​
​Friday Inspiration 484​
​

AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM ME: After 150+ people took my How To Tell One Story online writing course this past winter, we've decided to offer it only in limited windows for the rest of 2025. The first signup window is May 16 (today!) through May 23, and we're limiting the number of spots. Why limit the number of spots? Because of one big change: When you complete the course, I'll give you personalized feedback on the story you wrote during the course. That of course takes some time and bandwidth from me, so we're limiting signups. All the details are on this page—if you're interested, grab a spot!

--

I heard from so many people in response to the “Maybe Next Time. Maybe Not” photo essay I published a few weeks ago that I decided to turn it into a short YouTube edit (video)

Almost every time I talk to anyone about the idea of starting a newsletter or a Substack, or just writing more regularly, I find myself mentioning my friend Mike Sowden, and his newsletter, Everything Is Amazing, which, as I have said here before, is wonderful. Mike has built a big audience for his writing by being curious, following his curiosity, enthusiastically sharing what he’s found, and also finding ways to share bits and pieces of what he’s found (or edited versions of what he’s found) on social media. A few weeks ago, his Substack readership went over 30,000 people, and he wrote up some advice based on what he’s learned. Oh, also, Mike is an incredibly nice guy, which I think is a very underrated and maybe underreported tool for success.

I just finished drawing up an illustration for newsletter sponsor Janji for next week, titled “Lies I Have Told My Pacer(s),” and I might have been thinking about all the folks Janji had running in the Cocodona 250—several athletes and also their athlete manager, Kyla (!)—out there grinding out long days and nights in probably somewhat compromised emotional states. I also noticed I had recently started wearing my Janji Trailbreaker Hat around the same time, which I'm loving because it’s starting to get warmer around here and I look at that hat and see what they would call “airy mesh” and I would call “big holes for my sweaty head to breathe more.”

Have you ever wondered about the “Strava Tax”—that crushing moment when you’ve stopped running or hiking or cycling when your watch says 6.00 miles or 20.00 miles or whatever, only to find that when your watch uploaded your data to Strava, your Strava page says it was 5.99 miles or 19.99 miles? Well, the folks at Strava have written a piece explaining it, and the "how" is actually a pretty simple technology thing, but a little more complex as to why they do it.

I read Alex Hutchinson’s book, Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, back in 2019, and have followed his Sweat Science column for a very long time—generally I read his stuff and think things like, “Thank you, smart guy, for digging through the research and validating the practice of positive self-talk during vigorous exercise.” So it was fantastic to interview him about his new book, The Explorer’s Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, for the Trailhead podcast. (The podcast is, of course, about endurance and ultramarathons, but we spent some time talking about why it’s harder to find new music you like as you get older, and whether or not Alex “explores” much in his regular training runs around his home in Toronto.)
​Apple Podcasts |Spotify​

I can’t decide if I want to see Friendship when it comes out (I’ve heard it called “hilarious” but also “deeply uncomfortable”), but I did love this piece on The Ringer detailing the history of the bromance in movies—including the film historian arguing that it’s basically an American phenomenon.

When I interviewed a bunch of dads for a hopefully-someday-book project around the time Jay was born (book still coming, I swear!), one of my friends, Chris, said something like, “Having kids is great—you get to eat macaroni and cheese again.” I of course have never stopped eating macaroni and cheese, but Chris was right, in that I do eat more of it now. Hilary found this Three Ingredient Stovetop Mac and Cheese recipe (by Kenji Lopez-Alt) a few weeks back, and I finally made it myself on Wednesday, and I am pleased to announce that it is a) fantastic and b) really easy. Although you do need to keep stirring it throughout. (Of course Kenji Lopez-Alt points out that three total ingredients is actually one fewer ingredient than is used in making a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese)

There are many great things about this Austin Kleon piece on “Questions Without Answers,” including the link to his other piece, “7 questions I ask myself (when I don’t know what to do next),” but my favorite part might be all the comments from readers sharing the best question a kid ever asked them.

--