iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 02/12/2025

For @womenofletters.org, I had the great pleasure of talking with Anna Malaika Tubbs. We discuss her latest NYT-bestselling book, preparing for her viral TED Talk, her relationship to social media, what she’s working on now, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/anna-malaika-tubbs

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  Ripple effects and waves: In conversation with Anna Malaika Tubbs

"I was invited to give a TED Talk, and I was pregnant at the time. I knew that I would have to deliver the TED Talk when my baby was only three months old."

WOMENOFLETTERS.SUBSTACK.COM

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“Tell us about some of the projects, ideas, or questions you’re currently working on.

Anna Malaika Tubbs: I am really excited because I wrote a script based off of my first book — The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation — and we now have a producer attached. Our next step is to look for a director, and then from there we’ll look for the actresses who will play these beautiful roles and honour these women with us.

I am so, so, so excited, because I have wanted to turn The Three Mothers into a film for a long time. It came out in 2021, and I think I was really looking for a different writer to help me do it — I didn’t know that I could do it — and then a couple of months ago, maybe half a year ago now, I realized that maybe I could be the one who wrote the script. And I did. My team feels really good about it, and I’m just excited for this next stage of my career.”

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“Anna Malaika’s latest book, Erased, showcases her characteristic ability to make complex ideas accessible at every level.

Building on both her acclaimed first book and viral TED Talk, it examines the far-reaching impacts of patriarchal systems and how our world continues to be structured around them. The book has earned her a second New York Times bestseller designation — along with a host of other accolades — further solidifying her status as one of today’s most influential writers.

I’m grateful, with this interview, to have learned more about the experiences that have shaped her career.

Jana M. Perkins, PhD 
Founder, Women of Letters"

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 26/11/2025

New email autoresponder just dropped

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“We are full now
please do not enter
I do not know the waiting time
No questions accepted”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 25/11/2025

Still so moved every time I see a shoutout to our podcast out in the wild. This one from Erin, who worked on @corinnelow.com’s amazing book, meant a lot

A screenshot of text that reads: “I’ve been talking about this book to anyone who will listen, ever since I had the chance to proofread it.
So often, I work on fiction or memoir. It was a treat to step into this world of data and ideas. As an economist and professor at Wharton, Corinne Low insists that no one-size-fits-all goal exists to describe happiness. Any self-help book that assumes people of all genders are aiming to maximize the same result, such as money or fame, will be inherently flawed, according to the author. Instead, Low advocates for calculating your own “personal utility function,” which accounts for both indirect means to fulfillment and direct fulfillment. If you love your job, for example, you might get indirect utility (wages) and direct utility (enjoyment) from it. Although no one is likely to pay you for spending time with your kids, the direct utility of doing so has value, nonetheless. We all get to make our own individual valuations in these matters, and Low provides the tools to do so. I don’t have a background in economics, but this idea seems to me like a refreshing take.”

A screenshot of text that reads: “into this world of data and ideas. As an economist and professor at Wharton, Corinne Low insists that no one-size-fits-all goal exists to describe happiness. Any self-help book that assumes people of all genders are aiming to maximize the same result, such as money or fame, will be inherently flawed, according to the author. Instead, Low advocates for calculating your own “personal utility function,” which accounts for both indirect means to fulfillment and direct fulfillment. If you love your job, for example, you might get indirect utility (wages) and direct utility (enjoyment) from it. Although no one is likely to pay you for spending time with your kids, the direct utility of doing so has value, nonetheless. We all get to make our own individual valuations in these matters, and Low provides the tools to do so. I don’t have a background in economics, but this idea seems to me like a refreshing take.
The author talks overtly about pushing back on business books like Lean In that advocate for women to take a certain approach to workplace leadership. She states this eloquently in the book, and also on an interview on the Women of Letters podcast, which I enjoyed. There isn’t any data, she says, that illustrates the efficacy of certain gendered traits over others. In her words:
“Research indeed underscores that women show differences in multiple traits compared to men, in a variety of settings […]. But *none* of the literature has demonstrated that the traits women exhibit more than men are actually *bad* from a profit or productivity perspective.” (90)
Perhaps it’s not women who need to change, Low suggests. Society, on the other hand, could benefit from looking at the data and adjusting how it values different styles of work and leadership. I love this message and the deep breath it lets me take as I navigate life’s twists and turns.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 24/11/2025

New interview with 2x NYT-bestselling author Anna Malaika Tubbs on @womenofletters.org tomorrow ✨ Come say hi: womenofletters.substack.com

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 20/11/2025

Today, as we’ve yet to even wrap up Season 2, it’s a real moment of pride to already be holding recording sessions for Season 3 of @womenofletters.org that will be published well into 2026. This new season’s set of questions are, I think, our best yet. I can’t wait for you to see these interviews 💙

A photo of me at my desk, with a microphone in one hand and my laptop in front of me

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 31/10/2025

All of which is to say that to get this kind note from Emily meant so much. I’ll link the interview itself below

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Emily J. Smith mentioned your publication in their note.

Absolutely LOVED this conversation with @Jana M. Perkins who is one of the kindest interviewers out there. About my path to writing, inspirations that kept me going, my next book, and much more. Thank you so much for having me, Jana!

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 30/10/2025

Me any time I read an acknowledgements section in a book

A New Yorker cartoon depicting a bride and groom at the altar. The caption reads, "Now the bride and groom will read their own vows while we silently assess whose were more thoughtful"

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 28/10/2025

For Women of Letters, I had the great pleasure of talking with @emjsmith.bsky.social. We discuss her debut novel, her background in tech, how she navigated the transition to writing full-time, what she’s working on next, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/emily-j-smith

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Pushing against the pull: In conversation with Emily J. Smith

"Part of me wishes I’d opened my eyes up to writing earlier, but in a lot of ways I'm grateful that I had a different experience than most writers I know."

WOMENOFLETTERS.SUBSTACK.COM

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Fast-forward to today. How did the path to what you’re doing now unfold?

EJS: It’s been about ten years since I took my first writing class and allowed myself to pursue writing seriously. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I essentially rearranged my life around writing.

