Lost In You [#171]
A philosopher came on one of my shows and reminded us that Plato saw everything coming.
Hello from my “desk”, aka bed, in LA.
Something remarkable has happened. After spending the last, oh, quarter of a century thinking about it, I am now the proud owner of the CD album of Chris Gaines Greatest Hits. That’s right. Chris Gaines, the ill-fated Garth Brooks alter ego. It is mind boggling to me to think back and recall that during this episode in American pop culture history, Garth Brooks actually hosted SNL as himself and then performed as musical guest Chris Gaines.
A few months ago I went on a podcast called Old Millennials to discuss how the Chris Gaines moment in cultural history lives rent free in my mind (well, it’s between this and the whole OJ Simpson fiasco). And my friend Vickie in Texas texted me going, “Oh I actually still have that CD.” And in this week before Christmas, lo and behold, I received a package from Vickie in the mail.
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OK. I needed to share that. Now we will move on to regular programming — links you should read!
Reading
The Haters Guide to the Williams Sonoma Catalog is out, and it’s been my fave Christmas thing for awhile, but my new friend Lana introduced me to something comparably mirthful: The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2025. Samples:
“Reading it is like spending time with a delusional fortune cookie: platitudes that feel like they were run through a translation service three times.”
“There are many things that the world needs in 2025, but I’m not sure that the debut novel by 89-year-old Woody Allen is one of them”
“While reading Next to Heaven, I sometimes thought I could feel individual cells in my body trying to die.”
Also: The nihilism of this moment we’re in, and how America is utterly failing its children. What reading (mostly angry) letters to The Washington Post taught us about America. OF COURSE Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are immortality bros. Five questions to spark your generosity. Let us not forget that open marriage is potentially liberating to wives, not just husbands. The Dodgers and what money can buy.
Some other end-of-year reads, ICYM them earlier this year: Tressie McMillam Cottom on how AI is just “mid”. The best anti-cosmetic surgery writing this year (and it covers a lot of the ideas we explored in Flawless). The Trump administration continues to destroy data, namely climate data. One thing we can do for a safer future is support the team at climate.us, which is working to get a range of scrubbed resources back online.
Werk Werk Werk
If you listen to one thing I’ve hosted, make it Monday’s Forever35 interview with Notre Dame philosophy professor Dr. Meghan Sullivan, who is hands-down the most engaging philosopher that I’ve ever encountered. Just rad! Digging into virtue ethics with her somehow, at least momentarily, made me feel like we’re gonna be okay. That’s COMING MONDAY. Subscribe or just watch the feed for it.
For skincare enthusiasts, we had my dermatologist Dr. Jenny Wang on the show recently and she was a true delight. And knowledgeable.
The Raising Us episode on kids and screen time featured the thoughtful Ash Brandin, who made a swimming pool/water safety metaphor that really stuck with me.
We’re in the last ten days to get in your tax-deductible charitable contributions of the year, and it would mean so much to us if you could chip in $10 (or whatever you can) to WINDSWEPT, my indie documentary about kids displaced by the LA fires. We are almost finished shooting (!) and moving into post-production in January, if you can believe it.
And finally, my latest paywalled rant is about how men and women can, and should be friends!
Watch and/or Listen
Look, I haven’t caught up with Pluribus despite Rob’s constant urging, so I cannot speak to where it’s at right now. However, if you have PBS Passport (the PBS app/streaming service), you must watch Try Harder, a documentary about overachieving kids at a high-performing high school and the zero-sum game of college admissions. It speaks to how impossible it must feel for kids right now, and how charming and resilient they are, at the same time.
All right. That’s it for this one, but as I did last year, I’ll be compiling the most clicked-on links from the Hu’s Letter over the past year for a post before year’s end. See you in your inboxes next time.
Thanks for all the support. I sure enjoy writing to you.
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Love this perspective. It's so true how some moments just stick with us, almost like a program running in the background. Realy insightful.