Telepathy and small talk
and a book by John Boyne
New year same me. I made only one resolution for 2025 and that is to moisturise my legs more regularly because I keep confusing my shins for reptiles. I am pleased to say that it’s going better than most resolutions I’ve made in the past but the cream has yet to penetrate the arid plains that are my legs.
The Telepathy Tapes
According to their website “The Telepathy Tapes dares to explore the profound abilities of non-speakers with autism—individuals who have long been misunderstood and underestimated. These silent communicators possess gifts that defy conventional understanding, from telepathy to otherworldly perceptions, challenging the limits of what we believe to be real. For years, their parents and teachers have quietly witnessed these remarkable abilities, knowing that the time to share their truth would eventually come. But now, as the evidence mounts, the time has come to reveal what has been hidden in plain sight.”
I took the entire quote from them because while I am thinking about it a lot it is hard to actually verbalise what it is without sounding well, like I have taken leave of my senses.
I am a very science based person, one of those who believes that on the one hand we have science and there is no other hand. But listening to documentary maker Ky Dickens talk to these children and their families made me think differently, if only for the few hours while I was listening to the show and really believing in the existence of telepathy. Now I am caught between wanting to believe it’s true, worrying that I am propagating some sort of ableism and not understanding how it works at all.
Needless to say I have dug the biggest internet rabbit hole into The Telepathy Tapes and spent way too much time reading every available opinion, so much so that I fear I no longer hold my own. And I guess that’s my take away - be careful of what you listen to/read on the internet especially when your opinions are being formed by people who you don’t know anything about.
Have you listened to The Telepathy Tapes? What did you think?
Small Talk
I recently listened to Trevor Noah on Simon Sinek’s podcast A Bit of Optimism and he shared such an illuminating view on small talk, I’ve given myself a pat on the back for writing a newsletter which is basically small talk about my week, the books I’m reading and the food I eat.
Noah explains how in society we have diminished the value of small talk. ‘But’, he says ‘we don't realise that small talk is what connects us as people and big talk is what separates us.’
I’ll quote him directly here
‘So if you have the foundation of a lot of small talk, you find similarities, you exist in the same realities. But then if you only have big talk, then you it's like large ideas. So when you go, man, the weather, the other person goes like, yeah, I can't believe how beautiful it is. And you're like, I know. Right? Or you go, the weather. It's just it's been raining. When is it gonna stop? I know. Right?
In that moment, it's the craziest thing ever. You have literally created reality that you share, and now it's easier to say, how do you plan to vote?’
So if small talk can lead to a better way to share big ideas, I am all for it and I thank you for engaging with me in this version of small talk.
Fire
I am going to preface this review with the fact that I love John Boyne’s writing so in the past I would read anything he wrote. That’s not true anymore - I read Earth which is another one in this trilogy (Water, Earth and Fire) but I don’t think I will read Water. Not because I don’t still rate John Boyne as a beautiful writer with an exceptional voice but because this book was so utterly dark and disturbing. In fact his writing was the only thing that got me through this novella (it’s very short because I don’t think anyone can read so much darkness for 300 pages.)
Fire is about a woman severely damaged by her past, playing out her life as revenge for something that happened to her when she was twelve. It is about abuse, rape and well, quite frankly, pedophilia. I know this does not sound like something you might want to rush out and read but it is so well written, very thought provoking and challenges many of the assumptions we make about abusive people. I could talk for hours about nature vs nurture after reading this book - so if you have read it and have any views let me know.
Food
We had people over for dinner the other night and I panicked and made a bunch of disparate things that had no place being served together but of those we ate I can highly recommend these amazing roasted carrots, this delicious dish of baked nectarines with burrata and this sashimi wonton party from Better Together Kitchen - which is basically just baked wonton wrappers with finely diced sashimi and avocado dressed with kecap manis and kewpie mayonnaise (and some jalapeño peppers).
Also I made this absolutely delicious ice cream. My husband tried to tell me it wouldn’t work because we don’t have a churner and he thinks that’s the only way you can make ice cream, but my lord three ingredients whacked together and placed in the freezer and it was creamy and perfect.
Hope that you had a good ‘festive season’ and that your new year is going well. Thanks so much for subscribing to, and reading my newsletter. It makes me feel connected to the world in a really good way
Please don’t forget to “like” the post - I think in some fancy algorithmic way it translates to more people seeing the post and spreading the small talk…
See you next week
Lana