Food to enjoy, skincare to try, places to visit and things to experience – In focus is a quick round-up of everything the focus team loved recently.
NASA YouTube
OK, this one is a biggie – did you know NASA has an amazing YouTube channel, where astronauts share their space adventures and experiments such as growing salad, reply to viewers’ questions and even post new job opportunities? Christina Koch is now officially our favourite astronaut – she’s super funny and has been hanging out in orbit for 300 days, so definitely has a few exciting stories to share. Beware, once you start watching, you’ll never stop, so we hope you don’t have any plans for tonight.
Shameless
We know, we know, we’ve just shared our favourite podcasts but honestly, Shameless easily beats them all. Melbourne journalists Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews are hilarious and so entertaining, we literally can’t stop listening. There are two types of episodes in Shameless: interviews with inspiring, successful people and friendly chats between Zara and Michelle about all the things people are talking about at the moment – from royal news to teen mags to Harvey Weinstein’s imprisonment. “Podcast for smart women who love dumb stuff” as they call it, and we couldn’t have defined it better ourselves!
Start with the episode ‘IN CONVERSATION: Zoë Foster Blake’ where Zara and Michelle interview Go-To skincare founder about her past as a Cosmopolitan beauty editor, writing books about love and relationships and, of course, how she revolutionises the beauty industry with the natural and sustainable skincare brand she has founded. You’ll fall in love!
Mythic Quest
Need more positivity and laughs in your life? Start watching Mythic Quest on Apple TV+. An almost forgotten format of short episodes that mostly happen in one office space, is back! And it’s better and funnier than ever!
Mythic Quest follows the life of video game developers. No-no, don’t stop reading now because you’ve never been interested in video games – neither were we. But the characters are so funny and passionate and, after all, it’s not a documentary about a video game (Mythic Quest doesn’t even exist in real life!), rather an easy and kind sitcom that just happens to be about people who make video games.
The Five by Hallie Rubenhold
Though based on a dark and scary episode in history, this is exactly the book we need these days. For 130 years detectives, writers and mystery enthusiasts were mesmerised by the mysterious figure of Jack the Ripper, who killed at least five women in late 19th century London, yet somehow, until now, no one has ever investigated the lives of his victims. This book finally serves them justice and shares the stories of Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. It’s impossible to imagine how much research went into gathering so many facts and details about women who wouldn’t have otherwise been remembered in history at all, had they not been killed by Jack the Ripper, especially because journalists in those days were quick to add false facts to write a story that would sell. Hallie even managed to find a few photographs of these women and their families! The book is beautifully written and reads more like a series of short fiction, rather than a documentary.
Davian Chester’s Disney princesses
There has been quite a buzz around Davian Chester and his recreation of Disney princesses as black women recently, and we should say, we absolutely ADORE his work! Not only is it a much needed reminder to Disney that will hopefully encourage more diversity in future cartoons but also, seriously, what’s not to love about these gorgeous women.
Images: @real_toons