I'm Adali Melon, and this is the slowdown.

In general, I'd rather not talk about money.

I'd even rather not think about money.

I'd rather not worry about how we need money to survive, how we have to work to earn money,

how money makes the proverbial world go round, and yet, and yet.

I think sometimes we have to talk about it in order to not be terrified of it.

More and more so, many of us are beginning to question what it is to balance making

a living and making a life.

I have friends now in their 40s and 50s reimagining careers and quitting jobs they thought they'd

have forever.

People used to sign up for one job until they retired, but now everyone in my life is deeply

considering what makes them not just happy but fulfilled, nourished, alive, really alive.

This conversation excites me because I think we are widening our imagination when it comes

to how we can earn an income without always sacrificing our souls, or how we can become

more than a cog in the wheel.

This moment feels somehow revolutionary.

The interrogation of capitalistic systems also leads to the conversation about how race

and class systems are interconnected in terms of systems of oppression.

As an artist, I've always wondered, worried, suffered agonizing panic attacks about

how I was going to make money, keep paying my rent, pay off my student loans, finally

free of those by the way, and still save some of myself to feel free enough to make art.

I remember thinking about this at a very young age.

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