Outside Issues

How do you not go insane when you cover Elon Musk for a living? New TSB Pod with Kate Conger. More One Minute Wisdom. New tunes for all who need it.

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These Sunday posts are mostly paywalled. But I don't want to exclude anyone, so if the cost is prohibitive or you wish to send TSB to someone you love, contact me. I'll happily pass along a free annual subscription to those who need it most.

Let’s try it. — AJD

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There was some icy tension in one of my 12-step meetings last week because someone shared about how "things going on in the world" and "especially today's news" had left them feeling deeply unwell. This share set off a chain reaction in the meeting — four people in a row all claimed their emotional sobriety was being swallowed by the rampaging dystopia, thanks to today's news.

I hadn't checked the news that morning, so I knew nothing about what was uniquely unsettling or rampaging about it, and I didn't want to start flicking through my phone in the middle of the meeting to see what triggered all the triggering talk. I've gone cold on the news for about a year now, unsubscribing from all BREAKING NEWS alerts on my phone and in my inbox. It's a good system, mostly. My only primary news source currently is ESPN. Go Birds.

At the end of the meeting, after the basket was passed, another member reminded our group to please keep "outside issues outside" as much as possible. I could tell most of us agreed, nodding with our eyes. Still, no one seconded it out loud or clapped or anything like that because no one wanted to make anyone else feel dumb, even though I'm sure some did feel that way. After the meeting, I obnoxiously gasbagged about my news abstinence to some of the people during fellowship. It was fun at first, the way shit-talking some unsuspecting defenseless person to form a bond with someone else is fun, but I felt like a real jerk after a few seconds, like the guy in the college dorm who swore off television who then made everyone else feel foolish as they debated "Survivor" or "Lost" instead of more civilized conversation about – well, I guess all those types of guys wanted to talk about the news. Smart people read the news back then.

This is a cold open to my essay here, but I will say that, for the most part, I try to keep The Small Bow evergreen and news-free. Sometimes, the news leaks into it, but barely, and I like it that way. Someone once told me during TSB's early publishing days that it was "quiet in a way the internet wasn't quiet anymore." I try to keep it safe and quiet here, but keeping the noise down on Substack is more challenging. Plus, since we've been doing the podcast more frequently, "everything going on in the world" has been a relevant topic for several guests.

As was the case last week — New York Times reporter Kate Conger came on the pod. She was initially slated to be a subject back in the early fall tied to the release of a book she co-wrote with Ryan Mac called "Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter," but we never finished the written interview, so I wanted to push it until after she completed their intense book tour. Well! Covering Elon Musk for a living has become a very different job than the last time we spoke. I wasn’t sure she'd even be up for an interview about her internet habits anymore. Thankfully, she was, and it quickly became one of my favorite interviews since I wasn't entirely sure where it would end up. Dip in when you can.

And after the jump: I included the brief interview with Kate I mentioned earlier that we did back in early fall that never ran. — AJD

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