“It felt like I might be throwing my entire career away, something I’d worked very, very hard to establish. But it did not get thrown away. It was reshaped.”

I had always conflated my identity with my career—working in tech and nonprofits—but when I began writing I started to view my job as simply that, a job, and poured my energy into writing. Through classes and workshops, I made writer-friends, which shifted my social circle. Forming close relationships with other writers allowed me to keep going, to not feel completely insane taking my writing seriously despite frequent rejections and the daily struggle to coherently form thoughts. Exchanging work with these friends, having someone to send a draft to, to toss around an idea with, was life-changing.

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With her debut novel, Emily has accomplished the rare feat of writing a book that is timely, incisive, and deeply affecting — all while being the kind of impossible-to-put-down read that audiences dream of finding.

The book, along with its author’s Substack, draws on Emily’s years of experience as a woman working in tech to offer cultural commentary that is both intellectually rigorous and emotionally honest. In one exchange, for example, we see one character confronting another, saying, “You’d think a woman that smart would know better.” The book’s main character, Edie, responds without hesitating: “Not at all,” she says. “Smart women look for challenges.”

She’s one of the few writers whose latest work I never miss. I’m thrilled we were able to connect over this interview.

Jana M. Perkins 
Founder, Women of Letters

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 27/10/2025

The only podcast I still listen to at 1x speed

A screenshot from the Podcasts app on an iPhone, where an interview from the Talk Easy podcast is playing

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 02/10/2025

For Women of Letters, I had the great pleasure of talking with @corinnelow.com. We discuss her new book, the economics of women’s lives, why she left a job at the top consulting firm in the world, becoming a tenured professor at Wharton, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/corinne-low

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Having It All: In Conversation with Corinne Low

"I really did not want my book to gaslight women about the real challenges that we face in making it all add up. I wanted to be really honest about my own struggles to make that all work."

WOMENOFLETTERS.SUBSTACK.COM

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Fast-forward to today. How did the path to what you’re doing now unfold?

CL: I majored in economics while I minored in kind of my true passion of writing.

I loved economics, and I thought it was a really elegant and beautiful way to understand the world. I didn’t necessarily know what a career in economics looked like, but a lot of my friends were interviewing for consulting positions. So, at the same time as I was deciding, like, maybe writing isn’t what’s going to pay off my student loans, my friends were interviewing for these consulting positions. They were like, “Oh, you get a signing bonus— it’s great!” And I was like, “I’ll just give it a try. I’ll interview.”

“You’re not going to be able to plan it out from the beginning. But how are you setting yourself up for that next step?”

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In her meticulously researched, newly published book, Corinne brings her years of expertise as a Wharton professor and an economist studying gender to answer the age-old question: is it possible for women to have it all?

From parenting to partnership to career planning to self-care, she offers a wealth of accessibly articulated and data-rich insight into so many subjects central to women’s lives—including a detailed account of the many reasons why, historically, ‘having it all’ has been such an elusive goal. If there was one book published on this topic in the last year I would recommend as essential reading, it would be this one.

Jana M. Perkins
 Founder, Women of Letters

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 09/09/2025

Her debut memoir, the importance of having mentors, the decision to open a bookstore and write full-time, & so much more— A wide-ranging interview with LAMBDA Literary Nonfiction Fellow Nikkya Hargrove. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/nikkya-hargrove

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"  In conversation with Nikkya Hargrove

"I am a hopeful person, and determined too, and my hopeful determination has never led me astray."

WOMENOFLETTERS.SUBSTACK.COM"

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“Fast-forward to today. How did the path to what you’re doing now unfold?

NH: I loved asking questions as a kid, and always found myself wondering what the ‘true’ answer was… curious about the nuts and bolts of the big questions in life.

I, naturally, loved my honors English class and my teacher Mr. Troller, who had a way with words that I admired. My writing skills improved because of him. Then one day, I sat talking with my grandfather while in high school, and he said, “I think you’ll be a journalist one day,” which felt like a statement out of the blue.

Today, I am a published author, write for my local paper, and own a bookstore in my town. I am exactly where I am meant to be, even if I never thought of myself as a journalist or reporter.”

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“Editor’s note

Nikkya’s writing in Mama, her first book, is visceral and punctuated in its vulnerability. She recounts each of the emotionally saturated events that frame her memoir with open-hearted precision, including her mother’s incarceration, the adoption of her half-brother, and the experience of falling in love with her now-wife.

“We keep the conversation light,” she recalls of visiting her mother in jail as a teenager. “We do not go deep. We do not ask about fears, wants, or needs.” Her book, however, does exactly that, venturing into all of the above and more. It was a privilege to get to speak with her about some of the stories behind those stories.

Jana M. Perkins 
Founder, Women of Letters”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 01/09/2025

Can we also just take a moment to appreciate this little guy

The tiniest bunny you have ever seen in your life crossing the sidewalk of a city street

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 01/09/2025

Hi from your friendly neighbourhood flower paparazzi

Large pink flowers in a small landscaped flowerbed

Bright orange flowers, with some smaller purple flowers, in a curbside flowerbed

Pink, purple, and white flowers in a medium-sized flowerbed

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 15/08/2025

Alright, Bsky — I think I just discovered our new favourite website. @dlazaro.ca built the coolest thing: if you go to sky.dlazaro.ca, you can get a snapshot of what the sky currently looks like at your approximate location as a gorgeous CSS gradient. Here’s mine from this morning ☀️

A light blue gradient, fading into white

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 31/07/2025

For @womenofletters.org, I had the great pleasure of talking with Carrie Sun. We discuss her widely acclaimed memoir, working at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, why “process over outcome” is bad advice, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/carrie-sun

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“There are two kinds of writers: those who write what they know and those who write what they don’t know. I’m in the second camp. I wake up excited to ask questions that confound me and to find answers that surprise me.”

Jana M. Perkins
A measure of worth: In conversation with Carrie Sun

WOMENOFLETTERS.SUBSTACK.COM

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“Where do you feel the most scarcity in your life? Where do you feel the most abundance?

