#wonkistan

on the other hand I actually took my anxiety meds, and they were helpful. But they were also supposed to help me go to sleep. So maybe I need to take more of them.

but in the meantime I just spent some time hanging out with amanda and ivan and hank and john (by watching their videos) and gosh there is something so wonderfully COMFORTING about their presences. I have been watching their videos and engaging with them in various levels of closeness (friends with Amanda vs. I hugged John Green once because he remembered that time I livetweeted the first half of looking for alaska before I had to put the book down. I'm still not ready to finish it. Maybe in a few years? anyway.)

The moral of the story is that damn, I do miss and admire all of these folks in different ways.

It’s been a wide-ranging week for our coverage here at Wonkistan. Here are some great posts you may have missed:

We clarified Pope Francis’ provocative remarks and shared our favorite reactions from around the internet

We reflected on the Nairobi mall crisis & a pair of devastating incidents in Peshawar and Baghdad, and tried to give some useful background on religious violence in all three places

Catherine helped us explain the growing tensions between the US and Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador

And elsewhere on the internet, Ivan published a book review about Christians and the Syrian civil war over at Red Egg Review. Read it!

Hello, Wonkistan! Long time no see! We've just published a new episode, "Food Thoughts," featuring guest host Cate Matthews.

In it we start to address food politics, including urban farming, hipster foodieism, and privilege. Here are some bonus readings! If one really interests you, please let us know--we'll feature it in an upcoming episode.

  Social Issues:

“Why Green is Always White (and Male and Upper-Class)”

Rod Dreher's conservative defense of foodieism

The inherently othering nature of "ethnic food" as a category

Rod Dreher, Eve Tushnet, and others on food, discipline, & Lent (which is still in progress for many Eastern Christians!)

Economics:

Ron Finley's excellent TED Talk, "Growing your own food is like printing your own money"

NY Times wonders if hipster foodieism is financially irresponsible

Washington Post’s “The High Cost of Poverty”

Policy:

It’s one of those big nights in American politics: the State of the Union address. Don’t worry, Wonkistan is going to watch along together!

Residents of the US can watch on nearly any TV station. The rest of us can click over to the White House’s live stream or to C-SPAN, which will also be covering the two (two! What are we, European?) response speeches.

Tweet along using #MardiPolitique. Get it? Mardi Gras?

Might we suggest some alternatives to keeping yourself busy while you wait for the next chapter of Pride Week and Prejudice?

Wonkistan: Amanda and Ivan are two sexy intellectuals taking on the world's news, culture and politics with facts, understanding, straightforwardness and a little bit of sass. Watch, read, engage, better yourself. I swear, I've become 10% better looking since talking to Amanda:wonkistan.com/

Emilieofnewgloom and the making of The Water's Fine: I've met Emily once over a crowded g+ chat, but she was incredibly friendly and sweet. You've probably seen the buzz surrounding her independent short film The Water's Fine and its successful fundraising campaign! The film isn't out yet, but Emily's youtube shows her first attempts at videovlogging and behind the scenes looks at how she built an epic. Her videos on production were more helpful than I can really say and I borrowed a lot from Emily. Despite the fact that the two are incomplete and have little in common, I consider The Water's Fine and Pride Week and Prejudice second cousins, creatively speaking. http://www.youtube.com/user/emilieofnewgloom

Sadie: Can we talk about http://www.youtube.com/user/defense360? For like a hot second? Sadie is quite possibly the cutest thing on two legs. Who remembers high school? Yeah, Sadie just started and I wish I'd had half the poise and creativity that she's carrying right now. Check her out and if you're not a tiny bit inspired when you leave. Well. You're a dirty liar.

Video Blogs of the Cast and Crew:

Quite a few of you have raised the question of vocabulary: should we really have stuck to using the term "bluegrass" when referring to a whole host of rural American musical genres, while having the audacity not to mention a single bluegrass band per se?

We definitely didn't think as hard as we should have about what to call the many different kinds of musics. As we mentioned in the episode extras post, we used "bluegrass" as an umbrella term -- but perhaps we should have used "Americana," or another term that indicated style and flavor more than genre. If you have an idea, let us know!

"Wonkistan: Enthusiasm Spotlight - Bluegrass!"