#5SmartReads is a Webby-honored weekly news digest that amplifies underreported news and underrepresented perspectives. My goal is to help you stay informed without being overwhelmed, and to embrace nuance and reflection over picking a side.
New Mexico made childcare free. It lifted 120,000 people above the poverty line (The Guardian)
It's been 2 years since I shared how New Mexico is leading the country on state funded childcare. The state launched its first efforts for affordable childcare five years ago, and scaled the program to offer free childcare to the majority of the families two years later.
The results? Over 100,000 New Mexicans were lifted out of poverty, which is an impressive statistic on its own.
Numbers aside, free childcare greatly improved the financial lives and quality of life for these tens of thousands. Consider Lisset Sanchez, who was able to graduate from college and start nursing school, grow her family, and her family was able to pay down their mortgage and car loan. Ofelia Gonzalez grew her at-home childcare center (increasing wages, investing in new toys and equipment) while also helping her save for her own home, and enrolled in an associate’s degree for childhood education.
New Mexico’s childcare investment is quite unique. For starters, these programs have had solid bipartisan support, in the legislature and among voters. The state’s permanent childcare fund (created by a constitutional amendment) is funded through the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund (funded by budget surplus, largely from oil and gas revenue. The fund had grown to $9B by the end of 2024, and the state’s legislature is looking to use these funds more proactively in the coming year - increasing the annual distributions, raising the childcare wage floor to $18, expanding PreK programs, and investing in higher education completion.
It’s a rare glimmer of good news, and one I hope more states take note of. Or, you know, the federal government.
What it’s like to be a trad kid (Vox)
I’m fascinated by tradwives (and for that matter,
and ’s analysis of tradwife culture and its impact on society).Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the kids of very online people. The Ruby Franke documentary revealed a really dark side of this life, which has changed what I share (and won’t share).
With tradwives, the analysis is more complex. For every Hannah Neeleman or Kelly Havens Stickle, there are thousands of women who live this lifestyle for varying reasons. The majority of these families aren’t documenting and showcasing their life for the Internet, which makes their kids’ perspective all the more nuanced and varying.
Some kids remember it as an idyllic time, full of crafts and quality time with their mom (and little time with their father). For others, it forced them to grow up faster and begin taking care of their younger siblings, their own educations largely abandoned by their mom’s homeschooling efforts.
In some situations, it could be violent and abusive. And for daughters of tradwives, their future options are often limited by their own childhoods and lived experiences:
‘A tradwife lifestyle “requires women to totally vacate their own lives, to relinquish any sort of autonomy or responsibility to know themselves, or to figure out what their place is in the world, because it’s already prescribed for you.”’
I’m of the ‘good for you, not for me’ philosophy when it comes to how someone chooses to live their lives. But the key word here is choice. This article opened my eyes to the many women where the choice was made for them, and to the women who chose themselves to leave this way of living.
#5SmartReads is all about helping you feel smarter this week.
If you want to feel better but feel overwhelmed on what to do, check out this month’s plan (mindfulness practices, workouts, meals, and more):
Trump's chaos is everywhere. Sound familiar? (Axios)
When you finally cut through the noise, the playbook for this administration is quite simple.
Distract, by flooding the news cycle with as much noise and chaos as possible. Declare a win based on an executive order (and with this administration largely ignoring court rulings, these orders are being carried out). Repeat.
The chaos is their most disciplined work. It had varying success in his first term, and is frighteningly effective in his second and has our country solidly on the path towards autocracy.
I started #5SmartReads as a way to help you parse through the noise and to amplify underreported stories and underrepresented perspectives. I still firmly believe in this mission, but it’s also evolved to encourage you to build a better news habit - to slow down the information you allow into your consciousness, to analyze versus consume, and to build mental filters that helps you parse through all the noise and get to what’s actually happening.
If you’re finding yourself overwhelmed by everything right now, I want you to take a deep breath. Another one. Take one more, and close your eyes this time.
Now, commit to just one of these practices for the next month or so:
Limit your news intake to just reading. So many of my favorite news creators now have Substacks or their own platforms (like
, , , and Mo News). When you’re scrolling, take care to engage with joy triggering accounts to change your algorithm.Pick one issue to focus on. Mine is a vast one (healthcare, especially what’s happening at FDA), and I will focus most of my news time on reading long form reporting from publications like STAT and Second Opinion, or listening to The Heart of Healthcare. I reserve about 5 minutes a day to skim the day’s headlines, usually the Associated Press.
Set a daily limit on your news consumption. Better yet, make it a recurring appointment on your calendar. I do a quick skim of my news newsletters early in the morning (about 10 minutes) and save the articles I want to read to my Pocket account. My news reading block is in the late afternoon (30 minutes), and I read the articles through the Pocket app to limit distractions and focus on the writing.
I’m incredibly grateful that #5SmartReads is a part of your news diet. If you enjoy my work, I’d really appreciate you sharing this on your platforms or with a few folks in your life who would find it valuable.
‘I’ve Been Given These Cards. Now What Do I Do With That?’ (The Cut)
For all the noise and criticism surrounding Blue Origin’s all-women space flight, there are two astronauts who deserve more attention than the celebrities who flew to space - Amanda Nguyen and Aisha Bowe.
I’ve been following Amanda’s work for years as she’s fought for the rights of sexual assault survivors, and to see her live her dream - to fly to space and conduct science experiments - is truly special.
Because that’s exactly what she set out to do when she entered university, studying bioastronautics and having interned at NASA twice. And once the Blue Origin capsule crossed the Karman line, she used her few minutes to carry out three experiments before sending a message in Vietnamese and letting her hospital bracelet float.
This piece offers a different - and valid - perspective on the much-criticized space flight, as well as the nuance that comes with a changing, capitalistic space industry. These engineers - whether at NASA or the ISRO or at a commercial company - are creating spacecrafts and satellites we could only once dream of, and these flights are allowing more scientists to fly to space and perform experiments that has wide-ranging impact for us here on Earth.
What to Know About India and Pakistan’s Escalating Tensions in Kashmir (TIME)
There’s too much war, too many innocent people dying at the hands of terrorists and imperialistic nations.
26 people were killed by an armed militant last week, with India immediately declaring it a terrorist attack and Pakistan denying any connection to it.
While families and friends mourn the loss of their loved ones, the two countries countries are back on the verge of war after a series of diplomatic escalations - the withdrawal of staff in their embassies/high commissions in each other’s country, the revoking of visas, and suspending two major treaties - a water sharing one and the Simla Agreement. The suspension of the treaties could be the tipping point that reignites an armed war that we haven’t seen in over 20 years.
This reporting does an excellent job of reporting on this attack and the history of this conflict for years. It’s worth your time to read it in full.
I pray for peace - everywhere. But it feels like the world is slipping into a mad chaos that we can’t seem to stop.
Go New Mexico!! I'm still limiting my news consumption these days and had missed this major step forward. Hope other states will follow suit! (Living here in Ohio ... I'm not exactly optimistic, but you never know ...)
I didn’t know about NM’s free childcare. Would love to read a study about what that does for women, in particular, in terms of economics and personal fulfillment.