What I Read/Watched in December (Part 2)
Here to (finally) bid farewell to 2024 with these links!
Hello! It’s already becoming borderline inappropriate to say “Happy New Year” anymore, so I figured I better send out this roundup of what I watched and read in the latter half of December. I included most of my movies/TV shows/books in the last roundup, so I’ll save any new entries in those categories for the January newsletter!
My last email ran long, so I changed the newsletter format to hyperlink to articles in my description instead of including a separate URL (except for the few that Substack chose to include as a preview, which are primarily videos below the description). If the email is still a bit long and cuts off, click the “Download the entire message” button at the bottom of your phone/screen to keep reading.
Happy reading/skimming!
Edit: I finished compiling this post as wildfires began raging in LA (where I live), so I included a quick roundup of the wildfire reads up top that I consumed before sending this out. Stay safe, folks. Climate change is very real.
-Why did the fires start?
-Pacific Palisades and an inevitable fire
-How to fortify your home in advance of a wildfire
-Fire officials don’t want you to ignore an evacuation order to defend your property
-Info on helping wildfire victims in LA
-LA’s wildfire season started with the Woolsey fire and never ended (from 2019)
ENTERTAINMENT/MEDIA/ART/CULTURE
This write-up on the search for a missing Van Gogh couldn’t be a better endorsement for subscribing to the NYT. This is some damn good journalism.
Churros for Hanukkah - yum
Gen Z loves this artist who likes painting kids with giant faces — and he’s also tackling climate change
People are sticking so many sticky eyes onto sculptures in Oregon that it’s made the news
Love Little Free Libraries? How about Bloom Boxes for native wildflowers?
Guavas are a Southern California staple, but people hate the smell
Books like 100 Years of Solitude to whet your appetite after the TV show (yesss to House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende!)
It’s their 100th anniversary & photo booths are still kicking
Video games are looking too good & that could spell their financial demise
Wicked is a radical film??
This massive spiral artwork (aka a type of land art) in Utah has been added to the National Register of Historic Places
Japan’s government is promoting bookstores & I am green with envy
Dig your DvDs out of storage because they’re making a comeback, baby
Lots of cool stuff entering the public domain! Popeye! Virginia Woolf! Time to make your one-woman stage plays of In a Room of One’s Own
The Goonies is coming back to the screen for its 40th anniversary
Fungus among us: the spike in valley fever is giving me The Last of Us vibes (kidding! Well, only half kidding since the new season comes out in April)
Add these thrillers to your TBR for 2025
Is COVID ruining the voices of theater performers?
This forgotten movie from 2024 offers a much-needed mental reset
Content creators could help save newsrooms
Amy Adams and Denis Villeneuve reunite to talk about their Arrival days (I love this movie far too much)
Hollywood has been buying some spec scripts for big money. It probably won’t change much in the industry, but it’s maybe promising.
Marv from Home Alone is growing tangerines now
Justin Baldoni’s smear campaign against Blake Lively has shown we’re a lot more susceptible to disinformation campaigns than we think (and that’s without AI!)
The energy in this Variety Actors on Actors interview between Colman Domingo and Kieran Cullen is unmatched
Indiewire’s best movies of 2024. Are any of your faves on this list? What are you catching up on in 2025?
NATURE/ENVIRONMENT/CLIMATE
The Sierra Club shines a spotlight on hunters of color and conservation efforts
Mourning on the 20th anniversary of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands
It’s payday for fossil fuel companies in New York
When even desert plants can’t take this much heat
Too many teens are dealing with air pollution at school. One wrote about it
Squirrels can be carnivorous?? Nuts just ain’t enough sometimes
America is facing an avalanche crisis (backcountry skiers, beware)
New York City had a white Christmas for the first time in 15 years
Delhi made headlines for its toxic air. Pregnant women are fighting back for their children now
Do car-free zones hinder people with disabilities?
The EPA promotes toxic fertilizer despite numerous warnings over years (gift article)
Foxes’ skulls are uniquely poised to help them jump and burrow into snow
Friendly orca pod thrills whale watchers in California
Moo deng 2.0 is here
The best bird photos of 2024
You might have heard Biden signed into law a bill making the bald eagle our national bird (officially.). Here’s the guy who helped make that a reality
Climate change is going to hit your coffee budget where it hurts (gift article)
Jimmy Carter wanted to do so much for the environment
Sea turtles have bubble butt (it’s a real condition). 3d printers can help
This mighty creature survived the Ice Age, but our current age of warming might doom it
Free national park days in 2025 in the U.S.
The largest offshore wind farm in the US is set to be completed, bringing jobs and saving money
I’m skeptical of some mass tree planting efforts, but nonetheless, cool to read about the 10m trees being planted to replace those lost in hurricanes in the US
Human composting is taking off
This short doc about a Black man who turned Forrest Gump and walked across America for the planet is shortlisted for the Oscar’s nominees
Rewilding group launches ambitious campaign to reconnect big boy trees in the Amazon (featuring breathtaking animal footage from the tree ecosystems)
All the reasons not to despair
*All the bird flu stuff
Bird flu is coming. Time to get ready
Risk of fatalities from bird flu is EXTREMELY high for pregnant people & fetuses (the dismissal of “people with underlying conditions during viral outbreaks is very annoying, but I think people forget pregnancy…is an underlying condition)
Young people are using the court system in Montana to secure big climate victories
Hide your cats (indoors, away from birds, with NO raw food). Bird flu is sickening more cats
20 animals die of bird flu in big cat sanctuary
Arizona is the salad bowl for America. Can agriculture adapt through the drought?
What happened when the wolf crossed the road?
California Academy of Sciences adds 100+ species discoveries in 2024 (Pygmy pipehorse! We love alliteration)
LA zoo hatches a lizard that can grow up to 8 feet
Meet the Gen Z Asian American influencer making crab fishing cool
Why are California officials sending thousands of burros to Texas?
The feds are trying to protect these cute giant critters impacted by Hurricane Helene
The final harvest of a Japanese persimmon farm
Why did Biden announce an ambitious climate goal weeks before leaving office?
So fog harvesting is a thing now
Other stuff you must read
A wild essay meditating on race, nature and drowning in America
Kindness is good for your health
A surprising celebrity championed a law to help California teens
Homelessness surged by a shocking amount in 2024
Vitamin D is very good for many reasons, but it doesn’t prevent fractures and falls in old age
I forgot if I said this about the previous December reading roundup but this is a true treasure trove of articles, ranging from awe inspiring to terrifying. I'm genuinely impressed how much one person can read over the course of a month. Did you find yourself surprised by just the sheer amount of media you were exposed to in a single month? Keep it up!!