SCREENSHOTS #20 The YouTube video that has changed my life (seriously) and more recs
Movies, series, books and more: everything I've watched, listened to, read, and tried in December and January!
SCREENSHOTS is my monthly post with a roundup of recs: everything I read, listened to, or watched that month, including books, audiobooks, articles, movies, TV series, and podcasts.
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Ok, since my last SCREENSHOT was a special edition featuring my favorites of the year, turns out that for this edition I have way more suggestions to share with you!
I feel I need to make a disclosure here: I have been spending way less time on my phone - THANK GOD - since mid-December, when I took drastic measures in an attempt to end this addiction. Yes, it is an addiction, and yes, I’m planning to share more on that. The amount of long-form content I’ve consumed over these past two months definitely reflects my new habits and routine.
Spotlight - a video about smartphone addiction
I usually start these newsletters by highlighting movies and TV series, with YouTube videos recommended at the end. But today, I’m bringing the highlight of this month, or this period, which is this masterpiece from Eddy Burback. I had never seen this creator before, but I’m so grateful YouTube recommended his video to me. As I mentioned, I’ll go into the details of my detox soon, but what I can say now is that this video was the turning point for me. Not only is it entertaining and funny, but it also hits hard. So hard.
Now, let’s get back to the other recs, in my traditional order!
What we are currently streaming:
This is an old series, but I guess it’s worth the recommendation: Homeland, available on Netflix. My husband was hooked from the first episode, but it took me a few episodes to get really invested. Featuring Claire Danes, it is about a bipolar CIA analyst who suspects that a rescued American POW has been turned by terrorists. Lots of tension and moral gray zones.
And perhaps because we were impressed with Claire Danes’ performance, and also because I had heard good comments about it, we started The Beast in Me, a psychological crime thriller miniseries about an author who gets involved in a dangerous mystery when a controversial public figure becomes her neighbor. Also on Netflix.
Finally, after seeing so much praise for it, we started The Pitt on HBO Max, which is a real-time medical drama set inside a Pittsburgh emergency room. While watching the Golden Globes, when the series won the award for Best Drama Series, the commentators said that doctors and nurses agree this is a very accurate portrait of what really happens in an emergency room.
Book - The Year of Magical Thinking
I joined a book club last summer, and although I haven’t been able to keep up with all the books, a change in the meeting date gave me the opportunity to read this one. It’s a memoir, my favorite genre, about grief. Here’s what you need to know:
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, fall ill with septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later, the Dunnes were sitting down to dinner after visiting their daughter in the hospital when John suffered a fatal heart attack. In that one moment, their partnership of forty years came to an end. This powerful narrative is Didion’s attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea she ever had about death, about illness, about marriage and children and memory, about the shallowness of sanity, and about life itself.
It’s a very raw, emotional, and vulnerable story about grief. It’s pretty intense to put yourself in her place, because I guess all of us, if not already, will go through this process one day.
Podcasts
Perhaps I’ve been sleeping under a rock, but I only discovered Arthur Brooks’ podcast a couple of weeks ago, and I’M OBSESSED with this guy. He is an author and Harvard professor, and this show, Office Hours, is about the science of human happiness, with so many interesting episodes. The one about “How to Stop Caring What Others Think” was the first one I listened to, but I also loved the episode about his morning routine. He has convinced me to skip coffee first thing in the morning, lol.
And if you’re not a new subscriber, you probably know how much I love consuming content about health, especially women’s health, like workouts and nutrition. This conversation about building muscle at any age was very inspiring.
And finally, I guess many women will relate to this solo episode from Call Her Daddy about female friendships and the role some friends play in our lives.
YouTube videos
As you can notice, I’ve been invested in the smartphone addiction theme lately, and YouTube has realized that, I guess. This video is another masterpiece on the topic. The explanation about the feed is just genius. You’ll have to hit play to understand what I mean.
Getting a room tour of a luxurious hotel is nice, but you know what I’m really dying to see? The behind the scenes. I had such a great time watching this video from The New York Times inside the iconic The Plaza Hotel and learning how their luxury room service works. Fascinating!
I’m not crying, you are crying. Well, you will be crying after watching this video from Casey Neistat about Logan Knowles, a Class 31 ATF athlete with cerebral palsy, and his effort to complete the New York City Marathon.
I featured this video on my recent post about “9 small changes and habits that quietly improved my life this year” but I'm linking here again anyway, in case you have missed it. This video caused such an “AHA” moment for me regarding organization.
Even though I have read Outlive and have been consuming a lot of content about the link between strength training, quality of life, and longevity, it was a little shocking to watch this video in which this YouTuber, Clare Johnston, shows the transformation her eighty-something parents experienced after they started strength training. I swear this made me even more motivated to hit the gym the next day. We even used AI to generate a translation and sent it to our parents, in the hope that it will convince them to start hitting the gym as well, lol.
And finally, as someone who has recently started journaling - I will also talk more about it soon - this video couldn’t have come at a better time. If you want to start this habit and don’t know how, I guess this could help.
Some interesting readings on Substack…
Expats, Privilege, and the Myth of Choice - using Teresa Bandeira de Carvalho words from the article: A French banker in Mozambique is considered an “expat.” A Mozambican nurse in France will be seen as an “immigrant.” Both have left home, both are working abroad, but only one gets the label that signals sophistication and choice. On point.
I don’t want children. I don’t want children. I don’t want children. I don’t want children - Jameela Jamil lists all the reasons why she doesn't to have children. In an ideal world, people wouldn’t need to explain their personal choices, but I guess that’s not the case when it comes to this topic.
Tools + Resources I’m Bringing into 2026 - and if you are still in that high energy of accomplishing things, you're gonna love this post from Maddy Odom - I have saved so many recs!
And before you leave…
Let me just highlight this episode from my podcast Transplants 🫀. I'm not gonna link all the new episodes because I figured the post would be too long. But this one is a special one and features some of the best moments from the episodes published in 2025.
Thank you so much!! And thank you for the recs :)