The Sunday Digest 112
"Would you listen when the wind decides to whisper English fate?"
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.
Shop: ‘Scenes of Note’ Zine
In case you missed it (which I’m pretty sure you didn’t based on how much I’ve promoted it), we released our first-ever print product earlier this week. Featuring film photos from travels over the past year (with some other things sprinkled in), we’ve been thrilled with both how it turned out and the reception it’s gotten since we’ve released it. We’ve still got a lot available, so don’t hesitate to support this newsletter by purchasing one.
Sunday Read › Rick Steves Refuses to Get Cynical About the World
by Lulu Garcia-Navarro for The New York Times
Rick Steves is an absolute delight. He’s someone I’d like to share a mid-day lemonade with. He’s someone I’d love to interview one day. He’s someone I’d love to — no surprise! — travel Europe with.
A gentle soul with a knack for history, his travels through Europe are likely what most people think made him famous. While I enjoy episodes of Rick Steve’s Europe as much as anyone, I think the popularity of the show (and the historical nature of it) take away from how pleasant of an individual he seems to be.
If you’ve never actually watched his show, I’d highly recommend queuing one up when you have a few extra moments so you can understand why he’s built a cult following. Found anywhere from PBS to YouTube to Prime, there’s truly no shortage of episodes. Which, for me, is a wonderful thing.
Here’s an excerpt from his recent interview with The New York Times:
…I’m in this sort of thing in my teaching where I remind people there’s three kinds of travel: You can travel as a tourist, a traveler or a pilgrim…
…Most travelers I know, they’re proud to be known as a traveler as opposed to a tourist: “I’m more thoughtful — I’m not just here to shop and get a selfie. I’m here to immerse myself in the culture and learn.” That is a traveler, to become a temporary local. A traveler learns about the world, but I think a pilgrim learns about themselves, and you learn about yourself by leaving your home and looking at it from a distance. You learn about yourself, I think, by trying to get close to God in your travels. I mean, for me the greatest church is walking on a ridge high in the Alps. The last thing a Lutheran’s going to do is raise their arms to the heavens, but I feel like doing that when I’m on top of an Alp! You just feel so good, and you just feel like this world is such a beautiful place, and it’s filled with beautiful people, and nature is so fragile, and it’s such a delight and a blessing. It changes you. It becomes pretty clear when you travel that we’re all in this together.
Read in full here.
The Sunday Haiku: Next Year’s Problem
To close to Christmas
to figure anything out,
that’s next year’s problem.
New Episode › Retail Therapy 098: Waxed Jackets and Wellies
The potential Barbour takeover by college fraternity guys, shopping for welly boots for a listener, I talks wine and whiskey tastings, Austin Butler cast as the lead in American Psycho, Persian rugs as desktop wallpapers, some more drink of the winter updates, holiday traditions, wishlist items, and more.
Listen to Retail Therapy on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube (see above), and anywhere else podcasts are found. And a reminder to follow Retail Therapy on Substack!
Things I Saved This Week
“How can I support Sunday Scaries?”
Listen to our Retail Therapy.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Subscribe to all Washed Media Podcasts.
Or, you can simply subscribe here: