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Welcome back to Thinking Is Cool, the podcast and newsletter here to make your next conversation better than your last. I’m your host Kinsey Grant. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here.
Stop what you’re doing right now and turn on one of these three songs: “We’re All in This Together” by the cast of High School Musical, “I'll Be There for You” by The Rembrandts, or “I’m Only Me When I’m With You” by Taylor Swift. Today, we’re talking about the great reopening and the arrival of the new post-Covid normal. The mood has to be right.
Good morning and cheers to a brand new week. Monday morning is the perfect time to set intentions for the week ahead—here are some of mine: make a charcuterie board for dinner, sit outside in the park with a book, call an old friend.
This week, remember that the happiest, most fulfilled people don’t give a sh*t about KPIs or progress reports or bullet journaling. They do give a sh*t about enjoying life as it comes, especially during this summer of love.
It’s a lesson I learned in making this week’s episode of Thinking Is Cool, which is all about the ways we’re reopening, literally and metaphorically, in the post-Covid era. How we’re managing simultaneous anxiety and excitement. How we’re shifting our ideals. How we’re getting to that long-promised new normal.
It’s a different kind of episode for me—this is the most personal I’ve ever been in front of a microphone. I hope you’ll listen and, in hearing how it’s changed me, consider how this pandemic has changed you too.
As always, you have listening options:
Option 1: Read this newsletter for background and then go listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you get podcasts. Recommended for anyone who got Moderna.
Option 2: Go listen to this episode on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you get podcasts and then come back to this newsletter for more context. Recommended for anyone who got J&J.
Let’s get into it. Masks optional.
This Week on Thinking Is Cool 🥂
I spent all weekend strolling and eating my way through New York City: steak au poivre at Raoul’s followed by a run home through the rain on Friday night, a long walk through Greenpoint topped off by mozz sticks and martinis at Bernie’s Saturday, a C&B breakfast sandwich and vintage shopping Sunday afternoon.
I put on a mask only one time.
By most measures, New York City is back to normal. A long 16 months after Covid-19 ravaged our neighborhoods and the businesses and people that made them the best in the world, New York is back.
With its thunderous return to sidewalks bustling with commuters and tourists and hot dog vendors, crowded subway cars, and literal dancing in the streets, New York’s comeback has been magnificent to both witness and participate in. But it’s also been, in some regards, incredibly difficult.
It’s not easy to bounce back from a worldwide pandemic that claimed some 600,000 lives in the United States alone. It’s not simple to reintegrate into society after spending the better part of the last year distanced, both socially and mentally.
But also…
It’s incredibly gratifying to find yourself finally bellied up to the bar in a crowded hotspot after months of wishing for that sweet, sweet moment when you order a vodka soda with lime—hell, make it a double. It’s emotional, almost, to see hordes of people young and old filling the streets after months of that desolate reality we all endured when the bulk of traffic on 5th Avenue was DoorDash drivers.
It’s happening in New York for me, but it’s happening everywhere else, too—the great reopening isn’t simple.
We’ve all lived through an unparalleled experience, and now we’re all working through the excitement of coming back, the application of shifted perspectives, the anxiety of typical socialization.
And we need to talk about it. So that’s what we’re doing this week on Thinking Is Cool—considering the ways this last year has changed people, places, and priorities, plus the ways those three interact.
In all likelihood, you’re not the same person you were in March of 2020. My bet? That’s a good thing.
But to ensure that we can make the most of this collectively life-altering experience, we need to give ourselves the time and space to consider what the Great Reopening, the Summer of Love, the Roaring 20s will mean as we move forward. How will the lessons from this season of life impact our decision-making? Our goals? Our social fabric?
Let’s think about it.
This episode is, as you might imagine, a deeply personal one for me—it covers quite a bit about my life and the ways it’s changed this year (anxiety, love, loss). Writing it took a lot of time peering inward, but the best part of creating this one has been taking that introspection outward—talking to friends and family about the ways we’re coping with a return to what was once considered normal.
With that in mind, here are some of the thought-starters I’ve enjoyed tossing out to the group chat IRL:
What about you has changed the most since March of 2020? Are you happy with that change?
What do you want to take with you from pandemic life as we shift back into normal life? What do you want to leave behind?
What’s been the biggest lesson for you personally from this Covid era? How do you think it’ll manifest in the future once Covid is just a bad memory?
Go forth and converse. I’ll be waiting here to listen to whatever you wanna share.
A bubblegum pink babydoll dress. Vintage cowgirl boots. A brand new bikini for Labor Day on Nantucket. The high-end print I’d been eyeing all summer for my new apartment.
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That’s because HMBradley has helped me save enough to both meet my long-term financial goals (that Scotland trip is still happening and so is retirement) and enjoy the best summer ever while it’s here (how many chances do you really get to buy leopard cowgirl boots from the ’80s?).
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Now, to the details of this week’s episode →
Who: This episode felt at times like I was reading from my personal diary, and I hope you enjoy it. I did speak with some very special friends, though—Thinking Is Cool community member Sarah Reynolds, one of my best friends Isabelle McAlevey, and my cofounder (and also friend) Josh Kaplan.
Where: Anywhere you get podcasts—Apple, Spotify, or any platform listed here
Why: You don’t want to look back on this summer in 10 years and forget how terrifying, exhilarating, satisfying, and life-altering it was. Think about it now so you can learn from it in the future.
A few programming notes for the road:
I went live to talk about last week’s episode—should billionaires exist?—on my Instagram and debated Josh (chewed him up & spit him out). If you missed it, watch here. Also might as well follow me so you don’t miss this weekend’s live about the great reopening.
After this week, there’s only one full week left for Season 1 of Thinking Is Cool. After next week is over, we’re taking a short break to recharge so we can come back harder, better, faster, stronger for Season 2. Buckle up.
You should buy some Thinking Is Cool merch. Do that here.
You should share Thinking Is Cool with a friend. Do that here →
See you Friday for another edition of the Thinking Is Cool blog. Have the best week ever.
—Kinsey