Dispatches from the Dopamine Den—April 2026
A powerful interview, a busy month, garden pics, and some great TV shows
I have more than 90 new subscribers since the end of last month, and many of you found me through my posts about books. I do post a monthly recap of what I read, but that’s its own post and will be coming Friday, May 1. “Dispatches from the Dopamine Den” is another post that I write monthly that serves as a curation of all the things I used to share on social media. (The title comes from the name of my favorite room in our house.) It includes life updates, interesting things I found online, what I’ve watched this month, and anything else I feel like sharing. If this isn’t of interest to you, maybe you’d enjoy checking out the 17 books I read last April.
While my work and aspects of my personal life require me to often be “extremely online,” there are so many days when I wish I could just throw the Internet in the trash. The rise of AI-generated videos and the way that many people seem to assume they are real makes me want to bang my head against a wall, and that’s without the constant influx of conflicting news reports on American politics and government. It’s easy to succumb to despair when it feels like the Internet is only offering up the very worst things.
But then, sometimes, the Internet brings something that you never would have seen without the Internet, and you are better for having seen it. This month, that was Ross Douthat’s interview with former Senator Ben Sasse, who is dying of cancer. He has already outlived the doctors’ predictions, but his time on earth is drawing short. There is no cure for what is killing him. And yet his interview with Douthat is one of the most encouraging interviews I’ve ever seen. If you want to ditch this post now and just go watch the interview, I won’t be offended.
If you want to read the transcript, it’s available here.
Life Updates
April was a jam-packed month as we approach the end of the school year. We had spring break, a trip for me and my husband, a birthday, a visit from my parents, Easter, and I started a new job. It has felt simultaneously like a very short month and a very long month.
Our spring break was relatively lowkey, and we did one of our favorite spring/fall activities (it’s way too hot in the summer). We traipsed around Oatland Island Wildlife Center for several hours. It’s essentially an outdoor trail with animal habitats at regular intervals. They have native birds, wolves, a fox, cougars, alligators, and more. It’s not nearly as exciting as a zoo but it’s all my little kids know and they love it. I was pleased my previously injured foot handled the 2+ miles of walking.
Easter came at the end of spring break, and it was a marathon. Christian and I attended the sunrise service, and then I ran home to shower and make myself presentable. I came back for music practice, and then we had church, so I was mostly at church from 7 am - 1 pm minus the 45 minutes I was at home showering. That afternoon we hosted some family and friends for a delicious meal. I was so happy my friend EJ got the picture above—our little kids are growing so fast.
The day after Easter, Christian and I embarked to Tennessee for a weeklong getaway sponsored by Teamness. Teamness is a ministry that provides free vacations to pastors and spouses. We applied back in the winter and got approved! We spent the week in a camper on the property of our host couple, Evan and Debbie. We slept, ate, watched TV, read, and did a bit of sightseeing. We got to know Evan and Debbie’s baby goats, and of course we stopped at Buc-ee’s on the way there and back.
I should also mention that the only way we were able to get away for those five days was to the gracious generosity of my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. They lived around the corner from us and are always willing to help. We are so grateful for them.
My youngest had a big week after we got back when he got to go on a field trip to a local ranch that cares for injured and abandoned animals. He also had a PTO presentation at his school, in which he played an adorable elephant. Six really is one of the best ages.
We celebrated two birthdays last weekend—our daughter, Zoe, who turned nine a few days before that, and our second son, Cohen, who turns fifteen in a few days. Friday night, my daughter invited 7 friends to a sleepover at our church building. My friend Kim joined me as another supervising adult and mercifully, we all survived, although I’m not sure how much sleep any of the girls got.
On Saturday, my parents came into town and my husband’s family joined us as we celebrated with a delicious ice cream cake made by my mother-in-law. These are the final two kid birthdays this year, and we now have a 16 year old, 15 year old, 9 year old, and 6 year old. We are firmly in the middle years of parenting!
My parents live about 3 hours away and blessed us with their presence the last weekend of April. They jumped right into an insane weekend of kid and church activities and just came along for the ride.
I had two big things happen this month: a long overdue haircut and a new job (please enjoy the before and after). My new job is part-time, but it’s many more hours than I had previously been working, so it’s been an adjustment to our family routines. (It’s also cutting into my Substack time—annoying!!!).
From the Garden
This is a segment that I came up with this month only so I could share with you some of the beautiful things my husband is cultivating in our yard. Enjoy!
What I Watched
This month was a pretty good month for TV, although with everything going on, Christian and I didn’t watch nearly as much as we usually do. Most of what I watched was in the background on my own while I was doing other things.
🎥 Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich (Netflix)—After finishing this, I’ve had enough of anything adjacent to Jeffrey Epstein to last a lifetime. Of all the characters in the Epstein situation, I’ll be honest: Maxwell is the absolute creepiest.
📺The Wire—Seasons 1, 2, & 3 (HBO Max)—Christian and I decided to try to tackle all five seasons of this show and we’re about halfway through. One funny thing is that for the last 20 years, I thought this show was about a journalism newsroom (the wire, get it?). Turns out it’s about crime in Baltimore. Also, it’s hilarious to see the detectives and criminals getting cell phones and beginning to use dial-up Internet. It would feel like satire if it hadn’t actually been filmed in the early 2000s.
🎥 Paddington 2 (HBO Max)—I’ve still never seen the first Paddington movie, but I heard this was the best one. One night I got to pick what we watched as a family, and this was my choice. I loved Hugh Grant, who makes a great villain, and I loved the absurdity of Paddington’s prison experience. I also got teary at the ends. 5/5.
📺The Pitt—Season 2 (HBO Max)—We finished up the second season and loved it all. Sure, I could nitpick about some things here and there, but it truly is a remarkable show that portrays people working under incredible pressure and having to make really hard decisions. The Baby Jane Doe storyline was almost more than I could handle.
📺The Simpsons—Season 1 (Disney+)—Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to watch the Simpsons, and even when I was an adult, I thought it was dumb and wasn’t interested. My husband, however, grew up watching reruns and considers it one of his favorite shows. To appease him, I have started working through the first nine seasons. I’ll be honest—it’s funnier than I expected it to be.
📺Trust Me: The False Prophet (Netflix)—This was the most fascinating and compelling thing I watched this month. A woman and her husband move into the town were an FLDS prophet who is following in the steps of Warren Jeffs has formed his own mini cult of women and underage girls. She earns their trust and eventually becomes an FBI informant who helps bring the leader to justice. I flew through this because it was so intense.
ICYMI
Here are all the posts from this month in case you missed any of them!
📝 15 Longish Nonfiction Books to Get Lost in but Still Finish (400-600 pages)
📝 15 Longish Fiction Books to Get Lost in But Still Finish (400-600 pages)
📝 The 5 Books I Bought at McKay’s Used Bookstore in Nashville (all for less than $17!)
📝 12 of my Most Read Fiction Writers
📝 3 Books that Took Me One Day Each to Read
📝 The 5 Fiction Books I’m Taking on My Trip Next Week (and What Made Me Pick Them)
From the Archives
This post will be entering the archives in May, so take a look at my opinion on legless reptiles while you have time.
In Closing
This month, I finished a cross-stitch piece that I had been working on for more than 3 years—over 26,000 individual stitches. It felt so good to finish it, and completing it reminded me that slow and steady progress can actually make something substantial over time. I haven’t decided what to do with it yet, but sometimes I just pull it out and look at it.
I hope the end of this month finds you well. As always, I remain so grateful for those of you who read my humble Substack offerings. I love being able to share the things I love with you.