Hi friends,

Happy End of August! This week marks one month since I started writing a weekly newsletter. I'm still getting the hang of this (finding the perfect mix of personal updates and practical content). If you have any thoughts or feedback, definitely reach out to me! Oh, I have decided to name this newsletter, The Retrospect. Thoughts?

Rose Bud Thorn🌹🌷🌵

🌹 I visited Chicago for the first time this week, and it was incredible. In my 12 hour excursion, I caught up with two friends I haven't seen since pre-pandemic, went on the architectural boat tour, ate deep dish pizza, and rode an e-bike around the city. One lingering thought from the trip was the power and potential of electric bikes + ridesharing. There are already several of these setups across the largest cities in the country, but I think we could take these to the next level. If you've never used an electric bike before, it's absolutely incredible primarily because it makes biking a much easier experience. I think one barrier to entry for normalizing biking (and its subsequent infrastructure like protected bike lanes) is that not everyone feels comfortable riding, especially in hilly areas. More people could be interested in this if we can make this easier, thereby giving more reason to develop the adequate infrastructure to support riders. Thoughts?

🌵 One thorn in my side is coordinating my finances for the coming school year — I am supposed to have a TA and RAship to cover my tuition, but those haven't been confirmed despite my pestering.

🌷 Despite the TA/RAship issues, I am looking forward to the school year. I've had a few students reach out about what to expect, and it excites me to know I'll be meeting new people!

Book Talk📚

This week has been busy with several books. I am currently reading How I Built This by Guy Raz and listening to Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. I made it through a third of The City We Became by NK Jemisin, but I'm not sure I'll finish it.

Two books I finished included: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates. My thoughts from Goodreads are here:

I really enjoyed that this book was a very clear primer on climate change. It does a great job simplifying complex issues while providing a general and approachable framework for thinking about climate solutions. I personally took away some key questions to be asking like "what fraction of the emissions does this solution reduce", "how much space or other resources we'll need to make this a reality". New concepts to me included the idea of Green Premiums and intermittency issues. The solutions Gates proposes are primarily tech or tech concepts (with a strong need for us to invent and provide incentives for carbon-neutral solutions). I'm curious how we can use these in tandem with policies and existing practices. Overall, I enjoyed this and recommend it to anyone who needs a comprehensive book on the climate crisis.

The second book I finished was Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. It was recommended by Ali Abdaal, one of my favorite YouTubers! So again, my thoughts from Goodreads are here:

A great and practical guide to putting yourself out there... Today's world is built on the internet and I personally have been working on carving my own corner of the internet but I've had fears of how others will perceive me. This book demystified a lot of fears and has helped (even just a lil) with being a little more comfortable sharing my work! I highly rec folks read this or share their own work because I think it just makes for a valuable world if we're all sharing our stuff

A few quotes I liked:

• Be ambitious. Keep yourself busy. Think bigger. Expand your audience. Don’t hobble yourself in the name of “keeping it real” or “not selling out.” Try new things.
• Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love, and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. It’s that simple.

Intentional Content Consumption📰

Article — The High Price of Losing the War Against Urban Heat

• One excellent and comprehensive article I read this week was about Extreme Heat (and it used Baltimore as a case study). It hits several key points, from the inequitable disparities in impacts, the power of green spaces and smart surfaces to the cost and benefits of investing in solutions! I am actually working on a video about the inequitable disparities due to extreme heat so stay tuned for that!

This Week's Video📹

I finally launched my content on climate and infrastructure justice this week with the video below. The goal of this series is to explore climate impacts and infrastructure shortcomings with an equity lens. I believe that it's important we think about how these issues in our society will impact the most vulnerable communities. One way to do that is to be more informed and engaging in discussion. So you can listen here and expect more soon!

Blooper Reel 🎞

• My trip from the Bay Area to Baltimore through Chicago added .722 tons to my 2021 carbon footprint (per myClimate). So maybe moving across the country for grad school wasn't the best idea for the environment.
• Arsenal lost 5-0 to Manchester City in an embarrassing performance. We are currently without a win in three games this season, and we haven't scored a goal yet. Gotta love it.

Thanks for reading and reflecting this week! If you aren't subscribed to get this in your inbox weekly, you can here!

Best,
Awoe ✌🏾