Recommended Resources
As we move forward into The Sensitive Armadillo and quickly approach the regularly scheduled Sunday posts (beginning this Sunday with a look at the refugee crisis through the theme of altruism and the opening scene from Inglourious Basterds!), I want to give a quick shoutout to my most trusted resources for handling the day-to-day barrage of chaos from all walks of life.
News Sources
Obviously, journalism matters now more than ever. But what matters more than journalism is proper journalism. You know, we need to get back to valuing facts over propaganda. I recommend The New York Times (liberal bend), NPR (they do their best to be neutral), and The Washington Post (conservative bend). (You can just click on any of the names to be taken to their respective websites.)
Activism Sources
Action Groups, Move On, Our Revolution, The Obama Foundation, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Can’t Do Nothing, and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation are all excellent resources for getting involved in economic justice, civil liberties fights, women’s rights, refugee aid, and climate change activism groups.
Keeping an Intelligent Twitter Feed
Whether they’re celebrities (we are dealing with the arts, too, here at Sensitive Armadillo) or pundits or politicians, I believe that having these people in my Twitter feed has done and will continue to do me a lot of good. You should give them a follow if you’re up for it.
Beau Willimon — @BeauWillimon (creator of House of Cards)
Jake Tapper — @jaketapper (anchor on CNN)
Lauren Duca — @laurenduca (editor at Teen Vogue)
J.K. Rowling — @jk_rowling (author of the Harry Potter series)
Evan McMullin — @Evan_McMullin (independent candidate for the presidency in 2016)
Emma Watson — @EmmaWatson (ambassador for United Nations Women)
Alyssa Mastromonaco — @AlyssaMastro44 (former White House Deputy Chief of Staff)
Shaun King — @ShaunKing (justice writer for the New York Daily News)
Lin-Manuel Miranda — @Lin_Manuel (creator of Hamilton on Broadway)
Meghna Chakrabarti — @MeghnaWBUR (radio host at WBUR)
Mark Cuban — @mcuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks)
Maggie Haberman — @maggieNYT (White House correspondent for The New York Times)
Barack and Michelle Obama — @BarackObama and @MichelleObama (duh)
Leonardo DiCaprio — @LeoDiCaprio (United Nations representative on climate change)
Brie Larson — @brielarson (Academy Award winning actress)
Bernie Sanders — @BernieSanders (senator from Vermont)
Seth MacFarlane — @SethMacFarlane (creator of Family Guy)
Brandon McCarthy — @BMcCarthy32 (pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers)
Judd Apatow — @JuddApatow (comedic director of Knocked Up, Trainwreck, and others)
Dave Itzkoff — @ditzkoff (culture writer for The New York Times)
Maureen Johnson — @maureenjohnson (young adult fiction author)
Mark Ruffalo — @MarkRuffalo (actor from Spotlight, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and others)
Rob Delaney — @robdelaney (member of the Democratic Socialists organization and comedian)
Billy Eichner — @billyeichner (leader of the Resistance and host of Billy on the Street)
Patton Oswalt — @pattonoswalt (star of Ratatouille, writer, and stand-up comedian)
And, of course, Seth Meyers’s “Closer Look” segments on Late Night with Seth Meyers will always have my ringing endorsement.
Special Shoutout
I would be remiss to make a post like this without mentioning the guiding lights of my world and the bi-weekly doses of sanity pills that make up Crooked Media. Jon Favreau (@jonfavs), Jon Lovett (@jonlovett), Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08), and Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) host two episodes of Pod Save America per week and I highly recommend checking them out. They are truly straight shooters. I love them even if they don’t know me.
Happy media consuming!