#274 Rhys and the Money Tree
01 October 2021 // San Diego, California
And, it’s World Podcast Day! While I had to take a hiatus from my own show this year with all that’s been happening, it remains one of my favorite mediums. I think the format gives a chance to nuance messages and make things more personal that most other mediums don’t provide.
Even though folks often say the podcasting world is already oversaturated, I think there will always be room for more shows if they’re the right ones for the moment. To further drive that point home, here are some of my favorite shows that have launched since the past World Podcast Day, along with a few favorite episodes from shows I continue to keep up with:
A Matter of Degrees
Hood Politics
Completely Arbortrary
A Slight Change of Plans
The Experiment
Love Period
Black Diamonds
#275 Twin Shower
02 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Injustice seeks to rob people, marginalized people in particular, of joy. This means that cultivating joy is an act of resistance in a world that has done everything it can to work against your joy. And I think uncovering the mystery of that joy will help us take apart that world, and rebuild one that’s just, regenerative, and fun.
When we better understand how to find joy in each other, we can detach our sense of people’s worth or our worth from the benchmark of productivity- a mindset that has led to many instances where humans are treated like property instead of people.
When we better embrace wonder, curiosity, and wholeness, making a difference no longer feels like a lofty, aspirational thing, but instead, a daily engagement we can wake up to every morning.
#276 Lakeside Sunrise
03 October 2021 // San Diego, California
I don’t know at what point we picked up a cultural narrative that assumes enjoying a good deed makes it a little less good, but I find it creeping up a lot of places. Perhaps it's a part of my country’s Puritan heritage, but I’ve always felt the sense that you were supposed to feel guilty for enjoying things deeply, especially while other people are suffering.
Maybe this is why folks assume that the work of advancing climate solutions, dismantling racism, or eliminating poverty are serious and somber spaces, but it's on these frontlines that I’ve experienced some of my most joyful moments.
The simple reality is that any joy you experience will happen simultaneously alongside the suffering of others. Our world is large enough that this will always be the case. And there may be times where you have to be cautious with how you communicate your joy out of respect for others’ experiences, but know that in the long run, joy is what sustains lasting and meaningful change.
#277 Lake Footbridge
04 October 2021 // San Diego, California
One of the biggest paradoxes about parenthood is how you influence EVERYTHING and yet have so little control over things when you really think about it.
Like… we deal with the impact of how we were raised for the rest of our lives. The kiddos soak up everything. You let one grown-up word slip at the wrong time and you might have to deal with hearing that on repeat for a long time to come. The stakes get higher when you see some of your own traits- including your vices- carried by your child.
That’s a lot to carry, but on the flip side? You drop a kid off for the first day of school and you realize how much stuff- in the grand scheme of their life- is gonna be out of your control. One long night with a feverish baby and you realize so much is out of your hands.
Weird combo, right? Responsible for so much, in control of so little?
My grandma used to wake up at 4am and start praying. For hours. Now that all makes sense. She had nine kids!
Kayla Craig has done the world a tremendous favor with Liturgies for Parents and her book To Light Their Way which is officially out today! This book is full of prayers for moms and dads- especially for those moments where you don’t have the words.
I’m gonna let you in on a secret, okay? I got misty eyes reading the freaking Table of Contents! How does that even happen?
Reading the list of moments big and small, personal and global, felt like taking a long look down the road of parenthood and seeing it in its wholeness. There are prayers for pregnancy and infertility, for the birth of a sibling, adoption, a new pet, and the first day of school. For when your kid is bullied or when your kid bullies someone. Stressful mornings and playtime. Gun violence and racism. Advent. Mother’s Day. The loss of a pet, learning to drive, and leaving home.
#278 To Light Their Way
05 October 2021 // San Diego, California
A healthy relationship with work is one where our work is an expression of who we are on the inside.
An unhealthy relationship with work is one where we look to our productivity to determine our sense of value and identity.
A healthy relationship with work is regenerative. It gives life to the worker. It is integrated with rest, relationship and other rhythms.
