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Become a Patron!John Eisenberg knew he wanted to write books from a very young age. He has written eleven … his latest being Rocket Men: The Black Quarterbacks Who Revolutionized Pro Football (Basic Books).
It’s an amazing history that tackles (pardon the football pun) the institutionalized/structural racism of the NFL from the perspective of the quarterback position.1
There was a time when Black men were thought mentally incapable of handling the position, but they were encouraged to change positions to less intellectually demanding positions. Yeah.
In this conversation, John talks about the research that went into this book, how each biography or book has to come from your point of view (as in it’s not just A book on a topic but YOUR book on a topic), interviewing for information vs. scene, lots of great nuggets in here.
Visit John’s website to learn more about his other books and if you’re a Baltimore Orioles fan, he has a popular Substack called The Bird Tapes.
As always, this podcast only grows hand to hand, so if you dig it, talk it up, and maybe consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or a rating on Spotify.
Parting Shot: Where Did the Fun Websites Go?
Of late I’ve been having fun writing blog posts. They are usually short essays on long running, about 200-300 words on a riff that comes to mind when I’m out for a jog or a walk. It’s very old school, this idea of a pre-social media internet where you had to seek out the people you liked. Bookmark their websites and actively visit them to see if they posted anything new.
I miss the internet when there were fun things to read and waste your time on. It was like browsing a magazine stand. You had the agency of consumption. That’s why I still love Maria Popova’s The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings). I’m not always crazy about her writing style, but I love that it’s always about art, philosophy , creativity, a well-curated, nourishing place to hang out. Like a path through a garden. There’s no video, no ads, no audio, just text. I hate when you click on what you think might be an article and — pysche! — it’s actually a 90-minute podcast.
I used to love, but not anymore, Tim Ferriss’s blog because there was always some life hacky thing when I was into life hacky things. I mourn the time I wasted in my late 20s early 30s … but we’re not going to go there … I like that Austin Kleon still blogs like it’s 2009. Seth Godin keeps it going. I guess I just miss when people blogged about shit they were into. Not to build a brand. Not to be an influencer of any kind.
So, yes, I’ve been writing more blog posts, I post these parting shots as part of the show notes, and they act as blog posts in a way. My newsletter riff is like a super blog post.
Thing is, we got lazy2 … we outsourced the network effect and the community building to these mega tech platforms. It corralled us for their own ends. So posting to Facebook, IG, Twitter, Bluesky, Snapchat, Threads, … it all feels effective, and maybe someone wins the virality lottery one day … and what does that net you? I can’t imagine it’s much except maybe that shiny new stalker you always never asked for.
Point being, there’s joy in inconvenience. I don’t care if 0 people read my blog posts about some inane thought I had while laboring through a 4 or 6-mile run. I may or may not share it on social media to build a wee bit of awareness, but honestly, more people listen to this parting shot than will ever see a Bluesky post or an IG story … and trust me, not many people listen through to this point, depressingly little.
Maybe find the love of blogging again. Find the love of blogs again. Try not to outsource it to Substack, who really harness the means of distribution. Be OK with making people find you. It’s frustrating and slow and there was never much of a rush until we were brain fucked by social media, so maybe slow down a moment and remember it wasn’t always this way and we don’t have to keep putting coins in the slot machine.
- Make no mistake: Structural racism is still very much present especially in the coaching ranks … but that’s another book for another day. … ↩︎
- Blog on this TK. ↩︎
