All posts tagged: taboo

‘This is so taboo’: Kimberley Nixon on the hell of perinatal OCD – and how she survived it | Books

‘This is so taboo’: Kimberley Nixon on the hell of perinatal OCD – and how she survived it | Books

Published by Sam Flores

Kimberley Nixon’s memoir, She Seems Fine to Me, is out on 7 May, and she’s quite terrified. This isn’t an author worried by sales figures or reviews. Nixon’s book is an up-close-and-personal account of perinatal OCD. It tells of the dark, disturbing thoughts that taunted and haunted her after the birth of her son: her racing mind, relentless rumination, the Technicolor horror stories that played inside her head, always centred on harms to her baby. The book holds nothing back. “Is it really brave or is it really stupid?” says Nixon. “In my head, I’ve written a book about what a horrible person I was and put it out in the world – and I have to keep reminding myself that’s not it. I’ve written a book about a mental health condition and trying to fight it.” Its publication coincides with maternal mental health awareness week. “The nature of this – the content, the detail – is so taboo. You don’t want to share it. You keep it hidden, and that made me worse and …

Has It Become Taboo to Admit to Wanting Children?

Has It Become Taboo to Admit to Wanting Children?

Published by Jenni Sidey

I’m going to admit to something I’m deeply ashamed of. I’ve gone back and forth on whether to write this post because I’m afraid of how people will perceive me after reading it. I suspect they’ll jump to all sorts of conclusions about who I am and what I believe, based on what I’m about to tell you. Am I shooting up crack cocaine or selling drugs to teenagers on street corners? No. I have just become a parent for the first time, and I love it. That was hard to write. But now that I’ve gotten it out of the way, let me explain why I was so loath to admit it. Certain beliefs tend to cluster together and frame a person in a particular light. If I told you I believed the moon landing was faked, that climate change wasn’t real, and that vaccinations cause autism, there’s a good chance you’d clock me as being a certain type of person. Now, for better or worse, saying you want children and are enjoying the …

Sequoia to invest in Anthropic, breaking VC taboo on backing rivals: FT

Sequoia to invest in Anthropic, breaking VC taboo on backing rivals: FT

Published by skeptic

Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to the Financial Times. It’s a move sure to turn heads in Silicon Valley. Why? Because venture capital firms have historically avoided backing competing companies in the same sector, preferring to place their bets on a single winner. Yet here’s Sequoia, already invested in both OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI, now throwing its weight behind Anthropic, too. The timing is particularly surprising given what OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said under oath last year. As part of OpenAI’s defense against Musk’s lawsuit, Altman addressed rumors about restrictions in OpenAI’s 2024 funding round. While he denied that OpenAI investors were broadly prohibited from backing rivals, he did acknowledge that investors with ongoing access to OpenAI’s confidential information were told that access would be terminated “if they made non-passive investments in OpenAI’s competitors.” Altman called this “industry standard” protection (which it is) against misuse of competitively-sensitive information. According to the FT, Sequoia is joining a funding round led by Singapore’s GIC …

‘It feels so taboo’: Natalie Palamides on playing both halves of a toxic couple and her shocking next show | Comedy

‘It feels so taboo’: Natalie Palamides on playing both halves of a toxic couple and her shocking next show | Comedy

Published by Sam Flores

She’s the toast of Off-Broadway now but nothing about the early work of LA clown Natalie Palamides screamed mainstream darling. In her debut show Laid, a maternal-anxiety antic that won her best newcomer at the Edinburgh comedy awards, she gave birth to eggs then broke them on stage. In her second, Nate, she cross-dressed as a beer-chugging douchebag to workshop sexual assault and consent with her astonished audience. Who foresaw that this loose cannon would soon be Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s clown coach, in the series Gutsy? Who then saw an extended New York City run beckoning, thronged with celebrity attendees? “Drew Barrymore came, Kevin Bacon came,” says Palamides, on a video call. “Sabrina Carpenter came: that was nuts. Dua Lipa, Nathan Fielder, Neil Patrick Harris.” The show was Weer, and the run (until shortly before Christmas) was at “the birthplace of Off-Broadway”, the Cherry Lane theatre, recently relaunched by hip movie studio A24. When we speak, Palamides, 36, is laid low with flu, her body’s revenge for that marathon three-month run. “I thought a …

Opinion: ‘Until we meet again, brave little cat.’ The heartbreak and taboo of burying our pets

Opinion: ‘Until we meet again, brave little cat.’ The heartbreak and taboo of burying our pets

Published by Sam Flores

Editor’s Note: Eric Tourigny is a lecturer in historical archaeology at Newcastle University, UK. His research interprets osteological and material culture remains alongside historic texts to examine changing human-animal relationships in Europe and North America over the past 500 years. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion on CNN. CNN  —  Why do we bury our departed loved ones in a cemetery? A primary purpose is to provide survivors with an opportunity to grieve and gain a sense of closure. The cemetery is a place for the living as much as it is a place for the dead. But what about when the dearly departed are not human – but our pets? The Spanish city of Barcelona recently announced that it will be investing in the establishment of the country’s first public pet cemetery. Set to open next year, it will offer both burials and cremations – with an estimated 7,000 carried out each year. For me, as someone who has spent years researching the development of pet cemeteries elsewhere …