Away We Go!

Which was also the original title of Oklahoma!

Hi friends and family,

Since the middle of 2021 I’ve been slowly tinkering on a project that will eventually become a book, for which I’ve chosen the title Carefully Taught. The title comes from a song from the musical South Pacific that alleges to explain how racism works, but I’ve come to learn it did not actually get at the whole story. I’m still working on telling this full story, but wanted to start sharing some of my work in progress.

I also wanted to have a monthly(-ish?) venue to share stories or projects or other items of note that might be interested to others.

So here goes the monthly miscellany! Thanks for reading.

Reading Tip, Friends and Family Edition: Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America by Brendan Ballou

Some of you know my dad and if you don’t, he is a man of few words. But he cannot stop talking about this book so I decided I had to read it, and it did not disappoint. I consider myself pretty up to speed on politics and work in philanthropy, which means I have a front row seat to the world of high-net-worth individuals. The infrastructure of finance and wealth are in my face on a daily if not hourly basis.

But even as savvy as I thought I was about the ways of power and finance, this book was by turns eye-opening and jaw-dropping in the way it exposes the excesses of the private equity industry. For anyone interested in creating a politics that focuses on genuine economic uplift and dismantling wealth inequality it’s an important read.

It’s not exactly uplifting , but it does offer clear policy and political actions at the end. I’m one of those weirdos who looks forward to vacation in order to catch up on depressing nonfiction—my Goodreads account can attest—so for me it was just what I needed to unwind during a recent trip.

Reading Tip, Awesome people at Stanford Edition: Pitch Craft: The Writer’s Guide to Getting Agented, Published, and Paid by Laura Goode

One of the programs I’m responsible for in my job is the Stanford Public Humanities, which helps faculty and students learn how to translate academic research into public-facing projects and write for popular (i.e. nonacademic) media. As an academic who has sometimes uncomfortably straddled the divide between scholarship and journalism it’s a program that’s very close to my heart. (Ask me about my top-performing article in The Opera Quarterly that was declined by another journal for not being “scholarly” enough.)

One of the team members for PubHum, Laura Goode, teaches very in-demand seminars on how to pitch and publish and she has distilled all of her knowledge and wit and wisdom to a highly useful and very readable and entertaining guidebook on how to navigate the publishing world. We held a book celebration for Laura at the end of September and you can hear from her in conversation here.

Listening Tip, The News Is a Lot But We Have to Keep Paying Attention Edition: How Trump Upended 60 Years of Civil Rights

When I began my official reading and research journey for Carefully Taught, the 1619 Project was one of my first stops, and Nikole Hannah-Jones continues to shine the light of truth in our increasingly dark times.

She recently appeared on The Daily podcast to talk about what really has happened to the federal government over the last year, and its implications for the state of Civil Rights in America. Its 40 minutes that are worth your time and will help you get a bigger perspective on where we are, and how things have the potential to get worse. And if you haven’t read the 1619 Project and don’t feel you have the time the TV series they created is equally moving and effective.

Viewing: Tulsa Pride Edition: The Lowdown (Sterlin Harjo)

My partner will tell you that my weekly if not daily rant is that television has become too Trumpy. By this I mean every other show seems to be about rich and powerful people (often a family) jockeying for power (Succession, House of Guinness) or dark conspiracies involving rich and powerful people jockeying for power (The Diplomat, Slow Horses) or funny seemingly liberal shows that nevertheless center rich and powerful people (Hacks, White Lotus, Hunting Wives). I am still watching some but definitely not all of it.

One show bucking this trend is the new FX series The Lowdown, the newest creation of Sterlin Harjo—the maker of the TV series Reservation Dogs and a MacArthur fellow among other accolades. For several years he has been at work on this neo-noir tv series set in my hometown of Tulsa, which I have been describing to friends as The Wire but with more camp and healthy doses of surrealism. It’s a show where the powerful are knocked off their pedestals, and indeed shows how most of them never really deserved to be on a pedestal to begin with. The good guys are also not always the greatest, but are trying their best.

The episodes of The Lowdown have been dropping weekly (on Hulu) and it has not disappointed. It is filmed entirely in Oklahoma and perfectly captures the ethos of Tulsa. I intend to meditate at greater length on a line in the first episode, in which Ethan Hawke’s character, a self-described “truthstorian” inspired by real-life Tulsa journalist Lee Roy Chapman inspires a friend to declare—lovingly—that there is “nothing worse than a white man who cares.” (Interestingly, I think this line could also be the tagline for another FX Series, The English Teacher.)

On a personal level, it’s fun seeing someone I rode the bus with in high school, Josh Fadem, get some more screentime—some of you might know him best as Simon, Liz Lemon’s affable if ineffective agent from 30 Rock. Aside from Josh, my sister-in-law says that she personally knows at least one extra in every episode, so I’ll be compiling that list from her in due course.

Most important, The Lowdown is giving the awesome team at The Pickup, a new-ish online news and culture outlet for Tulsa, the chance to really shine with solid reporting on some of the finer details of the series, such as the appearance of a painting by New York School poet and Tulsa native Joe Brainard.

Their editor Matt Carney recently performed a wonderful public service by watching and reviewing that other show about Tulsa—yet another proof point of my Trumpy theory of television—so no one else has to. Matt, from one white man who cares to another, thank you.

Final Gratuitous Dog Photo

Cinder wishes all a Happy Halloween!