The Dig List: April 2024

My brain has been broken, but I still have some gold for you. Ft. Catherine Newman, Tana French, Andrew Huberman, Love Addiction resources, and a podcast segment that saved me.

Hey hi, happy April!?

I didn’t publish a Dig List last month because my brain has been pretty broken for a while and I haven’t been reading or really absorbing much of anything? I’ve spent most of the last six weeks in the shower, eating takeout, relistening to my treasured Pema Chödrön recordings (shared below), working, and napping. Also: moving and settling into a new place, which I don’t need to tell you is the most exhausting kind of exhausting. This past week, though, I’ve read two books (!), both excellent, and have discovered some new poetry. The best of it all is included in this edition.

ICYMI, I hosted a paid subscriber call last week where I talked a little bit about the 9 things in my book, Push Off from Here, but mostly answered questions and chatted with you all about sobriety, how to get out from under shame, the importance of not doing life alone, and more. The replay is available here and I’ll host another one in May or June.

Lastly, I’ve got two new events to share:

If you’re in the Boston area, I’ll be giving a talk and signing books at Square Medical Group in Woburn, MA on Wednesday, April 10 from 4:30-6 pm. For more info and to RSVP, go here.

My October 18-20 retreat at Kripalu is now open for registration. Last year it sold out very quickly, so snag a spot quickly if you want to go.

Alright, let’s dig in.

What’s The Dig List?

Sharing stuff I love is my favorite, so instead of trying to squeeze recommendations into the other newsletters, I started a series called The Dig List. It’s a monthly roundup of things I’m digging: books, podcasts, music, cultural moments, art, products. Nothing I share is sponsored. Read past ones here.

---

The Dig List: April 2024

Books

The Pema Chödrön audiobooks I’ve listened to most over the last fifteen years and have returned to again recently are Getting Unstuck and Good Medicine. I have only ever listened to her books and these are actually recordings of retreats, so there’s a live talk quality that brings through her humor. Plus, her voice is so soothing. I also also dipped into Walking The Talk last month, which was great. I owe her so, so much.

Some of you have asked for books on love addiction. Well, yay, I have re-read these over the last six months and can delightfully say I’m not in a love addiction space anymore and not even in an anxiously attached one (be careful not to pathologize normal freaking needs, people!). The best books I know of are Pia Melody’s Facing Love Addiction and Kelly McDaniel’s Ready to Heal and Mother Hunger (read them in that order).

I cannot express how much I loved Sandwich by Catherine Newman. I fell in love with her, as so much of the world did, with her last book, We All Want Impossible Things. Well, Sandwich delivered all the same heart and humor and joy and realness. I lol’ed several times. It hit me right where I live right now. It comes out June 18 and you need to trust me that you really need to pre-order it now.

The Hunter by Tana French is her latest release and it’s a slower burn than The Searcher, but I really enjoyed it. I did this one in audiobook and the narrator does several accents surprisingly well (Irish, English, American). At times, he’s a little too dramatic but it still works.

Podcasts

Ep. 284 of We Can Do Hard Thing with Lindsay C. Gibson about emotional immaturity is incredibly helpful. Specifically, the segment from 29:56 until the end.

More Love Addiction stuff…

Jodi White is a therapist that focuses on Love Addiction has a great podcast called Journals of a Love Addict. I also interviewed her on my old podcast, Tell Me Something True, and you can follow her on Instagram here.

I also interviewed Kelly McDaneil about Mother Hunger and Love Addiction on Tell Me Something True.

Links and Other Stuff

The cringe/groan/vomit heard ‘round the world last week was Kerry Howley’s viral 8,000 word feature in New York Magazine’s feature on Andrew Huberman. The piece is now behind a paywall but you can get the gist in this Atlantic article. When something like this drops, there’s the information itself and then there’s the response to the information, which in this case has been unsurprisingly polarizing. If you want a sample, check out the comments in Melissa Urban’s Instagram post about it.

If you’re wondering what I think, I unfollowed him and stopped listening to his podcast sometime in 2022 after he posted a quote to Instagram from some optimizer bro about alcohol that has been said—and said better—by dozens of women, including me. Was it a petty unfollow? Maybe. I was a big fan of the show in the beginning and loved the simple presentation of complex material. I found many episodes to be super helpful and specifically recommend his episode on alcohol to everyone. But I stopped listening and following because something gave me the ick. Perhaps, probably, it was misogyny? I’ll be very curious how he responds to it all, if he does.

This Reel about Taylor Swift’s forthcoming album songs (APRIL 19 PEOPLE!!!!!) is hilarious.

I played the below song by Jack Garratt in my TLC sobriety support meeting this morning. It’s one of those that’ll carry you through a really dark time. Recommend watching the video while you listen.

Lastly, I recently found

Maya C. Popa

’s Poetry Today Substack and it’s a goldmine. A recent favorite:

By Ada Limón

Until soon.

Love,
Laura

You are reading Love Story, a weekly newsletter about relationships, recovery, and writing from Laura McKowen. Laura is the founder of The Luckiest Club, an international sobriety support community, and the bestselling author of two books, We Are The Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life and Push Off from Here: 9 Essential Truths to Get You Through Sobriety (and Everything Else).

You can give a gift subscription here.