5SR - October 2, 2023
Hitha on student loans, the Roman Empire, and the untold story behind our flags
Today’s curator is the founder of #5SmartReads, Hitha Palepu. She’s a consummate multihyphenate - CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, author of WE’RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris and How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip, and professional speaker. Hitha is an unabashed fan of Taco Bell, Philadelphia sports teams & F1, romance novels, and is a mediocre crafter. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.
Student loan payments resume after 3-year pause (Axios)
The pandemic pause for federal student loans has ended, with varying levels of relief to debtors.
This is a timely article to break down how loan payments will resume and what you should look out for, but I also want to direct you to the Biden administration’s SAVE program, if you have outstanding federal student loans. It’s a more generous version of the previous pay-as-you-earn program, cutting undergraduate student loans to 5% of discretionary income and not requiring payments for those who earn less than $15/hour.
You can sign up at StudentAid.gov/SAVE - and you should.
I hope Congress takes action on the decades-long issue of student debt, with a focus on interest forgiveness and large-scale reform of the federal student loan program. It’s far overdue, and something I would hope would garner bipartisan support.
But I suppose we should focus on a government funding bill beyond 45 days first…
Kimora Lee Simmons Has Had Enough Drama. She Wouldn’t Mind Being In Love Again. (Bustle)
The best reality show ever to exist isn’t Housewives, or Vanderpump Rules, or Love Is Blind (though I’m a fan of all of them).
It’s Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane, which aired some 15 years ago (and is sadly not streaming anywhere). The reason it’s such a compelling show? Kimora.
The icon is even more legendary today, with a depth the show failed to capture. That’s where Naomi Elias succeeded - this interview is so honest and bold in both Kimora’s vulnerability and her ferocity (strength seems too weak a word to capture her).
This quote sums it up for me:
“At the end of the day you go to bed, you're with yourself. You have to be proud of the steps you've made and definitely not let somebody bully you or push you over … I don't care if that's your dad, your uncle, your friend, someone you don't know, we're not going to have it.”
Kimora Lee Simmons
U.S. history classes are mostly about men. Two teachers are looking to change that. (The 19th*)
WHAT I WOULD’VE GIVEN FOR AN A.P. WOMEN’s HISTORY COURSE.
Shouty caps are warranted, as I took all the advanced history courses my high school had provided and still wanted more. I think history is one of the most important subjects and my teachers took care to teach us how to put ourselves in the mindset and experience of those we were studying before analyzing it from our present day.
The people I was envisioning myself as were almost always men, simply because that was who documented (or was credited with) those primary sources we still use today. I can rattle off all the ancient Roman emperors to this day, but I didn’t learn about the women of the ancient world - Clytemnestra, Phaedra, Medea - until college or in my own reading (highly recommend Natalie Maynes’ Pandora’s Jar, if ancient Greece is your thing)
I’m grateful for Kristen Kelly and Serene Williams, the two teachers petitioning the College Board to offer this class (please sign the petition here).
“The Women’s History in High School website created by Kelly and Williams outlines the subject matter their proposed course would include, and it’s far-ranging. It would begin by covering women’s roles in Indigenous societies before the Americas were colonized and would go on to cover the American Revolution, Seneca Falls, Manifest Destiny, the Civil War and the Gilded Age — all with women’s issues at the forefront. From there, the course enters the 20th century, examining both world wars, second- and third-wave feminism and the conservative backlash to feminism, before ending in the present day with a focus on contemporary women’s issues and trailblazers.”
If this does become a class, I hope my sons take it - and I hope they don’t mind me borrowing their syllabus and textbooks to learn alongside them.
Liking The Roman Empire Tells Us More About Ourselves Than We Think (Refinery29)
Speaking of the Roman Empire, it’s something I do think about once a week or so (along with Catherine the Great, Nur Jahan, and the Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna). These were my favorite classes when studying for my history degree. You can take the girl out of UW’s history courses…
I digress. This is about how our thoughts (frequent or nonexistent) of the Roman Empire (and truly, what we actually do think about) are a mirror to ourselves, and shared thought in particular.
Underneath this social media trend is something much deeper - about how much of our thoughts are actually are own vs. narratives we’ve internalized so much we accept them as truth, the power of brand (ancient Rome has a strong one), and the eerie similarities between the fall of Rome and the current state of the United States.
If you’ve managed to escape the Roman Empire trend, I am envious of you. But I do hope you click and read Elizabeth Gulino’s piece in its entirety - it’s a very smart one.
Inside the workshop where presidential flags are lovingly made, mostly by immigrants (NPR)
Many people have claimed “bad things happen in Philadelphia” (and if you’re a still-bitter 49ers fan or a Commanders fan, you likely feel this way).
And yes, we are obnoxious and loud and somewhat insufferable. But we also gave the world Gritty, cheesesteaks, Wawa, and Utz’s sour cream and onion potato chips (truly the most elite chip).
Oh, and for the democratic republic that is our government. YOU’RE WELCOME.
The city is also the place where presidential flags are made, mostly by women immigrants. And the love and care they give to these flags and their work is a powerful reminder of what this country means to so many people who want to be Americans.
We can get bogged down and depressed about the state of our country - the hyper-partisanship, the legislative gridlock, and the general nastiness of politics. And as much as we tend to associate patriotism with how we feel about our government, I hope you pause to read this piece and really examine these pictures, and reframe patriotism to the women shown here, and those who show up in the small ways to make our country the shining city on a hill it can be.