CS: I have a newborn at home, so the obvious answer might be that I feel a scarcity of time. It’s interesting. While objectively I have no time (I’m writing these answers in the middle of the night as I nurse), I feel, oddly, an abundance of time. I think it has to do with control and agency.

When I was working on Wall Street, I felt an intense chronophobia—the fear of the passing of time—afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do everything I wanted to do in this life. Even though then I could take long showers and go out with friends, neither of which I have time to do now, I felt that my days did not belong to me. I felt time-poor. Today, somehow, I feel time-rich. I own my days. I also feel an abundance of gratitude to be in this position and, unexpectedly, a scarcity of anxiety: it no longer matters so much what happens in the future because I’m doing everything I want to do in the present.”

$A screenshot of text that reads: “Editor’s note Among the most compelling memoirs are those that offer a window into experiences so singular they would otherwise remain known to only a fraction of humanity. Literary treasures of this kind are scarce not because extraordinary experiences evade us, but because we so rarely encounter the writer who can transmute those experiences into essential reading. Carrie is one of those writers, and Private Equity is one of those memoirs. Named one of TIME Magazine’s must-read books of the year, one of Vogue’s best books of the year, and the work memoir of the year by Harper’s Bazaar, it chronicles, as its central focus, her time spent working at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world. Yet to say that Private Equity is a memoir about Wall Street, the financial industry, or even a professional coming-of-age is to fail to capture the breadth of insight it offers across so many intensely interesting subjects. As Carrie explains below, “A decision is only risky if what’s at stake is valuable.” I learned a lot about decision-making, risk, and value from her propulsively readable memoir, and it was a privilege to get to learn more about her in this interview. Jana M. Perkins Founder, Women of Letters”$

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 30/06/2025

For @womenofletters.org, I had the great pleasure of talking with Kapka Kassabova. We discuss her experience of growing up in Bulgaria, her award-winning Balkan quartet of books, creating her own literary genre, & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/kapka-kassabova

An image of Henri-Edmond Cross’s “Landscape” painting, which features a lush and brightly coloured impressionistic landscape.

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“Fast-forward to today. How did the path to what you’re doing now unfold?

KK: It’s been quite surprising, really. And I think ‘path’ is a good word. It turns out that paths have been much more important to me as a creator and as a soul, as an evolving soul in this lifetime, than roads. Paths rather than roads.

When I started researching and writing about people and places, which happened with Border, I found my voice. And I found my voice thanks to the transformative encounters with people in those places that I had. And that was thanks to paths. Paths are away from roads. Paths are on the periphery of the center of power. The center of power is very fond of roads and other large infrastructure.

And after all the roads that I had traveled as an adult — you know, as someone who emigrated more than once, changed countries more than once, changed languages, sort of acquired various cultural identities along the way — in the end, the most important journey has been a journey of paths. In a way, researching Border, which was the book where I really felt that I found myself and I found my genre — I created my own literary genre and continued from there — it coincided with a life event, which was that I moved from the city to the countryside. And in doing that, I started to shed some of the baggage that we’ve just been talking about.”

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“Editor’s note

The only word that can be used to adequately describe Kapka’s work is ‘mesmerizing.’ The effect either of reading her writing or of listening to her speak is one of being swept into what feels like an alternate dimension, where everything is tinged with a kind of numinosity and wonder.

To experience the vividness of her perspective once is to seek its repeated encounter — and, fortunately for us, it can be found throughout what are currently more than a dozen of her published books and countless interviews. I’m delighted, with our conversation, to have added to this rich collection of transporting exchanges.

Jana M. Perkins 
Founder, Women of Letters”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 24/06/2025

Calling it now: @melissafebos.bsky.social’s THE DRY SEASON is the book of the summer

A screenshot of text that reads:   “The manner in which I had loved people was a symptom of how I moved through the world and understood my place in it. I had understood one of my life's tasks to be the management of others' perceptions of me. It was my job to attract them and then meet or placate their desires. I had performed this unconscious labor in every realm of social life. I had earned my living that way, my self-esteem, and my physical safety. It defined the silent economy of all my romantic relationships, which insisted that the rest of my life's passions must fit into the space cleared by a lover's satisfaction. My freedom was earned by their contentment. No one in possession of that ruthless part, whose first love was art, could sustain such a dynamic. Eventually, it exhausted me, the relationship collapsed, and I was on to the next. I had not invented it, but I could choose to set it down.”

A screenshot of text that reads: “This all sounds very rational, and the factor that most drove my endeavor was not rational. I felt it in my body like physical hunger, tugging on every cell. It felt biological. A pressure like that of sickness or fatigue. It was a desire that had finally grown stronger than its opposite, but was yet unknown. What did I want when I wanted the absence of something? It wasn't really time or a hob-by. I had no reference for the object of my hunger, and that was a strange condition.

In my quietest moments, on the drive home from work, my body humming as I belted out a song about love, and just before I fell asleep or after I woke, I was just an animal with a past. I sensed how much I didn't know yet. I understood that an animal could be very hungry and not know for what, only in what direction it lay.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 30/05/2025

For @womenofletters.org, I had the great pleasure of talking with Jennifer Baker. We discuss the mentors who supported her work, how to establish boundaries, the importance of reframing the definition of ‘failure,’ & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/jennifer-baker

An image of Paul Cézanne’s “Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses” painting, which features flowers and apples placed over a tablecloth on a small table

A screenshot of text that reads: “What’s a commonly shared piece of advice that you disagree with, and why?

JB: I think there’s more I’d push back on in terms of perception than advice. Especially in the sense of creation.

I often, or at least too frequently for my taste, hear, “I failed to…”. And I’m always curious where this idea of “failure” comes from. Various people online, pick your social media mode, have said, “I failed to get a book deal.” And I’m sitting here thinking, “Did you? Or did you just not get a book deal? Because that’s not a singular occurrence.” Failure exists. There’s a lot we’re failing to do now as a nation, let alone a world. But in terms of trying and not getting, in terms of rejection? That’s not failure.”