An unhealthy relationship with work is depleting. It asks for everything.
This is why I’ve gotten so much value out of the image of play. James Minchner once said that to somebody who has true mastery over their craft, it will often appear as if there is no distinction between work and play.
Because when you think about it, play is work. Whether you’re strategizing board game moves or running down a soccer pitch, you’re burning calories. You’re exerting effort. But you’re doing so in such a rewarding and satisfying way.
#279 Resevoir Skyline
06 October 2021 // San Diego, California
I know the kind we have in North America are bison, and not buffalo which belong to Africa/Asia. But can we just work out a deal to trade names at this point? Buffalo seems like a better fitting name for the fluffier ones.
#280 Coloring Sharks
07 October 2021 // San Diego, California
I’ve witnessed and I’ve been in several conversations lately on comedy and boundaries. If comedy is what it is because it breaks rules and expectations, at what point does it go too far? There is a limit, right? Or do we just take things too seriously?
These conversations weird me out, cause, isn’t the fastest way to deflate a joke trying to over-explain it? I definitely have a lot more to learn from these conversations than I have to add to them.
That said, a couple helpful things I’ve learned by listening to way too many comedians on podcasts is this: comedy is mostly just telling the truth with clever delivery. So do that, and don’t punch down.
There are plenty of ways to be hilariously irreverent and subversive with your humor by calling out the absurdity of the institutions and individuals with too much power. Or just the absurdity of life itself.
But punching down is where I think I’ve found the dotted, sometimes fuzzy line between subversive humor and plain bullying.
#281 Pie Corner
08 October 2021 // San Diego, California
I used to feel weird about making stuff that felt like fan art to me, thinking of it as a lesser form of creativity. But self-consciousness is actually a common enemy of creativity, and you should play to what excites you. So here’s a whole video on one of my favorite things about Friday: Ted Friggin’ Lasso.
I’ve heard so many people celebrate Ted Lasso for being a refreshingly feel-good show for some challenging times. And while that’s true- I think it resonates for deeper reasons than that.
I also riff a bit on why it’s been over ten years since the last widely successful comedy and why one of the biggest movie genres has suddenly gone missing in favor of cozy, gentle shows.
#282 Dee’s 32
09 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Things have been moving so fast lately but it’s been amazing to think about how special it is that we get to share our lives with each other and as a whole, fairly large, family. I always knew raising a family with you would be wonderful, but it’s still a treat to wake up to each day. You are giving our kids such a great look at what a beautiful life looks like.
It’s amazing how natural you are at bringing out the best in people. Rhys and the twins are lucky to have such a determined, dedicated, deliberate mama, and I’m lucky to be partners with you through it all.
Happy birthday! Let’s go have fun!
#283 Piecer Pumpkins
10 October 2021 // Valley Central, California
An independent bookstore set up to be outdoors, full of rare finds, in a charming spot like Ojai seems like everything I could ask for in a place to explore.
Ojai’s charm largely comes from its perch between ranchlands and mountainscapes, but the town center makes me wish I could stay for many more meals.
#284 Banyon Condo
11 October 2021 // San Diego, California
I haven’t used Facebook in ages. There are a gazillion reasons why, but the top few posts I see are by an old co-workers wife, some musician’s ad, a cousin, a distant aunt, a local news story, a Catholic news story, a sweater company, and a friend I haven’t spoken to in 3 years.
These are not my close friends, nor does this resemble a group that I think would make for an interesting group hangout. The app doesn’t really deliver on its original promise.
I’m not someone who thinks that social media is all evil. A lot of my coolest opportunities can be traced to the connections I’ve made over social media, especially Insta, which is still in the Facebook family.
It’s just a powerful technological tool that’s very new to the world.
I think of the story of how at one of the earliest moving pictures, the audience fled the theatre to escape the on screen train…
That’s probably an urban legend, but I love the image because we are barely past that stage of infancy when it comes to social media as a communication tool.
While I don’t think social media is inherently bad, I’m a lot less trusting of the social media companies. You can read up on a lot of the recent whistleblower stuff for a taste of it, but I’m not so surprised by the recent reveal.
When things become pay-for-play, the icky stuff starts happening. When the motivation for profit goes up, the quality of the platform and the safeguards against bad behavior go way down.
Our lives are so intertwined with social media now that detaching from it altogether is unfeasible for most people. And for most of us- probably anyone invested enough to make it thus far, we’ve determined that at a personal level, the pros outweigh the cons.
But there are still some things we can do to be less dependent on a corporation that hasn’t proven trustworthy.
For me, that main thing has been not concentrating all my activity on a single platform.
If you’re in the position where the ability to use social media is a necessity to share the things you create, find a method to adapt a piece of content across various platforms, one that lets you get more out of the work you do instead of creating more work for yourself.
If you’re not much of a maker, and prefer to use social media to share personal updates, and to lurk, learn, and get inspiration or entertainment, follow your friends and favorite creators across multiple platforms. Make your own behavior “evacuation friendly.”
While each of the major platforms are guilty of various problems, spreading out your activity makes it easier to detach yourself from one when it’s simply gone too far down the road of distasteful, like Facebook’s flagship site has gone for me.
I’ll admit, it’s not easy to have to build an audience in multiple places, and that makes it tough to hold a platform lightly. I still wonder what happened to some Tumblr peeps from 2009.
That said, when a platform does reach the end of its run, you won’t have to start from scratch if you’ve been cultivating others. My YouTube and TikTok crowds are small but I’m thankful there’s at enough people I catch there.
Of course, email is probably the best online way to become more independent of the social media giants, and it has been for sometime. Those e-newsletters are pretty valuable.
I honestly need to do a better job relaunching my email newsletter. But building one is the best way to keep a connection with your audience without being platform dependent. Signing up for a creator’s newsletter is a great way to be more independent from the social media giants.
Finally, Facebook’s momentary blackout was a good reminder of why it’s valuable to have an online presence that you own… basically your own website. Even if it’s not a fancy one.
My own site has often toggled in between being a blog and a portfolio. I don’t update it like I should, and it gets few visitors. However, it is a space where I can have a decent archive of all my work- from my artwork to my videos to my photo-a-day project.
Even if you just use social media to share your own personal pics and stay connected, don’t use Facebook as photo storage. If nothing else the quality of your pictures will get so badly compressed, but beyond that it’s way too much collateral for them to use to keep you invested.
Anyways, here’s to better social media hygiene. What practices have you changed as you’ve learned more about how the social media sausage gets made?
#285 Laptop
12 October 2021 // San Diego, California
I often use ‘climate communications’ to briefly describe what I do, but I like to use something like ‘eco-storyteller’ too when it makes sense.
Nature has a lot to say even outside of a crisis state, but we won’t get to really hear that without dealing with said crisis.
#286 GU Grip
13 October 2021 // San Diego, California
When we were expecting Rhys, the third trimester was my favorite part. Some of the complicated stuff from earlier on in the pregnancy had subsided and we got a little chance to soak things up and enjoy the sorts of outings that would become much more difficult with a newborn.
We’re kind of at that stage again with the twins!
#287 We Love The Cow
14 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Something pretty aesthetically pleasing about a few copies of identical book spines on a shelf. Too bad nobody’s shelf looks like that unless you’re selling the books or if you’re still into volumes of encyclopedias.
#288 First School Pics
15 October 2021 // San Diego, California
This weekend, I’m headed to Albuquerque to run my first race since 2018… here we go Duke City Half Marathon!
On one hand, it’s felt really good to get moving again. After Rhys was born, all my physical activities, sports, and exercise came to a total halt, and with the pandemic and baby-juggling, that went on for almost two more years.
At the same time, a lot of my training runs- especially in the middle- we’re a bit tough. I was surprised and disappointed with my own running pace and mile times. I know I’m a little bit older now, but I wasn’t expecting 30 to be such a cliff!
I’ve seen a lot of people share about body acceptance during this season and while my experience is a totally different context, I’ve had to be more intentional about reminding myself that it’s totally fine and to-be-expected if I’m just slower now.
