brave enough 2024 wrap up 🌀

Thanks for an amazing year ✌️

brave enough is a newsletter about finding balance between technology, nature and modern life. Join the club ❤️‍🔥

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Hi everyone,

This week I’m sending ✨my last newsletter of 2024✨ which is a little different from usual.

I don’t know about you, but I feel ready for Christmas. I’m soooo excited to wind down, sleep in and spend some time away from my laptop.

Before I do that, I wanted to thank you.

When I started this Substack six months ago, my primary goal was getting over my fear of sharing my writing publicly. This fear shrouded my entire twenties in self-doubt and prevented me from pursuing many creative projects. This is actually the reason why I named my newsletter brave enough — it was time to break free from my inner critic.

I invested a lot of time and effort into this Substack over the past months and it has been an amazing journey of self-discovery and self-discipline. I still can’t believe that almost 2.5k people have subscribed. I didn’t have any pre-existing “following” that I moved over to this platform, so it was extremely encouraging to connect with so many of you so quickly. This is the bonus I never expected. I’ve even met new, wonderful people in real life through Berlin Substack Meet-Ups!

Thank you so much for reading 🩷

In the spirit of Christmas, I wanted to share a round up of my favourite things from 2024. I don’t know about you, but I feel like I am always bursting to spread the word about other artists, writers, musicians, recipes, etc that have made my life better in recent months.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday if you’re celebrating — and see you in 2025!

Caoilainn x

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❤️‍🔥 Recommendations

Books

Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados

An epic summer in New York City with Isa and Gala. I loved this book, it was like a very long episode of Gossip Girl with a little more depth. So funny and at moments tragically sad. It was one of my favourite reads of the year.

Human Kind by Rutger Bregman

I highly recommend this book if you need to restore your faith in humanity. I think we all need this right now!

Ultra Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

Mind-blowing and important, this book fundamentally changed how I eat forever. I even wrote a piece on Substack about it!

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

This was on my to-read list for so long. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the epidemic of teen mental illness and just how much devices are damaging childhoods.

Topographia Hibernica by Blindboy Boatclub

A blistering exploration of Irish culture through some truly wacky, hilarious and at times disturbingly violent short stories. I would be very curious to know how much someone who didn’t grow up in Ireland could understand this book. The audiobook is incredible — not just because of Blindboy’s Hiberno-English narration, but also the immersive music and sound effects. I found myself laughing out loud more than once.

Substacks

Some Substacks I have been loving this year. I highly recommend subscribing :)

Music

Yaeger is one of my favourite musical discoveries of the last few months. The Swedish singer describes her work as “emo rave pop” — I don’t need anything more than that to sign up.

Ethel Cain’s new album Perverts is coming out in 2025 and the first single, Punish, is stunning. So many of her songs are in the 6-9 minute range and have such a deliciously slow burn. I saw her live in Berlin about this time last year and it was the best concert I have ever been to. Her voice and persona are just incredible. I love leaving a concert with a newfound appreciation for a song that you didn’t listen to very often before the gig. This happened to me with Sun Bleached Flies — her performance moved me to tears.

Speaking of new albums, IDER’s Late to the World is coming in February 2025 and the first batch of songs have been so impressive. I listened to IDER so much during the pandemic and what I always appreciated about them is how feminist and introspective their lyrics are without giving the feeling that they are trying too hard. I can’t believe they only have ~250k monthly listeners on Spotify.

I am still fascinated by the French artist Oklou — a classically trained piano and cello player, she started releasing her strange, futuristic pop music a few years ago. She’s also got a new album cooking.

ML Buch is a Danish musician who has been in my radar for quite a while, but I only started listening to her more heavily this autumn. She has such a unique sound — like listening to Enya and Nirvana at the same time. Her vocals give me goosebumps!

Middle Kids were a great discovery in the past months. So many of their songs are so sweet, catchy and fun. I have yet to listen more extensively to their discography but I’ve been enjoying their latest album loads!

Zheani’s new track Sex Never Dies has also been on repeat for several weeks. She’s definitely a Marmite artist — you will either love her or hate her. For me, her music has the same atmospheric, raw sludgeiness as Korn.

Special mention to the BRAT remix album, which I’m sure needs zero introduction. Charli really pushed the boat out with this one. I’ve been listening non-stop!

