More in 2024

  Welcome to Tangible Remnants.  I'm Nakita Reed, and this is my show where I explore the interconnectedness of architecture, preservation, sustainability, race, and gender. I'm excited that you're here. So let's get into it. 

Welcome back and happy 2024. I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that it's January again, because 2023 flew by for me and was a year of growth sadness, and frustrations, but also so much joy.  I typically like to spend the week between Christmas and New Year's reflecting on the previous year and coming up with some of my favorite things.

So to kick off the first podcast episode of the year, I wanted to share some podcast highlights from 2023. As well as some of my favorite books, shows, and things from the year. I mean, Oprah isn't the only one who can have a favorite things list, right?  So in addition to hearing about my favorite things in the show, I'll also put some links in the show notes for you. 

After that, I'll get into some 2024 updates and things I'm looking forward to, so you can join me in the excitement about what's to come.  Also, if you haven't already, you should definitely sign up for the Tangible Remnants newsletter, so you can get access to the various resources and goodies that will be coming out this year.

You can find access to the newsletter on Instagram or LinkedIn at tangible remnants and click the link in the bio or the profile to get access to the linked tree, which is a one-stop shop for all things tangible remnants.  All right. So in addition to the various awesome people I got to interview in 2023, some of my podcast highlights include getting to interview John William Templeton on the expo floor at the American Institute of Architects convention. 

He's since started his own podcast. So check him out at the Promise Land podcast.  Another highlight for me this year was meeting so many of you at various conferences. So whether or not we met at Greenbuild or NOMA or the National Trust for Historic Preservation or any of the various universities where I spoke this year, thank you for saying hello. 

It's always a joy to meet people who are listening to the podcast to know that I'm not just speaking into the void. And so I hope that if you'll be at any of the events that you'll see me at in 2024, I hope you'll continue to say hello. Some of the non-podcast highlights include that my firm, Quinn Evans, won the American Institute of Architects Firm of the Year for 2024.

The entire team is super excited about it, and you should prepare yourself for the year of Quinn Evans. I mean, we are usually a low-key humble bunch, but this year we got to show off and show out. So if you'll be in DC at the AIA conference in June, please say hello to me or any of the other Quinn Evans team members. 

And also a reminder, it's likely that the AIA conference will likely do free expo hall passes again this year. So check the registration site for more information. If you'd like to be able to get to the expo floor without paying the full conference price.  Another non-podcast highlight for me that I didn't get to experience personally, but I was able to live vicariously through the various posts and updates I was able to see from colleagues and friends who got to attend the COP 28 meeting this year.

And it looked like this year for the first time, it seemed like existing buildings were seriously discussed as part of the climate action discussion. I'm really hopeful that the impact of COP 28 will get more people excited, inspired, as well as encouraged to take action about our current climate crisis. 

Well, those are the highlights. So let me get into some of my favorite things. So here are my top six favorite things of 2023.  The first two are around organization and planning. And so this is for any students or any other organizational nerds out there like me. So the first one is this amazing software called plan.co.

And it's totally revamped how I stay organized. It's kind of like if Google Calendar and Asana had a baby software. And it is amazing because it's a free task management software that actually allows me to do time blocking in a way that is not redundant. I used to have my task list in one thing, and then whenever I would try to do time blocking, I'd have to retype all those tasks onto a calendar.

With plan. co, you're able to just drag your task from your task list directly onto your calendar and be able to schedule things how you want. I love the software so much that I'm using it to track all aspects of my life. So from the various non-profits I'm on, to the Quinn Evans work that I have to do, to the podcast, even personal things.

Everything lives in plan and gets scheduled on the various calendars. Um, it's what I've started using on my day-to-day. Oh, and did I mention that it's free? Cause it is just such a great tool and it feels like the best-kept secret in the sea of task management software. So definitely check that out and I'll put a link in the show notes. 

On to number two, my next favorite thing is something that I use every year, but it's still a favorite that I want to highlight. And it is Leonie Dawson's, my brilliant business and life planner.  I swear there's magic in these planners. I've been downloading the revised annual copy every year for the past seven years or so.

And I'm always surprised at how it makes me think more creatively and dream bigger about my year ahead. It's super colorful, which at first I didn't really love, but the more that I work through the book, the more the colorful images really does inspire me and get my creative juices flowing.  On to number three.

