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Happy New Year! I once read (or saw on social media??) that there is some debate over how long one has to say “Happy New Year” in greeting. Personally, I like to say it to everyone I see and email with until at least the last week of January.
But fewer than 10 days into 2026, the news continues to be just as weird (and mostly terrible) as it was in 2025, and frankly, so far it does not seem like a particularly happy new year. We’re still the same flawed humans we were before the calendar flipped, and the same goes for the world we live in. It would be amazing to wake up on January 1 to learn that our politicians now care about immigrants, gun control, and women’s rights (just to name a few pressing issues), but we don’t live in a sci-fi novel.
But how do we react to all this bad news? How do we not let all the sadness in the world overwhelm us?
Last year, my husband, Ken, only had one New Year’s resolution: to stop consuming the news. And he mostly has. His Instagram feed is filled with accounts focused on the 49ers, ska, and other music-related content. For my part, I mostly manage to avoid talking with him about the news, unless something huge happens—like when I realized that the Venezuelan president was being held at a federal prison just blocks from our apartment.
But Wednesday night, as we were getting ready for bed, I asked if he had heard the news about ICE shooting and killing a woman in Minneapolis. There is something about the death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, that leaves me feeling absolutely wrecked. She was not so different from me and many women I know, and in an apparent act of bravery and defiance, she tragically and unnecessarily lost her life. Her children will grow up without their mother.
The news about Good’s death comes on the heels of a story of another mother who died in the first week of the new year. Dr. Janell Green Smith was a Black midwife and maternal health expert, and she died last week due to complications during the birth of her first child. She was just 31.
The American Academy of Midwives shared an Instagram post about Dr. Smith’s death, writing, “That a Black midwife and maternal health expert died after giving birth in the United States is both heartbreaking and unacceptable. Her death underscores the persistent and well-documented reality that Black women—regardless of education, income, or professional expertise—face disproportionate risks during pregnancy and childbirth due to systemic racism and failures in care.”
While Dr. Smith’s death hasn’t received the same press coverage as Good’s (and goodness knows it’s not a competition), the circumstances around both their deaths represent so many of the problems with our country. And there is something so maddening and terribly unfair about two women who dedicated their lives to making the world a better place dying so young and under such terrible (and arguably preventable) circumstances.
In the dark of January, when the sun sets in New York City at 4:45 in the afternoon and there is a constant stream of bad and sad news, it can be hard to find the motivation to do, well, pretty much anything. And yet, we must do something.
I saw a Substack note yesterday (and I’m sorry I can’t remember who wrote it, or I would share here) about the cognitive dissonance we have to feel right now, as we, adults, must process all the bad news and then still perform all our responsibilities as if nothing is wrong. We must help with homework, wipe down the kitchen sink, prepare dinner, make the beds, respond to emails, write our newsletters, and wish our friends and colleagues a happy new year.
Ken and I watched Taylor Swift: The End of an Era recently, and I was struck by something Kamilah Marshall, one of the backup singers, shared. Her mother died in 2021, and Marshall talked about how the Eras Tour was one of the happiest times of her life, but also one of the saddest, because her mom couldn’t be there to see it.
“In the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to lean into and accept that two things can be true at the same time,” she said.
I think many of us feel like that every day. As we move through the world, we see tragedy and injustice all around us, but in our daily lives, there is laughter, joy, and love. There’s also boredom, mundanity, and frustration over dumb shit. And that’s OK. We can’t be in a state of moral outrage 24/7. And if you need to protect yourself by tuning out the news, that’s OK, too.
It’s hard to write this newsletter and not feel like I’m just dishing up a bunch of useless platitudes. It’s so easy to feel weary, cynical, and hopeless right now. But that’s not how I want to live my life.
I feel some responsibility to Renee Nicole Good and Dr. Janell Green Smith to do my best to really live my life—to love my kid, to commit myself to work I believe in, to simply move through the world and appreciate that privilege. I am fucking lucky to be alive, and there is work to be done. We cannot let these mothers’ untimely and tragic deaths be in vain.
The actions you take in their memory don’t need to be huge. It can be as simple as saying hello to your neighbor, reaching out to a friend, and hugging your kid extra tight. I’ll be doing all these things, as well as donating 5% of The Purse’s January new paid subscription revenue to Every Mother Counts, a nonprofit organization that focuses on maternal health.
