amanda hess

The 10 best well-being books of 2025 From step-by-step guidance on overcoming obstacles, to fresh and empowering methods for achieving your goals, these are 2025's best listens for well-being.

SECOND LIFE by @amandahess.bsky.social is named one of Audible's 10 best books on wellness of 2025! www.audible.com/blog/article...

thank you jamie!

The danger lurking in the “ambient expectations of motherhood” Exploring the intersection of maternal self-sacrifice, ableism-fueled fears, and blame-heavy messaging with author Amanda Hess

"How seductive it can be not only to explain something, but be able to blame someone." - @amandahess.bsky.social, author of SECOND LIFE, talks pregnancy, anxiety and expectations of parenthood: maternalstressproject.substack.com/p/the-danger...

Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age Having a Child in the Digital Age

I saved SECOND LIFE by @amandahess.bsky.social for vacation reading, and it is fully extraordinary. It’s not just for people who have kids — it’s for people (all of you reading this now) who live on the internet. Nobody writes about that weird intimacy like she does. bookshop.org/p/books/seco...

Second Life by Amanda Hess: 9780385549738 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books “Hess’s debut memoir bursts with humor and intelligence as it weaves the story of her own pregnancy....This unexpected page-turner is as vulnerable as it is sharp.” —Vulture As...

I’ve been a fan of @amandahess.bsky.social since the late 2000s and basically forced her to be friends with me and if her columns hadn’t already vindicated that choice her book sure did! I read it on the plane which does make crying easier but I was crying AND laughing the whole time

thank you!!

Second Life by @amandahess.bsky.social

I feel like every Gen Z and millennial woman should be required to read it

SECOND LIFE 51 mechanisms for spreading the news. They colluded with a doctor, sealed the sex report in an envelope, and arranged for the message to be delivered to a baker, a party outfitter, or a novelty arms dealer. At a party held to announce the findings, a knife sliced through a layer of frosting to reveal the fleshy gender inside. A pregnant woman beat a piñata until its gender spilled out. A father-to-be pulled the trigger and rained gender across the range.

"At a party held to announce the findings, a knife sliced through a layer of frosting to reveal the fleshy gender inside. A pregnant woman beat a piñata until its gender spilled out. A father-to-be pulled the trigger and rained gender across the range."

Amanda Hess' "Second Life" is so good.

this is tonight!

Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die July 21, 2025 AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip since its staff journalists left in 2024. Along with a few others, they are now the only ones left to report what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The international press has been banned from entering the territory for nearly two years. We refuse to watch them die. One of them, Bashar, has been working with AFP since 2010, first as a fixer, then freelance photographer, and since 2024, as lead photographer. On July 19th he managed to post a message on Facebook: “I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin and I can’t work anymore.” Bashar, 30, works & lives in the same conditions as all Gazans, moving from one refugee camp to another under Israeli bombings. For > a year he’s lived in utter destitution, working at extreme risk to his life. Hygiene is a major issue for him, with recurring bouts of severe intestinal illness. Since Feb, Bashar’s been living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City with his mother, 4 brothers & sisters and the family of one of his brothers. Their house is devoid of any furnishings, except a few cushions. On Sunday morning, he reported that one of his brothers had “fallen, due to hunger.” Even though these journalists receive a monthly salary from AFP, it’s no longer enough to buy food, or they have to pay completely exorbitant prices. The banking system has collapsed, and those who exchange money via online bank accounts charge a commission of up to 40%. AFP no longer has the ability to provide them with a vehicle and there is not enough fuel to allow these journalists to travel for their reporting. Driving a car means becoming a target for Israeli airstrikes. AFP reporters therefore travel on foot or by donkey cart. (alt txt continued in next post)

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"

Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

How tech is transforming parenthood (for better or worse) — Apple News In Conversation Apps, data, and influencers are changing what it means to become a parent.

How tech is transforming parenthood with @amandahess.bsky.social on Apple News in Conversation:
apple.news/AJqDYupu5SZS...

How Trump Killed Cancer Research Attempting to eliminate funding for certain kinds of “woke” studies, the Trump administration erased hundreds of millions of dollars being used for cancer research.

Attempting to eliminate funding for certain kinds of “woke” studies, the Trump administration erased hundreds of millions of dollars being used for cancer research. www.wired.com/story/how-tr...

Inside the Silicon Valley push to breed super-babies Investors say genetic prediction services for embryos, used by Elon Musk and others, are a trust fund for future children. Many scientists are skeptical.

dr. frankenstein dies at the end fyi www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

@amandahess.bsky.social joins @wnyc.org's On The Media to talk about her new book, SECOND LIFE, and the surreal collisions between parenthood and technology.

Listen now: www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

come talk about true life with us!

thank you!

It was a huge pleasure to interview @amandahess.bsky.social ‪ for @onthemedia.bsky.social about her book, Second Life. Her book is such a thoughtful and incisive look at how technology has infused so many parts of pregnancy and parenthood today. Take a listen!
www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

A pregnant woman with an inset image from a pregnancy app

⭐ NEW EP ⭐ Loved talking to the wonderful @amandahess.bsky.social abt her unexpected, eerie bond w/her fertility app during pregnancy 🎧 LISTEN: wp.me/p4bvGZ-3Hg

I Want to Burn This Place Down A debut essay collection by the inimitable cultural critic Maris Kreizman—an introspective, searing account of the life experiences that have pushed this fo...

Hello. After months and months of self-consciously self-promoting, the day has finally come. I WANT TO BURN THIS PLACE DOWN is available wherever books are sold. www.harpercollins.com/products/i-w...

Really enjoyed Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age by @amandahess.bsky.social.

The final chapter was like a mini-millennial-mom version of Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger.

thank you so much! i want my Razr back 😭

Since the early 2010s, social media has been identified with protesters. In the early days, social media was an effective tool for activists to organize and communicate with one another and directly with the public, providing counternarratives to the ones laid out in popular coverage.

A pro Andrew Cuomo, anti Zohran Mamdani mailer

Text listing the funders behind the mailer

NYC’s campaign finance laws make it so you can get this mailer … and it’s gotta say who paid for it.

!!! thank you for waiting 🙏

people need to stop writing good books for a few months!
my current rotation, all May pubs:
Empire of AI @karenhao.bsky.social
No Cop City, No Cop World @micahh.bsky.social @kamaufranklin.bsky.social
Second Life @amandahess.bsky.social
The AI Con @emilymbender.bsky.social @alexhanna.bsky.social

yes! you can get an ebook on Kindle or bookshop.org

Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age Having a Child in the Digital Age

Tech companies are powerfully influencing our relationships with our kids, starting before they’re even born. I wrote a book about the surveillance, commodification and eugenic thinking embedded in everything from period trackers to baby monitors, and you can buy it now bookshop.org/p/books/seco...

Hell of a photo

Private Equity Doesn’t Actually Want to Kill the American Dream Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company fails to deliver on its thesis that the business model only succeeds at the expense of portfolio companies.

Oh hell yes, they got a longtime private equity guy to review my book! He hated it! Do you want to be cool and preorder BAD COMPANY, or do you want to be like GARY??