#throughline

[igottatho]

It’s been about one month since Aaron Bushnell, active duty serviceman, immolated himself in front of the DC Israeli embassy.

Today the UN called for a “non-binding” (qualifier added by US) ceasefire for the remainder of Ramadan (~two weeks). Meanwhile, yesterday Biden unilaterally approved another 3 billion dollars to be sent to Israel, begging the question, will Israel truly abide by a ceasefire?

In the past (years, not since Oct 7) ceasefires have been enacted, which Hamas and Palestinian Authority have respected, but Israel meanwhile would continue to control Gaza’s water, food & medical access, and yes, inflict violence upon Palestinian peoples. Knowing this, what is the incentive for Hamas to abide by a false ceasefire? when Israel now continues to murder children, rape women and cripple a population indefinitely.

Today I found my first real bit of info re: the Arab Spring of 2011. I worked within a large box bookstore at this time and through my years there, I was unable to find any literature on this topic. It’s been about 6 years and this may have changed, but typing “Arab Spring” into the billion dollar search function, there were NO RESULTS. This doesn’t mean the info wasn’t out there, somewhere, only that access wasn’t condoned, and academic thought was likely restricted (or … that’s how I understand it).

This is the podcast I found today and learned from. The show “Throughline” is really worthwhile in its entirety, but this episode shows us the power of social media and organizing dissent. On this near- anniversary of Aaron Bushnell political and radical act, I think a lot about the man in Tunisia who self immolated in January of 2011. His name was Mohamed Bouazizi, and his death sparked the Arab Spring,

Find it here.

[mythcreantsblog]

It’s easy to think of a romance plot as “people fall in love and then hook up, the end.” But that doesn’t tell us how the story performs its most important function: keeping readers engaged. To do that, romances often use a powerful cocktail of wish fulfillment, romantic chemistry, and regular old tension. Whether stirred or shaken, this mix increases the book’s pull and broadens its audience.

But tension won’t happen on its own. For that, a romance needs a strong throughline, and that throughline should support the relationship instead of pulling readers away from it. Let’s look at the three basic ways you can give your romance or relationship story a throughline.

[unsolicited-opinions]

A Brief History of Hamas

NPR's Throughline does a pretty good job here and underlines Israeli failures without ever approaching antisemitism. If you're one of those people trying to catch up and understand this conflict, give this a listen.

[yepthatsacowalright]

"I think what people don't understand about the credit score is the way that it's produced. It is mysterious to people how the credit score goes up and down, and that's partially by design. So the developers of credit scores don't want to share with the public exactly how their algorithms work, and the reason is that they fear that consumers will try to game the system if they know somehow that if they do X behavior, it'll change their credit score. So there are, you know, efforts to try to reverse engineer it, but really, the algorithm is obscure on purpose."

Josh Lauer, Throughline podcast episode What's Your Worth?

[joannaliangart]

Getting (dis)connected (2019) photography

individual titles: throughline, re-emerging, and pour to spill a cup

---

one of the first pieces/exercises I made in my ib art class in... 2019? ough it brings back very specific memories of a very up n down kinda time in my life as highschool does lol

Here's how I wrote about the piece back in 2019:

Getting (dis)connected revolves around growing closer to people and emotional healing, symbolized using plants and a tea set. The first piece shows the same photos repeated with different blend mode effects, showing how things can change even while staying the same. Below it represents the beginnings of human connection, like the first sip from a cup. The last photo symbolizes the mutual giving and taking in any human relationship, and how complex but beautiful it is to have such connections.

*authors note: I have no memory of the original intentions of these pieces lmao, but I do think it was a lot sadder and more personal than I wrote about above (which is totally fair that was written for school purposes lol)

[lisamarieblair]

The Labor Of Love (Throwback) // Throughline

There's a powerful fantasy in American society: the fantasy of the ideal mother. This mother is devoted to her family above all else. She raises the kids, volunteers at the school, cleans the house, plans the birthday parties, cares for her own parents. She's a natural nurturer. And she's happy to do it all for free. Problem is? She's imaginary.