A screenshot of text that reads: “Editor’s note

I first discovered Jennifer through her Minorities in Publishing podcast, which shines a light on underrepresented professionals in the book publishing world. Its episodes generously offer everything from real-world context on issues like representation to a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry to a deep dive into the personal histories of guests.

The podcast recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and is already charging ahead through its 11th year — a feat of longevity that, under her leadership, simultaneously comes as no surprise to long-time listeners and marks a significant accomplishment in today’s increasingly ephemeral media landscape. I’ll continue to be among the many who are celebrating this major milestone as we eagerly look ahead to its future from here.

Jana M. Perkins 
Founder, Women of Letters"

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 27/05/2025

Joan Didion fans, this is essential reading: a remarkable memoir by Cory Leadbeater, who was her assistant for a decade and *lived with her* (!) for four of those years

The book cover for Cory Leadbeater’s THE UPTOWN LOCAL

A screenshot of text that reads: “HOW DO I explain Joan. Once, as we sat together listening to music—“There’s a Small Hotel,” it was, the Ella Fitzgerald version, not the Josephine Baker, not the Peggy Lee, and we spent that afternoon talking about Joan’s favorite hotels, the Bristol, the Royal Hawaiian, the Beverly Wilshire, none of which had I ever been to, and she smiled and said someday she would take me—I was wearing a blue hat, and without saying a word, she reached up and took the hat off of my head and put it down on hers. She wore it for the rest of the afternoon. Many years later, when I introduced Joan to Liz, Liz made a nervous joke about Joan getting rid of me one day. Joan looked stonily at Liz. “No,” Joan said sternly, and flatly. Joan waited, then followed it up: “No,” she said again, and the subject was closed.

After Joan died, but before her clothes could leave the apartment, I was enlisted to check the pockets of her coats and sweaters, to make sure nothing valuable was missed. A long-forgotten missive or an idea for a book might be waiting, or else a scrap of paper that would, maybe, tell us all how to survive death. But what I found instead were only used, crumpled tissues. Tissues. She had always had tissues. She had them in her hand when we walked in the Park, at breakfast too each morning; she had had them in her hand even when she first opened the door for me on that August morning nine years before. In fact, I was always having to order her tissues—Fridays, 2 p.m., I was calling Zitomer Pharmacy, week after week, year after year, to order toilet paper, to order mouthwash, to order face cream or Band-Aids and, of course, to order twelve boxes of tissues, Kleenex, the rectangular boxes, large, yes twelve, please. Sometimes they would put me on hold for ten minutes at a time while they checked their stock, and I’d curse as I sat there waiting. What I wouldn’t give now—to be on hold with Zitomer. To be ordering twelve boxes of Kleenex...”

A screenshot of text that reads: “Joan loved Hemingway, and I loathed him; I worshipped Woolf, and Joan loathed her. We loved the same poets—Auden again, always Auden—and found common ground with Ford, García Márquez, Henry James.

During the second hospitalization, sensing (stupidly—for Joan was tougher than all of us imagined, tougher than all of us combined, I was in the process then of learning) that time might be short and determined that she should share my opinion, I procured a copy of Mrs. Dalloway and began to read it to her. By day three, she was asking for more. I am writing this here simply to get it on the record: Joan changed her mind about Virginia Woolf at the age of eighty, in a hospital bed, thinking herself quite near death. Though I never learned to write from Joan, much as I wish I had, I did learn some things about persisting in reassessment, about having the courage to keep the void of uncertainty at the center of one’s gaze. Joan didn’t die either of those times, but she was close—and still, it was as good a time as any to reconsider Virginia Woolf.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 25/05/2025

POV: it’s Sunday afternoon and everyone in the house has to listen to my podcasting voice

An image looking down over a wooden desk that features a laptop, keyboard, mouse, cup of tea, glass of water, and microphone

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 14/05/2025

Raced through this luminous @sarahmanguso.bsky.social novel in less than a day and will be thinking about it for the rest of this week

The cover of LIARS, a novel by Sarah Manguso

A screenshot of text that reads: “A few months later, John started another company. He'd somehow done it from within the bank, which had agreed to provide the initial funding.

This company had ten times the venture capital of the first company, so it was ten times safer, he said. He'd come up with the idea of an inter-net-connected mirror. You could learn a new language while brushing your teeth. If you wanted to, you could practice the language while the mirror took video of you. Speech coaches would then evaluate your progress and send back custom-made lessons to help you learn faster.
He called the company Polyglot.

We'd have to move back to Los Angeles. Office space and assistants were cheaper there than in New York.

John waltzed out the door to a three-hour drawing class while I cleaned the house, went to the laundromat, browsed used furniture online, and made chili. He came back—he'd wanted to draw a woman, and the model had been a man, so he sulked and played video games until his three hours were up.

I felt the usual fury, blanketed by the usual somnolence. I sat alone on the roof-deck, in the dark, cooling off after a hot bath. The big tree swayed. The Big Dipper blinked. The hundred-and-fifty-year-old building creaked. I was a small animal passing through on my way back into the earth.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 06/05/2025

Springtime in Champaign, Illinois

An image of a red brick building with several large flowering trees in front

An image looking up at the sky through a group of flowering trees

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 01/05/2025

This month, I wrote about: - The value of keeping the line open - How learning to gift my best time to myself has changed the way I prioritize long-term goals - My favourite reads from the past month You can find it all at jcontd.com/keep-line-open-best-time-first 🧪

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“One thing I’ve learned, over the course of my career, is that you never know when someone from your professional past will later come to play a role in your professional present. And while you have no control over the circumstances that lead to a potential reconnection down the line, you do have control over how you treat people during those periods when you’re actively a part of each other’s lives.”

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“These days, I’ve rearranged my schedule so that at least some portion of the things that are most important to the realization of my long-term goals happens first in the day, when I feel sharpest and most energized. What this has meant is that, among other things, I now read for about 2 hours every day, I’m no longer starting my messages to loved ones with “sorry for the delayed response!”, and my personal projects are coming along at a pace that feels meaningful to me.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 30/04/2025

I had the great pleasure of talking with Marianne Brooker for @womenofletters.org. We discuss her book Intervals, for which she won the 2022 Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social; her current writing projects; & so much more. 📚💙 womenofletters.substack.com/p/marianne-brooker

An image of Francis Danby’s painting “The Avon Gorge at Sunset,” which features a pastel-coloured landscape at sunset.

