Special Episode: Thanksgiving Childlore

11/25/22 • 30 min

It’s Thanksgiving. My heart is just a little more conspicuously on my sleeve at this time of the year, and childhood is somehow always on my mind. In that vain, I have something old and something new:

First, a reflection from Book 1, Episode 3 on letting your kids be themselves—whatever a self even is.

Second, I’m joined by my colleague Natalie Roxburgh to discuss Julie Beck’s recent article in the Atlantic, “Why Did We All Have the Same Childhood?”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amillionlittlethoughts.substack.com

First, a reflection from Book 1, Episode 3 on letting your kids be themselves—whatever a self even is.

Second, I’m joined by my colleague Natalie Roxburgh to discuss Julie Beck’s recent article in the Atlantic, “Why Did We All Have the Same Childhood?”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amillionlittlethoughts.substack.com

Previous Episode

Special Episode: Stephen Metcalf

Steve Metcalf seems to shed urbanity and passion like I shed dandruff. His off-the-cuff manner of speech is as trenchant as his writing, and he is able to say wise things about any subject.

Here he discusses with me the topic that launched an episode of this podcast and my three-part essay “Best Behavior” (part three coming soon): the weird fact that we all changed our entire outlook on Woody Allen’s film Manhattan to fit our changing moral priorities—how we cannot just bracket out the lechery on display and heap praise on an indisputably brilliant and entertaining movie, even though that’s exactly what we did for decades! Steve and I chew over this terribly troubled—and terribly interesting—question before digging deeper into where our moral judgements hail from.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amillionlittlethoughts.substack.com

Next Episode

Special Episode: Thanksgiving 2023

It’s my favorite holiday again, and even though I’m hunkered down trying to produce the most complex, intricate, creative season of the podcast yet, there’s no way I’m going to skip a chance to celebrate. This time our guest is Bryon White, CEO of Yaupon Brothers, an organic producer of Yaupon Holly, a climate-change resistant plant once revered as a drink by all indigenous people of the Southeastern United States, beloved for its salubrious properties for body and soul. He and his colleagues are trying to return Yaupon to the place of dignity and value that, from a long-term perspective, it’s always had in North America.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amillionlittlethoughts.substack.com