Travel shifts your thoughts. You seemingly do nothing—sit on a plane, stare out the window of a car—yet magically are doing two things at once, going somewhere and reflecting on life. As the US hits the road for one of the few national holidays shared by all 300+ million people, below I share a few conversations to keep you company as you find your way.
Photo: Paul Fetters
I am not sure why travel down roads like the one above is so conducive to thinking. There might be a narcotic effect. We’ve been trekking for tens of thousands of years but it is only in the last 150 or so that we can do so at speed. As a result, we physically arrive in a place fast while the rest of us—call it day-to-day thoughts or even our soul—arrives with some lag. Into that disorienting gap, thoughts flow. I wrote much of Raising a Thief on airplanes.
At some point, however, you grow bored of staring into space or, if you have little kids, trying to stave off chaos. At that point, a voracious appetite develops for a story. This might also be part of the narcotic. Reading a book or hearing a story alone, stationary, is different than hearing one aloud in a group. There is a kindergarten element to it and the story takes on new qualities.
My goal is for Still Press to share stories that are unique. There is of course the audio book of Raising a Thief. Soon the audio book of Master, Minion will get released. But I’m referring specifically to our podcasts, available on Apple podcasts and Spotify. In each, the guest shares the big things they didn’t learn in school. In two years of recording, I have yet to hear the same life lesson. I love that.
Some of our podcasts are remarkable stories by people you have likely never heard of, like Viktor and Leopold Cox, a father-son conversation about immigration, wealth and race. Or chef Tamara Chubinidze’s story about resilience, particularly timely given the holiday. Or neuroscientist David Linden, who talks about how short our time here is.
Others are conversations you won’t hear elsewhere with people who are indeed famous. That includes a conversation about Ray Dalio’s childhood. It also includes conversations with former FBI Director James Comey and Congressman Jim Himes.
There are also subcategories of conversations that are timely. I have had a number of Russia experts. These include writer Dmitry Bykov, Carnegie expert Andrew Weiss and heart surgeon Dr. Alexander Vanyukov. I’ve also had China experts on like Gao Xiqing and Harvard Professor Yuhua Wang.
There are also the entertainers, including basketball star Pat Garrity, ballerina Eleena Melamed, writers David McCloskey and Jay Newman and financiers like Dan Zwirn or my conversation (pre-collapse!) about bitcoin with Michael Casey.
I will be traveling Friday, so no post. Next week I am in Mississippi. You, my awesome readers, seem to particularly like travel posts. My most popular post, according to Substack, is from my trip earlier this year to Turkish-occupied Cyprus. So I am going to try to get out on the road a bit more. (I’ve also heard your feedback for more analytics in the investments section and am working on that).
Mississippi is the poorest state in the US, was home to Faulkner, the birthplace of the blues and the epicenter of slavery. More next week. Subscribers can easily reach me on the Substack chat function. One more thing. If you tire of all the above, my brilliant son created a great playlist to listen to. Click here to get it on Spotify.
To my US readers, Happy Thanksgiving!