[ppeacekeeper]

"The most dangerous and powerful thing a person can often do is to stand up not against their enemies, but against their friends, to question and criticize the beliefs of their in-group, the people who are on their side. In the next year, as the United States heads into what likely will be one of the most bitter and divided elections ever, that lesson may be an important one for us all to remember. Because the reality is, the more we cordon ourselves into sides, choosing to ignore our conscience simply in order to win, we are taking on a posture of war. And the outcome of that will only bring pain and loss."

[npr-stan]

Longform Coverage on Palestine

Disclaimer: These are NPR stories, which are biased via American perspectives. But they might just give you the evidence you need to convince your republican parents they're wrong.

The Historical Context:

Longform content providing key context for how we got here.

From Throughline, NPR's historical podcast, hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtim Arablouei speak with Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian-American historian, about the history of Palestine. This episode released May 28, 2021.

From Throughline, a look at how politics have shifted in Israel leading to the rise of right wing extremism. Host Ramtim Arablouei speaks with historians about what led to the deadly state of public sentiment.

From PBS's Frontline, a current events documentary series, this documentary covers the failed peace efforts over the last few decades and the role that the US played in that failure. This documentary released December 19, 2023.

Perspective Pieces:

A variety of longform perspective pieces from a variety of NPR podcasts with some shorter pieces towards the end.

The second part in a series from Embedded, NPR's documentary podcast, covering the crisis in Gaza. Leila Fadel covers two stories - one from a college student living in Gaza and another from an American family that escaped Gaza. This episode released March 6, 2024.

Coming from Code Switch, an NPR podcast about race and identity in America, Gene Demby and Sandhya Dirks interview two Palestinian Americans about their experiences being erased in the American story. This episode released November 15, 2023.

The first part in a series from Embedded, covering the crisis in Gaza. This episode follows Daniel Estrin as he reports on different voices in the region and the difficulties in covering the story. This episode released February 29, 2024.

From Code Switch, a conversation with Leah Donnella about the American Jews speaking out against Israel and the deep rifts that are growing within their communities. This episode released April 24, 2024.

From On the Media, a podcast created by WNYC - an NPR member station in NYC, a conversation talking about the debate surrounding the term genocide. This is a portion of an episode from December 1, 2023 and explains why mainstream media has shied away from the term.

From Consider This, an NPR daily podcast, Ambassador Dennis Ross talks about why Israel's methods are counterproductive. The episode released April 12, 2024.

From Consider This, discussions on how the protests on campuses today reflect those in the 1960s over the Veitnam War. This episode released April 29, 2024.

[yourlwatts]

Your Throughline

Writers may develop a “throughline” to guide the plot development of a story. Dictionary.com provides the following definition of a throughline: “a theme or idea that runs from the beginning to the end of a book, film, etcetera.” The throughline unifies a story, gives it cohesion and clarity, and impels a strong message.�� While editing, a good rule of thumb for the author is to ask, for every…

[lungthief]

main cast of succession in interviews: yeah i’ve really loved getting to delve into this character and working with all these incredible people, this show is just so amazing and i’m so sad to be leaving

supporting cast of succession in interviews: oh my character? gay. really fuckin gay. me and the 20 year olds who make taylor swift edits on twitter decided so

[mythcreantsblog]

Stories need a throughline – an important plot arc that encompasses the whole story. It helps us identify where the story starts, where it ends, and which events belong in the middle. Without that, the story will putter aimlessly until it wanders off or stops at an arbitrary point.

We can’t do much plotting until we know what our throughline is. But the more complex our stories are, the tougher it can be to identify whether we have a throughline and, if so, whether that throughline needs work.

[opbackgrounds]

Thematically, this is one of the most important things Luffy says in the entire series, and Oda emphasizes it by having the panel take up a full third of the page and being entirely focused on Luffy and no one else.

[clarkgriffon]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 6x19 | “Seeing Red”