Everybody dreads the chores of maintenance; Stewart Brand is trying to make maintenance cool. In his new book Maintenance: Of Everything<\/a><\/em>, Brand celebrates the value, methods, even the joy of maintaining things \u2013 from cars to homes to bodies \u2013 in a series of stories, digressions, lessons, and brilliant insights. Turns out civilization is basically varieties of maintenance. Stewart Brand\u2019s books famously change people\u2019s minds, and this one changed my mind. I now look forward to my maintenance duties, and I learned some how to do it better from this book. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a 65-year-old oak tree died from fungal disease, artist Steve Parker carved slices of its trunk like vinyl records, etching bird songs into the wood grain. These playable oak records are featured in a 3-minute video<\/a> where you can hear the sounds of the birds that once lived in the tree\u2019s branches. Parker also created a brass sculpture with medical ventilators that splays out like tree roots\u2014a reference to his father\u2019s battle with cancer. \u201cFuneral for a Tree\u201d is a beautiful meditation on grief that inspires me to find ways to transform what\u2019s been lost into something that still speaks\u2014or sings. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n My AirPods Pro started making a loud hissing noise. I tried all the different fixes the online hive mind had to offer, to no avail. They were out of warranty, and I didn\u2019t want to spend $250 to replace them. Instead, I bought a pair of CMF Wireless Earbuds<\/a> for 1\/10th the price. To my ears, they sound just as good as the AirPods Pro with excellent noise cancellation and easy pairing with all of my Apple hardware. I use them for phone calls, listening to podcasts, and music. I bought the orange ones so they’d be easy to find when I drop them on the floor of a plane. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of my go-to podcasts these days is the non-fiction scripted show Articles of Interest<\/a>, which investigates articles of clothing and other things that we wear. It is a spin-off from the legendary podcast 99% Invisible<\/em>, and carries that program\u2019s intelligence and the nerdy appeal of deep research. Now in its second season, each episode tackles the origin, history, and meaning of an article such as blue jeans, suits, wedding dresses, and even pockets! Illuminating worlds within small details is what this show is so good at. Recommended. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than adding resolutions and goals to your new year, this article suggests 12 distractions you can leave behind<\/a> \u2014 like scrolling for stress relief, push notifications for most apps, and constant background noise. When they\u2019re listed like this, I can immediately see how leaving them behind would create more silence and space in my life, since a lot of these things seem to be the default settings for daily life. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you know that Recomendo isn\u2019t the only newsletter we publish? We have eight others!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our humble opinion, they are all worth trying out, and they\u2019re all free. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\nFuneral for a tree<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Budget noise-canceling earbuds<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Clothing fan podcast<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
12 distractions to leave behind in 2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Our other newsletters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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