My Splendid Isolation: The Edge –  'I’m using this time to take stock of what’s important'

What I’m watching

The news, obvs. But trying to avoid obsessing, which I find is quite panic-inducing. For entertainment I’m catching up on TV series I missed while U2 were touring, which has been pretty constant over the past five years. So Homeland, Babylon Berlin, The Americans and anything by Prof Brian Cox. Favourite 2019-20 movies that didn’t get Oscars: The Lighthouse and The Painted Bird.

What I’m listening to

I am jumping between favourite new stuff such as Lizzo: Juice (what a guitar riff!); Still Woozy: Goodie Bag; Jacknife Lee: Made it Weird (there’s a great remix on its way from Muttee); Noel Gallagher: Come on Outside; Confidence Man: Boyfriend; Coldplay: Champion of the World; Inhaler: We Have to Move On. The debut album by Irish duo St Francis Hotel, We Fall Together, is expansive and ambitious, but wears its heart on its sleeve. It’s a great album for these times. And it’s not my thing but I do like Arthur Russell: That’s Us/Wild Combination. Then a lot of classic stuff including loads of old gospel, Shirley Caesar: I’m Getting Ready or Teach Me Master, and plenty of Van Morrison.

What I’m reading

The Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan’s monumental new history of the world. Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics is a fascinating look at future economic policy. I just finished David J C MacKay’s seminal book, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air (OK, I may have skimmed it just a bit). Also a great manuscript for a forthcoming book by Roman Krznaric, The Good Ancestor, which exposes the negative impact of short-term thinking by Western governments.

The hobby I’ve taken up

Yard work is very therapeutic. My wife Morleigh and I spent yesterday sweeping and clearing, and it occurred to me what a genius invention the yard brush is. Zero carbon emissions. No built-in obsolescence. Fully biodegradable. No software updates. No cookies or data protection issues. Also sweeping sounds amazing.

The thing that made me laugh this week

The TV series Schitt’s Creek is a good laugh. Also any Tommy Tiernan YouTube clips. And I laughed reading about how Zoom technologies was one of the only firms to have rocketed up in value on the NY stock market, with investors piling into the video conferencing company in the wake of the pandemic. Except it was the wrong Zoom. They sent a small mobile phone company’s stock soaring. Of course, the real Zoom, ZM Video Communications, is also doing amazingly well.