Capsule #109 ft. Dayna McAlpine

Hello and happy Friday to you 🫶

It’s peak “everyone’s on holiday except me” time and, on that note, this week’s newsletter is all about ambition and how our views on it might be shifting over time. Would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts!

As ever, scroll for your weekend recs, a great Hot & Not from Dayna McAlpine, and other news from the Capsule universe this week.

Holly x

Every year around this time, we talk about our desire to do things the “European way,” yearning to take August off to recline on a beach with an Aperol. And it makes sense: it’s hot, we’ve still got the muscle memory from childhood when summer was a time for a real break, and of course, our feeds are full of photo dumps from trips to Puglia, Marseille, and Mallorca. (Speaking of, Dua now has enough beautiful vacation photos that she should publish a Rizzoli coffee table book).

These feelings are mostly seasonal, part of the ebb and flow of life. But I have been tracking sentiment around work ethic and ambition since the start of the year, and what I see emerging is a real desire to slow down and do less. 

A few months ago, lots of the videos that surfaced on my feeds shared the refrain “the more I heal, the less ambitious I become.” The phrase originates in a Substack by Nadia Meli, a London-based photographer and writer. Her letter is about her dwindling interest in ambition, something she now sees as an inherently selfish endeavour that pulls her away from the things that truly nourish her.

For Meli, an eldest daughter of immigrant parents, ambition became something that rotted away the parts of her and of life that she genuinely loves. She goes on to say that she still has dreams, but will not strive to get there with pure ambition. Instead, she’ll lean on audacity, courage, and moving at her own pace. I think many of us are also trying to find some kind of happy medium, where we can have goals and a great career without sacrificing fulfilment elsewhere. But the prevalence of that original refrain, “the more I heal the less ambitious I become,” shows the message is clearly resonating. 

Jordan Stephens uses it on Nature Talks, explaining his readjusted approach to work. Author and creator Tamu Thomas also made a video with the same phrase, arguing that as you heal, you become more discerning, and recognise that what you might have seen as ambition was actually a coping mechanism for anxiety. I know a lot of people for whom throwing themselves at work is a convenient way to block out the other stuff. 

And it’s not just regular people shifting their views on ambition. In her NYLON cover story in April, Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast talked about being a recovering workaholic after throwing everything into her career after the death of her mother. Overworking came at the expense of her relationships: “I missed weddings and saying goodbye to friends who passed away while I was on the road.” She ended up asking her band for a year off so she that could spend time in Korea, learning the language, cooking, and connecting with her heritage. You won’t be surprised to hear that the time away was vital not only for rest and healing, but for making space for creativity to incubate and give birth to fresh ideas.

Miley Cyrus is another musician reimagining what her working life looks like when wellbeing is at the core.

Miley has been open about her reluctance to tour again, highlighting the lack of support for artists’ health and wellbeing while on the road for extended periods. To fill the gap, her latest album rollout featured pop up, intimate shows in LA, New York, London, and Paris, but no gruelling back-to-back schedule. 

And another example worth looking at is Lorde’s feature for Perfectly Imperfect, where she talks about her desire to leave opportunities on the table: 

“Let something of value pass you by this week” really resonates. We are programmed to grab onto every possible opportunity with the promise of later success (or at least some ego inflation), to the extent that not doing so feels immoral. We are plagued with “I shoulds” even when it gives us an uneasy feeling inside. But as Lorde points out, there is something honourable about striving for quality, to build a career and a life that is not shooting for total world domination, but rather creating structure to support all the things that matter to you.

Each of these vignettes on ambition leads us to the same place, which is the realisation that relentless ambition leaves us feeling empty, disconnected, and ultimately a bit resentful. I often think about Harris Dickinson saying that the best job he ever had before acting was as a bin man, where he loved people-watching, and gained a deep respect for people in the service industry. Of course it’s easy to say that once you’re a successful actor, but the sentiment is one you hear often from the celebrities who seem quite sane. More is not always more.

Some people might wonder what is left to drive us without ambition. The obvious answer is care and community, which is often the new focus for people reframing their view on success. There’s a lot of fulfilment to be found there, but I also want to share something a bit smaller to which I always return, especially when I’m wondering “how to live a good life.”

When I left university, I exchanged a few emails with a tutor I really valued. I asked for advice on Master’s courses and The Future at large. Likely sensing my frantic tone, he came back with practical guidance, plus some advice I still think about on a regular basis:

It’s so simple, but merely taking an interest in things and making time for art, whether that’s novels or films or music, opens you up to the world and to other people in a way that nothing else really can. If you’re going through a period where work feels heavy, or like you’ve lost your drive or direction, maybe the next best step is not in more work but in a book or an album. Carving out that space should give something back to you.

(Speaking of, the Capsule late-summer reading list is here).

And finally…

News from the Capsule universe this week:

• Taylor Swift announced her new album, The Life of a Showgirl. But it’s not the first showgirl we’ve seen in the past few years — take a look:

• Zillennial nostalgia summer continues with Demi Lovato performing Camp Rock songs with the Jonas Brothers

• Also it looks like Charli is cool with the Demi brat era

• The next step in this lovely Pamela Anderson evolution: selling home-grown pickles

• Have you noticed this trend???

• Sex is back en vogue, and brands are using OnlyFans to market their products

• Really really struggling with this photoshoot. Based on these, we can call Lana Del Rey’s husband a trendsetter

• Speaking of Lana… she’s beefing with Ethel Cain

• SZA is the new artistic director of Vans

• Solange shared another set of gorgeous portraits

• And two wild ocean pics: Jenna Ortega in a full leather trench coat at the beach, and these completely insane photos of Dua Lipa doing yoga on a paddle board in Ibiza. Can you imagine x

This week, Dayna McAlpine popped into Capsule to share what’s 🔥hot🔥 and what’s not 🙅‍♀️ …

Dayna is the deputy editor of HuffPost UK, a freelance writer and speaker and is currently writing her first book. You'll find her writing and talking about sex (allegedly for work), interviewing celebs or shouting about working class rights.

📺 Watching: Materialists in the cinema, this Keelin Moncrieff vlog on her decision to emigrate (to the south of France!), and this sweet video of Jennifer Aniston rewatching Friends and Along Came Polly.

📖 Reading: This incredible breakdown of Dr Orna’s looks from Couples therapy (note: this isn’t the piece from The Cut, it’s a Substack with all the actual links to her clothes by art and design consultant, Talia Mayden), and this lovely essay from former Capsule Hot & Not guest Emily Ash Powell, on running to the sea after a breakup.

🎧 Listening to: Lots of new releases: Baby, the new Dijon album, Black Star, the new Amaarae album, and Who’s the Clown?, the debut Audrey Hobert album. Audrey is besties with Gracie Abrams and co-wrote a lot of the songs on The Secret Of Us. Her debut opens slightly off-kilter, but stick with it. 'Wet Hair' and 'Bowling Alley' are two of those fizzy pop songs that are hard not to fall for.

This week Red is delivering intel from Style Analytics for you to observe out in the wild: ponchos are the quiet climber of summer 2025. Searches for ponchos on Pinterest is up 733% in the USA and 142% in the UK when compared to August of last year, aligning with the Chloé-perpetuated boho revival that has been happening since their FW24 show. Style Analytics predicts that the lightweight summer versions (sheer, lace, crochet) will be replaced by cape coats and knitted versions once winter hits.

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See you next week 💋

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