12.21.20 | Surveying the Wreckage

special edition thirty

Dec 21, 2020

Good Monday morning. Whatever you’ve done this year in your personal or professional life, it’s enough. You are worthy of rest. Give yourself permission to unwind.

We’re back with “Surveying the Wreckage,” a special edition that includes some of the best year-in-review pieces and the most popular content from P&W this year. Our agenda this week:

Surveying the Wreckage: 2020
Going Deeper: Social Justice
Future of Higher Education
Best of the Rest

Beginning January 11, P&W will publish every other week. As we look ahead to 2021, please take two minutes to complete this quick reader survey. Thanks for reading and for your engagement! I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.

START YOUR WEEK HERE: 2020 IN 3 MINUTES

Surveying the Wreckage: 2020

1968. 1941. 1929. 1918. Historic. Consequential. Transformational.

2020. A global pandemic. A racial reckoning. A presidential impeachment. A monumental election. A daily reminder of the impact of climate change.

HOW DO WE MAKE MEANING OF 2020?

Happy Blursday! Now quit doomscrolling, grab a quarantini and please keep social distancing. The 20 phrases that defined 2020 (NYTimes)
“I can’t breathe.” “You are on mute.” The Post asked readers to offer the word or phrase that best describes 2020. The top 3? Exhausting. Lost. Chaotic. The words to describe 2020 (Post)
Video: 2020: The Year in Review (Time)
2020 has for many been a lost year, in several senses of the word: On top of an enormous loss of human lives, the pandemic paused many people’s progress on long-plotted family and career goals. It forced countless celebrations and holiday gatherings either onto Zoom or out of existence. And it warped many people’s sense of time, causing months-long stretches to seem interminable in the moment but like they passed in a blip in retrospect. 2020: A Year Without Parties, Celebrations, or Ambition (Atlantic)
Disinformation and its fallout have defined 2020, the year of the infodemic. Month after month, self-serving social media companies have let corrosive manipulators out for dollars, votes, and clicks vie for attention, no matter the damage. In 2020, Disinformation Broke The US (Buzzfeed)
The act of reaching for hope has been the only way I’ve managed to steel myself to absorb and synthesize the news in a year of nonstop dread. 2020 Has Taught Me You Have To Be Intentional About Turning Toward Hope (Buzzfeed)

BEST OF THE BEST: LONG READS

Writers compile the pieces they wish they would have written in the 2020 Jealousy List (Bloomberg)
Spend some time with the best longform pieces in Longform Best of 2020

SURVEYING P&W: TOP TEN MOST CLICKED CONTENT

Since we made the move to Substack in mid-July, P&W has been viewed 13,067 times. The most viewed edition was August 10 (744).

November 16: Four Seasons Total Landscaping ad
October 12: College, but it’s 2020 (YouTube)
July 27: The Best Science-Backed Tips for Living During COVID-19 (The Cut)
December 7: The Christmas Conversation (SNL)
July 20: A Detailed Map of Who Is Wearing Masks in the U.S. (NYTimes)
November 9: On front pages after Biden's win, 'A time to heal' (Poytner)
November 2: Election distractor (NYTimes)
August 31: UMD community protests new guidelines urging staff return to campus (DBK)
September 28: How Work Became an Inescapable Hellhole (Wired)
October 12: We are NOT enduring “twin” pandemics | by Lori Patton

PHOTOS OF THE YEAR

2020: The year in pictures (CNN)
American Crossroads: 2020 Photo Issue (Post)
2020 In Photos: A Year Like No Other (NYTimes)

Silent Night: Scenes of a Pandemic Christmas (NYTimes)

Share Parks and Wreck

Going Deeper: Social Justice

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Many of the resources on anti-racism, anti-Blackness, whiteness, and policing from summer 2020 are all here: Going Deeper

BLACK LIVES MATTER

I’m a Black woman writing about money and race. Here’s what I see. (Post)
Racism literally ages Black Americans faster, according to 25 year study (Guardian) (h/t Alex Wright)
Cornell Watson Photos Show Diversity Of Blackness (Buzzfeed)
MLB can add Negro Leagues to records but can't change what it did to Black players (ESPN)

ON RACE

About That Wave of Anti-Racist Bestsellers Over the Summer.. (Lit Hub) (h/t Timea Webster)
Caste Does Not Explain Race (Boston Review)
Recreating racism in VR to fight real racism (Axios)

AMPLIFYING VOICES

SI's 2020 Sportsperson of the Year: The Activist Athlete (SI)
What Americans don't know about Latino history could fill a museum (LATimes)
UMD Prof Dr. Bridget Turner Kelly (my advisor!): Female Faculty Continue to Face Stubborn Wage Gap and Underrepresentation in Tenured Positions (Diverse)
Nearly 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since the summer (Post)
An Oral History of Fashion’s Response to the AIDS Epidemic (Vogue)
U.K. to Ease Rules on Blood Donations by Gay and Bisexual Men (NYTimes)

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd

What did we ever decide about waving good-bye to end zoom calls?

Future of Higher Education

HOW TO HAVE A RESTORATIVE BREAK

I assure you that you don’t need to drown yourself in academic projects to distract from the quiet and fear. If you approach this break with openness, you can find moments of real relief and joy, as well as new perspectives, to carry you through the rest of the winter months. Here’s how: Embrace the break. Do not fill it with academic tasks or administrative duties. Plan a digital detox. Choose a physical, service, or connection challenge. How to Have a Restorative Holiday Break During a Pandemic (Chronicle)

SURVEYING THE WRECKAGE: HIGHER ED