I am not sure how I turned into a person who has ten million things to do all the time, but that’s where I seem to be living right now. It’s not as fun as you’d think, if only because that means I haven’t had a chance to even start any of the books that have come out this month. But I have had time to listen to podcasts and one of my new favorites is Just A Story, which says it’s about urban legends, but it’s also about so much more. I found the episodes about the Ku Klux Klan and the history of the Lost Cause concept–I don’t want to say great, because the subject matter really isn’t, but they’re compelling listening. The production values of the episodes I’ve listened to have been great and there are minimal ads. Go listen! It’s great!

• Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop: Psychic Vampire Repellent as female “empowerment”
• How to “win” an argument on the internet (without losing your mind)
• 20 years in, Kid Rock, Eminem and ICP are politically relevant — and culturally divided I’m really disappointed in the Freep for perpetuating the myth that Kid Rock is anything but the spoiled son of an auto dealer who grew up on an estate with stables, a tennis court, and a guest house. Especially since they just wrote about it last year.
• From Louis Armstrong to the N.F.L.: Ungrateful as the New Uppity
• All the Dumb Things You Can Say About Romance Novels, In One Convenient Place Excellent analysis of a terrible New Your Times column about romance novels. Hey, New York Times, hire me to write that essay next time.
• On the other hand, this is marvelous: Class, Race and the Case for Genre Fiction in the Canon
• What I learned about concussions — by having one
• The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends”

Make a Suggestion for the Links Post!