Reviews

2022-12-04

My newsletter is a monthly collection of reviews and other opinions. Please subscribe via email or RSS, or read it online.

The “My Opinion” shorthand I use in Reviews:

“Worth My Time” means I got something valuable from having read or listened to it, and I think you might, too.
“I Liked It” means I’m very happy to have read it or listened to it.
“I Loved It” means I feel good enough about it that I’d like to read it or listen to it again (and there’s a good chance that I did).
“A Personal Favorite” is reserved for the ones I hold closest to my heart. These are the candidates for my Desert Island list.

Podcasts

Title (My Opinion) (Date I Reviewed the Podcast) (Category)

A
- Aack Cast (I Loved It) (2021-07-31) (Society & Culture)
- An Absurd Result (I Liked It) (2021-12-31) (True Crime)
- Amended (I Liked It) (2021-02-28) (History)
- Asian Americana (I Liked It) (2022-02-28) (Society & Culture)
B
- Blindspot (I Loved It) (2021-07-31) (History)
- Burn Wild (I Loved It) (2022-09-30) (Society & Culture)
- Butts & Guts (I Liked It) (2021-08-31) (Health & Fitness)
C
- Choiceology (I Loved It) (2021-03-31) (Science)
- Chronicled: Who Is Kamala Harris? (Worth My Time) (2021-01-31) (News)
- City of Women (I Loved It) (2021-03-31) (Society & Culture)
- Command Line Heroes (I Liked It) (2021-01-31) (Technology)
- Crooked City (I Loved It) (2022-10-31) (True Crime)
- Crumbs (I Liked It) (2022-03-31) (Society & Culture)
D
- Death at the Wing (I Liked It) (2021-11-30) (Society & Culture)
- Do You Know Mordechai? (I Liked It) (2022-08-31) (True Crime)
- Driving the Green Book (I Loved It) (2021-02-28) (Society & Culture)
E
- Ear Hustle (A Personal Favorite) (2021-11-30) (Society & Culture)
- The Edge: Houston Astros (I Liked It) (2021-05-31) (Sports)
- Entitled (I Liked It) (2021-10-31) (Government)
F
- Fiasco: Bush v. Gore (I Liked It) (2021-01-31) (History)
- Firebug (I Liked It) (2021-08-31) (True Crime)
- Floodlines (A Personal Favorite) (2021-01-31) (History)
- Forever Is a Long Time (I Loved It) (2022-01-31) (Society & Culture)
G
- Generally Intelligent (Worth My Time) (2021-12-31) (Technology)
- Ghost Church (I Liked It) (2022-05-31) (Society & Culture)
- Going Wild (I Liked It) (2022-01-31) (Science)
- Good One (I Liked It) (2021-06-30) (Comedy)
H
- Heidiworld (I Loved It) (2022-08-31) (True Crime)
- Hi-Phi Nation (A Personal Favorite) (2021-11-30) (Society & Culture)
- History of American Slavery (I Loved It) (2022-03-31) (History)
- Homemade Stories (I Liked It) (2022-03-31) (Arts)
- Hope Chest (A Personal Favorite) (2021-12-31) (Society & Culture)
- How It Happened (I Liked It) (2021-02-28) (News)
I
- If Books Could Kill (I Loved It) (2022-11-30) (Society & Culture)
- The Improvement Association (Worth My Time) (2021-05-31) (Society & Culture)
- In Front of Our Eyes (Worth My Time) (2021-04-30) (News)
- In the Dark (A Personal Favorite) (2021-01-31) (News)
J
- Jacked (I Liked It) (2021-09-30) (Music)
- Jainism for Everyone (Worth My Time) (2021-12-31) (Religion & Spirituality)
- The Just Enough Family (Worth My Time) (2022-01-31) (Society & Culture)
K
- Kabbalah Revealed (Worth My Time) (2021-12-31) (Religion & Spirituality)
- King of the World (I Loved It) (2021-10-31) (Society & Culture)
L
- La Brega (I Loved It) (2022-01-31) (Society & Culture)
- The Last Archive (I Loved It) (2021-05-31) (History)
