Your Mid-Week Experiment

Had a lot of people contact me after last weekend’s essay to share their disenchantment with politicized cable news, including this from D.A., who had reached the end of his rope with Wolf Blitzer. “Following the lead of an old newsie colleague I’m still in touch with, I did an experiment:  I shut off CNN. That was more than two weeks ago, haven’t heard a peep of CNN since, and the silence is beautiful,” he wrote. “I sit on the porch in the mornings with my iPad and can hear the birds singing and our fountain burbling.” Sounds pretty nice.

I’m going to write more on the news business, because this weekend I’ve got to make a confession: I was part of the problem.

Let’s get to it:

My buddy Bryan Burrough has a new true-crime podcast out called Stephenville. You should check it out. (Texas Monthly)

My friend Jeff Goodell has a new book coming out called The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. Smash that pre-order button. (Hatchet Book Group)

I read this article about tricks to get into deep focus four years ago, and I think about it all the time. (Washington Post)

Happy birthday to Walker Lukens, who’s got a brand new single out.

“You may believe emotions stand in opposition to rational thought, but scientific evidence suggests the opposite is true.” (Fred Kofman)

“Even if they don’t mean any harm, hot people can be very, very stressful.” (Amanda Mull)

The writing in this song is so good:

So the Texas Lieutenant Governor lied about withholding a bill to increase government transparency by preventing law enforcement from withholding certain information in an effort to pressure them to tell the truth if you’re wondering how things are going down here. (ProPublica)

“Mr. Biden understands something fundamental about congressional politics that’s frustrating to journalists, activists and political junkies: It’s often better to just shut up.” (Matthew Yglesias)

Not sure what I think about the latest season of The Great.

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Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself is out from Penguin Random House. The New York Times bestseller is 44% off and the same price as a paperback now!