Friday Inspiration 525
making friends in prison, let's put protein in EVERYTHING, debunking recovery myths
This film is about the Manhattan loft artist Jay Ells has lived in since 1967 (starting rent was $110 a month!), and he says some interesting stuff at the beginning (no hot water in the apartment for the first 35 years), but it gets even more fascinating later on. Also: That view. (video)
At first I wasn’t going to include this, because I don’t know if it will resonate with anyone who doesn’t have nostalgia for the computers of the 1980s and early 1990s, but then I clicked on the post and read in the description that its made out of “LEGO-compatible bricks,” which is pretty mind-blowing and I think maybe more universally relevant.
We interviewed journalist and athlete Christie Aschwanden on The Trailhead podcast last week, and asked her a bunch of questions about recovery. She had some interesting takes on cold plunges, sleep trackers, HRV, and the beer mile, but the thing I really wanted to ask her about was a very simple quote of hers, “stress is stress,” which gets into why sitting at a desk all day answering emails and doing work isn’t “rest,” even though it’s definitely easier than, say, working as a carpenter.
I learned some very interesting (and heartening) facts from this story from newsletter sponsor Precision Fuel & Hydration: Detraining: Will I lose fitness by not training for a few weeks? Including how much fitness you lose by taking time off, but more importantly, how much you retain even if you have a week in which you don’t get to do very much of what feels like “training” (like when you catch a gastrointestinal bug or respiratory virus from a three-year-old). [Reminder that clicking on the link to the story will give you 15% off your first 2026 order from PFH, if you choose to buy anything]
I read this piece twice, about this guy spending 4.5 months in federal prison and how it expanded his social circle, and I am still thinking about many things in it, including but not limited to how most of us would do anything to not go to prison because it’s awful but how, paradoxically, this guy seems to be surprised at the quality of the friendships he made in his time there, so what does that say about us in the 21st century? [GIFT LINK] (via Kottke)
I’ve been listening to Japanese chillhop musician Brockbeats since 2017 or 2018, and I have never been able to find out anything about them—no real bio, no photos, nothing besides some videos of human hands tapping buttons on music equipment to make beats. But, they have a new album out this week, and it is just as pleasant as always.
I feel like Megan Amram probably started writing this piece while having a conversation with a friend about how “protein is in EVERYTHING nowadays!” And one of them said, “Wait, it’s not in everything, right?” And then she just took that idea and ran with it as far as she could.
Alex Hutton’s paintings of roller coasters are wonderful to look at, and the type of thing I’d hang on a wall if I had more walls and way more money, but maybe the most interesting thing about them is that he does not actually ride roller coasters.
I follow the r/oddlysatisfying subreddit because, true to its name, it provides images of oddly satisfying things, as well as just plain satisfying, not oddly at all, things. Such as the way snow fell and settled on this person’s pergola, which they then photographed and shared with the rest of us.
I mentioned this new shirt design a few weeks ago, and the [bestselling] coffee mug design below it as well, and I was thinking they’re both quite simply worded, but kind of have a similar ethos: We’re doing OK.
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The Boeing protein menu really got me.