It's a party

Welcome back to Thinking Is Cool, the podcast and newsletter here to make your next conversation better than your last. I’m your host Kinsey Grant. If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. 

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Good morning and happy Friday, everyone! Here’s to manifesting positive vibes and finding your optimal wavelength and protecting your gut microbiome this weekend. Ugh sorry if I sound different—it’s because I’m sending this email from Los Angeles.

Josh and I are here to meet with some internet friends we’ve really only known on Twitter and Gmail for the last 15 months. LA is no New York, but it’s nice to be in the sunshine and to work on getting back in fighting shape as far as IRL social interactions go. Only quoted two TikTok audio trends in conversation at our event last night. Progress!

Now, I have an important update: This email is going to be a little different from my usual Friday blogs. In a good way. Let me explain.

Since the time I started Thinking Is Cool, making podcasts that are tailored to you has been one of my top priorities. The first time I sent this email, I literally wrote this: “I’ll give you an explanation of the topic du jour, explain why I can’t stop thinking about it, and open the floor to questions, comments, and ideas from all of you. That way, each episode will be chock-full of specific questions and answers inspired by you, your ideas, and your POVs. Bespoke podcasting, if you will.”

But because these MF podcasts don’t make themselves, I had to send those blogs well in advance of the corresponding episode releases in order to include that insight in the episode. Many of you let me know it was confusing—there were blogs and newsletters and episodes and they were all over the place. So...

I still want to do bespoke podcasting. But I want to do it in a way that’s less confusing.

So starting today, we’re going to try something different. On Fridays, I’m going to share with all of you some of the things I can’t stop thinking about this week. I’ll let you know what episode I’m working on so you can continue to share your thoughts, ideas, and feedback...but it’s just more casual.

For the sake of over-communication, here’s the Thinking Is Cool content calendar:

• Monday → You get a new episode of Thinking Is Cool accompanied by the newsletter for additional context.

• Friday → You get this email, the Thinking Is Cool blog, to hear what our (growing!) team is working on, read what I read, and offer any ideas you have about upcoming content.

• Saturday → You get to watch me get kind of tipsy at odd hours of the day in my Instagram live. Speaking of, keep scrolling to find out who my special guest this week is.

It’ll be great. And as always, if you have feedback on how I can do this whole ~content creation~ thing better, I’m all ears.

New email format? New vibes? Sounds like the perfect time to share Thinking Is Cool with a friend...just saying…

Share Thinking Is Cool with Kinsey Grant

Let’s dive in.

What I’m Doing This Week

We had a party. A real party! With strangers I’d never met! And just one too many Tito’s martinis with a lemon twist!

Earlier this week, the Thinking Is Cool crew got together a ragtag group of high-achievers and party people with our friends at Olipop, Postscript, and Gorgias to celebrate New York reopening. It was really fantastic to shake hands and rub elbows and feel the crippling anxiety of not knowing how to butt into a conversation that started without you.

We’re vibing out in the City of Angels. As I mentioned at the top, I’m in LA this week for what can only loosely be defined as a work trip. It’s not work if you’re doing what you love!!

It’s also mostly just Josh and me hanging out with internet friends and riding scooters. Still haven’t seen Shawn Mendes, but I’m not giving up hope yet.

We did a panel with Propel last night about the ways creators are engaging young people in public discourse—nice to know the LA contingent of the Thinking Is Cool community is holding it down so well from afar. Don’t believe what you read about vapid LA folks. They can think and they can think well.

What I’m Reading This Week

I say what I’m reading, but I mean what I’m reading, listening to, and watching this week. Just go with it.

First up? I got no fewer than seven texts asking “what do you think about this” in reference to this story:

And here’s what I think: Good for Alex Cooper. Good for Spotify. Good for podcasts. 

This deal is not entirely revolutionary in that Spotify has been on a top talent buying spree for a while now—it has exclusivity with other mega-popular hosts like J*e R*gan and Dax Shepard and literal and metaphorical royalty like the Obamas, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry.

