stories about good things happening
I have been writing, abandoning, outlining, and tinkering with a bunch of posts that may never see the light of day. Today's goal is just to hit publish.
I printed a big letterpress job over the weekend for a full 16 hours. My back and my body are pretty jacked, but I got to catch up on podcasts and see some good things making traction in the world. I listened to 16 hours of podcasts (a lifeline while printing, sure I'm cringe) and here are three episodes that stood out to me.
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All pharmacies in North Dakota have to be 51% pharmacy-owned. This means there aren't big box pharmacies, and their prescriptions are some of the lowest in the country (2014 data, be warned). Wal-Mart has been lobbying unsuccessfully for access to the market but the people have kept that policy.
From Stacy Mitchell, co-director for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, in this podcast episode with Nate Hagens. (I could listen to Stacy talk solutions for days, I am agnostic on Nate Hagens.) They discuss Native-owned broadband, food deserts and cooperatives, and pathways to breaking up Amazon.
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I learned more about recent Right to Repair wins and the consumer advocacy group PIRG through this 404 Media interview with Nathan proctor that was great. RtR updates have trickled in and out of my awareness over the last ten years, but now there are bills advancing in all 50 states. Nathan also goes over how protections have been gained for military equipment, which feels ughhehhhh, but is helpful for the RtR movement overall. He mentioned something about PIRG installing laptops with ChromeOS or LinuxMint and putting those out into the community to stop the massive amount of e-waste the Windows 11 force-feeding is creating.
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And a last one: This American Life ran a story about the conscience pile of petrified wood that has been mailed back to the Petrified Forest National Park by guilty/potentially cursed thieves. I think this counts as a good thing, a weird and wonderfully human thing. The Smithosonian Magazine also ran an article about the conscience pile.
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I want to do thoughtful link/fact/media roundups - sweetfish.site's checkout counter is an elegant example - with some regularity, but that's not what I could get to today and still hit publish. It's also kind of nice to post the things that rise to the top after I let so much information into my brain all weekend.