3 Things: Pickle, Adam Conover, and Gaspar Marcos
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:
The first episode of The Payoff is out now. It's a new podcast from Mic.com about personal finance. I co-host the show with Antonia Cereijido (from NPR's Latino USA). In this episode, we learn how to buy stocks (like, actually how to do it), interview the author ofFinancially Fearless, and look at how the repeal of Obamacare is going to directly affect our bank accounts (and yours too, probably). Link
Wednesday, February 1st at 8 p.m. ET Evan Kaufman and I host a standup show live on a new network, Dreams TV, that you can watch anywhere on your phone. Great comics, futuristic technology, and us two buffoons. Link
MADRID, SPAIN:
Friday, January 26th to Sunday, January 28th at Only You Hotel Atocha. I'm here in Madrid for two more nights, telling jokes and learning basic Spanish vocabulary. Link
NEW YORK:
Sunday, February 5th at 3 p.m. at The Wild Project. Did you know the Super Bowl is on 2/5? I just found out. So we're doing You Get A Spoon earlier in the day to not conflict. Come for an afternoon of performances, prizes, and kitchenware. The Comedy Bureaucalled it "one of the 100 best things in comedy." Link
ATLANTA:
Tuesday, March 21st at 7:30 p.m. at the Atlanta Science Festival. Tickets for You're the Expert in Atlanta with Chuck Bryant from Stuff You Should Know just went on sale. This show will definitely sell out. Link
My full calendar with all upcoming shows is online here.
This week's list
1 Thing I Think Is Great:
Pickle is a delightful short film by Amy Nicholson about her family's history of weird pets. Who knew that a story about the lives and deaths of some of the strangest animals is exactly what I needed? I love it. Cross-eyed cats, sick chickens, and a paraplegic possum. But also, a surprisingly moving tale of love, death, and nature. This film has everything. Pickle (h/t Kate)
1 Thing That Made Me Laugh:
I love that comedy can make people laugh but also allow them to hear ideas and arguments that they'd otherwise ignore. George Carlin said that when you laugh, your defenses are down and "if a new idea slips in at that moment, it has a chance to grow." Adam Conover's latest video about the border wall is hilarious, full of verifiable facts, and absolutely worth watching. It's a great piece of comedy and I hope it will help change at least a few minds. Adam Ruins Everything: Why A Wall Won't Stop Immigration
1 Interesting Thing:
With so much heated political rhetoric, it's worth taking a look at the stories of actual immigrants, rather than just lumping them all together in a group. Gaspar Marcos is a kid in Los Angeles. He came to the United States all on his own from Guatemala. He goes to high school during the day and works at night to pay the bills. The LA Times followed him for a day. This is exactly the kind of hardworking, kind-hearted person we should be fighting to keep in our country. I'll also add that so much of the conversation right now seems to center on "illegal" versus "legal" immigrants. But we're the people who make the laws. The only reason my ancestors arrived in the United States legally is because the law allowed them too. Closing our borders and pretending we have no choice is wrong, immoral, and illogical. Unjust laws don't justify persecuting human beings. I hope we remember that. The life of an unaccompanied minor in L.A.
Thanks for reading. Take care of yourselves,
Chris
NEW PODCAST: The Payoff by Mic
I'm the cohost of the new podcast all about how to handle your money and the first episode is out now!
Mic shows you how to save money, get wealthy, and hack your financial life in this series hosted by Chris Duffy and Antonia Cereijido. Every week, our team brings you financial news you can use, industry insights, and simple explainers on how current events are affecting your wallet. Tune in every other Thursday – available anywhere you get your podcasts.
3 Things: Larissa MacFarquhar, The Onion, and Chris Koentges
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 switch—what new thought, or new chance—had 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
