Principles: Make time for yourself
Summer has come and gone and something about September makes us want to get cozy, pick up a book, queue up a podcast, or sink into a good series. So, in the spirit of the season, we polled the Minerva team on our collective syllabus this fall. Here’s what we’re reading, watching, and listening to—no pop quiz, we promise.
Reading
Sara is a quarter of the way into José Saramago’s Death with Interruptions and already hooked on its premise: at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day, inside the borders of one country, people stop dying. They still age, sicken, and get horribly injured—they just don’t die. The early celebration curdles fast, as everyone from the church to the undertakers to organized crime networks starts to grasp the crisis a world without death would create. It’s the kind of thought experiment that lingers.
Joy loved The Correspondent. It’s the story of a woman in her seventies told entirely through her letters. Joy’s drawn to the intimate glimpses each exchange reveals—the different selves that surface in letters to friends, children, love interests, former colleagues, even customer service reps. At a certain age, she says, the emotional evolution of older women is more interesting than the flash of youth-driven drama. Sara seconds this, as she also read and loved the novel. Bonus: the book has reportedly sparked a small revival in letter writing, which delights Joy (even if her penmanship keeps her on the sidelines). Crystal’s rotation leans toward self-growth and accountability—she’s revisiting The Four Agreements, a book she circles back to at least twice a year.
Watching
Joy cannot get enough of Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell. Between The Diplomat and Widow’s Bay, she’s convinced she’d be friends with the power couple, but they simply haven’t yet met. Widow’s Bay—a clever horror-comedy—lets Rhys swing between determined, despairing, and downright terrified in a way that’s both endearing and very funny. Keep an eye out for Stephen Root, one of the best character actors working, in a gem of a role. The series won 14 Emmy Awards, and Joy will tell you exactly why.
Crystal’s watchlist runs from Westeros to West Philly: House of the Dragon and Abbott Elementary, a pairing that covers just about every mood.
Sara has taken up cross-stitch and embroidery, which has changed her viewing habits: she’s rewatching old favorites like Game of Thrones, where she doesn’t need to catch every scene to follow along. She’s also started Widow’s Bay, rewatched the first three seasons of Ted Lasso, and is now into season four.
Listening
Dori’s steady go-to is This American Life—and not only because it’s interesting, timely, and relevant. For her it’s a lesson in structure: the way an episode opens on one specific person and moment, then widens out to the larger issue. Every episode is a reminder to trust the audience with complexity, and it sharpens how she thinks about storytelling that lands.
Joy went deep on Adults in the Room, a nine-part series from KUOW that digs into a late-1990s story about a beloved Garfield High teacher in Seattle who built emotionally manipulative—and at times physically inappropriate—relationships with students. It’s far more than a familiar “authority figure behaves badly” tale; the relationships are complex and riveting, including the ugly vilification of the student reporters who broke the story.
Sara, a reformed podcast devotee who’s fallen off the wagon, is looking to climb back on for winter—the right episode is what gets her out walking once the weather turns. Suggestions welcome; send them our way.
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That’s the Minerva fall syllabus. Whatever you pick up, we hope it makes the shorter days feel a little richer. And if you’ve got a podcast that’ll get Sara back out on her walks, we’re all ears. Class dismissed.
