Mark Cecil Interviews ***Mystery Guest*** On Thoughtful Bro x.com/i/broadcasts/1jMJgmlaM…

New episode! Author @CarolineKepnes returns to the show and chats with @danielfford about You First, the latest installment in the Joe Goldberg series. Listen: writersbone.com/podcastsarch…

The perfect, effervescent conversation to listen to on a Friday afternoon. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… @RealMarkCecil

This conversation between @RealMarkCecil and @jordanconn is perfectly thoughtful and bro-ish. Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

These were all released within 57 days of each other in 1991

“American Rambler” by @IsaacFitzgerald is “grand entertainment for travelers real and armchair,” says @KirkusReviews. As Isaac pursues the route of Johnny Appleseed, a childhood fascination, he reconnects with himself in ways we should all aspire to. youtube.com/live/b0MNrhVVr3M…

Winston Churchill fought his depression with bricks. He'd lay them for hours at his country home in Kent. He joined the bricklayers' union. And in 1921 he wrote about why it worked. It took psychology another 75 years to catch up. He called his depression the "Black Dog." It followed him for decades. His method for fighting it back was as basic as it sounds: laying brick after brick, hour after hour. Churchill spelled out his theory in a long essay for The Strand Magazine. People who think for a living, he wrote, can't fix a tired brain just by resting it. They have to use a different part of themselves. The part that moves the eyes and the hands. Woodworking, chemistry, bookbinding, bricklaying, painting. Anything that drags the body into a problem the mind can't solve by itself. Modern psychology now calls this behavioral activation. It's one of the most-studied depression treatments out there. Depression sets a behavior trap. You feel bad, so you stop doing things, and doing less means less to feel good about. Feeling worse makes you do even less. The loop tightens until you can't breathe inside it. Behavioral activation breaks the loop from the action side. You schedule the activity first, even when every part of you doesn't want to. Doing it produces small rewards: a wall gets straighter, a painting fills in, a messy room gets clean. Those small rewards slowly rewire the brain. Action comes first, and the feeling follows. Researchers at the University of Washington put this to the test in 2006. They studied 241 adults with major depression and compared three treatments: behavioral activation, regular talk therapy, and antidepressants. For the people who were most severely depressed, behavioral activation matched the drugs. It beat the talk therapy. A 2014 review of more than 1,500 patients across 26 trials backed up the result. Physical work like bricklaying does something extra on top of this. It crowds out rumination, the looping bad thoughts that grind people down during the worst stretches of depression. Bricklaying needs both hands and gives feedback brick by brick: each one is straight or crooked. After an hour you can see exactly how much wall you built. No room left for the mental chewing. The line George Mack used in his post, "depression hates a moving target," is good poetry. The science behind it is sharper. Depression hates a brain that has somewhere else to be.

Our Thoughtful Bro @RealMarkCecil welcomes @IsaacFitzgerald to discuss “American Rambler.” This book is “a stirring, singular entry in the American road trip genre,” says @PublishersWkly, & a deep exploration of the ideas & myths that shape the American identity. 2 PM ET TUESDAY

A Christian, husband, and father of 3 The Kentucky Derby winner Jose Ortiz

A man blinded by a flag about to step off into emptiness might be Banksy's best work ever.

Let @RealMarkCecil and @BrennanSpiegel wrinkle your brain. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

Nick Saban's 5 Enemies of Greatness. Tack them on a wall.

Without a change of direction in the assumption of political responsibility, and without respect for institutions and international agreements, humanity's destiny risks being tragically compromised. God does not want this. His holy Name must not be profaned by the desire for domination, arrogance, or discrimination. Above all, it must never be invoked to justify death-dealing choices and actions.

That's a deep cut.

It's PUB DAY for Blazer @Joseph Moldover & we're far from alone in praising his adult debut: "TO THE END OF RECKONING blew me away,” raves @WmKentKrueger. “Once I picked up the piece, it was impossible to put down." Buy it here: bookshop.org/p/books/to-the-…

In a world wounded by arrogance, people hunger and thirst for justice. We must encourage those who believe in peace and dare to engage in “countercurrent” politics, which focus on the common good. What is urgently needed is the courage of new visions and an educational pact that gives young people space and trust. #ApostolicJourney #EquatorialGuinea vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/e…

Possibly the most amazing video I've ever seen.

When we seem to be sinking, overcome by adverse forces, when everything appears bleak and we feel alone and weak, Jesus is always with us, stronger than any power of evil. In every storm, He comes to us and repeats: “I am here with you: do not be afraid.” With Him, we can get up after every fall and not allow ourselves to be stopped by any tempest. We therefore advance with courage and trust. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/e…

I do *not* want an AI "summary" of an email, or a book, or a life. I do not want an AI summary of a winter sky, or my father's hands, or the hope in my child's eyes. I do not want an AI summary of the human heart, or the first little shiver of lust, or the long good work of love.

Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. #ApostolicJourney #Cameroon vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/e…

At the top of the hour, @BrennanSpiegel joins A Mighty Blaze's Thoughtful Bro @RealMarkCecil to discuss his book, "Pull." Watch on Facebook or right here ⤵️ youtube.com/live/uHifMgmGsbk… Leave any questions for Brennan in the YT chat!