The news keeps being heavy. I’m trying not to burn myself out, but it feels unbearable in its own way not to be a witness and speak out against this. If you want to stop here, that’s totally fine; here’s a first-person account of falling down a chimney for clicking over, which I appreciate. For something more apolitical, you might enjoy “Wishing Away the Wish List,” about the holidays and the desire to be known; for something about education, try “‘How Old Is the Shepherd?’ The Problem That Shook School Mathematics,” about liberating students from stupid pedagogy.

Here comes the rest:

• I’m working a piece right now about a part of American history we don’t examine much. For ThinkProgress, Rev. William J. Barber II believes we should look to Reconstruction to understand what’s happening and where we’re going. (That site’s justice editor Ian Millhiser, in “The Constitution of the United States Has Failed,” is even grimmer.) Pair with “How to Be a Good Classicist Under a Bad Emperor” by Donna Zuckerberg for Eidolon.
• Princesses are a throwback to another time period or mode of being, for many Americans; in the case of Ivanka Trump, as Sady Doyle argues for Elle, they’re terrifying, and they definitely won’t save us.
• Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg, for the Nib, presents “Being Jewish in Trump’s America,” about navigating skepticism and understanding history. Pair with Return of the Judai’s brief “A Chanukah Message From Chaim,” if you don’t actually understand the reason for the season. (Hint: It’s about resistance and overthrowing oppression.)
• You know how bad Flint, Michigan, is? Reuters found 3,000 sites in the U.S. where lead poisoning is worse.
• CNN’s Tanzina Vega has a 10-point outline for breaking up the overbearing whiteness of the media — or any other business.

Stay brave, friends.