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“Tell us about some of the projects, ideas, or questions you’re currently working on.

MB: I guess I want to do things that are a little bit different, in some sense. I’m trying to write a novel — I kind of want to experiment, and maybe be a bit less constrained by writing from life. But also, by myself, coalescing around similar kinds of questions as I was exploring in Intervals.

So I’m researching — I’m saying this very tentatively, because I’m not really saying it out loud very much at the moment yet, but — a kind of novel about the life of…

[…]”

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“Editor’s note

In all my reading, I’ve encountered few works like Marianne’s Intervals.

Her book offers a capacious look at life, death, and dying through a chronicling of her mother’s decision to withdraw from life-sustaining treatments. As she describes it, “Intervals are temporary places of rupture and of rest; they are liminal, partial and in-between. … I invite you to bear loose witness — to sit with me, as close to the pain as I can get — on the condition that the story doesn’t end here, that there is yet a world to win.”

The result is an expansive, important, and generous work. I gained a lot from having had the benefit of her perspective.

Jana M. Perkins 
Founder, Women of Letters”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 21/04/2025

Whenever I manage to make it down to the Siebel Center for Design I always end up wondering why I don’t spend more time there

An image of a large atrium within an aesthetically-designed building

An image looking across a large table. The table features several pieces of paper with instructions on them, a box of writing utensils, and the notes and miscellaneous belongings of those who are seated around the table

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 09/04/2025

It’s a great article for several reasons — shoutout to @chaykak.bsky.social, who has consistently done solid reporting on tech — including this helpful explanation of how atproto works 🧪

A screenshot of text that reads: “On the internet, protocols are a bit like a city's electrical grid-crucial to its functioning but invisible to most civilians. When you send an e-mail, you are making use of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). When you visit any website, you are using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (hence the letters at the beginning of every address, HTTP). Because of SMTP, your e-mail account can send messages to any other e-mail account; you don't have to be a Gmail user to e-mail a Gmail user. Daniel Holmgren, one of Bluesky's head engineers, likened the company's protocol-called the Authenticated Transfer, or AT, Protocol-to an "open data lake"; whatever is in the water is public property, and any boat on the lake can dredge it up. Conventional social media, by contrast, is siloed: a Facebook account cannot follow or message a TikTok account. In recent years, Google,”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 01/04/2025

e.g., I often think back to this example from Miranda on one of her early experiences with mentorship. Knowing just how much she’s accomplished in the years since, it’s not at all surprising to me that someone with her perspective would have gone on to flourish in her career

A screenshot of text that reads: “I also remember another strange moment — I suppose these are the forms in which mentorship arrives — that, when I was in graduate school, I received an acceptance from a journal called Paideuma, at the time focused on Pound studies. Most of us weren’t publishing, at that time, during doctoral work. … I still remember just deciding that I was going to send in an article because something had been going right with one of the papers that I’d been writing on Ezra Pound and his connection to deluxe editions. I found Paideuma, and I decided to send in the essay. And the senior editor — who was a grand figure of Pound studies, Carroll Terrell, who did the companion to Ezra Pound’s Cantos — wrote back; it was he himself who wrote back, with a typewritten letter.

He had written something terse to the effect of, “You have a point. This is very interesting. We will publish this.” I think I may even have spoken to him by phone. At the time, we weren’t so elaborate in our professionalization. Quite otherwise. It was quite exciting to get an honest letter back, from Carroll Terrell directly. So those were a few of the moments of mentorship. Often there was very little about it that was formal or formalized.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 01/04/2025

This month, I wrote about: - How mentorship probably won’t look the way you thought it would - Mark Duplass & the importance of self-advocacy - Why it’s worth investing time into making the most of email - My favourite reads from the past month You can find it all at jcontd.com/email-self-a... 🧪

A screenshot of text that reads: “Writer, director, and actor Mark Duplass gave a 2015 keynote at SXSW where he debunked the concept of what he calls ‘the cavalry.’ The cavalry is any person, group, or company that you think will miraculously happen to notice your tremendous ability, your amazing work, your untapped potential — and, from there, pluck you out of obscurity into success.”

A screenshot of text that reads: “Very few of the experiences I’ve learned and grown from over the years would have materialized were it not for the people who guided, supported, questioned, and encouraged me along the way. Because of this, I’m a big believer in the value of mentorship: I seek it out wherever possible, and I’ve maintained a regular availability for serving as a mentor to others for the past 8 years.

As a result, I’m also always eager to learn more about how other people experience mentorship. I was struck, in a recent reading of Gary Stevenson’s The Trading Game, by how he described an exchange with a more senior trader shortly after he started interning at Citibank:

“This started him on a long monologue about trading and his journey within it, of which I did not understand much. He showed me graphs and told me many stories. I looked into Johnny’s eyes, I looked at the graphs. I looked into the middle distance, and thought. Or at least, I narrowed my eyes to give the sense of thinking. I wondered if he could tell that I didn’t understand.”

A screenshot of text that reads: “I say this, in part, because many of the best and most impactful opportunities that have come my way have either originated in my inbox or have had some critical portion take place over email.

