I am bothered! The tall monument on the promenade of São Miguel proclaims “The World Goes Through Here”. I believe it, I want to believe it. Although I can’t pin down the exact meaning, there is something triumphant about those words; sharing an intersection point with the trajectory of the World makes you feel infinitely significant. In this slightly more experimental piece, I document our journey through the beautiful Azores and the tragedy that took place there over 20 years ago.

I am bothered! From the Joe Rogan Experience garnering upwards of 11 million streams per episode to Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper striking a $60 million deal with Spotify, the podcast as a content medium is at its zenith. In this piece, I criticise and consider the roots of the reductive and over-rationalised understanding of human connection by the hosts of the Fresh&Fit podcast, as well as ardently defend the randomness of my YouTube homepage.

On the 24th of February, Putin put on his diver suit, loaded us on to a raft, and plunged a knife deep into its rubber flesh. Deflating like a collapsed lung, heavy and limp, it yearns for the bottom of the ocean. The end is looming for all except the madman at the helm, smirking with sick satisfaction at the chaos of his making. Most people on this raft are fighting tooth and nail to stay afloat, paddling, extending their necks for air. And then there is a fraction who is holding tight to the seams with conviction that at the murky depth of the ocean lies the new Eden.

An excerpt for this is not something I can write up. How you do you summarise your feelings for something of this magnitude? I am scared, I am devastated, I am confused. I cannot believe this really happened. I am trying to process this, but I don’t know if I can.

I am bothered! I don’t know if Alain de Botton is really getting to me or if this is Valentine’s Day angst, but watching Tinder Swindler got me thinking about the philosophy of Romanticism. Emerging as a response to industrialisation and veneration of reason, in this piece I consider how it is detrimental to our ability to have healthy romantic relationships, yet how purging all magic out of love is neither desirable or possible.

I am bothered! The reaction to Lana Rhoades’ pregnancy has been a fascinating dynamic to observe…and not in a good way. In my blogging debut I discuss the hypocrisy of the contemporary porn consumption, the deep-seated cruelty towards sex workers, and our ultimate inability reconcile sexuality and motherhood.