Older is older, and I’m not starting each run with as much rest as I used to before kids. Plus I did a bulk of this training in the summer heat, and I used to avoid that at all costs.
End of the day, I’m just thankful to have some legs that can still carry me 13.1 miles, and just enough space in my life to keep that up. They’re the same legs that chase a two year old, and I’m happy to have them.
#289 Running in Albuquerque
16 October 2021 // Albuquerque, New Mexico
Picked a motel to stay at in Albuquerque for the marathon without giving it too much thought.
Turns out the owner of this place is an Indian woman who runs 2-3 marathons a year and is about to turn 70.
Complementary running inspiration with my stay.
#290 Duke City Half Marathon
17 October 2021 // Albuquerque, New Mexico
ALBUQUERQUE—
This half marathon was a lot of firsts for me. First in my thirties, first in four years, first since becoming a dad, first at elevation, and so on. All in all, I was pretty happy with how everything went.
I planned to use mile 10 to kind of regroup so I could go all out for the last three, then I was suddenly hit by how much I was enjoying the run and wound up savoring then instead! It dawned on me that I might not be running much over the next several months, and tried to soak it all in. Not the best for my overall time, but great for the spirit.
So happy to have snuck in this little adventure during a really eventful season!
#291 Albuquerque Sweet Roll
18 October 2021 // Albuquerque, New Mexico
The fact that we identify so strongly with our jobs is not a new observation. So often, one of the first things we ask somebody we’ve just met is what they do for a living. We frequently ask children what they’d like to be when they grow up. These things aren’t inherently wrong, but they do indicate that in our culture, work and career takes center stage. It’s easy to accept this as the norm. And whenever something is given that sort of role in culture, it becomes easy for our relationship with work to become really unhealthy.
You often hear about how travel is a great opportunity to learn about other cultures, but it can be just as good of an opportunity to learn about your own culture. As a student, I got to live for a period of time in Italy, as well as in Argentina. Both those countries have a very different relationship with work compared to the United States.
#292 One Last Look
19 October 2021 // San Diego, California
I drew this when we were waiting for Rhys to be born. Adventure was more than just the theme of our nursery. Really it’s an overarching theme of how our family faces the world.
I tried out a totally different drawing style and liked how it turned out. Every item making up the collage ties to some value or thought I wanted to pass on and it all comes together in a Northwestern campscape. We got it printed on a metallic wall hang and I’m super happy with how it came out.
I loved making this. Even though it’s been in his room his literal whole life, it made me super happy when he started pointing out stuff on there that he liked. Bear! Fish! Circle!
Now I just have a few weeks left to finish up two more.
#293 Shoutin’ in the fire
20 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Fatherhood made me consider more deeply what added value and meaning to my life. While it is definitely a privilege to be able to earn a living by doing something I enjoy, working a dream job often means you run the risk of making that job your sole identity. That can make the wins and losses one experiences at work feel like personal victories and failures.
I noticed so often, the way I felt towards any given day was tied so strongly to how much I got done that day. A good day felt like one where a good number of things on my list were crossed off early, and a bad day might be one where it simply took a lot longer to get through one task than expected, throwing off the rest of my anticipated schedule. I wanted less of that. Especially as my kid was getting older. I wanted there to be more moments with him where it felt like time just stopped moving for a little bit, where we’d be lost in play and a state of flow.
#294 Bedroom Corner
21 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Danté Stewart has been ministering to me Tweet after Tweet for over a year, and all over again through his book and his life.
Here’s one of my favorite passages midway through reading Shoutin’ in the Fire:
“I do not want him to fall victim to the American way of dreaming, its way of believing itself to be innocent while it killed our people and turned their suffering into dreams of a colorblind America. I refuse to teach him that way of dreaming. I also refuse to teach him that dreams will save us. It neither saved us from failure nor saved us from all of the bullets and ballots and messages and policies and all the ways this country failed us. I refuse to teach him that dreams will never end in nightmares, that his palms won’t be sweaty, that night won’t seem like eternity, and that every wounded soul can be healed. I refuse to teach him to dream that way. But I will teach him how to love, and how to really love by redefining dreaming, and living, and believing in something that seems elusive.
