The Sunday Digest 075
Plus a bonus episode of The Sunday Scaries Podcast.
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.
Last Call: The Sound of Sunday Tees and Crewnecks
Today is the last day you can pre-order my collaboration with Jocelyn Kowalski, The Sound of Sunday. Thank you to everyone who already purchased — we had a great time making this design and I can’t wait to see a few of these in Las Vegas mid-May.
Sunday Read › Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out
By Derek Thompson for The Atlantic
If you’ve been to a group dinner with me lately or have simply listened to a recent episode of Circling Back, you’ll know that I’ve had a running bit about the statistics surrounding the decline of male friendship after the age of 40. Unfortunately, this is only partially a bit and most definitely a way for me to spike everyone’s anxiety about it so we can turn things around before it’s too late.
Maybe it’s all the Apple Vision Pros flying around lately but I do have bouts of worry relating the idea of all of us becoming hermits due to various factors surrounding technology.
This week’s Sunday Read, however, tackles this problem on a larger scale. Here’s an excerpt:
From 2003 to 2022, American men reduced their average hours of face-to-face socializing by about 30 percent. For unmarried Americans, the decline was even bigger—more than 35 percent. For teenagers, it was more than 45 percent. Boys and girls ages 15 to 19 reduced their weekly social hangouts by more than three hours a week. In short, there is no statistical record of any other period in U.S. history when people have spent more time on their own.
And so what? one might reasonably ask. Aloneness is not loneliness. Not only that, one might point out, the texture of aloneness has changed. Solitude is less solitary than ever.
Read in full here (and yes, an incognito window may help if you don’t subscribe).
New Episode › Hurkle Durkle, Yutori, and New Hobby Frustrations
A special edition of The Sunday Scaries Podcast. This week, I tackled the frustration of learning a new skill or hobby, the leisure-inspired Scottish concept of “Hurkle Durkle,” and creating space in your daily life using yutori.
Listen to The Sunday Scaries Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else podcasts are found.
The Sunday Haiku: This bolognese better be worth it.
I got sauce on my—
Oh shit, it’s on my pants too.
Time to start laundry.
Things I Saved This Week
First Look: Sunday Scaries Lounge Boxers
These will be releasing some time in the next week, so keep an eye out. Yes, Substack subscribers will have first access to them before I feed it to the sharks on Instagram. I’ve been sleeping in these every night since they got in, and something tells me they’d make a great poolside companion this summer.
The coziness I felt when that Scaries jazz theme hit the eardrums for the first time in awhile…
The French "this or that" series is the best thing on the internet right now.