3 Things: Larissa MacFarquhar, The Onion, and Chris Koentges / by Chris Duffy

Hi friends,

It's Saturday! Every week, I send out an email with one thing I think is great, one thing that made me laugh, and one thing I found interesting. Feel free to spread the word and share these emails with friends. If you're checking this out for the first time, you can sign up to get these emails here.

 Upcoming shows

EVERYWHERE:
A new episode of You're the Expert is out today all about a scientist who studies butterflies. Ken Reid, Rachel Rosenthal, and Corey Rodrigues learn the secrets of nature's prettiest bug.   Link

I'm the co-host of a new podcast from Mic.com all about money. Antonia Cereijido (from NPR's Latino USA) and I learn how to handle our own finances, interview people who actually know what to do with money, and find out how each week's news affects our bank accounts. It's called The Payoff and the first episode comes out on Monday but you can subscribe here now:  Link

MADRID, SPAIN:
Friday, January 26th to Sunday, January 28th at Only You Hotel Atocha. I'm headlining a weekend of standup shows this weekend at a NYC-themed hotel sponsored by Seagram's. Link

NEW YORK:
Sunday, February 5th at 7:00 p.m. at The Wild Project. You Get A Spoon is back in NYC with another night of incredible performances, audience prizes, and one spectacular spoon. Come see the show that The Comedy Bureau called "one of the 100 best things in comedy." Link

My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.

 This week's list

1 Thing I Think Is Great:


"The qualities that get people into prison may not be so different from the ones that get them into college." Larissa MacFarquhar's profile of the Underground Scholars Initiative starts with two students at UC-Berkeley meeting on their first day and realizing they'd both been in Pelican Bay, one of the nation's toughest prisons. It ends with the two men transforming the lives of countless inmates. "'I've always been somebody who went out and got what I wanted,' Murillo says. 'Fifteen years old, I was selling crack cocaine and making close to fifteen hundred dollars an ounce. I was a very resourceful individual.' But what switchwhat new thought, or new chancehad deflected Murillo and Czifra from one track to the other? The trick was to go back over their lives and figure out how they'd done it." Building a Prison-to-School Pipeline
 

1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:


Sometimes I overlook the best comedy because I assume everyone must already know about it, but if you're struggling with finding a way to laugh about the depressing new political realities, let me assure you that The Onion has always had, and continues to have, some of the very best satire possible. Check out their latest headlines, but also don't miss the incredible work they've done over the years creating two of the most hilarious characters of all time, Onion Joe Biden and Onion John Kerry.


1 Interesting Thing:

Chris Koentges embeds in a Muslim enclave to report on homegrown fanaticism. It turns out that America's largest Arab enclave, Dearborn, Michigan, cares passionately about...football. Koentges gets deep into what it means to be an American these days, and why tensions between Cowboys fans and Lions fans are running high. As American As The Dallas Cowboys


Thanks for reading. Take care of yourselves,
Chris