Astead Herndon. He hosts The Run-Up, a fantastic in-depth guide to the elections — episodes are released each week. They are a must-listen.

My dear friend from the age of eight, Francesca (but I call her Franny!)’s dad, Cesar recently released Mexican whiskey, made from an ancient variety of native corn. I’ve been hearing about this project since Cesar drove us to fencing practice in 9th grade, so it is just so joyous to see the project in its physical form: delicious whiskey! Read about it in the New York Times (!!!!!!!) here!

The New York Times also featured this thoughtful essay about diasporism — what are the strengths of Judaism without Israel as a central pillar? An interesting read regardless of your politics. Would love to hear your thoughts <3

Poem time! I have an offering for you: “I Went Out to Hear” by Leila Chatti. What a devastating last two lines…again I fear spoiling it for you.

I stumbled upon this lovely Reel in my feed (side note: I spent way too much time scrolling through Instagram reels this break…my superiority complex about not being on TikTok has suffered greatly). The reel details the etymology of the English word onion through food!

I was so lucky to have Liana visit me from Tues-Thurs this past week. We consumed a lot of media together and attempted to make cookies twice. Due to a serious dearth of ingredients, we made these Greek yogurt cookies — a major fail (unless you tricked your brain that you were eating a shitty pancake?), but the regular cookies rocked. We also did some successful thrifting on Haight-Ashbury. I just relished having her in town before she leaves for Berlin this semester <3

We watched Theater Camp (starring Ben Platt), which I think I enjoyed more than anyone in my family. I think I was perhaps a theater kid in another life — if I wasn’t so cripplingly shy. I laughed. I cried. So good. We also watched Masterchef Junior — I began sobbing as soon as they announced the kids to be sent home. Did you know Gordon Ramsay hosts with his daughter!?!

I’m in the middle of the Prison Healer trilogy which Instagram also recommended to me. The twist was somewhat predictable but I still got full-body chills when the twist was revealed. If you’re looking for an immersive fantasy series, I recommend it!

I arrived on campus last night after a rather hellish day of travel. While I had a rejuvenating break filled with lots of snuggles, laughter, and quality time with my parents, I’m looking forward to the surround-sound intellectual stimulation of being at Yale. I’m so excited to update you all on the curiosities I encounter in my classes this upcoming week.

With love & (deep) curiosity,

Odessa