#295 Patio Piecy
22 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Climate policy in the US has been such a roller coaster lately.
If you’re catching up, the Senate is trying to finalize an infrastructure and climate bill that includes things ranging from parental leave to the Child Tax Credit. The most significant item, in my opinion, is CEPP- which is the most promising policy proposed at significantly cutting US emissions at an appropriate pace to keep climate change under 1.5° C.
So much has aligned perfectly for this to be feasible. A House majority that might not last. The dramatic flip of two Georgia Senate seats. The persuasion of nine Representatives who were holding out.
Which is why its all the more frustrating that it seems like a Senator from West Virginia with strong coal ties might derail the whole thing.
I’m a believer that politicians are not the be-all-end-all of climate change, which might be why I’m a little more hopeful than many in the conversation. There’s a great article that The Atlantic ran last summer on how the US managed to exceed Obama’s climate goals even though none of his proposals succeeded.
But with that said… policy is still crucial. And it’s connected to how individuals conduct their lives.
There’s a narrative that the environment and economy are competing interests. But there is no economy without a liveable environment, which is why forward thinking businesses defy that narrative and push for climate action. When you put together all those that have issued statements in support it represents as much as 1/7th of the US economy.
It takes a lot of pressure to override industrial lobbying but it can happen. It just needs to be impossible to escape.
#296 Who’s That GUy?
23 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Fell asleep watching Dune and went on to have a dream where Deanna, Rhys and I were staying, perhaps living, on a high floor of an LA high rise when the building next to us seemed to be moving or swaying.
I looked outside to check and sure enough, we were in an earthquake. The visuals for this scene were incredible, like the whole building was like being on that Viking ship ride at a county fair. I remember telling Deanna to turn off the music so I could hear the building.
Despite the intense movement the whole thing is really quiet making me feel less worried, so I go down to the first floor for breakfast, but the host lady and I get mad at each other when she asks me for a signature and nothing is clear.
On my way back up, a lady is going into labor and can’t get to the hospital despite having 7-2-2 contraction. (Way to be specific, dream.)
How convenient! I thought. My wife is also very pregnant. Clearly we are now qualified and obligated to deliver the baby.
Of course she can’t get to the hospital because it’s LA and an earthquake so we really are her best bet.
In some parallel cutscene I’m trying to track down this guy I knew from middle school as an adult. Don’t know why but there’s some urgency to it.
I trace his whereabouts to the Dodger team store. Except I’m in like the clearance section because there’s a bunch of overstock items of guys no longer
I disguise myself in a really sweet long sleeve tee featuring Yu Darvish and Japanese writing/elements. What a great disguise! No one will know it’s me in an outdated Yu Darvish shirt from 2017!
I find the guy.
I realize a big part of what made this dream so thrilling were the visuals. You kinda had to be there, which is too bad, cause, you know.
I woke up, realized I was in denial about not being able to make it through Dune, then went to real bed.
Might delete later, but I rarely have dreams and for now the closest thing I have to a dream journal is apparently Twitter.
#297 Giraffe Bike
24 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Grew up in a weird time where people would use the phrase “holdin’ it down” way too often to mean doing well.
“You still holdin’ it down in LA?”
My brain faithfully entertains me with a mental image of this friend trying to manage a large, city-sized sheet of tarp.
#298 Post Station
25 October 2021 // San Diego, California
One simple thing I’ve been feeling a lot lately:
It’s time to write again.
I have to really fight for the time and space to write these days. But today I got a spontaneous feeling call from Milmer wanting to co-write a book. That feels exactly like the right sort of thing to pursue based on my creative energy lately.
It’s been a while since I’ve even brainstormed, but today, just writing out a long list of what I want people to know about climate was a great exercise.
