Here is the first roundup of 2023! In these posts, I share the best reads, podcasts, internet people + projects, and anything else I’ve discovered the past month.
Subscribe to my blog (in the footer of this post) or Substack to get these roundups in your email inbox once a month.
Podcast Recommendations
1.) Moment of Zen
This is a new podcast I’ve been dropping in on. They have ~4,000 subscribers on YouTube currently, but this will get much bigger. Every so often you find a new well of novel ideas or framings of old ideas. This podcast has proven to be one of these wells. I recommend starting with their convo with Amjad Masad (founder of Replit) about Artificial General Intelligence and the part two debate style episode here. These discussions about AI and technology feel eerie, like sitting out in the water right before a big wave comes.
2.) Ted Gioia, Conversations with Tyler
Ted is like a kind of expert map maker of culture. You won’t necessarily find the latest fads on his map (though you do see them occasionally on there) but Ted knows the history and momentum of culture like nobody else I’ve encountered online. He is best known as a music critic I guess, but his writing transcends that designation frequently. This episode is a great introduction into Ted’s ideas.
3.) Katherine Rundell, Conversations with Tyler
Katherine Rundell walks on roofs around the world and writes children’s books that aim to inspire that wonderful joy of discovery that if we were lucky, warmed our childhoods. This episode had me smiling the entire time. I particularly liked Katherine’s thoughts on trying to remind adults that the best parts of being a kid are still available to us, even as we grow older.
4.) Roland Griffiths, The Tim Ferriss Show
In this episode Tim talks to his friend Roland Griffiths, prominent Johns Hopkins researcher on the behavioral and subjective effects of mood-altering drugs. Roland recently received a stage IV cancer diagnosis and he and Tim discuss how he has been able to approach his own death with gratitude and mindfulness.
Reading Recommendations
As always, you can keep up with what I am reading here. You can also check out my Reading This page to see the five things I am currently recommending.
1.) An Epic AI Debate – Gary Marcus
2.) Wikenigma, an Encyclopedia of Unkowns
Wikipedia for current mysteries and unsolved problems, ranging from Physics to History.
Cool Projects
1.) School of Song
This month I took a songwriting course with one of my all-time favorite songwriters, Scott McMicken (of Dr. Dog). The course was offered through School of Song. School of Song brings in musicians to teach month long classes on a wide range of musical topics (from songwriting to specific instruments). If you are a musician or even if you’ve wanted to get into exploring music, I cannot recommend them enough.
And now, two related self-plugs!
First, here is the third song I wrote as a part of Scott’s class. Each week, Scott gave us a songwriting prompt that we had the week to work on. The final assignment was to write a melody and a bunch of verses without picking up your instrument. The song that resulted for me is a tune called Luann. I made this fun music video for it to capture the spirit of love and collaboration from the class.
Finally, a bunch of us taking Scott’s class really enjoyed the weekly songwriting “assignments” and wanted to keep that exercise going. I spun up a new newsletter called Pocket Prompts where I will send out one songwriting prompt each week. If you are a musician or want to try this out, you can subscribe to the Substack to get each week’s prompt in your inbox.
That’s all for this month. You can subscribe to my blog here (in the footer of the page) or subscribe to my Substack to get these roundups in your email once a month.
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