Cruising for human rights
Alejandro Varela on The People Who Report More Stress
Ever wonder why you’re so stressed out, subscriber? Alejandro Varela has an answer — and the riotous short story collection to prove it.
I had the great pleasure of being on a panel with Alejandro back in 2023 at the Texas Book Festival: he was promoting The People Who Report More Stress and I was promoting Confidence, so naturally we were asked to talk about being gay and governed by capital. “What’s it like being homosexual under capitalism?” the audience wanted to know, and we told them that mostly it’s the same as it is for anyone else, except in June you’re expected to think of paying $13 for an electric blue cocktail with a little umbrella in it as a radical act1.
The panel was great fun, and I promptly snagged Alejandro’s book and binge-read it afterwards, which led to an enthusiastic invitation to join me on this podstack. Speaking of reporting more stress: life got hectic, so that podstack interview wouldn’t happen until a whopping two years later. In that time, our prolific Mr. Varela produced another book, a second novel to follow up his National Book Award finalist debut.
I hope you’ll enjoy this delightful and eye-opening conversation about The People Who Report More Stress. If you do, consider snagging a copy - and perhaps even pre-ordering Alejandro’s next, Middle Spoon!
It’s a frozen blueberry daiquiri called the bell hooks ;)
And Brad lol
Alejandro put my feelings into words… I can’t escape this anxious feeling that the capitalist regime is in a sense, out to get me or at least my friends and people I care about. The inequity I see around me breaks my heart and makes me so scared and upset. Why does it feel like we are we desperately fighting over artificial numbers in our bank accounts instead of making art, music, love, and friendship - things that are real and make us feel good?