Here’s what’s making us happy this week.

Summer isn’t over—in fact, we rue the hater who throws in the beach towel before Labor Day. But there is a definite wind down spirit to late August. Afternoon storms gather steam on a dime, scuttling picnic plans. In New York, people begin to trickle back from their vacations. We’re all a little tired. Bracing for back to school.

So no better time, in this staffer’s opinion, to revive our weekly gratitude round-up! This Friday, we offer you some of the people, places, and things that are keeping this fragile ship afloat through the late summer slowdive.

The author and activist Arundhati Roy has been lighting my grey afternoons. And I’m not the only one fanning out—in Current Affairs, the writer Sharmistha Jha recently published a praise note to Roy’s morally courageous canon. That piece led me to revisit her debut, The God of Small Things. Which is, happily, just as terrific as I remembered.

My own week was further Roy-pilled by a recent dispatch from Delhi, where the Booker-winning author is currently chronicling the student-led Cockroach Janta protests against the Modi government. Roy’s report on the growing movement made for a galvanizing read in last week’s Equator.

“The young have given us a gift,” she said of the protestors. “It is up to us all, every one of us to make what they have done matter.” At a moment when I find myself looking up to artists who truly practice their politics, this gauntlet hit like a gift.

On the steamier (but still thrilling!) front, Jane Schoenbrun’s thoughtful slasher Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma made for a perfect night out.

Just like their previous films—and, eek, their fiction!—this joint is smart, surreal, inimitable, and oh-so-lushly imagined. As fun to talk about after as it is to watch. I won’t spoil the real fun, but you should know that the movie includes the year’s best needle drop. An unhinged bit of seasonal spice.

And last, here’s something you might lend your ears to. Sophie Vershbow and Rudi Greenberg are the bright-eyed (eared?) hosts of It Was a Book First, a new podcast contrasting film adaptations and their literary source material.

A recent episode on the new indie film Late Fame—which was adapted from an Arthur Schnitzler short—made for perky dish-washing company. And the hosts are self-proclaimed cine and biblio-philes respectively, so there’s some fun friction when it comes to discussing each medium’s strengths.

Alright, friends. Wishing you a weekend full of inspiration, eye candy, and good company. We’re grateful for you!