A podcast about loneliness? It’s more comforting than it sounds. Writer and creator Julia Bainbridge’s meditations and interviews on what it means to be alone in the world today are a soothing balm against the various forms of isolation we all experience—through travel and technology, work, and romance (or lack thereof.) A good episode to start with: Kat Turner, a private chef to A-list celebrities, shares an intimate audio diary of a life abroad in someone else’s world.

We tend to err on the side of tropical escapism when it comes to our mid-winter Instagram follows, but photographer and visual effects artist Jaume Creus’ richly-lit feed paints an appropriately moody picture of Vancouver’s (more often than not) rain-slicked city streets.

During his presidency, Barack Obama granted clemency to 1,715 inmates, most of whom were serving inhumanely long sentences for non-violent drug offenses. What happened next? Well, thanks to Nation of Second Chances, those stories are now being told, one life at a time.