Friday's Five 🖐🏼 #179
Happy Friday's Five,
Had a great week, I hope you as well. I started doing as many coaching sessions and calls on the phone while walking. Walk n Talks are now something we actively encourage our clients to join us for. The response has been great. In a sea of endless video calls, stepping outside and getting into movement is a refreshing change during the Pandemic Zoomland.
What I'm reading
This week Isa and had an incredibly moving, enlightening, and wisdom-inducing conversation with Dr. Emilia Roig, political scientist and author of the book 'Why we Matter' that just entered the Spiegel bestseller week in its first week after publication. In both her book and our conversation she opens up about finding her identity, breaking free from discriminatory structures, life setbacks and healing. In her book she weaves her personal story (memoire-like) with her scientific work (intersectionality and anti-discrimination) and I learned so much judging from the bookmarks. Buy it in your local book shop and read more about it.
What I'm listening to
My friend Philipp shared this 'Acquired' podcast episode with me and the 3 hours have captivated me. 'Acquired' usually dissects the journey to success of tech companies and in this episode, they dive deep into The New York Times Company. What a ride! The paper's origin story as well as the entire 170-year history, the evolution of the brand and business under stewardship of one family, and the level of detailed research into this episode is just fascinating. Highly recommended if you want to nerd out on the media business. Find it on Spotify.
What I'm watching
The White Tiger is the fictional story of Balram Halwai (played by the talented Adarsh Gourav) who believes that the Indian underclass is trapped in a perpetual state of servitude, like chickens in a chicken coop. Following his entrepreneurial itch, he sets out to leave his small town to alter his destiny. The movie marries light and dark moments, gorgeous cinematography, magnetic performances and the surprising twists. Watch the trailer on Netflix.
What I'm thinking about
I've always struggled with the term work-life balance. Even though it includes the word 'balance', to me the terms suggests a trade-off, a choice of a binary yes or no. A few years ago my colleague Hugo used the term Portfolio Life to offer me a perspective about how I could design my life. The term has grown on me a lot. A portfolio life includes several components. Some big, others small. Some temporary, others permanent. Some can be paused, others can be accelerated. Some can be stopped, others can emerge. Some are short term, others long term. A component can be a job, writing a newsletter, hosting a podcast, doing care work, taking time off. You choose what you actively bring into your portfolio life as a component. In a portfolio life, you make intentional choices about the attention you give each component which frees you from feeling guilty of having to trade or balance the two scales work and life.
What else?
A few weeks I wondered why the city of Berlin had not yet adapted the idea of Superblocks which have become popular in Barcelona. This week I found out that Changing Cities adapted this idea and calls it #Kiezblock. Kiezblocks are neighbourhoods where traffic is channelled to major roads around the outside, opening up entire groups of streets to pedestrians and cyclists and reducing through-way for cars. The aim is to reduce pollution from vehicles, and give residents much-needed relief from noise pollution. Love the initiative, will participate in the info session next week, and just signed up a sponsoring member.
Thank you for reading, have a great weekend!
David
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