Friday Fixations

What I'm into right now

Happy Friday, my fellow suffering beings. Each week, I share two things I’m digging right now (books, TV shows, movies, music, and the like) plus one online video of nearly zero cultural merit.

• Beautiful Animals, by Lawrence Osborne: A story of wealth, sex, and violence set in high summer in Greece and Italy. What’s not to like? Plus the writing is exquisite.

• Red Rooms: A critic I respect listed this as the best movie of the year. Not sure I would go that far, but it’s still pretty great. It’s bizarre, slow, and at times excruciating; and yet, it’s riveting. The film explores our obsession with true crime, the culture of the dark web, and the dangers of psychological manipulation.

• Every cat owner’s nightmare

• One last thing: Excited for a live conversation about self-compassion with my friend and frequent podcast guest, the great Dr. Kristin Neff. She’s given my subscribers a code for free access: HappierWithSelfCompassion2025. The event will take place on Wednesday, March 5th at 8:30 PM ET. Hope you check it out.

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