+ compressing all of my techno reccs together 😈

IMO French DJ Abr. is making some of the best techno right now:

Anetha is one of my favourite DJs, and I also love Randomer, so I was delighted to find this in my discover weekly!

Shazammed this banger just in the nick of time in the CrossFit changing room:

A great one for the gym or a run:

Love how emo all of MRD’s stuff sounds:

Amazing to play driving in the car at night:

Film and TV

Dinner in America

We randomly landed on this movie when scrolling for something to watch one night, having never heard anything about it before. I realised why when I saw that it was released in 2020 (unfortunate timing). The film is like an explosion — so much energy! It catapulted me right back to my teenage hedonism while also delivering an extremely sweet love story. I was delighted to read that despite the film’s initial lack of impact, it’s now being released in theatres years later (which is pretty much unheard of) after developing a cult following online.

Anora

Ever since Anora won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year I couldn’t wait to see it in cinema. It didn’t disappoint — electric from start to finish! The performances were so raw and real, especially Mikey Madison. It was also much, much funnier than the trailer let on. Loved it!

Bottoms

The funniest film I saw in 2024. Super unpopular PJ and Josie start a high school fight club in order to impress girls and lose their virginity. Think lesbian fight club with the humour of Book Smart. I can’t wait to rewatch this!

All of Us Strangers

This is one of the most desperately sad films I have ever seen. A film about identity, loneliness and loss, it really stayed with me for several weeks after seeing it in the cinema.

DISCLAIMER*

Cate Blanchett’s ability to play complicated women is unmatched. She blew me away in TÁR and she was just as amazing in this mini-series. Pacing-wise, it unfolded really nicely which is what you want from a psychological thriller. The unique narration used throughout each episode was an excellent stylistic choice and one of my favourite parts of the whole thing! Also, I am obsessed with her kitchen in the show — I literally paused it to take pictures for my mood board.

Rien à Foutre

This French film follows Cassandre, a 26-year-old flight attendant who is working for a European budget airline. If you’ve ever flown Ryanair, some of the scenes in this film will be quite visceral. I loved the directorial decision to film inside a real plane, which added to the suffocating atmosphere. It was a powerful exploration of capitalism and running from your own grief. Adèle Exarchopoulos was amazing in the lead, of course.

Food

Those who know me well know that I love cooking, eating out, dinner parties and honestly just talking about food.

Here are some of my favourite recipes and flavours at the moment:

Salantourmasi

A traditional Greek recipe of onions stuffed with rice and beef — honestly, what’s not to like? The fresh mint is phenomenal and really elevates everything. It’s a fun dish to make at home with your partner or some friends. Recipe here.

Sourdough Naan

Making my own naan bread was one of those life-altering culinary moments when you realise you will never buy it in the shop ever again. We couldn’t stop eating it. Recipe here.

Homemade Schwarma

As Amber says in the recipe video — tastes incredible, yet feels so healthy. I can confirm. I went all out this with and served it with homemade sourdough pita, hummus and veggies. Also, arranging the whole thing together on the vertical skewer is really satisfying. Recipe here.

Dubai Chocolate Ice Cream

I actually had no idea what Dubai chocolate was when I first saw this flavour in Hokey Pokey Berlin, though apparently it’s having a bit of a moment right now. Public service announcement — this was THE BEST ice cream I have ever had in my life. Yes, that is a bold claim. I had it again a week later to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t. 11/10.

Pumpkin spice muffins

I used up my Halloween pumpkin decorations to make these zero waste pumpkin spice muffins. The recipe is from Aimee France, one of my chef crushes, and it never lets me down. Best of all, these muffins are actually spicy — turmeric, fresh ginger, fennel, black pepper, star anise, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon — it’s all in there. Recipe here.

Flavour combo: chocolate and cassis

I had a melty chocolate pudding for dessert at Muschelbar in Prenzlauer Berg and loved that they paired it with cassis (aka blackcurrant) coulis. These two flavours go amazingly well together!

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One of my favourite graffitis in Berlin! Know where it is? ;)

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I’m keen to hear from you — what books, films, recipes, podcasts or Substacks did you love over the past months that you’d want to share?

Thanks, as always, for being here 💖