Happy 1st birthday, Slow Dopamine.

Thank you, all, for giving me some of your precious attention.

Well, folks, this month marks a year since my first Slow Dopamine post, and I’m delighted we’ve made it this far. Whether you just recently subscribed or have been here since the beginning, I’m grateful that, in this world that’s clawing for our attention every minute of the day, you’ve devoted some of yours to reading my words. Thank you.

Photo by Angèle Kamp on Unsplash

When I started this newsletter in April 2024, it was because I wanted a way to connect with readers and be creative outside of both the long timelines of publishing novels and the algorithm-bound confines of social media. Along with sharing book news, I wanted to talk about creativity & writing, interview other folks who make things, and explore the ongoing struggle to mindfully engage with the tech that every day becomes more intertwined with—and corruptive to—our lives and brains.

And I’ve been doing all that! Which feels nice. Seeing a creative project through over time, with the requisite enthusiasm and energy that requires, is one of the hardest parts of making things. So if you, too, have continued to persevere on a creative project of your own, I also celebrate you. Way to go!

Part of what’s helped me continue with these posts, though, is the meaningful feedback from all of you. So thank you for that as well.

In that spirit, I’d like to check in with everyone: if you have a minute to comment on this post or message me directly, I’d love to know what has most resonated with you or made you smile or been helpful, so I can keep pushing in that direction in the coming year.

Also, if you ever read one of those posts and feel like it would connect with someone you know, please send it to them! Or tell them about it in person. Since I’m not relying on algorithms here, any and all human spreading-the-word is beyond appreciated.

Thinking about how things have shifted since one year ago is a little trippy. There are many reasons why we’ve ended up with this president again, but it’s undeniable that his ability to suck up attention is one of them. In a cultural environment this crowded with information, getting people’s attention—whether it’s positively or negatively—is a way to gain power.

I’m currently reading Chris Hayes’s excellent book about the attention crisis, The Sirens’ Call. He articulates so well the way our attention has been commodified, sliced up into smaller and smaller units and sold to corporations. As a result, he argues, we’ve all been separated from key parts of our humanity that make us whole.

I want to be a whole human again!

Thinking about the simple question, What do I pay attention to each minute of the day? has been a profound exercise. Those minutes of attention make up hours, which make up days, weeks, months, years, an entire lifetime.

Life is what we’re paying attention to.

And to squander that away reacting to algorithms that are systematically engineered to keep us engaged, so that platforms can make obscene amounts of money, seems inherently off.

So I’ll continue to be pushing that SLOW DOPAMINE into your inbox, to help remind you (and myself) that joy and contentment are more reliably found in the slower, deeper moments.

It’s been heartening to see more and more people becoming aware of this. We’ve all been collectively ensnared in a system of screens and notifications that isn’t good for us and doesn’t actually make us feel good either.

And don’t get me started on what it’s doing to our kids! (Said in the voice of Doc Brown.) As the parent of an 11-year-old and 7-year-old, I have some opinions. Which I plan to explore more on here this year.

Maybe that’s a nice segue to my new middle grade book, Zed Moonstein Makes a Friend, which will be out a mere 4 MONTHS from now.

I wanted Zed to be a funny, moving, page-turning story, but I also wanted to give young readers like my kids an opportunity to think more deeply about this tech that has always been a matter-of-fact part of their existence.

If you are a parent of 8-12 year-old readers, this book is for you! And them! My dream is that parents and kids will both read the book and then discuss the ideas inside of it. Ideas about friendship! And corporations! And AI! And tech surveillance!

Have I convinced you to pre-order yet? I hope so, as you likely know that pre-orders are a very important part of a book’s journey. The more pre-orders there are, the more a book is set up to succeed in this crowded attention marketplace. So, please purchase it! Ideally from your favorite indie bookstore. Or, if you’d like a signed copy, pre-order from Community Bookstore and mention in the notes that you’d like me to sign it!

Here’s what some of my favorite authors said about the book:

“A funny, kid-perfect glimpse into a near-future that’s probably already here.”

— Gordon Korman, New York Times bestselling author of The Unteachables

“A propulsive friendship thriller, a funny, connective character story, and a warning about the future all rolled into one—Zed Moonstein Makes a Friend is a book you can’t put down and can’t stop thinking about once it’s over. My heart is still racing from this captivating, clever, and deeply human book.”

— Corey Ann Haydu, author of One Jar of Magic and Eventown

“This imaginative and achingly well-observed novel cleverly speculates about how tech companies could profit from the anxiety around middle school friendships. Zed Moonstein Makes a Friend is hilarious, insightful, and more than a little scary.”

— Eliot Schrefer, New York Times-bestselling author of the Lost Rainforest series

---

If you’ve been a regular Slow Dopamine reader, you know how hard doing all that self-promotion just now was for me. Thank you for your grace.

And now let’s conclude with some…

T-RECS!

Flipside (on Prime, or rent on AppleTV)

We were flying home from Florida with the kids last weekend when I stumbled on this Judd Apatow-produced doc about a record store in NJ. I thought I would only watch a few minutes, but I was too compelled to stop. I loved it so much. It’s beautiful and funny and moving, and it made me weep multiple times.

The director, Chris Wilcha, always aspired to be a documentary filmmaker but, to support his family, ended up primarily directing commercials. Along the way, he’d started many documentaries—one about jazz photographer Herman Leonard, one about Ira Glass, one about Flipside, the NJ record store where he worked as a teenager that’s still open today—but, much to his personal shame, he never finished any of them. (Remember a few paragraphs above when I mentioned how hard it is to finish creative projects??)

Instead, years later, he made this film, which combines footage from many of his projects into something unexpected and profound, a meditation on art and time and what it means to live a successful creative life. It resonated with me on so many levels, and I bet it might for you too.

The Studio (Apple TV+)

This show from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg is such a funny and smart skewering of the movie business, and it’s also so technically impressive. All the scenes are shot in long takes, which gives the show a propulsive, hilarious, and unique energy. The second episode, “The Oner,” all about shooting a film scene that’s one long take, is itself shot in one long take, and it blew me away. It’s like an OK Go music video, but with acting! And all the performances in this are wonderful, including guest spots from famous directors playing themselves, including Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard. A new episode drops every Wednesday, and Katie and I try to watch immediately. Because it’s very good.

Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2 (Netflix)

We watched both of these films as a family, and they’re so charming and fun, clever mysteries smartly grounded in social history. (Rated PG-13 because the fight scenes get a little intense and violent at times.) Millie Bobby Brown is fantastic as the scrappy lead character (Sherlock’s younger sister), and the rest of the cast is great too. We actually liked the second one more than the first, which is usually the sign of some top-notch filmmaking.

And that’s it for this week! Thanks as always for being here with me. And thank you again to the eight creative people who I interviewed this past year: Joe Iconis, Sarvenaz Tash, Naomi Ekperigin, Lee Wilkof, Amy Spalding, Bridget Stokes, Lamar Giles, and Zack Wagman.

Hope you’re hanging in and savoring the beautiful weather if you’re on the East Coast and calling/emailing your reps as often as you feel comfortable and cheering on the Knicks as they play the Pistons in Game 3 tonight.

And remember to let me know what you want more of in Slow Dopamine: Season 2!