#299 Midday Samosas
26 October 2021 // San Diego, California
The topic of how mega-popular comedy movies just vanished all of a sudden is one of those random things that always fascinates me. Partly cause it feels like it happened in plain sight without much attention, and for all the things it says about the 2010s.
One explanation is that we started taking ourselves too seriously under the weight of very real crises. The other explanation? Laughter was no longer profitable in a market that needed to go beyond one culture’s sense of humor.
#300 Smith Visits
27 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Last week we finalized the sale of our first house. It was a big move, a long process, and another big change on top of endless change this year. But ultimately this was the right decision and we’re really happy with how things unfolded for our family.
That said- it wasn’t easy! This is a hybrid explainer of our housing crisis and a video journal of how that intersected with our lives.
Happy to be in our new home now getting this place set up for newborns, and trying to take advantage of the views from our patio.
#301 Dune Bluey
28 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Good visuals help remind us that action matters and help shake off both fatalism and complacency.
Today’s New York Times front page featured a graph. Four curves showing climate change over the course of a century. One line showed the trajectory we were on at the start of the century- a rise of 4º C. The second line showed our current path, a rise of 3º C. Line three showed an optimistic projection for everyone’s current climate commitments, landing us at 2º C, which still is over 1.5º C- the level we need to stay under to prevent damage.
This visually shows us that the stuff we’ve already done has made a big difference. But that there’s still a lot more to be done and our work isn’t complete.
I wish a visual like this was shared this widely much earlier.
#302 Yellow Brick Trunk
29 October 2021 // San Diego, California
To tell the whole story of trees, we need to think about them relationally and dynamically. Trees are so much more than negative carbon points. They are members of connected and interrelated ecosystems, which often include farming and forest-dependent communities. Simply accounting for the quantity of trees planted and assigning a dollar value does the true art of reforestation an injustice.
There is beauty in the sophistication of selecting the right species, understanding how it will interact with the surrounding flora and fauna, and how it can contribute to an ecosystem’s water exchange, biodiversity, and food webs. There is a lot to celebrate when local communities take ownership of the trees in their land, understanding their value towards preventing erosion and enhancing soil health for crops.
#303 Fish Cracker Cake
30 October 2021 // San Diego, California
I’ve been saving this post for spooky season!
I’ve been an artist-in-residence with Inheritance Magazine - a platform focused on stories about faith and AAPI identity, and the first piece I got to contribute some art for was all about the Kaperosa- the white lady of Balete Drive.
Man, the Philippines has one of the richest lineups when it comes to scary, folkloric beings.
The Kaperosa looks similar to a lot of pale ghost ladies in Asian mythology (y’know, like the girl in The Ring) but she haunts a very specific location where she was attacked and killed in the 1950s. Balete Drive runs through a suburb of Manila where taxi drivers often report Kaperosa sightings as she searches for her killer.
Balete Drive is named for the canopy of balete trees that line its sidewalk. In English, those are known as strangler fig trees- trees that begin growing on the limbs of other trees, until their roots reach low enough to enter soil and then it starts to grow around the host tree. Deprived of light, that tree dies leaving a hollow center in the balete. For some reason I always thought it was an apt metaphor for the colonial mentality.
#304 Rhys Turns Two
31 October 2021 // San Diego, California
Rhys, I can’t believe I have a two year old now!
The Terrific Twos, I heard, yeah? Where they’re super compliant and only want to make your life as easy as possible? Cool, buddy, let’s do this!
I say over and over how much I love being your dad and it’s so true. Look at how much we’ve done and how much has changed between last year and now? You started school, we moved to a new place, you went on some big adventures to Washington and Arizona… I love how much you love the snow. I’m still getting used to you talking as much as you do these days. And now you’ve got this big brother gig coming up!
It’d be easy to lean into all the excitement ahead of us, cause there’s plenty, but I’ll have to admit, I’ll also really miss your one year old self too. Climbing things, doing your little foot shuffle thing when there’s too much to be excited about, making you laugh while getting you down to sleep. You brought so much joy to the past year, which wasn’t always the easiest.
I absolutely love being your dad. Happy birthday and I hope you like your fish cracker cake.