We’re Number Two!

I follow political news pretty closely these days, and though I primarily stick to US press, I also make an effort to regularly read sources abroad – The Economist, The Guardian, Haaretz, etc. – for the sometimes jarring insights that can only come from an outside perspective.

So, hat-tip to my father (who follows world press closely due to his nonprofit medical work) for pointing me towards this amazing international TV satire meme:

It kicked off when the Dutch equivalent of The Daily Show, Zondag Met Lubach, ran a video pitching a simple idea to President Trump: “America First; the Netherlands Second.”

Shortly thereafter, and not to be outdone, Switzerland’s Deville Late-Night responded with their own similar pitch:

Then Belgium’s De Ideale Wereld got in on the action:

And things just kind of kept rolling from there.

Portugal’s 5 Meia Noite:

Australia’s The Weekly:

Germany’s Neo Magazin Royale:

Denmark’s Natholdet:

And even Lithuania’s Laisvės TV:

All of them are worth watching, and I’m sure we haven’t yet seen the end of this trend. So, for the moment: America first, second TBD?

February 8, 2017

The Backup Plan

Each Sunday, I chart out a carefully considered set of workouts for the week, following a periodized, balanced approach to strength, conditioning, mobility, and recovery. All in, it’s about an hour worth of stuff each day.

Some weeks, I manage to stick to the plan precisely.

Others, everything more or less goes to shit.

In the past month, I’ve had unexpected work developments dump huge piles of urgent work on my desk. I’ve had a death in the family rearrange my schedule around a funeral and sitting shiva. I’ve even jumped in for a few afternoons of nephew-wrangling when my brother’s nanny called in sick.

On those days, I just don’t have the time – or the mental bandwidth – to commit to hitting the gym.

In the past, when days like that happened, I just wouldn’t work out at all. The perfect – following my program precisely – became the enemy of the good – doing something rather than nothing.

But more recently, I’ve started to use a simple, standard fallback workout: I pull a 24kg kettlebell from my closet and do a single set of 50-75 swings.

That’s it. All in, it takes about two minutes, but it’s still a serious kick in the lungs, and a great way to train the muscles of my grip and my entire posterior chain – from my upper back down through my glutes, hamstrings, and calves.

Because I’ve made that one workout the default, I can hop right in, even when I don’t have the energy to think about what to do. And, though it’s short, it’s enough to make a meaningful contribution to my overall health.

Even more importantly, it’s also enough for me to be able to chalk the day up as a fitness success.

I’ve written before about aiming to never miss twice, and I think that’s still an excellent mantra – it’s the surest way to avoid letting one skipped workout become a whole month down the tubes.

But in crazy times, a short, simple, no-thought-required fallback plan also makes it much, much easier to make sure your day doesn’t become a ‘miss’ in the first place.

Skid In

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‘Wow! What a Ride!’

—Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway

Super Bowl 2017 Party Betting

Most years, the Super Bowl is our country’s best-watched TV event. Yet while Super Bowl parties are usually excellent fun – the magical combination of great ads and seven-layer dip – a lot of people attending don’t seem to care about, or pay much attention to, the actual football itself.

In years past, especially when I was in film, I often heard from family and friends in the lead-up to the Oscars – another big TV event. They were competing in Oscar prediction pools, and looking for insider advice. Many of them didn’t care much about the outcome of the Oscars inherently, hadn’t even seen all of the movies in contention. But, just by staking positions on the winners (as often as not solely for bragging rights, rather than with money on the line), they inevitably seemed to be more excited about, and better engaged in, the award show itself.

So, this year, at my brother David’s annual Super Bowl party, we’re trying the same thing. We’ve put together a list of 25 bets – about the game itself and the hoopla surrounding it – and are having all the attendees take their best guess on each. Here, too, there’s no money hinging on it, though we’re trying to round up a crown or trophy we can use, a la the Stanley Cup: whoever gets the most answers right will keep it until they have to defend the title at next year’s Super Bowl.

If my theory is correct, that should keep everyone engaged and enjoying much more than they otherwise might.

