Friday Flames | 6.16.23
A weekly synopsis of what we figured out about Juneteenth, sunscreen, SCOTUS, and Midwestern food.
For the first time ever, more than half of all U.S. states will recognize Juneteenth National Independence Day as a public holiday. (Welcome aboard Connecticut, Minnesota, Nevada and Tennessee!) As multiple celebrations take root as annual traditions all over the country, we’re still gobsmacked by the complete lack of Juneteenth mentions in the history books we read in high school and college. (Same with the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, which didn’t break though as a national discussion topic until The Watchmen debuted in 2019).
In Episode 5 of the podcast, we talked to family court lawyer John Amuso, an in-demand advocate for children’s rights in custody and child welfare cases.
John told us about the logistics of advising his clients, how his parenting informs his work, and how his work informs his parenting. If you lament the myriad threats our culture aims at our kids, listening to his unassuming empathy for the kids he represents will renew your faith in humanity.
Dutch Treat of the Week
We don’t talk a lot about skin cancer, the most common cancer in the U.S., because it’s treatable and survivable. But Americans still spend $8 billion per year in skin cancer treatment, since the pound of cure generates such healthy profits.
This is why we were happy to see this story from the far more socially-minded country of The Netherlands, which has installed hundreds of sunscreen dispensers to help beachgoers protect their skin for free. Score one for the ounce of prevention.
Happy Kid News of the Week
On Thursday, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) was upheld by the current SCOTUS* 7-2 (usual suspects Alito and Thomas dissented). The ICWA was passed in 1978 as an attempt to close several system loopholes that allowed the government and the residential schools to separate indigenous kids, sometimes forcibly, from their families and nations.
At a time when the high court has been rending federal protections left, right, and center, the decision came as a welcome surprise. You can check out an excellent history and summary of the entire situation here:
Substack Query of the Week
Today we learned you can share other Substack pieces like the one above with that snazzy embed feature! Which is a completely smart way to encourage connectivity among Substack Nation.
We’ve spent a bunch of time exploring other Substack feeds for inspiration, especially since they’re created by actual people with actual names. Got any favorites? Which ones do you recommend?
Currently reading
Magda is reading her new copy of The New Midwestern Table by Amy Thielen, whom she met in cooking school. Magda loaned out her previous copy and never got it back, so her good-as-gold future MIL replaced it. Yes, it’s a cookbook, and yes, Magda reads cookbooks like they're memoir (which they absolutely are if they're written well).
Inspired by the conversation to be published next week (see below), Doug is re-reading portions of Being Mortal, which belongs on every 50-plus-year-old’s nightstand (even if your life isn’t half-over yet).
Currently watching
Magda just finished the utterly horrifying Shiny Happy People on Amazon Prime Video, about the Duggar family and Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles, an American cult. The series is only four episodes long, but it’s chilling and, at times, nauseating. The IBLP’s “teachings” have spread through churches, the military, police, prisons, and other institutions and are focused on abuse of children and women under the euphemism of "authority."
In an oddly similar vein, Doug started watching The Righteous Gemstones (season 3 premieres on Sunday). Comparisons to Succession are overblown, and the preliminary world-building relies on a lot of low-hanging fruit about the hypocrisy of mega-churches. The story, however, evolves to be more about the people than their environment, in the same way Ted Lasso is not about soccer.
Coming next
Episode 6 of the podcast arrives Wednesday, June 21, when our guest is our old friend Asha Dornfest, creator of the Parent of Adults newsletter. We talk about the many phases of her writing as an OG blogger, processing the emotional tumult of her father’s abrupt death in 2020, and the new relationship she is forging with her mom.
Thanks for reading, and if you can, please call your dad.
Magda and Doug