But it’s hard to overstate what an accomplishment this is for Alex Cooper. While we might not have a lot in common in terms of the approach to content creation, I can absolutely respect the hell out of her hustle. She went from a $70k base salary working for a shitty guy (re-upping my Barstool episode feels right) to making many millions working for one of the best companies in the game. Not too shabby.

Now...if anyone wants to pay $60 million for a three-year Thinking Is Cool deal, please have your people get in touch with my people.

Next: This Very Good Twitter Thread™ from Donye Taylor, founder of The Digital Footprint

Last but not least: A fun novel! Because not everything you consume has to arm you with tons of seemingly useless information you store on the off chance Yuval Harari’s teachings might someday come up at a dinner party.

This week, I’m reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I know I’m late to the party, but at least I’m here.

What I’m Working on This Week

Episode 7 of Thinking Is Cool coming out on June 28. It’s going to be about the future of political parties in the United States, and it’s inspired by all the times I’ve tried to have a conversation about politics with my conservative family and cried in Democrat.

In all seriousness, I do view the future of partisan politics as one of the issues that will come to define our generation. If the past five years have taught us anything, it’s that we can’t keep going on like this—ripped apart at the seams by the polarization of just about everything.

I mean, we all know that this country’s founding fathers were all “hey this whole two-party system seems like a sus idea” from the jump. And yet, here we are. 

• I told my sister she couldn’t swipe right on anyone with “moderate” in their Hinge profile. 

• I had to Tweet about the episode to find a conservative guest because I don’t know anyone my age who is openly a Republican. 

• Tucker Carlson still has his own show.

That’s a sad state of affairs, and it’s one I’ve contributed to. So in an effort to figure out how we engineer a future with more common ground and less polarization, I’m making a podcast. I’m speaking to political reporters, political activists on both sides of the aisle, and both political and apolitical friends to gain more insight into what our shared future might look like. Because Bernie Sanders and Mitt Romney can’t live forever (I think). We either inherit a broken system or build a new one—one that works better for more people.

I would love to hear what you have to say about the future of political parties here in the US. Do you think they’ll last? Should they last? Should the democratic experiment in general last? How often do you find yourself in the presence of people who disagree with your politics? Are you optimistic about the future of our country?

Hit reply or chime in on this Tweet to share your thoughts. Can’t wait to hear ’em.

The first time I met my best friend Hannah, she was 11 years old, my neighbor, and obsessed with volleyball and 3OH!3. Now, she’s 26 years old, lives in Georgia, and just had her first baby.

You’d think that because we are pretty different, the same would be true of our finances. But because HMBradley is tailored to each individual customer, it’s actually perfect for both of us. 

HMBradley, our exclusive launch sponsor, offers a high-yield checking account and a credit card with cash-back rewards...and they make those things easy to share with your friends.

Now with HMBradley’s referral program, I can share my best-kept finance secret with Hannah. You know what, I’ll let you all (my dear friends) in on this secret too. Use my link, and you can lock in HMBradley’s highest Savings Tier as soon as your first direct deposit arrives. That's 3.00% APY on deposits up to $100,000 for up to three months...that’s lifelong friend stuff right there.

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Thank you for reading the new and improved Thinking Is Cool blog. I’m really grateful that I get to basically brain dump to all 3,000 of you every week—this relationship I’m in with all of you is so special to me. It makes me feel happier, more creative, and more supported every single time I hit send and hear back from y’all. Glad you’re here, okay?

If you want to keep hanging out, I’m going live on Instagram (follow me here) tomorrow at 1pm eastern with a very special guest—Eli Rallo, aka @thejarr on TikTok aka the modern-day Carrie Bradshaw. We’re going to talk about the episode that came out this week: girlbosses, commoditized feminism, and the ways they impact all of us. Eli is smart, incisive, and hilarious, and you should check out her TikTok, newsletter, and Instagram before tomorrow.

And of course, there’s a new episode of Thinking Is Cool on Monday. It’s about bitcoin, so whether you’re a crypto bro or someone who makes fun of them...it’s got something for everyone. Can’t wait for you to hear it.

’Til next time,

Kinsey