Circle Time // 5.21.26

MDW sales of my tried & true, primary and midterms updates, ebola, chia sandía agua fresca, what I'm currently reading and watching, plus the one speech you should watch this week.

We are just coming off of an unnerving heat wave that peaked at 95ºF here in NYC/NJ, which for May… Mother Earth is pissed. And you know what, as a girl in luteal phase right now, I get it, mama earth— we are doing you so dirty and you have every right to rage.

A couple quick habits I’m proud of myself for keeping up with this week at like an 80% success rate: my oil pulling / dental hygiene routine for my gums, mental health walks, consistent hydration, not doom-scrolling at night and lots of reading, and fibermaxxing.

We’ve got a pretty packed issue, but first here are a few MDW sales only of things I’ve mentioned before / brands I personally shop, in case there’s anything you’ve seen in my newsletters or IG but were waiting for discounts on:

MDW 2026 best saves:

• The Outset—20% off sitewide

  • My must-haves are their prep serum (best thing ever under makeup) and lip oasis lip gloss that is the perfect balance of shiny and glossy and not too sticky.

• Roz — 20% off when you bundle 3 items or more

  • The shampoo + conditioner + milk hair serum is my perfect trio and pretty much all I do to my hair these days. I never thought haircare would be where I choose to treat myself, but these products truly perform and make my hair feel lowest maintenance possible, healthy, and the scent is divine.

• Grove Collaborative - 20% off at $50+ with code MEMORIAL26 (first orders only)

  • A great place to shop eco-friendly and “cleaner” household items. A ton of my sustainable home/kitchen/cleaning favorites are from here!

• Suri - 15% off

  • My fave electric toothbrush with sustainable closed-loop recycling for brushheads!

• Higher Dose - 20% off sitewide with code MDW26, 25% off bundles (no code)

  • My red light mask and infrared sauna bag are two long-time favorites y’all have seen me mention a bunch, and both Benny and I get great use out of the PEMF mat that also has infrared heat, for both of our joint issues. They have a PEMF dog bed too now 😆 It sounds so bougie but PEMF tech is used in PT for pups and it’s helped Benny with his pain management!

• Theragun - up to 30% off on their best-sellers

  • Their Theragun mini is $40 off, and honestly the best versatile one for most users and great for travel.

• Made In - up to 30% on a ton of items.

  • Most of our cookware is from here, like our stainless steel pans, non-stick ceramiclad pan, my must-have saucier, dutch oven, and nakiri knife.

• Material Kitchen - 25% off their microplastic-free cutting board collection. We use this for meat/seafood items and love it!

• My cut flower corner! I can’t believe I grew those ranunculus, hellebores, and anemones by myself— brings me so much joy every time I see them and they last so much longer since they’re fresh from the garden. CanNOT WAIT until my dahlias start popping off.

• Benny had his routine 6 month checkup (he needs bloodwork every 6 months for his meds) and all is well on his panels—we’ll take every win we get with him, and I’m also just grateful to have found his vet who deeply cares about him and is so good with his anxiety at vet offices.

• Primaries and midterms TEA— it is piping. This past Tuesday held elections for Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

  • Rep. Thomas Massie lost his primary to Ed Gallrein. Several reasons this is notable:

    • Massie got on Trump’s shitlist for being the consistent Republican demanding the release of the Epstein files and opposing Trump’s war with Iran, and Ed Gallrein is Trump’s handpicked and endorsed candidate.

    • This was one of the most expensive primaries ever, with spending reaching over $34 million. Massie has been in congress for 8 terms, and this election was another litmus test for the fascist president driving loyalty to him over the Republican’s goal of keeping Congressional majority.

    • In his concession speech, he said: “If the legislative branch always votes with the president, we do have a king.”

  • Senator Bill Cassidy, best known to all of us for being the deciding vote for RFK Jr.’s appointment as head of HHS and dooming our public health, lost his primary in Louisiana. He finished third and failed to even make the runoff. He also made an enemy of Trump, by being one of 7 Republicans voting to impeach him during his last term.

  • Georgia:

    • In the gubernatorial race: the Republicans have a run-off election now, to decide who goes up against Dem. nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms. Georgia has not had a Democratic Governor in 24 years.

    • The Senate race: the Republicans have a run-off election here too, with the winner facing off with incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff— this will be a CRUCIAL election.

  • Pennsylvania:

    • Current Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro is running for re-election and is up against Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a close Trump ally. Both candidates were unopposed in the primary. Shapiro is popular in the state, and it showed with all 3 of his endorsed candidates for the US House won in the primaries, notably in historically Republican-heavy key swing districts that went +3 and +5 for Trump.

  • One interesting thing to keep watch here, is that whenever long-standing Reps and Senators lose their primaries and fail to hold their seats, they have a lot less to lose and start to take the mask off and vote with their actual values, rather than those of their paid donors and nowadays, threats of the executive branch. Let’s hope that these Republicans are ready to burn it all (their party and MAGA) down!

• If you prefer to watch a 3-minute summary of 6 recent news stories, here’s this ICYMI roundup I did on Monday:

• The Trump ally slush fund is official: $1.7 billion of our taxpayer dollars at his disposal to disperse without Congressional approval to 1600 J6’rs and anyone else bending the knee.

• Ebola: WHO declares global health emergency

  • Important to keep in mind is that declaring a global health emergency is similar to the function of Governors declaring a state of emergency— not necessarily a direct correlation to a need in public alarm, but rather the formal approval of release of resources, funds, and protocols, to deploy for risk mitigation and containment.

  • Elon Musk also dismantled USAID during the DOGE palooza last year, a key foreign aid agency that would normally be involved in disease prevention, and boots on the ground in cases like this.

  • As of May 19, the DRC and Uganda Ministries of Health report the following:

    • A total of 536 suspected cases, 105 probable cases, 34 confirmed cases, and 134 deaths. As on 5/18, it was 300 infected / 88 deaths. This strain (Bundibugyo virus) has no vaccine, no treatment, and the speed and scale is concerning to see and has public health officials concerned, but more clarity will come with time.

  • Travel advisories from the U.S. have been issued with restrictions on incoming travelers from certain countries; important to note that these are not science-based decisions, but rather xenophobia.

• This administration keeps MAHA-ing: Trump’s EPA is going forward with the rollback of PFAS (forever chemicals) limits in our water. The limits were tightened under Biden, a great move for public health and very MAHA, actually.

• Everlane is selling to…Shein.