Some recent examples:

A recruiter from a FAANG company reached out to me over email about a full-time position they thought I’d be a great fit for. Their message ended up in my spam folder; if I hadn’t been diligent about checking it for any messages that might’ve slipped through the cracks, I would’ve missed out on the opportunity to interview for the role.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 29/03/2025

Have been baking up a storm ever since moving into my new apartment and this vegan focaccia bread has quickly emerged as a favourite 👩🏻‍🍳

An image of a rectangular-shaped focaccia bread dough

An image of a rectangular-shaped focaccia bread loaf

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 27/03/2025

A dream of a dream to see @roxanegay.bsky.social discussing THE PORTABLE FEMINIST READER in conversation with Sasha-Ann Simons in Chicago tonight! The entire theatre was full of people who were so excited to dive into the book that they started reading it the second they sat down. 📚💙

An image of Roxane Gay on stage with Sasha-Ann Simons, with WBEZ Chicago projected on the screen behind them

An image of the title page of THE PORTABLE FEMINIST READER, featuring Roxane Gay’s signature

An image of a theatre aisle, featuring a tote bag hanging off of one of the seats that says “support your local feminist bookstore.” The seats are filled with people who each have a book in their lap

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 24/03/2025

Springtime in Champaign, Illinois

An image of a tree full of white blossoms against a gray-blue sky

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 20/03/2025

I had the great pleasure of talking with Mary Jo Bang for @womenofletters.org. We discuss the books that shaped her thinking, her time studying with Lucie Brock-Broido, her current writing projects, & so much more. You can read the full interview at womenofletters.substack.com/p/mary-jo-bang. 📚💙

An image of Eugène Cicéri’s “Design for a stage set” watercolour drawing

A screenshot of text that reads:

“How did your childhood shape your ideas about what work looked like and what was possible for you?

Mary Jo Bang: My family was working class. Conversations between my parents almost always centered on work. When we visited relatives, the men talked to each other about what the boss said, what the union was going do, work-related resentments and degradations. In the kitchen, the women shared stories about what their children had done (good or bad), had sotto voce conversations about health issues, family resentments and neighborhood gossip.

I knew from a very early age that I was expected to marry, have children, cook, clean, and talk to other women in the kitchen. I also knew I wanted something different from that. I remember telling my adult cousin, when I was fifteen, that I planned to go to college. He laughed and said, “What for? You don’t need a degree to change diapers.” When I said I wasn’t having children, he shared a look with my mother that said I’d come to my senses and accept my destiny.”

A screenshot of text that reads:

“Editor’s note

Every so often, you encounter someone who has done so much so well that it becomes difficult to capture the extent of their accomplishments. Mary Jo is one of those people.

She’s published nine books of poetry and numerous works of translation, with another — Dante’s Paradiso — forthcoming later this year. Her poems have been selected for inclusion in the Best American Poetry series multiple times, and she’s taught everywhere from Yale University to the New School to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Among the many awards she has received for her work are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and a National Book Critics Circle Award.

It was a privilege to get to learn more about the life and writing of a poet whose work is as formidable in thought as it is wide-ranging in its cultural impact.

Jana M. Perkins 
Founder, Women of Letters”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 28/02/2025

One of these days I’ll be able to write something without citing McLuhan but today is not that day

A screenshot of text that reads: “Particularly in the context of recent events, it seems that the conditions are going to remain impossible for some time, and that the onus is only going to increasingly be on us to find some way to make a life in the midst of it all. I’m reminded, here, of something Marshall McLuhan shared in 1966:

“There is a well-known story by Edgar Allen Poe. It is called ‘The Maelstrom’ — about a sailor who goes fishing one afternoon and becomes so absorbed in his thought that he forgets to notice the turn of the tide and suddenly is caught in a great whirlpool. He realizes he can’t row his boat out of the maelstrom and so he begins to study the action of the maelstrom. He observes that certain kinds of materials are sucked down into it and never return while other kinds pop up again. He attaches himself to one of these recurring objects and survives.””

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 28/02/2025

This month, I wrote about: - How the conditions are always impossible. - The thing that gets you to the thing. - Optimizing for compatibility. - My favourite reads from the past month. You can find it all at jcontd.com/navigating-i.... 🧪

A screenshot of text that reads: “In a recent Women of Letters interview, author Noreen Masud shared that she often thinks back to a saying of Doris Lessing’s: “Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.”

“And oh my goodness, it’s so true,” Masud says:

“The conditions are always impossible, particularly if you’re a woman, if you’re a woman of colour — the conditions are always impossible. So you just have to.

Whatever feels too overwhelming to do, do a kind of adjusted version of it. If you can’t write 500 words, write 300 words. That’s the other thing I do. I’m very indulgent with myself about targets: if I don’t meet a target one day, I halve the target. I don’t double it for the next day.

If I can’t write a paragraph, I write a sentence. If I can’t write a sentence, I open the document and look at it. I’m a big believer in that. And once you’ve opened the document, you can write a little bit. You know? That’s usually how it works.””

A screenshot of text that reads: “2) The thing that gets you to the thing.

There's a scene in Halt and Catch Fire — one of my favourite shows — where Lee Pace's character says, "Computers aren't the thing. They're the thing that gets us to the thing.””

A screenshot of text that reads: “Over the years, I’ve lived, worked, and studied in many different countries, using several different languages. I’ve lived in big cities, and I’ve lived in small ones; I’ve lived in places whose names anybody would know, and I’ve lived in places that few have ever heard of.

What these experiences have taught me is that amazing people are not a finite resource. There really is no shortage of people who are exceptionally smart, funny, kind, generous — insert whatever quality you find impressive or important here. Similarly, and particularly as I advance in my career, I’m finding that there are no shortage of opportunities to meet those amazing people. What I’m coming to realize is in somewhat short supply, however, are people who are whatever combination of amazing things you’re looking for and are able to be a part of your life in a way that makes sense for you both.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 21/02/2025

It’s part of Vanity Fair’s “Reunited” series, where two actors who have previously worked together are — you guessed it — reunited. That premise alone would tend to make for a compelling conversation. But what’s even more special about this is that the reunion is a surprise to both of them.

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 21/02/2025

One of the reasons I love working within the genre of the interview is because of the magic that sometimes happens during those rare moments when everything comes together in a really harmonious way. This interview between Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet for @vanityfair.com is a great example.

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 21/02/2025

Every person in this room is your favourite podcaster’s favourite podcaster. This episode of Las Culturistas became iconic the second it was recorded www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v55...

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 19/02/2025

I had the great pleasure of talking with Elisa Gabbert for @womenofletters.org. You can read our interview at womenofletters.substack.com/p/elisa-gabbert. 📚💙

A screenshot of text that reads:

“Elisa Gabbert on Her Writing Career | Women of Letters

"I was a little too self-sufficient in my youth, I think, and a little too confident."

