Everything I Read, Listened to, Talked about or Watched this week.

I often get asked where I get my information from and usually I respond with a really vague "well umm". Which isn't particularly helpful for anyone. This ramble of words probably isn't going to be either.

If you've been to my house you will have seen the wall of books, magazines, records and movies in my lounge room. And if you've known me for any good length of time you'll know I've been a bit of a news and culture addict since forever.

My partner and I moved out of home at 18 into a giant share house filled with people mid-twenties and older, all in their final years of university and from all over the world. Over the years, there was a guy from Perth, someone from Sweden, a guy from China, more than a few travelling Germans, a guy from Singapore and of course a bunch of run of the mill 'Australians', myself included. Not to mention the dozen or so other people who were constantly around or part of the broader community of people that regularly hung out. Late at night in the garage, I'd sit up and talk about everything and anything with these people. Sometimes agreeing but often debating. Instead of the weekly footy scores it paid to stay up on the comings ang goings of the world to be able to engage. A quick draw of a reference or being able to quote a news article went a long way.

During this time I began and completed my Bachelors of Journalism at the University of the Sunshine Coast after doggedly limping through a Paramedics degree which I'd done two years of as well. The jump from paramedicine to journalism, was partly spurred on by starting a culture magazine with the aforementioned house mates and broader surf, skate and arts community I'd found myself embedded in. Of which, we eventually got something similar to a cease and desist from the guys at Monster Children for our blatant rip offs of their magazine layouts.

Now I'm sure you were expecting a Buzzfeed style listicle of things I read and watched this week for you to also add to a list of your own and probably never actually get around to looking at. Not whatever this anecdotal thing is but hang in there. I do love context or 'laying pipe' as its sometimes referred to.

This was all happening in and around 2011 to 2015, give or take a year or two. Potentially the best five year period enjoyed by most of human population. Things were ticking. It felt like the tech boom would never stop, the Paris Climate Change Accords (2015) were about to be signed and Obama was President of the USA. Kevin Rudd had managed to shield most of so called Australia from the GFC and between 2009 and 2014 there was a pause on direct hostilities by Israel on Gaza.

Prior to all of this, after having watched 9/11 live on TV, Green Day's album American Idiot broke my 14 year old brain in 2004. About the same time I discovered Banksy, while bashing around online looking at graffiti, in particular their work 'Balloon Debate' on the Gaza wall in 2005.

But all's to say everything seemed to coming up apples in the early 2010's and as someone who was still recovering on their beat generation, Hunter S. Thompson and Patti Smith addiction I was looking out at world and thinking there might never be a need for a massive mobilisation of people in streets again.

I'd started attending Extinction Rebellion protests during this time and volunteering my photography services to Surf Rider too but for the most part progressive ideas and progress seemed to be moving in the right direction. Still I was reading and learning about various Civil Rights and activist movements particularly around the anti Globilisation protests of the early 2000's or the Black Rights Activism of the sixties and seventies. I was obsessed with Edward Snowdown, Julian Assange and actions of Anonymous. Living vicariously through what seemed like times and moments I'd just missed. Born too late.

All the while trying to connect it back home, for what seemed like the most pressing issues of the time around environmentalism and speed of local development.

The first time I could vote, was a donkey vote. As a kid, I used to ask my parents who they had voted for every election they'd almost always respond by saying 'Mickey Mouse'. So I did that. I think the LNP won again and something didn't sit right with me, so second time around, I'd started looking into each candidate and tried to make an informed vote. I've pretty much voted Green or independent ever since.

Alas, ff you're reading this, your probably aware that human civilisation wasn't really killing it back in the early 2010's. Obama ordered somewhere between 542 and 563 drone strikes, killing an estimated 3,797 people, including 324 civilians across seven countries. To quote Obama;

“Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”

it's glaring reading that quote now, we were all still hopeful and naive. I guess the Shepard Fairey 'Hope' poster looks different depending on whether or not your using a joy stick to pilot a drone or its your wedding day in Yemen on 12 December, 2013.

I recently listened to the final episode of WTF by Marc Maron featuring none other than former President Barak Obama. I'd been listening to WTF since around 2016 but had stopped sometime in early 2024. Maron's commentary, cultural insight and politics had once seemed urgent and prescient but now came across as tired and out of touch in a moment of genuine urgency and cultural attack. The final episode was a beautiful way to round out the legacy of WTF, especially in regards to its cultural impact and how it will no doubt serve as part of archive of this era.