How are you managing all the terrible headlines? How do you plan to honor heroes like Renee Nicole Good and Dr. Janell Green Smith?
-Lindsey
Further Reading
- In New York, Andrea González-Ramírez examines “How Renee Nicole Good Became a Martyr.”
- “Taking Good’s life wasn’t enough. The moment she died, it became imperative for the administration to also destroy her memory,” writes The Atlantic’s Andrew Serwer.
- Minneapolis has been home to so much unrest in recent years. Good’s killing took place “barely a mile” from the spot George Floyd was murdered in 2020, and immigration enforcement was ratcheted up following claims of welfare fraud in the city’s Somali immigrant community.
- One of the many crazy-making things about this moment in time is the Trump administration’s seeming glee to punish cities and other blue-leaning areas of the country; why is our president treating half of the population like the enemy? As Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey writes for The New York Times, cities “are on the front lines of this dark hour in our national politics. But after we weather this moment—and we will weather it—it will be on us to light the way forward.”
- “She walked into her calling. So many of us go through life not knowing what our purpose is,” said Dr. Smith’s friend Frederica Bailey in an interview with NBC News.
- Does the media have a bad news bias? Vox’s Bryan Walsh is trying to push back with his weekly newsletter that’s filled with good news.
- Last year, Cosmo UK’s Jennifer Savin wrote about ways to cope with a difficult news cycle. All the advice still rings true.
- Here is a vetted GoFundMe to support the wife and son of Renee Nicole Good, and here is one for the husband and newborn of Dr. Janell Green Smith.
What Else We’re Talking About
- Like everyone else, I watched Heated Rivalry recently and have been diving deeper into the lore. I’m so happy for Rachel Reid, the author of the book series it’s based off of, but it was sad to learn of her recent Parkinson’s diagnosis. -Alicia
- As seen on Scary Mommy and CBS News, and recommended by people I actually trust (shout-out Claire Zulkey!), Faye gives you a dedicated Family Advisor who helps you follow through with your best intentions and actually clear your to-do list. It’s not a bot or another app you can ignore. You work with the same person every month, and they handle meal planning, calendar management, reimbursements, kid logistics, and more. Every Faye Advisor is local to the communities they serve and goes through a robust vetting process. Learn more on Faye’s website. #partner
- Does everyone have feelings about the Ashley French (née Tisdale) toxic mom group essay in The Cut? I love my friend Heather’s response on Instagram. -Lindsey
- Love this dive into retailer search terms from Lena Dunham in her newsletter, Good Thing Going. This part really spoke to me: “If they were women, The RealReal is your friend with a sleek middle part and an expensive espresso machine, Vestiaire did coke and can’t make it to brunch and Depop is so liberal she somehow came back around to being conservative. Whereas eBay is your intense, single aunt and Etsy is a tattooed nurse from Olympia, Washington.” -Alicia
- You know we love financial transparency, and Maria DeVoto’s newsletter, Ten Dollar Latte, delivers that in spades. We especially enjoyed this recent piece on five ways Maria plans to make her money work for her in 2026. Lots of good tips here! -Alicia and Lindsey
On Our Radar
- I’m so excited for our first event of 2026 this weekend!! Setting New Year’s goals gets a lot of pushback now, but I love doing it, and I’m excited to make my vision board. -Alicia
- Congrats to Erika Veurink on four years of Long Live! (I’ll spare everyone a long live pun!) -Lindsey
Stat of the Week
Best Money We Spent Last Week
- Last Friday I went to MoMA to see the Ruth Asawa exhibition with my friend Marina ($17), followed by lunch and drinks nearby ($40). It was a perfect New York day! -Alicia
- My mom and I drove out to Short Hills Mall in New Jersey last Sunday and had the best time shopping. I treated her to lunch at Legal Seafood ($50), which wasn’t the most gourmet meal for sure, but it was the perfect place to rest our feet in between browsing sales racks at Neiman’s, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale’s. (God, I love a good mall and a fancy department store! I’m trying not to stress too much about the Saks bankruptcy. Eep!) -Lindsey