WOMENOFLETTERS.SUBSTACK.COM”

A screenshot of text that reads:

“EDITOR'S NOTE

I consider Elisa to be among the foremost essayists of our time.

As someone who is both a poet and an essayist, she writes in a way that few others do. Regular readers of her work will have noticed, for example, how her prose contains both the crystalline logic of well-reasoned argument and the subtle music of verse - how it features, simultaneously, the rational and the rhythmic, marrying thoughtful reasoning with sonic richness. It is thus no surprise that she regularly publishes in places like The Paris Review and The New York Times (where she has been a poetry columnist since 2020), or that she recently released her third book of essays.

If you haven't previously encountered her work or had the opportunity to study what makes it so distinct, this interview offers an excellent starting point. I'm grateful to have connected over it.

Jana M. Perkins
Founder, Women of Letters”

A screenshot of text that reads:  

“How did your childhood shape your ideas about what work looked like and what was possible for you?

Elisa Gabbert: Some of my earliest memories are of reading—reading was important to me long before writing ever was. But my teachers often told me I should be a writer, or simply took for granted that I was one. It wasn’t something I talked about. It’s striking to me now, that they knew something about my future I didn’t.

For a while I wanted to be a teacher, then later, an architect, and then a psychiatrist. I studied cognitive science and linguistics in college; I always liked the brain and language. I was reading all the time still, and writing a little, mostly poetry—but it wasn’t until my early twenties that I began to understand how writing could be, and should be, more central in my life, that I could make my life about books. Though it may have been obvious to everyone around me, it felt like a radical shift from inside.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 05/02/2025

Have been racing my way through Anna Funder’s meticulously researched book WIFEDOM, which shines a light on Eileen O’Shaughnessy and her marriage to George Orwell. e.g., It’s early on that she realizes “not only her career, but also her life, is going to come second to her husband’s work.”

The cover of Anna Funder’s book Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life

A passage of text from Anna Funder’s book Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life that reads:

“In her first letter to Norah, written at Orwell's parents' inSouthwold, Eileen is amusing about Orwell's neediness and manipulation, but there it is, on the page. How else is he going to get so much work done? Which continues apace. Three days after the wedding Orwell submits the essay 'Shooting an Elephant', and in the next six months he writes The Road to Wigan Pier, twelve reviews of thirty-two books, and two articles: 'Bookshop Memories' and the lengthy 'In Defence of the Novel'. While he writes Eileen deals with the 'dreadful' resident Aunt (there for two months!), the flood, the cesspit, the shop, the house, the garden, his illnesses, the chickens, the goat and the visitors. She makes thwarted attempts to take a (working) break with her brother, who needs her help editing his scientific papers. There hasn't been time to get her head around it all; there hasn't even been time to write a letter to her best friend. Under the list of slapstick misfortunes she delivers up to Norah lies the dawning realisation that not only her career, but also her life, is going to come second to her husband's work.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 22/01/2025

I had the great pleasure of talking with Noreen Masud — @noreenmasud.bsky.social — for @womenofletters.org. You can read or listen to our conversation at womenofletters.substack.com/p/noreen-masud. 📚💙

A screenshot of text over a background image of a painting featuring a prairire landscape that reads:

“Women of Letters | An interview with Noreen Masud

"The important thing is the time spent doing the thing that absorbs you. And in this world, that doesn't necessarily get to be a career."

Available January 21st, 2025
WOMENOFLETTERS.SUBSTACK.COM”

A screenshot of text that reads:

“Editor’s note

As someone who now, effectively, lives between three different countries, I've become increasingly interested in the relationship between space and self. I'm finding that, far from being the passive surroundings onto which we project our experiences of the world, the places in which we conduct our days are, in fact, the very ingredients that determine who we are and how we are able to think.

These themes take center stage in Noreen's A Flat Place, a rich and winding work which has as its subject the specific environment of flat landscapes - those that are not just geographic, but social and psychological, as well. As she writes in her book, "A flat place helps us to reimagine what it means for something to 'happen' and to rethink what it means for something to 'matter.' To accept that not all discoveries involve digging for answers, or ascending heights."

It was a joy to take in the intricate cartography of her thoughts, both in this book and through our conversation.

Jana M. Perkins
Founder, Women of Letters”

A screenshot of text that reads:

“Did you have any mentors along the way?

NM: I owe a great deal to my undergraduate tutors, who were so kind to me in various ways.

I remember one tutor— I was short of money when I was an undergraduate, for various reasons.

And I was on the highest possible bursary, and I was also just very terrified of what would happen after and preoccupied with saving. And my undergraduate tutor said to me, "You should get these books. They'll help you." And I said, "Oh, you know — I'll see if they have them in the library or something." "No, you should actually get copies; it'll be useful." And I'm like, "Oh, you know, well — don't worry. I'll find a solution. I'll find a solution." Brushing it off; I wasn't going to buy them.

And I can't name this tutor, because she still might get into trouble for doing it. When I went down to my pigeonhole, I found money there and a note from her: 20 pounds, and a note from her, saying, "You must have the books that you need." So many rules were broken there. But that was life-changing for me, that gesture - that my education might be important enough to somebody for them to just give me money like that. I remember that very strongly.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 21/10/2024

One of the topics that most frequently emerges, across all of the interviews we’ve conducted, is how rarely there’s a set path laid out at the beginning of someone’s career — and how, despite that, the wayfinding into their eventual success unfolds nonetheless. e.g., As Ayşegül explains:

A screenshot from the interview that reads: “Fast-forward to today. How did the path to what you’re doing now unfold? AS: I was always very interested in literature, but I never considered that I could study it. It seemed too easy, or indulgent. I studied anthropology in college and spent the years after graduation working whatever administrative, tutoring, and babysitting jobs I was offered. I did not really stand out in my academic accomplishments, and I didn’t get the types of intellectually stimulating jobs in the social sciences that I thought should be my career path. I had, at this time, moved to California where my boyfriend was completing his PhD. When my U.S. visa expired, I decided to apply to graduate schools just so we could be together. I’d been writing short stories during my lunch breaks and thought I could maybe get into a writing program. In part because I wanted to write, and in part because I didn’t seem to be good at anything else. This is all to say that I wouldn’t have started writing if I had gotten an interesting job after graduation, or started a graduate program in anthropology.”

