The Daily Valet. - 10/10/22, Monday
✔️ Wanna Hear a Story?
Monday, October 10th Edition
On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, let me remind you to watch ‘Reservation Dogs’ if you haven’t already.
Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf
Today’s Big Story
Tell Me a Story
A closer look at the growing trend of listening to adult bedtime stories on podcasts and meditation apps
According to the CDC, more than 70 million Americans struggle with chronic sleep problems. I know I could use more sleep these days. If that sounds like you too, maybe we should try a popular remedy that most of us haven’t utilized since we were kids. A lot of adults are bringing back the bedtime story.
Dozens of podcasts, such as Sleep Cove, and online video channels, including Soothing Pod’s YouTube channel, offer soothing voices softly narrating detailed stories. But you needn’t get lost in the specifics. They exist merely to lull you into a deep slumber
These are not the same bedtime stories of our youth, though. They’re designed for grown-up minds, so they tend to be longer, more descriptive, meandering, and without the moral arc often found in kids’s books. And everyone from Cynthia Erivo and Mathew McConaughey to Idris Elba and Harry Styles are lending their legendary voices to these calming tales on meditation apps like Calm.
According to National Geographic, one genre of these bedtime stories stands apart for adults: Travel narratives. Nearly a third of Calm’s 300 bedtime stories (which have been listened to more than 450 million times) are about travel—particularly adventure travel. And 45% of the bedtime stories on the app Breethe (which has been downloaded more than 10 million times) are travel-related.
Why? What makes these stories so dream-inducing? One possible reason why our brains are soothed by travel bedtime stories are “mirror neurons,” a neurologist at Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep tells National Geographic. These brain cells might conflate our own experiences with someone else’s. The comforting sense of something familiar and romanticized can help with relaxation and sleep—especially in hushed tones surrounded by gentle sounds.
Or it might simply be that removing the light and noise from the external world allows for an internal world, our imagination, to take over. Nighttime storytelling is ancient. And even getting a sleep story, called up via Siri through my Bluetooth-enabled smart alarm clock, is better for me than simply streaming another show before bed.
↦ Shhhhhhh: Despite being something so innately physical, ASMR exists largely online. Nowness introduces us to some successful ASMR creators.
Russia Scrambles After Crimea Bridge Explosion
Putin labeled it a terrorist attack and hit civilian areas of Ukraine with rockets
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday the explosion of a vital bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea was the result of a “terrorist attack” by Ukraine.
While the Ukrainian government did not publicly claim responsibility for the incident, an official told the Washington Post that Ukraine's special services were indeed behind the explosion, while other Ukrainian leaders touted it as proof of their ability to prevail in the war.
The damage to the 12-mile bridge, critical for moving arms, ammunition and other military supplies, has the potential to hurt Moscow's war effort, as Russian forces are struggling to hold off a Ukrainian offensive. “This incident will likely touch Putin closely; it came hours after his 70th birthday,” one intelligence officer told Axios. “For months, Putin's former bodyguard, now commander of the Russian National Guard, has provided public assurances about the security of the bridge.”
With some prominent Russians calling for fierce reprisals, the Kremlin on Sunday launched a barrage of deadly rockets at Ukrainian civilian areas. The New York Times pointed out it sends a deadly reminder that for all its battlefield losses, Moscow can still inflict mass misery.
↦ FYI: Putin personally inaugurated the bridge in 2018. The move was designed to solidify Russia’s grip on the peninsula, which it illegally annexed in 2014.
Columbus or Indigenous Peoples’ Day?
The federal holiday has been shaped by oppression
Are you off work today? I'm not ... but only because the news never stops. A better question might be what are you commemorating today? Because after much discussion, the day is still seemingly caught between two holidays.
Celebrating Columbus' 1492 landing in the Americas has fueled controversy for generations. The holiday arose out of a late 19th century movement to honor Italian American heritage at a time when Italian immigrants faced widespread persecution. But it's since come under fire as a celebration of a man whose arrival in the Americas heralded the oppression of another group of people: Native Americans.
