Soft Heart Studio Blog

Dive into 'Bullshit Jobs' by David Graeber and get ready for an eye-opener about the work world today. Graeber explores why so many of us feel our jobs are pointless and how that's not just a personal gripe but a big issue in how society's set up. It's not just about ranting; it's about understanding why we're stuck in these roles and thinking about what work should really mean to us.

In Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost, we explore what it means to be lost, why we might do it, and how it contributes to our personal ...

If you're looking for a primer into the history of prisons as they currently exist in the US, and the way they are inextricably tied to racist, classist, sexist ideals, look no further. Angela Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete? walks us from the beginning of the penitentiary and follows through

If we want to make the world a better place, we must do work within, but also look at the work that must be done in society at large. The Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth by the Red Nation lays out a plan for how we could work together to combat climate change from an anti-imperialist perspective, bringing Indigenous wisdom to our global problems. 

If you’ve ever asked yourself “What is mutual aid?” or “How do I get involved with mutual aid?” this month’s book club book is the perfect place to start. Mutual Aid by Dean Spade not only introduces what mutual aid is, but walks you through how to show up in and engage with mutual aid organizations. This short book will be helpful both to people newly showing up to movements and more experienced community organizers looking to improve their mutual aid organization’s effectiveness and impact. This will become a reference book you keep returning to over time.

If you've been struggling too with wanting to do more, be more, make more, and realizing that you're tired, stressed, and overworked, I recommend these books to you to help you change your mindset, avoid burnout, reframe your focus, and ultimately find your balance between rest and work. Instead of rise and grind, consider anti-productivity and pro-rest to give yourself the rest you deserve. You can't serve your community if you're burned out, so self care is community care, and we need to restructure our work together.

Are you looking for ways to build community? Do you want to cultivate deeper connections in your life? Here are five books to deepen connection, cu...

If you're wondering how to cultivate community that really shows up for each other, what community can look like outside the bounds of a nuclear family or romantic relationship, and how to connect more deeply and passionately with your people, How We Show Up by Mia Birdsong is the book for you.s

I’ve found that reading books is an important way to educate myself as I work to grow as a human in the world. But it can be hard to do that in isolation, whether it’s because you don’t know where to start, some concepts are confusing, or it’s just hard to hold yourself accountable to our goals without a little external support.

So I've decided the start the Soft Heart Book Club. This is a space where we can explore different works that explore how to be better humans, cultivate our communities, learn new skills, and be better prepared to create the world we want to live in.

If you're interested in checking out the reading list and being kept aware of the book club updates, sign up here. There's no pressure for any specific level of participation, but at least this will help you stay connected and encourage you to add some of these bo

In a world that is increasingly automated and technically connected, I'm very interested in how we choose to moralize about these connections. I think it's going to be a supremely important ethical question, and one that I hope we choose to address together before it feels like it's Too Late. So I appreciate works of fiction that help bring these questions to us in digestible ways, so we can start to consider what it might mean, for instance, for AI to feel or think or love. What it might mean for AI to be an integrated part of our society.  

Click here to see all the art currently available that has been made from this book. 

I first read Man's Search for Meaning in high school, I think because my stepmom told  me it was good. i'm not sure i even realized how much the i...