Please welcome Celeste Hamilton to the Two Hands blog. She’s a dear friend of ours from Peace Corps Guyana who now spends her time working for Idealist.org. Celeste will be contributing pieces to the blog from time to time and we’re very excited about that. Today she introduces us to GOOD magazine. Enjoy!

Alas, a magazine has come along that gives those that are tired of looking at highly airbrushed cleavage and beautiful faces something else (okay, maybe something in addition) to ponder over. Sandwiched in between the throngs of magazines that clutter racks everywhere from your local convenience store to the huge bookstore chain at the mall, if you’re lucky to find it, is a magazine called GOOD.

When I first heard of GOOD, I was intrigued. Was this a publication filled with instructions on how to decorate peanuts with googly eyes and sappy stories that catered to the church crowd? An extension of Gallant, of Goofus and Gallant fame, from the children’s magazine Highlights? Or a snarky, ironic take on society?

Turns out, it’s neither of those things. The first issue I saw had humorist John Hodgman from the Daily Show on it’s cover. Points. I opened it and read a lively article about couchsurfing.com, a site that connects thrifty travelers to a stranger’s couch, and a surprisingly engaging piece on a seed preservation vault in Norway. Did I capture your interest yet? Because GOOD immediately got me. Good. I’m hooked.

If you go to their website, www.goodmagazine.com, you’ll find back articles and illustrations on just about anything that interests you all in the range of sustainable living. There’s advice on how to turn your old vinyl records into dishes and where to recycle your out of date laptop. Musings on the demise of the farm and why we should care. A piece about a drive-in movie theatre at Kakuma, the Sudanese refugee camp where the protagonist of Dave Egger’s What is the What lived for nearly a decade. Inspiration from clowns who are sharing their funny with the developing world. Why an afternoon nap can save your life. A list of the top Green Buildings of 2007. Urban planning cues from the naked-streets movement in the Netherlands. Etc., etc., etc…

More than finally a publication about well, all things good, this is a magazine that frees activists and do-gooders from the socially awkward, uncool stereotype. We listen to Spankrock AND advocate for alternative fuel sources. We’re passionate about fair trade AND have a crush on Zak Galifinakis. We’re in love with all things organic AND This American Life. This magazine finally puts it out to society that yes, we can dork out on saving the world and be hip at the same time.

A subscription to GOOD costs a mere $20. And all of your subscription money goes to one of twelve charities of your choice. What, you’re thinking? How is that possible? Basically, GOOD explains that they’re undertaking this experiment because 1) it’s smart business and 2) they believe in it.

But just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, every issue they embark on consists of an interactive project for its readers. Right now, they’re calling for submissions for a care package like the ones mom used to send you in college to a person or organization of your choice. In the running right now is a range of people from an overworked mom to a lunch program in Madagascar to detained children of immigrants to Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes. The best item I’ve seen so far? A Skoal tin for Dennis Kucinich.

So go ahead. Give GOOD a try. There’s not another publication out there that makes socially conscious issues easily accessible—and fun to read about—while sincerely believing in the idea that collective creative concern is possible. And for nerds like me there’s the potential for infinite puns, all of which I’m eagerly awaiting.