- Lolita Podcast (I Loved It) (2021-01-31) (Society & Culture)
- The Lonely Palette (I Loved It) (2021-04-30) (Arts)
- Love Thy Neighbor (I Liked It) (2022-05-31) (History)
M
- Maintenance Phase (A Personal Favorite) (2021-11-30) (Health & Fitness)
- The Many Near Deaths of John Huizinga (I Liked It) (2021-03-31) (Society & Culture)
- Murder at Ryan’s Run (I Liked It) (2021-07-31) (True Crime)
N
- Nice Try (I Loved It) (2022-10-31) (Arts)
- 9/12 (I Loved It) (2022-10-31) (Society & Culture)
- No Place Like Home (I Liked It) (2022-06-30) (Society & Culture)
- Nocturnists (I Loved It) (2021-10-31) (Health & Fitness)
- Norco 80 (I Loved It) (2021-04-30) (True Crime)
O
- Operation Midnight Climax (I Liked It) (2021-06-30) (History)
- Order 9066 (I Liked It) (2021-11-30) (Society & Culture)
- Other Men Need Help (I Loved It) (2021-10-31) (Society & Culture)
P
- Phunky Diabetic (I Liked It) (2022-09-30) (Health & Fitness)
- Politics & Polls (I Liked It) (2021-02-28) (News)
- Preserve This Podcast (I Loved It) (2022-01-31) (Technology)
- The Promise (I Loved It) (2021-02-28) (Society & Culture)
Q
- Queen of the Ring (I Loved It) (2021-12-31) (Sports)
- Queersplaining (I Loved It) (2021-10-31) (Society & Culture)
R
- The Real Sarah Miller (I Liked It) (2021-06-30) (Society & Culture)
- Recording Artists (I Loved It) (2021-03-31) (Arts)
S
- The Secret Adventures of Black People (2022-11-30) (Society & Culture)
- The Shakeout (I Liked It) (2021-01-31) (Sports)
- Shameless Acquisition Target (A Personal Favorite) (2022-09-30) (Business)
- S***hole Country (Worth My Time) (2022-01-31) (Society & Culture)
- Somebody (I Loved It) (2021-01-31) (True Crime)
- Stronger by Science (I Loved It) (2021-04-30) (Health & Fitness)
- Sudhir Breaks the Internet (I Liked It) (2021-05-31) (Technology)
T
- This Is Love (I Loved It) (2021-05-31) (Society & Culture)
- This Land (A Personal Favorite) (2021-10-31) (Society & Culture)
- Through the Cracks (I Loved It) (2022-01-31) (True Crime)
- The Trojan Horse Affair(I Loved It) (2022-03-31) (Society & Culture)
- Truthers: Tiffany Dover Is Dead* (Worth My Time) (2022-08-31) (News)
- Two Minutes Past Nine (I Loved It) (2021-01-31) (History)
U
- Unfinished (I Loved It) (2021-11-30) (True Crime)
- Unread (A Personal Favorite) (2021-11-30) (Society & Culture)
- The Untold Story: Policing (I Loved It) (2021-06-30) (Society & Culture)
V
- Value Investing with Legends (Worth My Time) (2021-08-31) (Business)
- Vinimark (I Liked It) (2021-11-30) (Arts)
W
- We Were Three (I Liked It) (2022-10-31) (Society & Culture)
- Welcome to Your Fantasy (I Liked It) (2021-08-31) (True Crime)
- West End Stories Project (I Loved It) (2021-05-31) (History)
- What’s Ray Saying (Worth My Time) (2022-03-31) (Arts)
- Who We Are (I Loved It) (2021-01-31) (History)
- Why Do I Like Men? (A Personal Favorite) (2022-01-31) (Society & Culture)
- Wild Thing (I Loved It) (2021-11-30) (Science)
- Will Be Wild (I Loved It) (2022-08-31) (Society & Culture)
X
- Xai, how are you? (I Loved It) (2021-09-30) (Religion & Spirituality)
- xoxo, Jess (I Liked It) (2021-11-30) (Business)
Y
- You Must Remember This (A Personal Favorite) (2021-05-31) (TV & Film)
- You’re Wrong About (A Personal Favorite) (2021-05-31) (History)
Z
- The Zen Studies Podcast (I Loved It) (2021-10-31) (Religion & Spirituality)
- Zoroastrian Q&A (Worth My Time) (2021-10-31) (Religion & Spirituality)

