Sending early, in hopes of a early lead
I just had the best week, and I haven’t even finished last week’s episode of the Bachelor yet. What a gift.
The pickle with Kansas City winning the Super Bowl last year is that this year we can’t have a “just happy to be here” outlook. I want us to win, and one Tom Brady is a little scary. But I am cautiously optimistic.
I am more than cautiously optimistic that my sister Laura will be guest writing the newsletter next week. She’s got some really great things lined up, and I am most excited that she is sharing her Loving Tan routine. She has taught me her ways, and I gotta say, I’m 10% more hot now.
Oh! We’re doing the third annual Black History Month recommended reading round up in a couple weeks, if you have a suggestion, get in touch.
This sentence now has links to the 100th issue master spread sheet, my instagram, my Outdoor Voices referral link , and old issues of the newsletter. You can also become a supporter of the newsletter, get a monthly special newsletter, and help fund my day trading, but clicking the link below.
Number One: What’s News
In an effort to semi-broaden the news perspectives I listen to, I started listening to WSJ’s “What’s News” podcast every morning after I listen to the New York Times’ Daily. I think it’s a great pairing, and if you don’t already listen to The Daily, and want a morning news podcast, I may even recommend What’s News over The Daily. It’s more like the evening news with Brian Williams than a segment on 60 Minutes. Like it’s a “here’s a two minute summary of what’s up” and less raw audio of a crisis or whatever. I feel like The Daily has made me compassionate, and understanding of stories I could have never imagined, but What’s News is the last minutes of The Daily broadened into 12 minutes, so I’m just more informed in a different way because of it. Like I said, great pairing.
Number Two: The Dissident
The Dissident is the kind of documentary where you have to have Wikipedia up a lot of the time, because it just sort of drops you into this messy middle eastern crisis. But it is so fascinating, and well produced, and sad. And there’s some weird Jeff Bezos stuff. It’s super thought provoking in light of our echo-chambered social media climate. And yes you do have to pay $19.99 to rent it, or you could come over to my house and watch it here because I decided to just go ahead and buy it.
Pairs well with reading MBS.
Number Three: Vaccinated people get to hug each other // some COVID-19 graphs
This piece from The Atlantic on the messaging around the COVID-19 vaccine gave me a lot of food for thought. I think one of the most interesting things about the whole last year is how closely we’ve tied COVID-times behavior and morality. I find myself judging someone as a person for where exactly their mask lies on their face. But as someone who has already started hugging my friends when I see them, the flip side of that coin, is that I feel like I can hug whoever I want, and no one can tell me otherwise even though I have like no immunity via infection or vaccine. Anyway, the author’s point is that we need to market the vaccine as an avenue to hope - that vaccinated people can safely hug each other, and that’s what we’re all looking forward to.
My new favorite site to check for COVID stats is this one. I especially love the “path to herd immunity” graph - we are on our way, slowly but surely!
Number Four: A neat project on Super Bowl Ads
Here is a really interesting project from FiveThirtyEight on Super Bowl Ads from major advertisers over the years. Lots of strange overlap.
Number Five: Freedom Hoops
A couple months back I found myself with $25 more in my monthly giving budget, and normally I would have just spread that out over the folks that work for RUF that I support. However, my friend Sam volunteers locally with Freedom Hoops, and I had this, “why not try to move the needle here locally” thought? And I’m so glad I did.
Freedom Hoops has GREAT donor stewardship. Within three days of me signing on to support monthly, a staff member called me, hand wrote a thank you note, and I got all kinds of e-mail confirmation. I truly felt like, how much money do y’all need, because I have some, not a lot more, but I can give you more!
I say this in part because I super trust Sam (Sam is my friend Makenzie’s husband, and we have a pact that if I ever send him my location unprompted, he’s gonna follow up, and I am so rich to have friends like Sam and Makenzie) and some other great guys I know volunteer with Freedom Hoops, and know that they wouldn’t give their time to something they don’t believe in, but Freedom Hoops is the real deal. They’re focused on reaching young men in North East Kansas City through basketball. The mentorship model is amazing. I was blown away by their year-end impact report. Five stars.
They’re reaching 40-60 young men every week with the Gospel in Kansas City, and I’m all about it. Every Court, Hope Found, Lives Changed.
Reading this week: Fix Your Period (still, but stay tuned, talking about this one soon), Digital Marketing Strategy // Acts and 1 Chronicles