oh god look at my stupid face

sorry sorry i'm trying to remove it

The problem with having friends is that they can hold you accountable. That’s what happened here. I made a joke a few weeks ago about how 2024 was going to be The Year I Appear On A Lot Of Podcasts. And then I actually thought about it more and started thinking about doing another podcast of my own, my first since the one I did with Alan Sepinwall ended a few years ago. And then I sent an email to a few of my smarter friends with some half-cooked ideas about this hypothetical podcast. And then my buddy Ryan Perry read it and said, “Funny you should mention podcasts and your interest in doing them because I am also starting a podcast and would love to have you be on the first episode.” And then I was stuck. Friends… worth it? I’m on the fence. 

Okay, that is not actually what happened here. I mean, it mostly is, except for the thing where I agreed begrudgingly. I agreed immediately because I love Ryan and love when my friends try cool shit and also because I kind of owe my entire stupid career to a decision Ryan made over a decade ago, before we even knew each other, which is a) weird and b) something we discuss at length in that video up there. 

Other things we discuss on this fun new podcast, which is called Log Off and focuses on the way people use the internet and the things they do to try to keep the internet from turning them into awful little goblins:

— my first experiences with the internet and my CD-burning hustle in college

— my spinal cord injury and what Ryan and I referred to in our text chain as “the wheelchair stuff,” which I don’t talk about super often for reasons I explain in there and also because I would rather talk about stuff like movies where Jason Statham plays a beekeeper who punches goons in the throat a lot

— how I went from “law school student blogging under a pseudonym” to “full-time writer/editor whose real name and face are all over your inbox today”

— some really awful blogs I wrote

— petting dogs as self-care

It was fun. Ryan is a solid dude. I can’t believe he convinced me to do this on video with my whole stupid face online. I’m sorry my voice sounds like that. 

STUFF I TYPED

— here is a blog I wrote about Slow Horses, a spy series I called “the most bingeable TV show in the entire world,” which is hyperbole but also something I stand by, in part because there are not enough shows about bumbling spies who solve global conspiracies after six episodes of literal and figurative farting around 

— my first post-holiday Rundown column, with an opener about the Succession memorabilia auction and, yes, a mention of Pierce Brosnan getting arrested at Yellowstone, which so many people sent to me 

STUFF I CLICKED ON

— my buddy Alan spoke to David Chase about a show called The Sopranos, which I’ve never heard of but sounds interesting

— Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling did little awards-y interviews about Barbie and both are fun reads

— 11 Signs You’re Watching an Edgy Comedy Special

— in the last couple weeks I have seen stories about a 13-year-old Tetris prodigy and a 16-year-old darts prodigy and I love them both very much

— 30 minutes of news bloopers from 2023, in case you thought I was kidding during that podcast

— this is an accurate sentence, I swear: the kid who played the young version of Gordon Bombay — a character in a children’s movie whose full name is two brands of gin — in flashback scenes during the first Mighty Ducks movie is now a crypto mogul who claims his former friend stole a hotel in Puerto Rico from him and maybe wants to buy Sports Illustrated after the guy who created 5-Hour Energy stepped down as CEO

— here’s a sweet story about College Gameday and the relationship between Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit

— dammit, Matt Gelb made me cry with this story about Charlie Manuel recovering from his stroke

— a snowstorm hit Pennsylvania this weekend and the weather dorks went on and on about it and long story short I typed this into Google at one point 

Okay, that’s enough for this week. Subscribe, share, print out and show to your friends. Thank you.