Interlude: What I'm Reading & Watching
February is a stupid month right?
It’s short. It’s cold. It’s hard to pronounce.
I should say it’s also the month my mom and my son were both born. So, it’s not all bad.
Still.
Our house is in the process of being remodeled and most of the major work happened in February. Meaning we were living in different places, my office at home was torn up, and I had no time or opportunity to write anything. I certainly didn’t have an opportunity to do any kind of experience or experiment for Trial & Error.
I’m in the process of working on some exciting things for the end of March and the future, so stay tuned!
For now, I just wanted to check in and chat about a few things on my mind.
The massive news story right now is the invasion of Ukraine. As someone long fascinated by Russian history and politics, this is all very surreal. In college I took a both Politics of Russia and History of Russia. The Politics class was like a senior level course and I was a sophomore. I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, I got a C. One of two Cs I got in my life. But I actually remember more of that class than most that I took. One reason is that it’s been exceedingly relevant in current world history. Anyone who has been following Putin’s moves over the last decade has seen something like this coming.
Still, it’s very strange that the whole world is watching it play out in plain sight. It’s a little like someone who grew up reading comic books experiencing the current boom in comic book movies. Like, I had a head start on all this stuff, but everyone’s been able to catch up quickly.
That’s not to make light of the awful, awful situation at all. For me, it can be easy to get wrapped up in the geopolitical side of the conflict. Moving the chess pieces of world history around in my head as I imagine what the next moves might be. It can also be easy in our social media world to be puffed up solely by the inspiring stories. Like that of the Polish mothers who left strollers at the train stations so Ukrainians fleeing their homes could use them for their own children. It can be more difficult to fully imagine being a mother with her children, walking through the mud in the cold and rain away from everything you loved: your husband, your pets, your home, your job, maybe even your elderly parents. It’s devastating.
Plenty of great journalists are covering this story from every angle. My friend Matt Crossman writes an awesome Substack called The Accidental Adventurer. Normally he’s doing things like piloting a hot air balloon. But for the last week he’s been sharing quotes from a Zoom interview he did with a woman in Ukraine. They’re poignant, slice-of-life quotes that could be from a World War II diary. Instead he heard them via videochat in 2022. It’s remarkable work from Matt.
On a lighter note, when we’re not consuming the coverage from Ukraine, my wife and I have actually gotten to watch some shows lately. If you know us, you know that’s not super common. About 90% of the time, if you ask me if I’ve seen a show the answer is no.
However, we just finished The Afterparty on Apple TV and it was awesome. The limited series stars Dave Franco, Ben Schwartz, Sam Richardson, Ilana Glazer, and more. It’s a comedy/mystery similar to the excellent Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. The comedy and mystery elements are mixed perfectly. We really enjoyed this one.
And finally, I wanted to extend a congratulations and farewell to two great sports media people. The Athletic’s OU beat writer Jason Kersey has decided to leave the journalism field to attend law school, a wise monetary decision for him, but a sad decision for all OU fans who have enjoyed his great work. Jason joined me on my Big 12 podcast last year and was an awesome guest.
And Dallas radio star Jeff Cavanaugh, afternoon drive host on 105.3 The Fan, left his job recently. A spot as an afternoon drive host on a sports talk show in a top five market in the country is as rare as they get in the business, but Jeff said he just felt like he needed to dedicate his energies elsewhere. For now, that means his popular YouTube channel. I worked at The Fan for a couple of months right at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Jeff was one of the first people to stop me in the hallway and introduce himself. You might hear that people in sports media are jaded jerks (and that’s true of many), but Jason and Jeff are two of the really good ones. Best of luck to both in their future endeavors!
I’ll be back soon with more of the Trial & Error zaniness you’ve come to expect. Thanks for sticking with me!