Now

Listening to

It’s been a funny year of podcast listening this year, but I still constantly come back to Hard Fork by the NY Times. I wonder how the new NYT financial model for their podcasts will impact listenership.

The Who Moved My Cheese episode of If Books Could Kill podcast also cracked me up this week.

Music-wise, I’m enjoying the second new album in one year by The Smile (Cutouts).

Learning

I’ve been taking a fairly intensive keynote speaking program since May, based out of the US. I got home a couple of weeks ago from one of the in-person sessions (and go back in a few weeks for the final session). It’s been a really good learning experience so far, I’m interested to see how much my keynote evolves over the final couple of months.

Travel

Most recent trips were back to New York / New Jersey, and then a regular work trip to Sydney.

This was my second of three NYC trips this year, and I think I finally ‘get’ it. Especially as I’ve been spending more time in Brooklyn on these trips. I loved having a little routine, making some new friends there, going to Breakfast Club, eating all the best Whole Foods snacks, and just generally living my best BK life.

Fitness

Still sporadically bouldering (although that’s more consistent now that I’m back in one place for a few weeks). I’m enjoying it, and finding it really interesting how my ability really shifts and changes through my cycle. It’s a lot more noticeable compared to other sports and activities I’ve done.

I’ve started to learn to surf, and had my second lesson last weekend (after a few months hiatus because of travel). I’m loving it a lot more than I thought I would, so this might be my other summer project.

Also back on regular strength training, pilates, and yoga. I’m using the app Push for the strength program and I like how it’s set up compared to other apps.

Reading

Other stuff

Kindle: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. I’m only about 10% in so far, but I’m quite enjoying its gentle style, even though it’s depicting some pretty dystopian topics around AI / robots / civilisation collapse / climate catastrophe.

I watched Cloud Atlas last weekend. It was bananas.