Welcome to 'Good Chat'!

Entering a new era for this substack.

Hello, dear friends!

It’s been over a year since I last sent y’all an update through this platform. Thank you all so much for your patience with me, the almost 1,300 of you who had faith and remained subscribed! I appreciate you, and I hope this new iteration of the substack will be enjoyable and useful.

Part of why I have taken such a long break is because I was unsure what I wanted to do with this platform. I initially began it to experiment with writing, and to keep a record of my first few months in Paris. I treated Diasporan Diaries (the previous name) as a blog of sorts, but I felt like I couldn’t shake the sense that I was being watched, that I couldn’t be completely honest because I might find my words repeated and twisted out of context somewhere else on the internet. Nobody wrote a great novel under the gaze of a panopticon. Or something like that.

And yet…I missed this space. I missed being able to speak to the curious, thoughtful group of people I know you all are, missed the emails you would write after a particularly honest or vulnerable piece, missed the fast feedback loop that comes with internet writing. I missed the writing practice, also. The practice without too much pressure. The writing with lower stakes.

So, I took my time, thinking about what I could write about and what might be useful to you, too - because I want this to be of value to us all. There’s far too much noise, how can this cut through it?

Welcome back to one minute reviews with Yas!

@yassmin_amHave you seen #TheCapture? LMK what you think! #tvreview trigger warning for some footage of anti-Muslim violence BTW!

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Turns out the internet really loves my reviews. The ‘One Minute Reviews with Yas’ series has clocked up almost a million views and are some of my most popular videos, with folks regularly sharing how they decide on what to watch at night based on my recommendations! I find a unique pleasure in the perfect recommendation - sending an article through to a friend who I know will find it fascinating, insisting an acquaintance watch my new favourite show because I know they will love it. I spend an inordinate amount of time consuming cultural content, often accompanied with *thoughts*. Why not share more widely, I wondered?

Thus, ‘Good Chat’. A substack that is focused on recommending great cultural content - whether books, TV, podcasts, articles (it will depend on my week, really) - accompanied by my thoughts and insights on the work. I hope this newsletter will give you stuff to watch, enjoy, think about, discuss; ideas to take forward and perhaps help live the most intentional, joyful, and just version of life you possibly can.

That’s the plan, anyway. Stay tuned for the first official Good Chat post later this week!

Best,

Yassmin

PS Londoners, don’t forget the launch for Stand Up and Speak Out Against Racism tomorrow! There are still a few spots left!