👋 Welcome to the latest issue of The Jungle Gym – the newsletter that helps you build a more fulfilling career by integrating your work and life. ✨ If you’re a new reader, thanks for stopping by. Feel free to check out this introductory post, which explains what The Jungle Gym is all about. 📬 To get future issues delivered to your inbox, enter your email here: There is an ugly side of me that enjoys reading about other people’s failures.

Hello everyone, First a few updates. Last Thursday was action packed and I have you to partly thank for it. I thought had enough inventory to satisfy everyone, but within hours of the shop reopening, everything was spoken for. Most of the purchases were made by PTFS subscribers. You get first dibs because you are here! My work schedule is getting full and I’m unsure about reordering. Please help me gauge demand.

The last time I required blood drawn at a regional hospital, they summoned an advanced clinical practitioner (ACP) to do the job instead of a phleb. My veins make like over-cooked spaghetti; they slither away before collapsing if you try to pierce them with a sharp object. “We’ve bleeped ******”, the nurse reassured me; “they have never failed.” I felt a bit sorry for the ACP. That’s too much for any one person to live up to.

Here it is - the recipe so many of you wanted! A warming, nourishing soup inspired by the bowls of my childhood. Typically this soup uses leftover shredded chicken but I also love it with shiitake mushrooms for a veggie version so I’ve given both options below. Don’t skimp on the toppings, they really make it. Feeds 4; takes 15 minutes to prep, 35 minutes to cook For the soup

Joel Potrykus’s thoughtful, ugly, independent filmmaking heralds the artist as one of the last hopes for contemporary American cinema. His depictions of “losers” could easily be spiteful or malevolent, but they’re cherished, witnessed, and valued in their desperate quests. His feature films include Ape (2012), Buzzard (2014), The Alchemist Cookbook (2016), and Relaxer (2018). With his newest feature Vulcanizadora (2024), which premieres June 8th at the Tribeca Film Festival, Potrykus is as contemplative and grisly as ever.