This is Slow Cooked, a collection of weekly musings, ongoing projects, and the media I’m consuming; delivered every Thursday.
Hey there, happy Thursday! ⚡️
Greetings from my lovely new workspace on a moody monsoon evening.
In No Particular Order 🐣
Here’s what I consumed this month.
A Self-Portrait Every Day for 7777 Days by Noah Kalina
I was introduced to Noah’s work through his Everyday project (of which 7777 is an extension) and have been a fan of his work, his chickens, and his beautiful home and studio ever since. In fact, I started this newsletter after being inspired by his. It’s what I look forward to most every Monday.
Here’s Noah in conversation with Ryan Essmaker for The Great Discontent.
And here’s an update on Everyday, from a year ago:
The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine? by Michael Pollan
Humanity’s acquaintance with caffeine is surprisingly recent. But it is hardly an exaggeration to say that this molecule remade the world. The changes wrought by coffee and tea occurred at a fundamental level – the level of the human mind…
By the 15th century, coffee was being cultivated in east Africa and traded across the Arabian peninsula… The Islamic world at this time was in many respects more advanced than Europe, in science and technology, and in learning. Whether this mental flourishing had anything to do with the prevalence of coffee (and prohibition of alcohol) is difficult to prove, but as the German historian Wolfgang Schivelbusch has argued, the beverage “seemed to be tailor-made for a culture that forbade alcohol consumption and gave birth to modern mathematics”.
Michael is an excellent science writer, whose book, ‘How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence’ — I am currently reading.
Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, was killed on assignment in Afghanistan on July 16th.
I got to know of him through his work documenting the pandemic in India, a little over a year and a half ago and had been following him closely ever since. His work speaks for itself. And although I didn’t know him personally, his death really affected me. May he rest in peace.
Erm… You need to watch this.
Initiative Takes Effort by Seth Godin
Raising your hand, speaking up, launching a new project…
We’ve been trained to avoid all of these things. And the proof is that four-year-olds don’t have trouble with any of them. We know how, but we’ve been taught not to.
Here’s a rainy day playlist I’ve been listening to for the past week.
The view from the studio window.
In Other News 🔭
Same.
Support this Newsletter 💪🏽
With Slow Cooked, I'm trying to build a community. So, it would mean a lot to me if you'd share this with others who you think would be interested in it too!
Every little helps.
Thank you 🙃
If you made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do so.
I hope you have a great rest of the week!
Talk soon,
Vihan Shah
Loved the photos!