What's got my attention this week

Want some ideas for things to read, watch and listen to this weekend? Look no further...

I know, I know, I've already used this picture, but nothing sums up this week better: I mean who doesn't need a friend who celebrates their wins like Jamie Lee Curtis?

Every month we do one links round-up free – this is January's. I hope you enjoy it. If you're already a paying member, thank you, you help keep The Shift alive and thriving. If not, why not join our community and get two weekly newsletters and access to all paywalled content for less than the price of a couple of (small) coffees a month. (Or one large fancy one!)

SCROLLING
• Michelle Yeoh's and Jennifer Coolidge's Golden Globes wins launched a thousand think pieces. Here's mine (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). (In the unlikely event that you missed it.)
• If, like me, you're horrified by how much plastic you produce, try living a day without plastic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and see how you do...
• Menopause is so much more than hot flushes. Great piece by Gaby Hinsliff on menopause and mental health. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
• 80s supermodel Tatjana Patitz (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) died aged 56.
• How many clothes do we really need? (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Inevitably it's far fewer than we think.
• And following on from that, Stacey Duguid has the only detox you really need (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in January.
• Agony aunt Philippa Perry helps a woman who hates her ageing body. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
• OK, so we've had #MeToo, but guess who's still more likely to suffer the career consequences (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) in a sexual harassment case. (Clue: the white, male, middle-aged manager is doing just fine...)
• Hilary de Vries is the only thing between her mentally unwell sister and homelessness (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).

• A compulsively late person's guide to being on time (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
• Moving piece by Hannah Beckerman on why she doesn't regret her 25 year estrangement from her dad (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
• One writer "eat-pray-loved" her way around the world (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and discovered she was just as unhappy in a £££ Italian hotel as she would have been at home for free!
• Jennifer Crichton finally realised dieting is about your brain (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)not your digestive system.
• Yes, it's a cliché but evening classes can change your life (Öffnet in neuem Fenster).
• It doesn't pay to be a chicken (or any other kind of domestic fowl) round Margaret Atwood (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)'s house.
• Wendi Aarons on why the tunic comes for us all (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)!

READING
It's been a week of reading for work, so I want to show some love to a couple of non-fiction books I read ahead of interviewing the authors for the podcast:
• You are not alone by Cariad Lloyd (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (creator and host of the podcast Griefcast (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)). Cariad's dad died when she was 15 and this humane, witty, highly readable book is part memoir, part practical guide to coping with grief in all its guises and loads of totally non-judgemental shared experiences from her podcast guests.
• A girlhood: a letter to my transgender daughter (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) by Carolyn Hays, is a thought-provoking and compassionate look at what happens when your child tells you, almost as soon as they can talk, that they are not in fact a boy, but a girl. Carolyn Hays is the pseudonym of a successful American author, writing anonymously to protect her family's privacy. When you've followed their incredible journey you will see why. I read a lot of memoirs and this is one of the most powerful I've inhaled in the last year. (Both are out January 19th.)

WATCHING

The Rig, Amazon Prime
I've been watching The Rig this week and, controversially, I don't hate it! This horror-cum-mystery-cum-drama has come in for a fair bit of abuse on Twitter (where else?) and hasn't been unscathed by the critics BUT I'm going to stick my neck out and say I'm quite enjoying it. But then show me a supernatural mystery set in the middle of nowhere with no chance of escape and I'm there. Needless to say, The Rig is set on a, erm, rig, that is thrown into turmoil when a strange fog rolls in taking all communication methods and the crew's sanity with it. Then spore appears in the air and starts taking over those who come into contact with it... The cast is strong (Iain Glen, Martin Compston, Emily Hampshire, Rochenda Sandall, plus Owen Teale shouting a lot, which seems to have become his thing) and the plot is engrossing, even if the CGI is distractingly obvious and your disbelief might have to be occasionally suspended. I've got two episodes to go and my money's on the planet fighting back, which might annoy those who'd prefer a James Herbert style Fog-horror, but so far I'm satisfied.

LISTENING
• Everything But The Girl announced their first album for 24 years, Fuse, coming April, and released its first single, Nothing Left To Lose (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). I've had it on repeat and it's everything I hoped and more.
• Emma Gannon's Ctrl Alt Delete podcast about creativity is ending after six years and 400 episodes. So I've picked a few of my favourites for your listening pleasure: Oliver Burkeman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on the productivity trap; Glennon Doyle (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on getting untamed; Dame Stephanie Shirley (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on learning to love change; and Philippa Perry (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) on how we internalise our parent's voice. There are obviously 396 others where those came from!
• I also listened to the Newsagents and felt the rage about Rishi Sunak's private jet (Öffnet in neuem Fenster). 🙄

And on The Shift podcast this week...
...we're revisiting some of my favourite episodes of last year. This week super-stylist Kat Farmer shares practical, affordable advice for regaining your style mojo when it feels like all your clothes hate you.

• If you enjoyed this round up, why not consider becoming a paying member of The Shift? You'll get this and so much more every week, access to our archive and you'll help me keep making the podcast you love, all for the price of a large coffee.