DIGITAL LIBRARY // LOSS

Focus + Read

We’ve put together a gentle hour of songs for you this quarter, all somewhat connected to the idea of loss, starting with plenty of bittersweet yearning but finishing on an upbeat and defiant note.

PODCASTS

High Performance: Responding to a Disaster with Lucy Easthope

This is an in-depth conversation with the author of Book One in your box. The High Performance podcast with broadcaster Jake Humphrey and Professor Damian Hughes turns the lived experiences of so-called high performers into life lessons for listeners. A lot less gung-ho than it sounds, the hosts ask probing and thoughtful questions and Lucy Easthope is frank and detailed in response.

The Dishcast: Kathryn Schulz on Love and Grieving

A podcast from Andrew Sullivan, a British-American author, former editor of The New Republic, and the founder of The Weekly Dish, a Substack dedicated to dissent and honest, accountable discourse. In this episode he talks to the author of Book Two in your box talks about love, loss and the pitfalls of writing a memoir. This is an enjoyably writerly discussion between two people who love to explore ideas and words.

WATCH

Quiet Hours: Old Age is a Ceremony of Losses

A short film by filmmaker Paul Szynol about the late American poet laureate, Donald Hall, whose work is preoccupied with death, loss and memory. The film is a deeply poignant reflection on Hall’s life as an 89-year-old living alone in New Hampshire and his thoughts about his work, the loss of his wife and what it is to reach the end of life.

READ

How a Disaster Expert Prepares for the Worst

A New Yorker piece by Sam Knight, author of last quarter’s book The Premonitions Bureau, this is a look at Lucy Easthope’s work within the wider context of the cultural and political landscape. If you don’t subscribe to The New Yorker, you can still read six stories each calendar month for free.

When Things Go Missing

The original article about the death of her father that later became Lost & Found. In case you fancy reading more from Kathryn Schulz, here’s a link to her back catalogue of articles for The New Yorker:

SmellAbility© Toolbox

A set of tools to help you test your sense of smell and to help train it back to life if you’ve experienced post-Covid smell loss. Fifth Sense is the charity for people affected by smell and taste disorders.

The Fat Issue

Issue no. 6 of the now defunct Pipe Wrench online magazine is a great introduction to the issues of medical fatphobia and the lived experience of fat people, in particular fat black women.

Fat Lib Archive

A digital archive that aims to collect together fat liberation artefacts including zines, flyers, articles, audio recordings and other evidence of the lives of fat liberation-orientated queers, anarchists, feminists and others from the 1970s to today. You’ll find the original Fat Manifesto from The Fat Underground here, as seen in your magazine.