Your alternative to the doom-scroll

a round-up of books/pods/links/inspo

Hi friends,

This is the first monthly reccs of the new year, and there are a lots of new readers who have joined us recently (thank you for subscribing!) so I’ll take the chance to reintroduce myself :)

My name is Alya Mooro, I’m an Egyptian-born, London raised writer, author and producer and all around curious human being. I love learning and following my curiosities, as well as changing and / or expanding my mind, and these monthly reccs - one of the most popular offerings of the newsletter - are an opportunity for me to share with you all that has been stoking my fire that month, because, chances are, if I find it interesting, then you will too.

Plus, there’s SO MUCH CONTENT out there, it’s always nice when someone curates some of that for you :) These days, in particular, you can think of it as ‘the opposite of doom-scrolling’ - a curation of interesting reads, podcasts, recommendations and ideas that have got me thinking in new or deeper ways.

In most pressing news, I’m travelling to Egypt next week, inshallah, with my friend Ra’ed and his NGO Road to Freedom to personally deliver aid to Palestinians impacted by the relentless genocide that is currently being carried out by Israel with the seeming support of the world.

Often, people can be hesitant to donate because they don’t know where their money is going (or, in this case, if it can even reach the people in need!) but we will be personally overseeing the funds to make sure that 100% gets to where it needs to go. Along with sending a truck into Palestine across the border, inshallah, we will be working with the many, many Palestinians who have been displaced into Egypt, most of whom are in urgent need of medical attention / housing / food / clothing and etc. We have been connecting with people on the ground in order to ensure the funds are in the most service they can be. The more funds we have, the more people we can help so please donate and share. Thank you and God bless.

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In case you missed it:

• I got the opportunity to interview Dina Macki, the Omani-Zanzibari food developer, presenter, writer and author of the bestselling cookbook: Bahari: Recipes from an Omani Kitchen and Beyond, for Harpers Bazaar Arabia. Despite being extremely useless in the kitchen myself, chatting with Dina shed light on how food serves as a powerful connector to our cultural roots, especially for those in the diaspora. Read it here and check out the exclusive recipe she’s shared with us, here.

• I guested on Layla Maghribi’s podcast Third Culture Therapy, talking about damaging female stereotypes, rejecting Western beauty ideals, shame, what I’ve packed into my mental health toolkit, and much much more. I love Layla’s podcast and its exploration of how social identity and cultural heritage impact mental and emotional health and she’s had so many brilliant guests on, so it was really an honour getting to chat with her. Watch on YouTube here or listen wherever you get your pods.

Decolonising my hair & my mind

Connecting with our roots via the kitchen

Now, onto the reccs!

In this instalment: the best books I’ve read recently, how to make art during a genocide, how millennials learned to dread motherhood, reframing pornography into the feminist space (and so much more!) I hope you enjoy it.

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