Inclusion Rider

These are the Inclusion Rider percentages for the podcasts I have reviewed in my monthly newsletter:

Women (target is at least 51%): 61%
BIPOC (target is at least 40%): 36%
People with Disabilities (target is at least 26%): 2%
LGBTQIA+ (target is at least 7%): 10%

Nerdy Software

Software Title (Date I Reviewed the Software)

Authenticator (2022-02-28)
Bitwarden (2021-01-31)
Brave Search (2022-10-31)
Capitalize My Title (2022-05-31)
Cleanup Pictures (2022-03-31)
Dark Sky (2021-09-30)
Expired Domains (2022-06-30)
Fastmail (2022-09-30)
Hemingway (2021-12-31)
How Bad Is Your Streaming Music? (2021-10-31)
LibreSpeed (2021-02-28)
Maps (2022-07-31)
NetNewsWire (2021-03-31)
Obsidian (2021-04-30)
Overcast (2022-08-31)
Photopea (2021-06-30)
Pinboard (2021-07-31)
RepCount (2021-08-31)
Simplenote (2021-11-30)
Squoosh (2022-04-30)
StopTheMadness (2022-11-30)
TickTick (2021-05-31)
TuneMyMusic (2022-01-31)

Bougie Products

Product Name (Date I Reviewed the Product)

Air Scense air freshener (2022-01-31)
AirPods Pro headphones (2021-11-30)
Beauty Without Cruelty Leave-In Conditioner (2021-12-31)
BFR Bands (2022-05-31)
Bidets (2022-04-30)
Blackout Curtains (2022-11-30)
Bodum Caffettiera French press (2021-03-31)
Dr. Martens vegan Felix Rub Offs (2022-09-30)
Duralex Picardie tumblers (2022-10-31)
Hario manual coffee grinder (2022-02-28)
Helimix shaker bottle (2021-05-31)
HomePod mini speaker (2021-02-28)
Metal Straws (2021-08-31)
Nokia Steel watch (2022-06-30)
Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen (2021-04-30)
Primal Life Organics Stick Up Natural Deodorant (2021-10-31)
Silicone Popcorn Poppers (2021-06-30)
Soyabella Automatic Nut and Seed Milk Maker (2021-01-31)
SportHill running shorts (2022-08-31)
Trader Joe’s nuts and seeds (2021-07-31)
True Nutrition protein and supplements (2021-09-30)
Vitamix blender (2022-03-31)
Ziploc Twist ‘n Loc Mini containers (2022-07-31)

Personal Finance and Investing

Tool or Service (Date I Discussed the Tool or Service)

Advanta IRA (2021-04-30)
Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder letters (2022-03-31)
BlackRock iShares ESG ETFs (2021-01-31)
Credit Freezes (2022-06-30)
Credit Unions (2021-05-31)
Dataroma (2021-03-31)
Donor Advised Funds (at Fidelity and Schwab) (2021-08-31)
Estimates (from vendors) (2022-01-31)
Fidelity’s Health Savings Account (2021-07-31)
Finviz (2021-02-28)
Flat-fee MLS Listings (2022-11-30)
I Bonds (2021-06-30)
Insurance, Auto and Home (2021-12-31)
IRA Resources (2021-04-30)
Limit Orders (2022-09-30)
Morningstar’s mutual fund and ETF reports (2022-05-31)
Mutual Savings Banks (2021-05-31)
MyMoneyBlog (Jonathan Ping’s website) (2022-02-28)
NuView Trust (2021-04-30)
Personal Finance books (borrowed from your library) (2021-09-30)
Retirement Calculators (2021-11-30)
Spreadsheets (2022-08-31)
Stockrow (2021-02-28)
Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (2021-10-31)
TIPS (2022-10-31)
Nancy Whiteman’s Expat in Portugal newsletter (2022-04-30)
Volunteering for a nonprofit (2022-07-31)
Yahoo Finance (2021-02-28)

Reading

Author Name’s Title (My Opinion) (Date I Reviewed the Book, Collection, or Essay)