A screenshot from the interview that reads: “I got into a writing program where I continued writing short stories even though I didn’t have much direction: I did not get any fellowships or prizes. I was not published. It seemed that I was possibly wasting my time. After graduation, my boyfriend (now husband) and I moved to Paris where I tutored high schoolers and my husband started a university research position. I was still writing, but without any conviction. The following year, I attended a cultural journalism workshop in Mexico, thinking that it might be more realistic to do journalistic work. The writer teaching the workshop, Jonathan Levi, advised me to start a novel, having noticed my desire to tell stories and my general lack of direction. It was as if I’d been waiting for someone to tell me this; it was the only encouragement I needed. I wrote and revised my first novel in the following three years, quickly found an agent and published it.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 10/10/2024

Obsessed with this mic drop of an answer from a forthcoming @womenofletters.org interview 💙📚

A screenshot of a Word document. Displayed on the page is the following: “Where can our readers find you? In my novels and short stories.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 27/09/2024

The best takes on any OpenAI news cycle are always in the comments section on Hacker News 🧪 🤖

A screenshot of a thread from Hacker News. It reads:

“- Arguably the goal post for AGI has moved about as much, if not more. One wonders if Turing reading a 2024 LLM chat transcript would say "but it's not really thinking!".

- Passing the Turing test has always been a non-binary thing. Chat bots have been able to pass off as a human for a short time under certain circumstances. Now they can pass off as human for a longer time under more circumstances. But I don't think you can claim that they can pass any variation of a Turing test you can come up with.
Has the AGI goal post been shifted? Or are we just forced to refine what exactly those goals are, in more detail, now that it's actually possible to run these tests with interesting results?

- I think the Turing test came in part because Babies and Children take so long to learn language…”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 19/09/2024

Here’s where you can do that: - Read or listen on Substack (womenofletters.substack.com/p/iris-jamah...) - Listen on Apple Podcasts (podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...) - Listen on Spotify (open.spotify.com/episode/1Z8a...) 👩🏻‍🔬 🧪

Eadweard Muybridge’s “Mirror Lake, Valley of the Yosemite” photograph from 1872.

Generated alt text: “A historic photograph of Mirror Lake in Yosemite National Park. It features a serene lake reflecting the surrounding landscape, including granite cliffs, mountains, and pine trees. The distinctive shape of Half Dome is visible in the background. The sepia tone suggests the photograph is old.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 16/09/2024

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #41,963! 🎉🎉

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 15/09/2024

How it feels logging on to blue sky dot com 🐠

Generated alt text: “This image is a surreal and creative digital composition that blends elements of technology with nature, particularly focusing on aquatic and sky themes.

The central element is a computer monitor or screen emerging from what appears to be water. The screen displays a world map or global image in shades of blue. Around the monitor, there's a splash of water that seems to be frozen in time, creating a dynamic, circular shape.

Swimming around the monitor are tropical fish, specifically what look like butterflyfish with their distinctive yellow and black striped patterns. There's also a small clownfish visible.

Above the water line, the scene transitions to a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Several seagulls are shown flying across this sky. Interspersed throughout the image are transparent bubbles or spheres of various sizes, some of which contain glimpses of what looks like a world map.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 27/08/2024

When it’s the first day of the new semester and you’re unexpectedly attending a talk by Steve Chen — one of the co-founders of YouTube — because he studied at the university where you’re getting your PhD

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 17/08/2024

POV: it’s the last week of your summer internship and the company flies you out to Denver for it

Generated alt text: “The photo shows an airplane wing taken from a passenger's view inside the plane. Below the wing, there is a vast landscape featuring rolling plains, likely grassland or farmland, with a few scattered roads and structures visible. The sky above is mostly cloudy, with some patches of sunlight breaking through, casting light on parts of the land. In the distance, faint mountains can be seen on the horizon. The overall atmosphere is calm, with a mix of clouds and open sky.”

Generated alt text: “The photo depicts a modern urban outdoor area, framed by tall buildings with large windows and reflective glass surfaces. The space between the buildings features a landscaped path made of reddish bricks, lined with greenery including grasses, shrubs, and a few large red rocks scattered throughout. The landscaping is designed to incorporate both nature and urban elements, providing a small green oasis amidst the towering buildings. The light and reflections on the buildings suggest it's either early morning or late afternoon. The scene is calm and structured, emphasizing the contrast between nature and modern architecture.”

Generated alt text: “The photo shows a lively pedestrian street, lined with brick buildings on both sides. The street is adorned with rows of flags hung across it, alternating between American flags and flags of Colorado. The street is bustling with outdoor restaurants and cafes, with people dining under umbrellas and walking down the center of the street. The sky is bright blue with scattered clouds, and the warm lighting suggests it may be late afternoon. The atmosphere is festive, likely due to the presence of the flags, giving the street a vibrant and patriotic ambiance.”

Generated alt text: “The photo shows an interior hallway with modern, minimalist design. The walls appear to be made of smooth concrete on the left and vertical wood paneling on the right. The floor is made of terrazzo, with small flecks of various colors embedded in a polished surface. A long, simple black bench is placed along the left wall. The hallway leads to an open space at the end, where natural light filters in from above through a textured glass ceiling, casting soft light onto the surfaces. At the far end, there is a window or an open frame showing colorful artwork or displays in the distance. The space is clean, geometric, and designed with a focus on textures and light.”

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Jana M. Perkins, PhD @janajm.com · 04/07/2024

I think about this review probably once every 3-4 days

A screenshot of a Letterboxd review for the movie CHALLENGERS. The screenshot includes a poster for the movie and indicates that this review has received 24,084 likes. The review reads “This movie made me attracted to men”

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