So one of my favorite books that I read this year is called The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson.  And this book was so engaging and really delved into personal stories. of people who lived through the Jim Crow South and became part of the Great Migration. I learned so much reading this book and found a new level of empathy for those who lived decades before me.

I really think that many of us who are a few generations removed from that era don't realize how truly terrifying it was to be a Black person in the South at that time, and even just delving more into the different social rules that existed at that time. It really does provide a framework and a vantage point to show how much things have changed and also highlight some of how things have stayed the same. 

Also, what's super exciting is that there's a movie called Origin coming out later this month, January 2024, and it's based on Isabel Wilkerson and her writing, her other bestseller cast, The Origins of Our Discontents.  I am super excited to see this movie, and I highly encourage you all to check it out as well. 

On to number four. My next favorite from 2023 was a book called This Naked Mind by Annie Grace. This book in particular helped me have a better understanding of alcohol and has fundamentally reshaped how I consume it. I highly recommend this, uh, particularly for my binge drinking student listeners, is to read it just so you can make more informed decisions around alcohol consumption.

And one of the things that I was reminded of while reading this book was that being blackout drunk is not the same as being passed out. So stay safe out there.  Moving on to number five. One of my favorite TV shows from 2023 was the Gilded Age season two. I binge-watched the season and loved it. And for those of you who aren't familiar, this is a show that streams on Max and is a historical fiction centered on the development of New York in the 1880s.

And one of the things that I loved about season two was that it really gets into the haves and the have-nots as well as the opera wars between the Academy of Music and the creation of the Metropolitan in New York. One of the other things which was super fun for me to watch during the season was to see how they portrayed the excitement of New Yorkers as the Brooklyn Bridge was being finished and opened and highlighting who the real designers were of the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as them taking a look at what was happening in Alabama at Tuskegee.

And the way that the two worlds between black folks and white folks were colliding. It's fascinating to also think through that time period being just after Reconstruction. And so this show also highlights different social rules and constructs from another point in time in American history. So this was a super fun show for me as well. 

And rounding out my favorite list at number six. Is Star Trek Strange New Worlds.  This is such a fun reimagining of how the original Star Trek crew began. So we're talking Captain Kirk, Spock, Aurora.  I loved the entire reimagining of this. I grew up watching Star Trek with my stepdad, but I didn't start enjoying Star Trek until I was a little bit older.

There's just something about a future where all different races and species are working together for peace and justice that just lights me up.  So there you have it. Those are my top six favorite things from 2023.  So moving into 2024, the podcast is going to highlight more actual tangible remnants, you know, buildings that help tell the story of people who came before us.

And it's going to share more of these stories of the individual buildings. And then I'll also be diving deeper into more tactical information on how to work with existing and historic buildings. I know there are a number of members from nonprofits and developers who listen to the podcast who are curious about the various processes and incentives to be able to reuse the tangible remnants that they may have in their possession.

And so that's what the podcast will be getting a little more into this year as well.  But don't worry, I'll still be highlighting interesting professionals who are currently working somewhere in the intersection of architecture, preservation, sustainability, race, and gender, because I still want to keep exploring those interconnections and broadening the ways that we're thinking about the built environment. 

This year, I'll also be doing some additional speaking engagements and attending career fairs. So I'll be in Alabama in February for Tuskegee's career fair, and I'll be in Rochester, New York in April to speak at the statewide preservation conference. And then of course, I'll be in DC in June for the AIA conference, and I'm also speaking on a panel there. 

Well, that's a wrap for this episode. I am so excited to share snippets of the year of Quinn Evans with you as they come available. And I hope that 2024 brings you more of the good things that you are wishing and working for. And that this year ends up being so much better than the last.  so much for listening.

Links to amazing resources can be found in the episode's show notes. Special thanks to Sarah Gilberg for allowing me to use snippets of her song Fireflies from her debut album, Other People's Secrets, which by the way is available wherever music is sold.  If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the show. 

And now that Tangible Remnants is part of the Gable Media Network, you can listen and subscribe. To all network partner content at gablemedia. com that's g a b l media. com  until next time. Remember that historic preservation is a present conversation with our past about our future. We don't inherit the earth from our parents, but we borrow it from our children.

So let's make sure we're telling our inclusive history.  I saw the first Firely sun  and right then  I thought of you.  Oh, I could see us catching them and setting them free.  Honey, that's what you do. 

That's what you do to me.