The movement for renaming and recognizing Indigenous Peoples' Day is clearly growing. Last October, President Biden signed the first presidential proclamation of the holiday that began in 1977 as a commemoration of Native American history and culture. He followed it up again this year. Now, over a dozen states and more than 130 local governments have chosen to not celebrate Columbus Day altogether or replace it with Indigenous Peoples' Day.
The president also issued a proclamation recognizing Columbus Day, which still retains its federal status. And while few Americans will argue with the notion of being off work today, the dual holiday still prompts political debate across the country—while also leaving most of us wondering what is and isn't open today.
↦ Dig Deeper: USA Today asks, “Is it offensive to celebrate Columbus Day?” The answer, like most things in America, is complicated.
Growing Old Online
Millennials are getting old, and everyone is going to have to hear about it
For better or worse, millennials—the first generation to be online as kids—are maturing. And as someone who just celebrated his birthday and is contemplating a mid-life crisis, I can confirm that the oldest among us have already turned 40, and the youngest are staring down 30.
Helena Fitzgerald candidly writes in WIRED about a generation who aren't yet old, but aren't still young either. “Our slang terms are embarrassing, and our memes are outdated; the clothes we wore the first time around in middle school or high school are in retro fashion for teens and young adults who weren't alive yet for Y2K.”
Each generation thinks they reinvented the world; and like each one before it, they're mostly wrong. We millennials didn’t invent the internet, but we can plausibly claim to have invented social media in the form in which it exists today. And despite that, we're aging out of it (saying things like “I don’t know or care what BeReal is.”) And whenever someone my age makes a TikTok, they're almost sure to be guilty of the something called the “millennial pause.”
These cultural shifts are signs of something happening on a bigger demographic level. But then again, millennials are now the largest living generation, and given the declining birth rate, our power is unlikely to be usurped any time soon. So, I guess, we've got that going for us.
In Other News
↦ Kanye West Locked Out of Twitter for Antisemitic Tweet One Day After Being Restricted From Instagram
Other Things We’re Talking About Today
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Are You Ready for Prime Day Round 2?
Everything you need to know, plus some of the best early deals
Amazon has shifted the retail landscape once again.One massive 48-hour sale just wasn't enough for them. The July shopping event shattered retail records with $11.9 billion in sales. This included $6 billion on day one and $5.9 billion on day two—up 8.5% compared to 2021. This made the Prime Day event the biggest U.S. online shopping days to date this year.
And, as I'm sure you've heard by now, there's a second Prime Day sale kicking off tomorrow. Through October 12th, Amazon is hosting the “Prime Early Access Sale,” a shopping event to kickstart your holiday buying or the last chance to treat yourself before you start buying gifts for everyone else.
If you've been eyeing an item for a minute, Amazon makes it too easy to prepare for Prime Day. You can set up personalized deal alerts once and if you're a Prime member, bookmark recently viewed items or searches. If that's not your jam, create deal lists with Alexa—just say, “Hey Alexa” to add an item to your wish list, cart or to save it for later. If you don't have a Prime membership yet (with its free expedited shipping, and Whole Foods discounts), Prime Day is reason enough for the yearly investment.
Our shopping editor, Leon Hedgepeth, who oversees our other newsletter, The Obtainer, has pulled together some early deals. So take a look get ready before all the discounts officially drop.
↦ Read: Get your carts stocked up for tomorrow's Prime Day kick-off.
What We’re Eyeing
A fleece jacket doesn't have to be so basic. This high-pile fleece ($248 / $148.80 w/code SHOPFALL) from J.Crew's Fall collection has a neo-prep tartan plaid design that adds just the right amount of color and pattern to the classic layering piece. It looks like something from a designer line that might cost three times as much—and today, with the code below, you can get it for even cheaper. Pull it over a simple tee and jeans or layer it over an oxford cloth button-down with a pair of cords to really lean into fall.
↦ Want more? 5 stylish items to buy this week
Today’s Deals
Expires 10/10
Expires 10/13
Expires 10/10
↦ Want More? See all 45 sales
Morning Motto
Gratitude can be powerful.
↦ Follow: @wetheurban
That’s all for today...
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