I hope everyone is having a great January. Admittedly, I am not: I was stuck on an Amtrak train with my toddler for 36 hours and finally got home only to find that our son’s daycare was shut down for two weeks because of a Covid exposure. Today is the first “normal” day (and first workday) I’ve had in 2022, and our first day of daycare since December 22.

That being said, I am actually excited about this year. I have some extremely exciting stuff on the horizon for the first half of the year that I can’t wait to tell you about. I’ll be able to share more about this secret project over the next couple of months, so keep an eye out!

Science communication, TikTok style

I’ve really been enjoying getting into video space and science communication on TikTok, and now I’m adding YouTube into the mix as well. My hope is that I’ll be able to monetize these videos and am in this for the long term, as a part of my career. If you’re on either platform I’d appreciate a follow and likes if you can spare them! It’s very weird to do this kind of self-promo and ask for people to follow me, but it’s necessary so I am sorry for the awkwardness.

I’ve recently covered topics such as why it’s going to take five months to get science data back from JWST, what Hubble’s raw images really look like, our leaky supermassive black hole, and that our sun may have had rings. If you have any ideas or questions for future videos, please feel free to ping me.

Don’t worry, I still write on the internet!

Over at Wired, I wrote a column reflecting on my year in gaming, focusing on how video games have become so beneficial to my mental health, yet only the privileged really have access to them. I also talked about how the game Cozy Grove on my Nintendo Switch helped me through my train ordeal.

I’m also back to recapping Star Trek: Prodigy on StarTrek.com! The show has had some amazing twists these past couple of weeks — if you’re a *Voyager* fan and you aren’t watching the show, you need to start.

And at New Scientist, I wrote a film and TV preview about the sci-fi I’m looking forward to this year.

What I recommend

I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed the first three episodes of The Peacemaker on HBO (but do NOT watch this with your kids around). I finished Holly Black’s The Folk of the Air trilogy and it’s fantastic — I see why everyone loves it. In audio, I just read The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White, and I absolutely loved the way she put her on spin on Arthurian legend. I’m currently playing Guardians of the Galaxy and it’s incredibly good — I’ll be writing a Wired column about it next week.

Keep up with me on Twitter (@skrishna), Instagram (@skrishna), TikTok (@swapna_krishna), and YouTube (Swapna Krishna). Thanks for reading!