Here are our questions:

  1. Will Luke Bryan be wearing a hat when he appears on screen before singing the US National Anthem?
    Yes / No
  2. How long will it take for Luke Bryan to sing the US National Anthem?
    Over 2’9” / Under 2’9”
  3. Will any player on the Falcons or Patriots roster be seen kneeling during the National Anthem on TV during live broadcast?
    Yes / No
  4. What will the coin toss be?
    Heads / Tails
  5. Which coach will be mentioned by name first after kickoff?
    Dan Quinn / Bill Belichick
  6. Who will throw the first touchdown pass?
    Tom Brady / Matt Ryan
  7. Who will be ahead at the end of the first quarter?
    Patriots / Falcons
  8. Who will be ahead at the end of the first half?
    Patriots / Falcons
  9. How big will the first half spread be?
    Fewer than 5 points / 5 points or greater
  10. What color will Lady Gaga’s hair be when she comes on stage for the halftime show?
    Blonde / Any other color
  11. Which song will Lady Gaga play first during the halftime show?
    Born this Way / Bad Romance / Edge of Glory / Poker Face / Just Dance / Other
  12. Will Lady Gaga say “Trump” at any point during the halftime show?
    Yes / No
  13. Who will be ahead at the end of the third quarter?
    Patriots / Falcons
  14. Will the game go into overtime?
    Yes / No
  15. Who will win the Super Bowl?
    Patriots / Falcons
  16. How big will the final spread be?
    Fewer than 5 points / 5 points or greater
  17. What color will the liquid be that is poured on the winning coach?
    Clear / Lime-Green / Orange / Yellow / Red / Blue / Purple
  18. Who will the MVP be?
    Tom Brady / Matt Ryan / Anyone Else
  19. Will any player do the the “Dirty Bird” touchdown celebration?
    Yes / No
  20. How many field goals will be made?
    Five or fewer / More than five
  21. Will either team try a ‘flea flicker’ trick play?
    Yes / No
  22. Will either team score three straight times?
    Yes / No
  23. How many Super Bowl commercials will Peyton Manning appear in between kickoff and final whistle?
    One or fewer / Two or more
    (Note: multiple airings of the same commercial will be counted separately.)
  24. How many times will Gisele Bundchen be shown between kickoff and final whistle?
    One or fewer / Two or more
  25. How many times will Donald Trump tweet between kickoff and final whistle?
    One or fewer / Two or more

In case you want to try the same thing yourself, here’s a printable PDF of the 25 questions. If you try it out, email me and let me know how it works!

February 2, 2017

Casted

While I'm working, I try to avoid multitasking, because a decade of research has shown that human brains suck at it.

But during relatively large swaths of my days, I end up doing non-work, low-brain-intensity tasks: I spend cumulative hours walking my dogs, riding the subway, shopping for groceries, cooking dinner. And through all of that, I usually listen to audio from my iPhone.

For the first half of the day, it's audiobooks. I tend to read non-fiction with my eyeballs, and listen to fiction with my ears; between the two, I can easily cruise through a book or more each week.

But from lunch on, I primarily listen to podcasts. Alongside a couple of news-aggregating daily emails, and an occasional jaunt through Twitter, it’s how I get nearly all of my world news and analysis. And it’s my primary channel for finding interesting new people, ideas, books, films, and more.

A number of friends and family members have mentioned that they, too, want to take up more podcast listening; but with literally hundreds of thousands of podcasts on iTunes, it’s often hard to know where to start.

To that end, here’s what I listen to regularly. My own interests vary pretty widely, so your mileage may vary. It’s also worth noting that the current list veers more heavily towards politics and policy than it did a year ago, now that we live in the land of Trump. But, regardless of your interests, I think these are all at least worth a single episode test-listen; in my experience, after just a couple of minutes, you’ll be able to decide whether each warrants further listening/subscribing or not.

I’m a big fan of the Overcast app, which I find far easier to wrangle than iOS’s built-in Podcasts app. So, rather than link the below Podcasts to their iTunes pages, I’d suggest you download Overcast, and just enter the below names into its search engine (the plus sign at the top right of the app) to find them instead.

I listen to pretty much every episode of these shows:

  • The Art of Charm
  • The Ezra Klein Show
  • FiveThirtyEight Politics
  • Fresh Air
  • Pod Save America
  • Slate’s Political Gabfest
  • The Tim Ferriss Show
  • Vox’s The Weeds

These are more hit-or-miss for me, though I listen to a good number of their episodes:

  • 99% Invisible
  • a16z
  • Barbell Shrugged
  • Brute Strength Podcast
  • Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
  • Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
  • FoundMyFitness
  • Freakonomics Radio
  • Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin
  • The Joe Rogan Experience
  • Longform
  • On the Media
  • Planet Money
  • Radiolab
  • Savage Lovecast
  • Slate’s Culture Gabfest
  • TED Radio Hour
  • This American Life
  • Waking Up with Sam Harris

And, finally, here are some newly-discovered shows that I think are likely to be good, but I can’t yet really vouch for:

  • Conversations with Tyler
  • Intercepted
  • Pod Save the World

It’s pretty extraordinary that all of this content is available free online in today’s world. Take advantage of that, and give these shows a listen yourself.