But how do you reconcile the guy who said he was good at killing people with this heartfelt moment? The guy who pushed for incremental change and progress with that perfectly crafted orators voice only to have ushered in the current Trump/MAGA era. Obama could codified abortion, queer and migrant rights, but he didn't. Nor did his best bud and former vice President Joe Biden.

This all feels a long way from the late night and substance fueled garage debates. And even further from a teased read and watch list. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't need to suddenly be an expert in everything. You don't need to be the most informed person in the room and you definitely don't need to have an opinion on everything. My political views and influences and changed drastically in last year and even more so looking back to eighteen year old me. And I hope they continue to evolve and grow the more I learn, until I'm done with this life.

I've feel like I've got a knack for this stuff but even the other day I was caught of guard by a Betoota Advocate post and series of attacks all because I was a little too in need of some good news and suffered some confirmation bias. It was a post about them turning down a $35million offer from Sportbet to buy them out. I thought, not even Bill Burr could turn down $10million to artwash in Riyadh , even though Burr had attacked Beyonce for playing Gaddaffi's sons New Years Party.

And then Betoota proceeded to run a dozen or so posts an articles about the scrouge on our society and culture that is gambling, but specifically online gambling, it was the coolest thing I'd seen in a minute. Not only were they going after gambling, something our political elite have dumped in favour of the teen social media ban but they'd turned down real cash and upheld their morals. I shared it a little too fast and a little too excited. Then someone on Bluesky pointed out that it was a gag because of course, its Betoota.

This post truth era isn't helping, its part of why I so fell for Betoota's gag, because why wouldn't Sportsbet offer to buy them out right now, Betoota's huge and they have access to the same audiences Sportsbet would love to be able to directly capture. The post truth era, is also a big reason I think people burn out on the news and by extension sociopolitical issues more broadly is this whiplash of trying to keep up.

It's even a conscious thing at many of the major media institutions, this idea of 'news fatigue'. You'll see major news outlets start to run fluff pieces if they feel the news has been to heavy of late. Many of those fluff pieces include arts and culture, further complicating arts relationship to hard news or 'art washing' as its referred to. But that's something for another day.

In Alex Leach's book "The World is on Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes", Leach makes the case that a better path toward sustainability in fashion consumption is not just in buying less or 'more sustainably' but by building your own taste. By interrogating out what it is you actually like outside of trend cycles and social medias targeted marketing campaigns. This puts you into the drivers seat. Leach encourages people to be more intentional about what they wear and why which in turn makes you more resilient to being marketed too.

I feel like the same idea can be applied to navigating the current environment of information overload or social media burnout so many people experience. And where I think this question of where I get my information actually comes from.

Instead of making choices about what we read, watch, listen to or scroll its fed up to us via an algorithm. A way to push back is by applying Leach's idea more broadly. Instead of just consuming it all, focus in. Maybe instead of opening a social media platform first thing, open Rolling Stone (Australia of course) or 404 Media.

I use an RSS feeds to get my news, podcasts and blogs, Bluesky doesn't utilise a algorithm broadly and offers user created curated feeds to separate content, so I can jump from tech news, to photography, to art and over to climate scientists I follow. It also helps me find that content again when I want to share it, reference it or reread it.

When was the last time you read your local news even? What do you like and why?What are you interested in or what issues are directly impacting you and your community? When was the last time you went to local development proposal meeting? Or engaged with the issues your union is fighting for?

Find your special issue, the thing you want to be the expert in and then gently start seeing where else that relates to other subjects or your life directly. If you come across something you don't understand even just acknowledging that is better than reading an AI summary on search. Clock your biases and if something really resonates with you, that's a sign you should probably check it, double check it and chat a friend to see if it passes the pub test before pulling out the soap box.

Just to reiterate, please stop reading search AI summaries. Turn them off even.

All of this is to say, I've been a news and culture junky for most of my life. The information I reference and the sources I follow come from decades of reading about a lot this stuff, or subjects adjacent anyway. I've been chronically online since I was like eight or so which has helped too.

To quote one of my early inspirations for endlessly learning and sharing those learnings, Dr Karl, "I’m on a futile trip to understand everything in the universe. And even though I know it’s futile I’m having a lot of fun."

It's not the quote I was looking for but still resonates. Even when you're learning about all the terrible shit in the world, it should be from a place of things can be better. Because changing the world is futile, but changing your mind isn't, or influencing how your local community engages isn't.

An irregular weekly listicle might pop up eventually, but in all honestly it won't be that relevant to you. Because I like what I like and hopefully you've read this and started thinking about how to self curate your own information and media consumption.