Friday Flames | 2.23.24

A weekly synopsis of what we figured out about podcasting as a radical act, Alzheimer's as a romantic catalyst, and onions as a biological weapon.

As you’ll see below, we didn’t find a lot of "Embers in the News” to share this week. The best we could dig up—amid all the usual alarmist clickbait that “THIS MUNDANE ACTIVITY might maybe cause THAT HORRIBLE DISEASE”—was about how retired NBA star Dwyane Wade stretches his 42-year-old body to stave off back and knee pain.

We did, however, come across this amazing “Modern Love” installment from Townsend Davis, who spent last Thanksgiving feeling very thankful for the meal he was sharing with his mother, his kids, his wife, and his girlfriend.

Relax. There’s no swinging involved. But there is Townsend’s very unexpected revelation that you can find romance and support with a new partner while also loving and caring for your wife, who at 52 (!) was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and now barely recognizes him.

The story resonates because Townsend thinks what we would think in the same situation: I still love my spouse, whom I married in sickness and in health. I can (and should) learn to live on my own. Besides: What new partner in their right mind would sign on for all this?

But then he fell in love, despite every impulse not to, and he learned that the impossible sometimes isn’t.

At this stage of life, it’s easy to let our expectations be governed by duty and guilt in service to the ones we love. But it’s also important never to forget that this is our life, too. And during this sliver of a lifetime, we deserve every bit of happiness we can get.

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This week on the podcast

Helen Jane Hearn moved her family from California to Wisconsin to take over her childhood home and care for her parents. Here's how she stabilizes the culture shock.

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Currently reading

Magda is not enjoying The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. The narrator is abrasive, and the plot just hasn't hooked her in—even though she's about 40% through the book. She will finish it only because it's for a book club.

Doug’s favorite read this week was Anil Dash’s assertion that “wherever you get your podcasts” is a radical statement. In a media universe where platforms control a creator’s work and scrape it to feed advertising algorithms, podcasting is an outlying open system, a template for individuals to regain more control over our online lives.

Currently watching

There are a lot of entertaining stories of chaos, anxiety, and hissy fits in The Greatest Night in Pop, the Netflix doc about the all-night recording session for We Are the World. But the most surprising revelation is that the evening’s éminence grise, Harry Belafonte, was a year younger than Doug is now.

Magda and Mike are back into Lessons In Chemistry, but she needs a little breather between episodes 2 and 3. 

Currently cooking

Magda made this parmesan-herb Dutch baby and found it delightful. She'd previously only had sweet Dutch babies, and Mike had never had a Dutch baby at all, so this was a nice surprise. Tonight, she's looking forward to this broccoli feta soup.

When Doug saw this pissaladière recipe, he thought it read “900 onions,” which isn’t far off. If you’ve got the tear glands for all that chopping and 45 minutes to caramelize it all, the end result (with an added, wafer-thin layer of Dijon mustard) is some serious nom-nom.

Next on the podcast

As Magda returns to Michigan to work Tuesday’s presidential primary, she talks about how becoming a poll worker upped her elections IQ and enhanced her already-strong faith in electoral procedures.

Thanks for reading, and keep your heart pumping.

Magda and Doug