🏁 October: Are we nearly there yet?
Are you finishing with fun? Plus; don't forget to submit your friendship stories!
Hi there 👋🏻
Well, what a lovely response I’ve had to my book announcement last month. A very big thank you to everyone who has submitted a story/ritual to include (I *love* reading them), shared one of my posts, sent me links of interesting friendship things (ok, mostly that Waffle Wednesday reel which I’ve been sent six times from all over the world), or just generally cheered me on. You’re the best! 😍
(Keep scrolling for the links to submit your friendship rituals).
There’s been a lot of posts in the last couple of weeks about how there’s ~9 weeks left for the year. I’ve also had a lot of conversations about how 2024 has kicked most people’s asses, and so quite a few people seem to be already closing out this year in their minds, and seeing the next two months as a time to reset so they can start 2025 in a fresher place.
(Next month I’ll also share some of my favourite tools and rituals I use for closing out a year and setting up a new one.)
I’ve started to plan how I’d like to wrap up my rather strange 2024. I’ve got two more trips to go before Melbourne airport and I can have a bit of a break from seeing each other after what will be 10 interstate and 4 overseas trips this year.
I’m planning a seven week summer sabbatical for December/January. The current focus of that time is;
Writing
Having fun
Which I think is a pretty solid plan.
I’m excited for a healthy dose of camping/hiking/road-tripping, clocking up some more surf lessons, heaps of friend time, lazy afternoons reading in the shade, live music, chucking things in the car for impromptu camping/picnics/beach evenings, and leisurely mid-afternoon climbing sessions.
Because what better way of ending a weird year than with a big burst of fun. And why not? I’m going to be ending 2024 in the way I want to start (and continue) 2025.
What about you?
On finishing with fun,
Steph
PS. To borrow from Austin Kleon, this newsletter is 'free but not cheap'. You can support their ongoing creation and keep me in books by buying me a coffee as a 'thank you', recommending it to a friend, or using any affiliate links in the email.
Tell me about your friendships!
💗 There’s still time to share your interesting, creative, and fun own rituals and routines with your friends 💗
I love that there’s some clear themes emerging. I’ve had a particular influx of stories on how people stay in touch from a distance, and some fun ways of celebrating birthdays (or other events).
If you’ve got examples of….
💗 Small rituals
💗 Keeping in touch / friendship from a distance
💗 Celebrating more / make the everyday an event
💗 Something about ageing together
💗 Something about marking and/or making it through life transitions and big changes (which may include a ritual or practice of ‘resetting’ friendships)
(Speakpipe is the option if you’d rather talk than type your submission)
And just in case you’re thinking “this sounds amazing, I want to submit something, but I might forget”. Don’t worry, I gotchu. Hit reply to this email if you’d like me to hassle send a couple of friendly reminders between now and 24 November when all submissions are due.
Of course, if you know someone who has their own cool friendship ritual or experience, please forward this to them to submit their story.
The it list 🔥
Some of the things I’ve been enjoying recently…
Film - Ange & the Boss: Puskas in Australia: My buddy Cam Fink co-directed this film, so it was very cool to be at the (sell out!) premier in Melbourne (with my other buddy Sian). The film is fun, funny, and heartwarming. It goes behind the scenes into a very Australian story of maybe the most global, multi-cultural tool of connection; football. As someone who had never heard of Ferenc Puskás, but as a Brit who has a very love/hate relationship with football, this was a beautiful reminder of the community and connection that's possible through the sport. It’s being shown again in Melbourne on 10 Nov, and in Sydney on 3 Nov. Get your tickets.
Podcast - Signs: A great new podcast by Anika Nafis and Angelia Teo bringing an Asian lens to futures thinking and conversations about culture and change. I’m really enjoying the range of topics, interesting guests, and the nuance in the conversations. Spotify
Podcast - Vergecast: Deeper-dives on tech topics, in a longer format compared to podcasts like Hard Fork. The recent episode on Apple Intelligence was really interesting, and went way deeper into some of the challenges in the back-end, and potential impacts on their ecosystem stronghold than I had heard before. Spotify | Apple
Documentary - The Last of the Sea Women (Apple TV): Equal parts fascinating and depressing, this documentary follows the old women still taking part in the indigenous practice of Haenyeo, or diving and fishing, on Jeju Island in South Korea, and how it’s being plagued by age, climate change, and pollution. Watch
Film - Cloud Atlas: Yes I know it’s been out since 2012, but I'm terrible at watching films. Anyway, this one is utterly bananas. I subsequently realised (well, my friend Viren told me), that it’s based on a book by David Mitchell, who wrote Ghostwritten, which is one of my DNFs for 2024.
Song - Pure Shores by All Saints: I completely missed the phase everyone else went through in the 90s/00s of being into girl bands / boy bands. I went from loving the BeeGees when I was age 10-11 (true story), straight into Placebo and Radiohead when I was 12, and then never really emerged from that indie/rock and adjacent genre. HOWEVER, this is an absolute banger, and I have been unashamedly listening to it a lot recently.
Playlist - d.School ACTIVE: An excellent algorithm busting playlist from the also-excellent Megan Flamer in her Excited Adults Substack. It’s a fun playlist to work to (or use in workshops, if that’s your jam).
Silly thing - What beats rock?: Trying to kill time and look busy? You’re welcome
On the internet - Wisdom: Every video Wisdom produces blows my MIND. Watch
📚 What I’m reading this month 📚
Help, I’m stuck in a vortex of half-read books! Here’s what I’m making my way through…
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. Dystopian-ish, sci-fi-ish, but (so far) it’s surprisingly gentle and tackles topics like climate change, AI, and robots in a really understated way.
Always Will Be by Mykaela Saunders. It’s a short collection of speculative fiction imagining futures where Indigenous sovereignty is fully reasserted in a future version of the Tweed.
Citizens by Jon Alexander. A book about the answer to most of today’s problems being changing our collective narratives away from being consumers, and towards us all being citizens.
👋🏻 Some places I popped up recently (and am popping up soon)
Seen in Scenes Learning Festival - I’m very excited about this latest Butter Scenes product launch, so was very happy they asked me to take part in their Seen in Scenes launch event / learning festival on 7-8 November. Sitting somewhat weirdly amongst all the sessions about building a facilitation business, is my session; The Future of Friendship: Loneliness, Love, and Living in an Age of Robots.
Never Done Before Festival - the amazing Lily Higgins and I have finally found a place to collaborate; on a session about death and facilitation as part of the Never Done Before Festival, happening virtually on 15-16 November.
Smart Company - In my latest Smart Company piece, I am looking at some very strange, and pretty dark futures of work that could emerge in the next decade (that piece goes live on Friday 1 November).
App - The People Spot: Each month I pop up in the audio tracks of the People Spot app sharing a few interesting signals about the future. These audio clips are included in the free download (iPhone only) and you can use the code STEPHC for an additional two months free access to the full content library in the app.
Learna - Learna is a new learning app for organisations to break the cycle of drudgery in their approach to learning. Organisations and teams I know who use it love it, and I’ve also got three modules on the platform. *Exciting news*: you can now download the app and sign up without needing your workplace to sign up for you! Apple | Android
Hooray for Funmer!!!