Pocket Observation Volume 2

Waste Not, Want Not

In this Pocket Observation, I'm sharing four pocket studies about trash cans, power that sorts us apart and the weakness that discards nothing.

By the end, I’ll have used trash cans to consider the American pronatalist movement, a threat to reproductive rights, the origins of consumer culture, and meaning-making from scraps.

I’ve kept each pocket study short enough to fit in a little pocket of time. Each will include digital ephemera and prompts for your own pocket studies.

In this space, you can keep a digital pocket observation log, access past Pocket Observations, additional audio notes, video, art downloads, and recommended resources. (It’s all free. If that wasn’t clear yet!)

Hi,
I'm Meg Conley.

I am a researcher, writer, and caretaker. I create Pocket Observatory, a not-for-profit attention reclamation project.

My work appears in places like Harper's Bazaar, The Guardian, BBC and NPR. 

Other places to find my work:

Publications like Harper's Bazaar, Columbia Journalism Review, The Gloss and Slate. 

Podcasts like BBC Radio 4 The Coming Storm, Vox's Today, Explained, NPR's It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders and documentaries like The Rise and Fall of LulaRoe.

Books like Jessica Grose's Screaming on the Inside: The Unsustainability of American Motherhood, Kay Kelleher's The Ugly History of Beautiful Things, and Pooja Lakshmin's Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included.)
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