This week at Cog #42
Palliative care and climate change, finding purpose in community gardens, lessons from a basil plant and the recurring gift of ‘Les Miz’
I spent last weekend at the Newport Folk Festival, so along with marinating in the slowed-down warmth and kindness that I find there every year (I’d be happy to tell you all about it, just ask my Cog colleagues!), I’m listening to some new-to-me music. I can’t get Medium Build’s song “Armor” out of my head, and I was not familiar with Brandon “Mr. Brightside” Flowers’ country-western game.
I’m also excited to keep up with the Sea to Shining Sea project. With the country’s 250th in mind, Newport Festivals executive director Jay Sweet and singer-songwriter Devon Gilfillian hopped in an RV and drove down highways and dirt roads to interview musicians about what music can tell us about America and how it connects us. This week Tyler Childers, recorded in his mule shed, talks about how we find community and how he aspires to the comforting specificity of John Prine. You can follow the Sea to Shining Sea Project on Instagram, and if you need someone to talk to about it, you know where to find me. — SS
This week’s stories
What palliative care can teach us about climate change
“The numbness or avoidance among many of us who care about the impact of Earth’s warming climate, is similar to the ambivalence and static grief that can take hold after a serious medical diagnosis,” writes Alexis Drutchas.
Gardening is a dose of reality
Julie Wittes Schlack is retired, free to spend her time however she pleases. “It scares me a little to think that I no longer need to work, and terrifies me to think that I’m no longer capable of it,” she writes. So, she signed up for weeding duties in the garden at her co-housing community.
What growing basil teaches me, year after year
“I was reminded of a time when life was easy,” writes Blake Turck, of tending a basil pant in her windowsill. “It was a portal to the past, and activated a scent that connected me to the memory of my mom. It also gave me a reason to stay present, and look forward.”
‘Les Misérables’ was always more than a musical for my family
“Though Adam and I were only three years apart, the gap felt wider because he had Down syndrome,” writes Alyson Pomerantz. “We didn’t fight, like other siblings, or confide our deepest secrets. One thing we did share was a love for ‘Les Miz.’”
Bonus content
The World Cup may already seem like history, but there are gifts left in its wake. Cog ran this charmer of an essay by Scott Helman in our Sunday editors’ email newsletter, and if you missed it, it’s worth a look back.
“Call me corny; call me a sap. I don’t care,” writes Scott Helman, about his love of this year’s World Cup. “In the final tally, score a victory for the global community ... score it for a kind of universal kinship, billions strong.”
Jason Diamond fell down the ‘90s parenting rabbit hole so you don’t have to
Writer Jason Diamond got curious about the ‘90s parenting trend he was seeing all over social media. He’s a certified ‘90s kid who’s parenting a toddler in 2026. So he dropped in on a ‘90s parenting group meet up via Zoom (he notes the irony) — to mixed results.