The Sunday Digest 020

Enjoyed best with a homemade cup of joe.

May 15, 2022

Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you. Or, if podcasts are more your speed on Sundays, we’ve got that too.

Sunday Read: How I Started to See Trees as Smart

by Matthew Hutson for The New Yorker

Thought we’d get a little weird this week. Whether you’re an Austin tech bro looking to micro-dose on the job or a full-blown trustafarian unapologetically doing drugs at a Widespread Panic concert, the rise of psychedelic interest over the past few years has spiked to a level that can’t be ignored.

In this week’s Sunday Read, Matthew Hutson discusses altered states.

Altered states might also make us aware of intelligences within us, according to a computer scientist at a prominent artificial-intelligence lab who enjoys LSD. “Being in altered states has made me realize, to a somewhat greater extent, that the brain is a bit of a kludge,” the scientist said. “It’s lots of different modules, sort of mashed together.” Some portions of our brains seem to play games in social settings—the scientist gave the examples of a “get-people-to-like-you game” and a “be-entertaining game”—and this may become obvious to a person who’s high. “I think of human intelligence as being messier than I thought it was,” the scientist told me, and added that artificial intelligence might need to be modular and messy, too.

Read in full here.

The Sunday Haiku: The Holy Trinity

Juxtaposition.

Brunch; coffee, water, bloody.

Welcome to Sunday.

Things I Saved This Week

New Episode › The Spring/Summer Self-Care Special with Sally

Our most-requested guest has returned — Sally deFries, also known to others as SalGal. In her quest to match Hailey Bieber’s #GlazedDonutSummer campaign, she takes us through her entire skincare routine, calls out some of her favorite products, discusses which celebs she’d want to trade skin with, and more. She also takes us through her travel essentials, how SalGals even came to be in the first place, and a rapid-fire round of questions ranging from her vacation wardrobe to Whole30 to her drink of the summer.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else podcasts are found.

New Episode › Retail Therapy 009: Spray Tans & Mesh Shirts

With summer creeping up and new clothes arriving in the mail, it was time to discuss what’s on everyone’s minds: mesh shirts and spray tans. Barrett takes me through the process and benefits of getting a spray tan, I give my rules for not being self-conscious in revealing mesh/lace shirts, and more.

On the back-end of the episode, we also break down the peculiar Aime Leon Dore x Woolrich Fly Fishing drop and add some items to our wishlists.

Check out this week’s listener companion if you’re looking for a deep-dive.