Curious About Everything: a newsletter by Jodi Ettenberg

Hello!

I’m Jodi. In 2008, I quit my job as a lawyer to travel for a year. That year turned into many more, and the blog I started to document my travels evolved with my travels. I named it Legal Nomads (temporarily nomadic lawyer lawyer and all that), and over time it turned into an award-winning travel and food site that organically supported my unconventional life.

What started as a personal journal became a foundation for freelance writing, public speaking, a book about food, gluten free translation cards for fellow celiacs, hand-drawn maps of food, and more. I wanted Legal Nomads to be an in-depth resource and motivation for travelers explore the world meaningfully, through long form storytelling and photography.

In 2017, a lumbar puncture derailed my life and left me disabled with a chronic spinal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak. I have been unable to write as I used to, nor travel or live with full independence. Because it’s a personal site, Legal Nomads morphed with my own life changes, and after a redesign it now houses my former travels, but also documents a journey with loss and identity change. I’ve also built a second site to share my writing about chronic pain, meditation, and living with a spinal CSF leak.

Writing long form is now physically difficult for me, since my upright time is limited.

What’s this newsletter about?

I started The Curious About Everything Newsletter as a successor to a prior missive, Links I Loved. I read a lot, and have always sent out recommendations that I hoped others would enjoy reading, too. While my life changed dramatically, I’m still reading a lot, and this newsletter allows me to spotlight whatever I’m curious about via the best things I read in the prior month.

I share life or work updates at the beginning of each CAE, but the bulk of the newsletter is the curation part.

How often do you send Curious About Everything?

I send it out once every month.

Is Curious About Everything free?

Yes, it is free! I hope to keep CAE free, with my Patreon supporting me by providing a consistent income. If I do need to turn on paid subscriptions, I plan to do so as ‘support only’, since I don’t have enough brain juice to send out more newsletters each month with a spinal CSF leak.

Why are you starting a new newsletter?

Email is still one of the best ways to maintain a connection with my community of readers around the world. During the course of these tough last few years, readers have continuously written asking if I’ll keep sending newsletters as a means to update them about what is going on.

Social media is so fast and furious. Newsletters allow people to digest tidbits — but at their own pace.

(Newsletters also take less overhead than a blog in terms of my pain levels, and are an easier way to stay in touch monthly even if I’m not outputting longer-form writing or audio.)

How can we support you?

The best way to support me is by sharing CAE with people you know, and if you have the means, by joining me on my monthly membership site, so that I can continue keeping CAE free. I share video AMAs, meditation techniques, ways to sleep better and stay grounded, and longer life updates.

Thank you for subscribing!

If you have any questions, please send an email to jodi[at]legalnomads.com or reach out to @legalnomads on Twitter or Instagram.

-Jodi

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Personal updates, occasional rants, & the best monthly writing from around the web.

People

Former food & travel writer, now disabled. Always learning, always curious. Writing about how to find your way through life's big changes, both here and on Legal Nomads.