The Essay!

Dear CNFers and the CNF adjacent,

I haven’t seen Ahsoka, the latest (as of this newsletter) Star Wars Story on Disney+. Nor have I seen the animated series The Clone Wars, but it’s my understanding that Anakan Skywalker, who would one day become the baddest motherfucker in the galaxy, trained Ahsoka in the ways of the Force.

And here’s the point: All Jedi, no matter how “elite” or “skilled,” no matter their midi-chlorian counts, take on an apprentice, a padawan. Part of the evolution of a Jedi is to pass along the information. Jedis are not hoarders. Admittedly, Anakin is something a dick, but if the “Chosen One” can be a mentor, what excuse do we have?

Odds are that Jedis (OK, setting aside the fact that Jedis are fictional … looking at you, Donna.) start teaching before they feel worthy of teaching. Teaching is symbiotic. Teaching isn’t the end of one journey and the beginning of the other. You don’t start teaching because you’ve learned all you can know, or can no longer practice the art. I’ve always hated that phrase “Those who can’t do teach.” What an insulting and debilitating phrase. [Sidebar: I know I sign off the podcast by saying “if you can’t do interview,” but let’s set that aside. That has to do with my issues of self-esteem and confidence … meaning a lack of both. Gotta stay on brand.]

Yoda, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Luke, they all took a young Jedi-in-training under their wings. It didn’t make them less of a Jedi. It didn’t end their growth. It contributed to it. It also proved that a teacher was putting into practice what they bestowed on a pupil.

Maybe it feels like teaching is the end, because we so often see, at least in my line of work, a journalist with more years behind than ahead, giving up reporting and then teaching the next sorry generation of jaded, burned out, soon-to-be flaks.

Some of our heroes in the trade don’t teach, so it is the assumption that if you must teach then failed to “make it.” I’m ashamed I used to think this way, that teaching was an admission of defeat (I don’t formally teach. I help writers in the best way I know how, but I’m not formally a teacher, by the book).

So let me apologize to the educators, and the teachers who un-hoard while also turning out wonderful and, one hopes, singular work.

On “making it,” perhaps it’s the insecurity that if The Thing isn’t paying our bills, then we haven’t really made it. We have a hobby … as if that’s so terrible. And maybe I soured on teachers because I had, by and large, such burned out, near-retirement, pension-hungry teachers (let’s say 80% of them) in middle and high school that all I saw were weathered people, waiting it out, counting down the days until it’s finally over. My father also was a teacher and he never expressed a love for it. My teachers’ apathy was contagious (I’m sure I didn’t help. I got good grades (3.7), but I was a bad student.).

Have a look at this circle:

And here’s the same image from the side. It ain’t a circle, friend!:

We gain a little experience that we pass along. We gain more experience, and we pass it along. So we’re not going in circles, we’re spiraling up on a creative thermal.

Thank you to the teachers who give/gave a damn.

As you know, this newsletter starts here and goes up to 11!

Books!

1. In Light of All Darkness: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America’s Child by Kim H. Cross. There’s been quite a bit of buzz around this book, a 20/20 feature, and the book and subject matter pushed Kim into uncomfortable territory. Pod TK

2. The Loneliness Files by Athena Dixon

3. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

4. Taking a Shot: Quitting Duke Basketball, Starting a Life by Richard O’Connor

The Other Stuff!

5. My pal Pete Croatto had a wonderful interview with sports broadcasting legend Dan Patrick for GQ Sports. DP is a bucket-list interview for me, as I’d love to speak with Dan about the nuances of the interview. Radio v. TV v. Podcasting, people who are terrible askers of questions (no matter how good the question might be), etc.

6. A fine essay on the brutal wonders of a late-summer run by Nick Ripatrazone.

7. There’s something to be said about reading screenplays. Go ahead and check out Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and learn about nonlinear storytelling, among other things. [Still haven’t seen the movie.]

8. What we lose when streaming companies choose what we watch by Richard Brody.

9. Beth Roars, a past guest on the podcast, has a new album out. It sounds pretty rad. Her cover of “Wicked Games” is unreal, friend.

10. Not sure how “ragey” this is, but Jeffrey Marsh wrote a piece called “Your book can shine on TikTok. I’ll teach you how.”

11. You know something? After reading this by independent journalist Marisa Kabas, who writes the Substack “The Handbasket,” I finally deactivated the last vestige of my connection to Twitter/X. So, RIP @CNFPod on X.

My social media footprint is on Instagram/Threads, FWIW. Will this affect my “platform,” my capacity to sell books, promote events? Maybe, but based on what I tweeted/posted with links to promote the podcast after the E.M. takeover — or anything else for that matter — fewer than 30 of my near-1,700 followers saw it. So, I’m going out on a limb and saying it doesn’t matter. Twitter as we once knew it and came to embrace is dead.

11+. I wrote in a recent Rager about the mad scurry to Threads, how I joined without questioning, then “deleted” it. Turns out, it’s never deleted because I reactivated it in the face of slaying my X so I have, at this census, a population of one social media account.

Support the podcast

If you have a few bucks to spare, Patreon is where it’s at. I’ve started a series of “threads” that start with a little video by me then prompting you to talk amongst yourselves. Any tier! Patreon.com/cnfpod

Free ways to support the show? Kind reviews on Apple Podcasts help validate the show for the wayward CNFer.

And, as always, linking up to the show and sharing it with your writer pals is the best way to keep it alive, relevant, and gives it the best shot at growing a bit.

Thanks for reading, CNFers.

Stay wild,

b.r.o.