Circle Time // 2.26.26

Hello from the tundra that is the northeast! Got pummeled with about 2 feet of snow over in the NYC/NJ area as the (hopefully) height of winter before spring comes along, but we’re chugging along. Not many personal updates this week, as time’s been short with work being a vortext of time— so, onto Circle Time!

• Finally got a new rug for our living room, after repurposing our old one for 10 years. Mostly driven by Benny’s need to be on non-slip surfaces at all times now, but it really pulls the space together so much better now. Benny also seems to love it, as he’s been nonstop gremlin-rolling and rubbing his face onto it— pure joy!

• The afternoon after last week’s Circle Time was published, Alysa Liu won the gold medal in the Olympic figure skating women’s event in an unprecedented, culturally-shifting fashion. Her free skate was one of the most joyous, uninhibited competitive performances I’ve ever seen from a skater, and seeing it resonate the way it did far beyond sporting circles was really special. ICYMI, I wrote a personal essay about it here!

Had there been an Alysa Liu 20 years ago, my life would have been completely different.

• Another delight of a woman Olympic champion, Eileen Gu! Have lapped up every one of her press conference answers (including modeling how all of us women should answer men’s dumb questions). I love her intersectional lens of how she views things, and I so admire that she’s only 22 years old and exemplifies more maturity than some will reach in a lifetime:

  @femalequotient

  

  The Female Quotient® on Instagram: "There’s a lot we can learn …

• It’s a bit unbelievable that this is not getting more attention (flood the zone, after all!), but NPR broke this story: the DOJ removed and withheld Epstein files that showed that Trump allegedly raped a minor. NYT, CNN, and NBC have followed suit, as of last night.

• Wellness grifter Casey Means, a medical residency dropout and unlicensed doctor, is Trump and RFK Jr.’s nominee for Surgeon General. She had her Senate HELP Committee hearing yesterday, and should she be voted to move forward by this committee, this will move to a general senate vote. Get ready to make some calls!

  • Immediate action: Call your Senator, especially if they’re on the HELP Committee (check here for the list, script, and number)

  • I shared more information about her in this video here, and for a much deeper dive, I recommend reading Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS + Dr. Angela Rasmussen’s breakdown of the dangers here.

  • As Surgeon General, she would be in charge of public health messaging, and it’s a very real danger to have an unqualified pseudoscience-following MAHA person at the helm, as we continue to battle misinformation around vaccines (especially with viruses like measles surging) and health concerns at large.

  • As we have seen, the core principles of the MAHA movement are at extreme opposition with this administration they’ve chosen to align themselves with, and weaponized the protective instinct of parents for their children to drive this agenda that is now backfiring and hurting us all with deregulatory actions left and right at the EPA— opening us all up further to known carcinogenic dangers of pollution, pesticides, and thus endangering clean air and water.