Cultish Creative Weekly Recap (7/20/2024)

Did you hear the financial therapist/organizational psychologist talk to the career journalist/ghostwriter unpack CHANGE yet? The perspectives in this Just Press Record are fascinating. Don’t miss this one (and watch for a few clips on YouTube + social media too):

Speaking of stories… on Breaking News we do our best to assess the stories surrounding the Trump assassination attempt, and focus on what those retellings mean culturally. In the event you haven’t read Ben Hunt’s note, “This is the Great Ravine” yet (no paywall), you should.

In the episode, we discuss what Ben calls “the great ravine.” It’s a reference to a period of history - like, now - where stuff is just… sad. A period without a lot of progress. A period with a lot of frustrations.

And, with the “help” of BIG media, BIG tech, and BIG politic, we watch the sadness get soaked up, then bottled, carbonated, and clearly branded for resale, only to be shaken up and exploded by punks in a crowd. Sad.

What do we do while we wait, while we’re stuck in the cultural rut that is the great ravine? Well ,we clipped this out of the episode for you - we find ways to nourish each other. To make, protect, and teach. And it’s way less seven fishes and way more ice chips, just for the record. If you only have 15 minutes, and especially if you’re a fan of The Bear(or Succession, Ted Lasso, Schitt’s Creek, Barry, or Ratatouille) I went on this little rant just for YOU (and for optimism’s sake!):

For my investing-interested friends, this review of lessons learned from Mike Green with Jack Forehand and I is well worth a listen too. Mike’s one of my favorite financial thinkers. We discuss how to apply his ideas here:

AND - a new review is up this week. Kyla Scanlon’s book, In This Economy? How Money and Markets Really Work is a crazy good read. Here’s a 4ish minute pitch, but I genuinely believe everybody should read this for reference.

On to the posts!

NOFX becoming middle-aged still makes me happy. A riff on “All Outta Angst.” Plus, I did confirm Ilene made me a tape of “Liberal Animation” and I’ll add that editors note here.

The range beyond Spinal Tap matters. I’m thinking a lot about turning nobs all the way up and down to understand them better again. Here’s “Turn it UP to 11, or DOWN to -1.”

Music is life. And I just learned a new word (thanks to Tom Morgan): umwelt. Which I now understand in this note through my standard love language of choice, LL Cool J.

John Green added another layer of “I’m not crying, it’s allergies” to my week the other day, and it came on top of the one’s Morgan Ranstrom and Bogumil Baranowski had already started. Read “Your Art Will Last As Long As Anyone Needs It To” and you’ll get it. Just beautiful.