Rachel Lowenstein

Because language shapes how we think about things. When we adopt the vocabulary of optimization — of “maxxing” ourselves, of being “performative” — we’re unconsciously adopting a worldview where people are projects to be continuously improved, measured, and perfected.

The invention of Female Sexual Interest and Arousal Disorder (SIAD) perfectly illustrates how society sees everything through the lens of male biology. We may not be permanently horny like men, but we are consistent if you tune in: most of us have a surge in libido once a month after we ovulate. What's consistent for a woman is having a few days... See more

Esther Perel on Why A.I. Intimacy Feels Safe but Isn’t Real

Esther Perel on Why A.I. Intimacy Feels Safe but Isn’t Real

Perel, a renowned psychotherapist, doesn’t really think society can — or should — fall in love with a machine.

Ritual prevents the ordinary from dissolving into invisibility. If you light a candle at dinner, the meal becomes an event. If you walk at the same time each day, it becomes more than exercise. Anthropologists will tell you that rituals function as technologies of attention: certain ordinary acts aren’t trivial, they’re the architecture of meaning.... See more

When systems are breaking, those excluded stakeholders become the fracture points. The families being priced out organise for access. The communities losing facilities push back. The systemic health problems youth sports are supposed to address accelerate instead of improving.

This isn’t theoretical. The Welsh government embedded this into policy.... See more

This means there are now more news stories than there is actual news. W. David Marx calls this the Parkinson’s Law of Media.

Marx argues that ad-driven platforms financially incentivize all media – and at this point, nearly every company and person is media – to endlessly react and reproduce more media on anything that trends. The tiniest spark of a... See more

THAT WHICH SEEKS ATTENTION CANNOT BE DEFEATED BY GIVING IT ATTENTION

when you take an ironic, negative, or numb attitude to everything, you are by definition not on the line for solutions, and when you stop looking for solutions, you lose all agency and will in your life.