You’ve been dealing with the headlines all week. If, on the weekend, you just need a few minutes before you deal with the world, I get it.
If you have …
3 minutes and 11 seconds: David Suzuki on TikTok
There’s a reason this video went viral last month. In it, beloved Canadian conservationist David Suzuki starts by thanking President Donald Trump for threatening to absorb us as the 51st U.S. state. It’s a reminder, Suzuki says, of why he chooses to be a proud Canadian, taking three minutes to encapsulate what he’s gleaned from 88 years of wisdom on what sets us apart. Suzuki’s life story goes from being forced into a Japanese internment camp by the Canadian government, after which his family lived in poverty, before he went to university in Massachusetts on a scholarship. In this video, he lists the reasons why he returned to Canada, including universal health care. As a geneticist and biologist, he values diversity. “The enormous diversity created by elevating Indigenous nations and immigrants from all parts of the world into the fabric of Canadian society provides adaptability and resilience few other countries have as we confront the ecological and economic limits we face today,” Suzuki says. “I have never regretted my decision to return home to Canada and I thank you, Mr. Trump, for reminding me why.” This is so much better than the “I Am Canadian” beer commercial.
9 minutes and 22 seconds: Choreographer Charm La’Donna, Call My People on YouTube
If you have become one with Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl set list, double side-stepping as you walk to work and take out the trash, you have Charm La’Donna to thank. She is the choreographer whose work animated the football-field-sized stage with more than 80 dancers, dressed in red, white and blue, often grouped by colour to create shapes, including the formation of the American flag. The choreography was layered with meaning, an extension of the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper’s entire vibe.
If you, like me, need to know just a bit more about the woman who created this vision, take advantage of 10 minutes with La’Donna on YouTube, where she talks about being “loyal to the soil,” and what it’s like to go from being a girl who couldn’t afford concerts to choreographing them.
La’Donna tells the story of realizing her passion for dancing young, growing up in Compton, Calif. (as Lamar did), meeting a mentor in choreographer Fatima Robinson and becoming a dancer for Madonna’s world tour at 17. Today, La’Donna says, she gives herself flowers and remembers to acknowledge how far she’s come, because if she doesn’t, no achievement will ever be enough – something she realized the first time she choreographed for the Super Bowl (she was responsible for the Weeknd’s 2021 performance). For someone who has realized all her dreams and still works so hard, the advice she gives at the end is especially potent.
4 hours (give or take): You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney
This deliciously readable book is a cultural tour de force through eras of oral storytelling, from religious texts to Doja Cat’s lyrics to the Epic of Gilgamesh, as hilariously (though unintentionally so) retold by ChatGPT.
Written by the host of the podcast Normal Gossip, this book expands on the idea of what gossip means to us and why we love it. If, at its core, gossip is simply two people talking about someone who isn’t there, does that mean prayer requests are gossip? Are sports commentators gossiping? Is gossip simply information-sharing that we, as a species, need to survive?
Fans of the podcast needn’t worry – the book doesn’t lose itself in self-seriousness. It remains irreverent and there are morsels of anonymous gossip strewn throughout (I love any story that happens at a Red Lobster). It’s also a memoir as any good gossip book should be, with stories from Bible camp and growing up in Texas, closeted and obsessed with Britney Spears.
Normal Gossip listeners know that each episode features a mirthful, detailed retelling of something that happened to an anonymized, non-famous person. Sometimes, the show dips into urban-legend territory, as it did for the wild “poop in a Ziploc” episode (so rich in text, it spilled into a follow-up episode). Consider this book an opportunity to step outside of ourselves to examine why we are compelled to listen to every cringe-inducing detail, especially in a world that strives to grab our attention from every direction.
In this moment, there’s a lot that we need from the world that we’re not getting (such as a stable leader to the south), but without any control over that aspect of reality, take what author McKinney quotes from Katherine May’s 2023 book Enchantment: “Play is serious. Play is absolute. Play is the complete absorption in something that doesn’t matter to the external world, but which matters completely to you.” Gossip is a way to play, McKinney argues, and to allow ourselves a little bit of fun. Worthwhile right now, in my books.
Sign up for The Globe’s arts and lifestyle newsletters for more news, columns and advice in your inbox.