Stephan Ango, “Photoshop for Text” (I Liked It) (2022-10-31)
Anna and the Pirate Archive Team, “How to Become a Pirate Archivist” (I Liked It) (2022-10-31)
Andy Baio, “Opening the Pandora’s Box of AI Art” (I Liked It) (2022-08-31)
Todd Bridgman, Stephen Cummings, and John Ballard, “Who Built Maslow’s Pyramid?” (I Liked It) (2022-05-31)
Brené Brown, Dare to Lead (I Loved It) (2022-04-30)
Mandy Brown, “Useful Praise” (I Liked It) (2022-07-31)
Amby Burfoot, Run Forever (2018) (Worth My Time) (2022-11-30)
Octavia Butler, Dawn (I Loved It) (2021-08-31)
Matthew Butterick, “What We Can Deduce from a Leaked PDF” (I Liked It) (2022-05-31)
Susannah Cahalan, The Great Pretender (I Loved It) (2022-06-30)
Jasmine L. Clark “Organizational Culture for Recruitment, Hiring, Job Seeking, Diversity, and Change” (I Liked It) (2021-08-31)
Andy Corren, “Renay Mandel Corren” (I Liked It) (2021-12-31)
Kris De Decker, “The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle” (I Liked It) (2022-01-31)
Geraldine DeRuiter, “Bros., Lecce: We Eat at The Worst Michelin Starred Restaurant, Ever” (I Loved It) (2021-12-31)
Bill DeSimone, Joint-Friendly Fitness (I Loved It) (2021-04-30)
Cory Doctorow, “A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator” (I Liked It) (2022-01-31)
Nadia Eghbal, “The New American University” (I Liked It) (2021-09-30)
Julia Evans’s essays (I Loved It) (2021-10-31)
Joshua Ferris, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (I Liked It) (2022-06-30)
Barbara Fister, “The Librarian War Against QAnon” in the Atlantic (I Liked It) (2021-02-28)
Peter J. Fitschen and Cliff Wilson, Bodybuilding: The Complete Contest Preparation Handbook (Worth My Time) (2021-01-31)
Chris Gayomal, I Wish I Was a Little Bit Taller (Worth My Time) (2022-09-30)
Aubrey Gordon, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat (I Loved It) (2021-05-31)
David Gorski, “What the heck happened to John Ioannidis?” (Worth My Time) (2021-12-31)
Scott Gray, The Mind of Bill James (I Loved It) (2022-05-31)
Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way (Worth My Time) (2021-07-31)
Irving Greenberg, The Triumph of Life (I Liked It) (2021-09-30)
Elizabeth Gruner, “I no longer grade my students’ work — and I wish I had stopped sooner” (I Loved It) (2022-05-31)
René Herse Cycle, “Myths in Cycling” series (I Liked It) (2021-06-30)
Laura Javier, “Google Slides Is Actually Hilarious” (I Liked It) (2022-02-28)
Katelyn Jetelina, “Your Local Epidemiologist” newsletter (A Personal Favorite) (2021-11-30)
Shawn M. Jones, Martin Klein, and Herbert Van de Sompel, “Robustifying Links To Combat Reference Rot” (Worth My Time) (2021-12-31)
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches and other recordings via Stanford University’s King Papers (Highest Recommendation) (2021-02-28)
Chuck Klosterman, The Nineties (2022) (I Liked It) (2022-11-30)
Maria Konnikova, “A List of Reasons Why Our Brains Love Lists” (I Liked It) (2022-07-31)
Rohan Kumar’s essays (I Loved It) (2021-05-31)
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird (I Loved It) (2021-06-30)
Keith Law, The Inside Game (2020) (Worth My Time) (2022-11-30)
Matt Levine’s “Money Stuff” newsletter (I Liked It) (2021-01-31)
Natasha Lupinia, “I’m a Scam Prevention Expert, and I Got Scammed” (I Liked It) (2022-05-31)
Sebastian Mallaby, The Power Law (2022) (I Loved It) (2022-09-30)
Daniel Markovitz, “To-Do Lists Don’t Work” (I Liked It) (2022-07-31)
Katy Milkman, How to Change (I Loved It) (2021-12-31)
Adrienne Miller, In the Land of Men (I Loved It) (2022-08-31)
Wendy Molyneux, “Oh My Fucking God, Get the Fucking Vaccine Already, You Fucking Fucks” (A Personal Favorite) (2021-09-30)
Rebecca Monteleone and Jamie Brew, “What makes writing more readable?” (A Personal Favorite) (2022-02-28)
M. R. O’Connor, “What’s It Like to Fight a Megafire” (A Personal Favorite) (2021-11-30)
Tema Okun, “white supremacy culture” (I Loved It) (2021-03-31)
Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, A Billion Wicked Thoughts (Worth My Time) (2021-11-30)
Laura Olin’s newsletter (I Loved It) (2021-01-31)
Joe Posnanski, The Baseball 100 (I Loved It) (2022-05-31)
Bryon Powell, Relentless Forward Progress (2011) (Worth My Time) (2022-11-30)
Kevin Price’s “Leaving Move” website (I Liked It) (2021-07-31)
Kanjun Qiu, “Research as Understanding” (I Loved It) (2021-12-31)
Susan Fowler Rigetti, “Getting Words on the Page” (I Liked It) (2022-08-31)
Susan Fowler Rigetti, “Schedules, Goals, Dreams, and Dinosaurs” (I Liked It) (2021-09-30)
Seth Roberts, “Self-Experimentation as a Source of New Ideas” (I Loved It) (2021-04-30)
Santangel’s Review, “Norbert Lou of Punch Card Capital, L.P.” (A Personal Favorite) (2022-03-31)
Joseph B. Soloveitchik, “A Halakhic Approach to Suffering” (Worth My Time) (2021-08-31)
Leah Sottile, When the Moon Turns to Blood (2022) (I Liked It) (2022-11-30)
Jacob Stegenga, Medical Nihilism (I Liked It) (2021-02-28)
Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy (I Loved It) (2021-01-31)
Eric Trexler, “The Definitive Diet Setup Guide” (I Loved It) (2021-09-30)
Eric Trexler, “An Evidence-Based Approach to Goal Setting and Behavior Change” (I Liked It) (2022-01-31)
Bonnie Tsui, Why We Swim (I Loved It) (2022-02-28)
Tom Vanderbilt, Beginners (I Liked It) (2021-10-31)
Léonie Watson, “Why We Need CSS Speech” (A Personal Favorite) (2022-10-31)
Isabel Wilkerson, Caste (I Loved It) (2021-03-31)
Jason Zinoman, “Janeane Garofalo Never Sold Out. What a Relief.” (I Liked It) (2022-07-31)

