Books, essays, podcast episodes, and more that I think are worth your time, plus recent cultural news that I’m paying attention to in the month of September…
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Novel: The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett is famous for her previous novel, The Help, and this one also takes place in Mississippi many decades ago. It’s a great story about a small town during the Depression that takes on the ways people who were unsupported and overlooked triumphed amidst adversity. I very much enjoyed the story, but I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this book, because many of the characters were underdeveloped and came off as caricatures of themselves. And yet the two main characters—Birdie and Meg—were really wonderfully realized as complex, beautiful, flawed humans, and I very much wanted to find out what happened to each of them.
The GoodHard Story Podcast: “Episode 125: Kate Bowler on Complicated Gratitude”
I could listen to Kate Bowler and Katherine Wolf talk about hope and suffering all day long.
The Lucky Few Podcast: “What We Need to Know About Disability Policy Right Now w/ Ashley Barlow”
For anyone in the disability space who wants an update on the state of legislation and policy related to disability right now, this Lucky Few podcast episode offers a very helpful overview.
The Permanent Questions with David Brooks
I am thrilled that David Brooks has a new podcast about the most important questions, and I loved his first interview with Meghan Sullivan about what really matters in life.
WorkLife with Adam Grant: “How to say no”
I also got a lot out of this episode of the Life/Work podcast with Adam Grant about learning to say no. It was so challenging for me, in fact, that my right quad and hamstring seized up while I was listening and I had to consider why my body responded with vehement protest to the idea of telling people I couldn’t do everything they wanted/needed from me all the time! (Which brought me back to the Body Prayers I worked on a few years ago.)
Reflections on AI
I appreciated David Brooks’ thoughts on how AI is changing our understanding of what it means to be human as well as this Substack from Corey Widmer (and my husband, Peter!) about how to resist the anti-human tendencies of AI.
Lovefly: “Ep. 294 – Amy Julia on trusting Delta Airlines with her daughter to fly solo”
I had a chance to talk with Paul Tizzard about trusting Penny—and Delta—to take her first solo flight over the summer. We talked through the process and why it ended up not being as scary as I might have thought it would be.
Children’s Book: I’ve Loved You From the Start by Tabitha Paige.
For anyone welcoming a new baby into the world, this sweet and beautifully-illustrated story is a lovely way to remind us all that we are beloved as we are. It’s a message we all need to hear over and over.
Raising Boys & Girls podcast: “Episode 407: Joyful Anyway with Kate Bowler”
I loved this episode of the Raising Boys & Girls podcast where Kate Bowler talks about joy and grief and how we can reassure our kids without pretending everything is okay in this beautiful and broken world.
Harper’s Magazine: “The Tune of Things”
This episode of the Crossroads podcast led me to this essay by Christian Wiman about consciousness and God. If you’re looking for some mind-bending realities about time and space and spiritual things and what happens when we connect and attend to one another, this is for you.
The Christian Century: “Wendell Berry’s vision of a sacred world”
In a fragmented, fast-paced world, we need prophetic witnesses like that of Wendell Berry, who stayed tethered to one place and one set of people for decades. Berry died last week, and I appreciated Norman Wirzba’s thoughts on his legacy:
When asked by people if he meant that everyone needs to return ‘home,’ his answer was clear: You don’t need to return to the location of your birth to cherish a place. But you do need to commit to staying put somewhere, learn its particular history and potential, and then figure out with others how to make this chosen place a healthy, hospitable home worth celebrating. This sort of work takes time, patience, and a lot of practical skill in the arts of homemaking and repair…
The whole of Wendell’s vast oeuvre (more than 50 books), whether in the form of poetry, essay, or fiction, can be read as a sustained, richly developed effort to remind people of their creaturely condition and to describe the practical requirements of a peaceable, even beautiful life with others. Sounds simple enough. The trouble, however, is that few people want to be creatures. They want to be gods who are exempt from the detailed, demanding work of care. They want to be free of the imperfections, neediness, and limits of embodied, entangled life with others and instead take up residence in a disembodied, ethereal heaven somewhere beyond the blue.
The Lazy Genius podcast: “#483 Decide What You’re Done With”
I happened upon this Lazy Genius podcast episode, which makes me think I’m not the only one asking these questions right now: What are the necessities? What are the commitments I must carry with me into the fall? What are the things that I can leave behind?
Holy Post essay: “Medicaid Helps My Disabled Daughter Thrive. Now the DOJ Could Put Her Care at Risk.”
Our government is doing so much right now to try to take away the rights of people with disabilities. The result would not just be their suffering. The result would not just be injustice. It would also be mutual impoverishment. Lena Van Wyk does a beautiful job explaining this heartbreaking reality.
Disability Scoop: “AI Has Ideas About Intellectual Disabilities. It’s Not Always Accurate”
A recent study found that AI portrays people with disabilities through an inaccurate and implicitly biased lens:
“Researchers at Special Olympics International and Oregon State University asked five of the most popular AI models to create stories about people with and without intellectual disabilities in common situations such as crossing a street, playing a sport, going to a store or working at a job. Some 25,000 stories were generated, half about people with intellectual disabilities and half about those with no specified diagnosis. The researchers then used a separate AI instance to analyze the stories for bias. Overall, the study found that stories about people with intellectual disabilities tended to be paternalistic and were more likely to depict the subjects as younger even when no age was indicated. In addition, these stories featured people who had more supervision and less autonomy and involvement in decision-making.”
Again, we need real stories that shape our imagination—and our AI’s reflection of our imagination—about disability with accuracy, dignity, and possibility.
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Amy Julia Becker desires to challenge assumptions about the good life, proclaim the inherent belovedness of every human being, and help us envision and build a world of belonging where everyone matters. Amy Julia invites people to reimagine the good life through her writing and speaking on disability, faith, and culture. She is the author of several books, including To Be Made Well, White Picket Fences, Small Talk, and A Good and Perfect Gift. She is a guest opinion writer for national publications and hosts two podcasts: Take the Next Step and Reimagining the Good Life. Becker is a graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv). She is a member of the Disability Ministry Network and the Alliance for Disability Justice and Ethics in Reproductive Genetics. She lives with her husband and their three children in western Connecticut.
