Taking a leap, with gratitude

Changes a-comin'

Really hoping that’s water down there (Photo by Erik Dungan on Unsplash)

As they say on social media, some personal news: I’ve taken a buyout from my job at WFAE, the NPR station in Charlotte, and will be leaving at the end of the month.

The current plan is for me to do one more episode of SOUTHBOUND and one more Monday morning commentary sometime over the next couple of weeks. The archives of the podcast and the commentaries should still be around, and I hope you go spelunking in there sometime—there’s a lot of work I’m proud of.

Don’t be upset with the station. This was a mutual decision with zero hard feelings. When our CEO told the staff a few weeks ago that the station would have to let some people go, I raised my hand shortly thereafter. I’d been thinking about it for a while. But let me come back to my part of it in a minute. I want to talk a bit about the bigger picture.

You probably saw that Congress has voted to end all federal funding to PBS and NPR, as well as their member stations. For us at WFAE, that means a cut of about 10 percent of our total revenues—not just direct payments, but indirect benefits such as music licensing.

That’s only part of the problem. Donations from corporate sponsors and philanthropic groups have also slowed down—not just for us but for all nonprofits—because America’s current leadership has made our economy unpredictable. And in our particular case, some local groups who have supported the station in the past gave large amounts of money for Hurricane Helene relief. So they don’t have as much to draw on.

Bottom line, the station was hurting even before Congress took a big chunk out of our budget. We announced on Friday that six people are leaving the station as part of the budget cuts. I’m one of those six.

NPR and PBS stations have always counted on listeners and viewers for direct support, and I guess it’s obvious that those places need your help now more than ever. My wife and I will continue to contribute to WFAE as we have for years; if you want to join us, donate here. If you have a different station you listen to or watch, they could use your help.

It’s hard to imagine a world without the incredible programming and news coverage that NPR and PBS have provided over the years … sadly, the people in charge of our country right now would just as soon none of that existed. Markets can’t solve everything. It’s easy to say that commercial stations could have come up with Mister Rogers or Big Bird or FRESH AIR or CAR TALK. But you know what? They never did.

OK, off the soapbox.

This is a pretty big leap for me, at least financially, but as I said up top, I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I’ve loved doing SOUTHBOUND, I’ve learned so much from my colleagues at the station, and it’s been a comfort to have a steady job at a time when so much in the media world (and the world in general) is … unsteady.

What it comes down to, for me, is three simple words: I’m a writer.

I’ve always enjoyed writing more than any other work I’ve ever done. I’ve always been better at writing than I’ve been at anything else. However much time I’ve got left in my working life, I want to spend it writing.

I’ve got a bunch of projects in mind, from big sprawling books all the way down to much smaller pieces, and there are already a few things bubbling on the stove. I’ll let you know about those as they develop. But one thing I’m definitely going to do is bring you more here at the Writing Shed.

I have a folder of half-finished posts, feature ideas, contests, and lots of other things for this newsletter that I haven’t had the time or creative energy to finish. I’m going to dive into those, pick the best stuff and start polishing and publishing. And if you have ideas for things you’d like to see, send them along.

This would normally be the place where I make a big pitch for you to become a paid subscriber to the Shed, if you haven’t already. But I’m not going to do that right now. I mean, if you want to become a paid subscriber, I’m not going to stop you. We still have bills to pay! But I intend to hold myself accountable here. I’ll make the Shed bigger and nicer, and then you can decide whether it’s worth your money.

Here’s the one favor I will ask: Please share the Writing Shed with friends, family members, co-workers, anybody you think will enjoy it. It’s harder than ever to build an audience these days; the old social media algorithms don’t work like they used to. The easiest way to do it is through word of mouth, and that’s my favorite anyway. You can share the Shed lots of different ways simply by mashing the blue button:

Or, you know, just tell somebody. When you’re on the phone with them or seeing them in person or whatever. We should all do that more often!

One last thing: What I really want to do here at the Shed is build a community. I think a lot about the incredible online journal that Roger Ebert kept in the last years of his life … it looks like most of it is offline now (a terrible loss) but you can still find some of his greatest hits. I loved Roger’s essays and stories, but in some ways I loved the comments more. It felt like gathering at a great bar with a bunch of friends. I already feel some of that here—we have some fantastic Shedheads who are regulars in the comments—but I’d like to make the party even bigger.

My favorite part about going to the movies is that moment when the lights go down in the theater. You’re about to experience something new. It might be thrilling or terrifying or heartwarming or heartbreaking or some combination of everything. But when you come out the other end, if the movie did its job, you’re changed. Life looks different now that it did when you walked in.

It’s an exciting time. Here’s to new adventures.

10 things I wanted to share this week:

1. The story that resonated with me the most this week was a profile of Chris Rose, the columnist who more than anyone else told the story of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. His book 1 DEAD IN ATTIC is one of the most powerful collections I’ve ever read. But Katrina exacerbated all of Rose’s personal demons, and after spiraling for years, he disappeared from public life. Now, at 65, he lives in a camper in a state park in Maryland and says he’s happier than he’s ever been. God, I wish him well. (NOLA.com)

2. My friend Kim Cross wrote a beautiful piece on the last ride of Bo Bikes Bama, Bo Jackson’s annual charity bike ride. This story is personal to Kim, who wrote the brilliant book WHAT STANDS IN A STORM about the deadly tornadoes that led Bo to start the ride. (ESPN)

3. Mazi VS claims to be the greatest sports bettor alive. He rakes in cash from followers who pay for his betting tips. But is he really that good? And exactly who is he, anyway? Devin Gordon jumps in Mazi’s Lamborghini to find out … and learns more than he expected. (NYT)

4. My new hero: Melani Sanders, who created the We Do Not Care Club for women in menopause. The NYT profile of her is excellent, but her Instagram feed has all the good stuff.

5. Lord help us, we’ve been watching cat videos recently … the one that stands above the rest for me is the Calm Cat Whisperer, a cat groomer with his own YouTube page and seemingly endless reserves of patience. Here’s his encounter with Beans:
   

6. I’d like to think that if I were a famous director like Wes Anderson, I’d do what he does: put one of his old high school buddies in a bunch of his movies. (NYT)

7. I blew my way through Tana French’s novel THE SEARCHER, about a Chicago cop who goes off to Ireland to start a new life … and of course, stumbles right into a missing-person case that he can’t help but investigate. Really well done.

8. I also finished two of the books in Craig Johnson’s excellent Longmire series: AS THE CROW FLIES and A SERPENT’S TOOTH. (If you’ve never seen the TV version of LONGMIRE, it’s well worth your time.)

9. Euro TV mystery update: We watched the first season of NO OFFENCE, a wild-ass series from the creator of the original British version of SHAMELESS. Rude, crude, funny, horrific, and big-hearted.

10. I’ve been slowly working my through TRACKS 2, Bruce Springsteen’s seven-album (!) set of mostly-unreleased songs recorded between 1983 and 2018. There’s a lot of good stuff in there but the song I keep coming back to is “Shut Out the Light,” which feels like the bridge between NEBRASKA and BORN IN THE U.S.A.

Upcoming events:

• Aug. 2: Casino Theater on St. Simons Island, GA

Have a great weekend, everybody…

—TT