Inclusion Rider

These are the Inclusion Rider percentages for my Reading list:

Women (target is at least 51%): 45%
BIPOC (target is at least 40%): 18%
People with Disabilities (target is at least 26%): 2%
LGBTQIA+ (target is at least 7%): 5%

Lists

Title of the List (Date I Published the List)

10 Books on Personal Finance (2021-09-30)
52 current Philadelphians who are doing amazing work (2021-02-28)
66 current Cincinnatians who are doing amazing work (2021-04-30)
Antilibrary (2022-03-31)
Cincinnati Favorites (2022-11-30)
Comedies and Sitcoms with No Fat Jokes (2022-05-31)
The Elements of Listmaking (2022-07-31)
Famous people I wouldn’t recognize (2022-10-31)
Food and Drugs (2021-08-31)
Giving Gifts (2021-10-31)
How can you tell if someone ? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you. (2022-04-30)
I Don’t Know (2022-01-31)
In a worthwhile yoga class (2021-11-30)
Lists I Have Loved (2021-07-31)
Never Marry Someone Who (2022-08-31)
Not on Spotify: An Autoethnography (2021-12-31)
Roll (2022-02-28)
Signifying Nothing (2022-06-30)
What I do to avoid and address back pain (2022-09-30)
Words and phrases that I try to avoid (A-M) (2021-01-31)
Words and phrases that I try to avoid (N-Z) (2021-03-31)
Words and phrases that I try to avoid (an addendum) (2021-05-31)
Yin Running (2021-06-30)