This Molly's calling me. Molly, I'll call you back. Hang on. Listen to this. Wait. Check it out.
Hey, you there? Can I call? All right. Can I call you right back? Yeah, call me back. All right. Bye.
Um, I'm going to call Molly back. Um, anyway, what was I saying? So the Wall Street or the Wall Street, the Washington Post firings and some thoughts on that, and I touched upon this the other day. We are going to see, I think, a nice influx of some, I hope, some really good Substacks that are going to be very worthwhile. For example, and forgive me if I'm repeating myself because I've said this in a few different places, but on the day, or it might have been the day after, there was this woman who posted a video. She had just been in Park City covering Sundance. She's an arts writer for the Washington Post. She lost her job and she made this lovely, emotional, touching video about the experience and what it meant. And I, like a lot of others, left a comment in support. My gist was basically, I hate to watch this. Take your time with this. Be kind to yourself, but you will be okay and something will come up for you. And I think for a lot of people, some of them are better off in the employee kind of worker bee, soldier role, you know, signing a W-4 or signing a W-2.
Others have an entrepreneurial spirit, like extreme examples being Don Lemon, Katie Couric, people who have gone out on their own here on Substack. And the good news is that we have, and thank you guys for these paid subscriptions coming in. I'm watching them come in in real time and I just could not be more grateful. I will continue. At this rate, I will be topless by the end of the video. If that's what this feels like. I feel like I'm on stage and you guys are throwing singles out onto the stage. That's what it feels like. You guys are throwing fives and singles on the stage. I will be shirtless by the end of this live.
But seriously, some of these, this talent of these reporters at the Washington Post, like a third of their newsroom, there's a lot of talent there. And I would say to them, as I would say to this woman, if she wrote a Substack and published every day, if I were a film writer like this, I could see myself doing something like this. And I'm thinking of Heather Cox Richardson as a model because Heather Cox Richardson puts out here on Substack 1,200 words a day. There is technically not a paywall around any of her stuff. Any paid subscriber, any paid subscription is just a suggestion, not a mandatory one. She puts out 1,200 words a day. If this writer did three or 500 words a day, even on a movie, something that's currently out in the theaters, something that is just out on streaming, or an old movie that she thinks we might... We were talking at dinner last night with my friends. We were talking about Tootsie. And I was thinking about recently the other day, All the President's Men, which is a great film for the moment. But anyway, Tootsie, for example, like there's a ton of great stuff coming out now. And then today's column is about Tootsie, you know, and was Tootsie directed by Mike Nichols or Sydney Pollack? Somebody comment, I can't remember. Anyway, but I would read that column. I would subscribe to her Substack is my point.
There's something, there's something really, there's something for everybody. There are tools here. Substack. I can do a, I can spin off this live video right here. I've done it. The audio can be an episode of my podcast because my podcast is... Thank you, Meg. Sydney Pollack directed Tootsie. I thought so. We were talking about Sydney Pollack last night. And how I find him, always found him low-key sexy, whether we're talking about Tootsie, Eyes Wide Shut, favorite Christmas movie, or one of them, and Husbands and Wives.
Anyway, there's something here on Substack for everybody. If you're, and I'm not being paid to do this, but if you're a writer, if you're a podcaster, if you do videos, if you do lives like this, I mean, I'm kind of a bit of a master of, a jack of all trades, master of none here, a generalist, if you will. But while my heart goes out and breaks for these people, these talented people who devoted their lives to careers as journalists, reporters, editors, we are in a time now where we have unprecedented access to tools to help us with a little to no barrier to entry. If you want to start a podcast, you can. If you want to start a YouTube channel, my friend Keith Edwards was working with, I think he was at the Lincoln Project. And Keith Edwards in the last, I want to say, year and a half, hustling, making videos all the time. His YouTube channel is on fire and he's kind of doing it all by himself. Another great example is Aaron Parnas. I hope you guys are following Aaron Parnas. His political videos are so good, or just not political, it's just breaking news. I would say that that's his tone.
Yeah, so it's a frightening time for these people, but at the same time, considering the tools at our disposal, podcasts, YouTube, I'm not so much on TikTok lately, Substack, Instagram if that's your thing, or start a blog. I mean, I still believe in blogs. It's reading. It's, I love good writing. I love good writing. I was reading Michael Ian Black's. So, I'm a huge fan of his writing. Michael Ian Black, the comedic actor, and I think, is that show on CNN still on? Have I Got News for You? I auditioned for that. I auditioned to be one of the panelists/hosts of that show. It was a fun audition. It was all day. I auditioned with Michael. I auditioned with Amber Ruffin. We had a good time and I respect all of those people and I think Michael Ian Black is a really smart voice, very articulate. He's a great writer.
So, all on Substack, right? So, barring the fact that Substack allows Nazis to have platform here, which is a problem. We don't have to subscribe. Like, show them with your money. Unsub, don't subscribe to them. But that's it. That's kind of my diatribe about, yes, I feel terrible for these journalists, editors, and what have you, but at the same time, it's kind of an exciting time and a great time to be independent. For a minute, in the early days of Don Lemon's independent outing, I might have argued that Don could be auditioning for another gig at a cable network like NewsNation or MSNBC Now or whatever. Now, I don't, I think he's really fine where he is. I think he really likes being independent and, you know, whether you like him or not, you have to acknowledge that he's using the model well, very well, Don is. And so there's something there for everybody.
And I know that it's tricky for some reporters and journalists who are used to being part of a system or a collective, whether it's a magazine or a newspaper, where you report to someone. When you're independent, you're not reporting to anybody. And I've had a little taste of both. I've been mostly like, I had, I started my blog like 15 years ago and dabbled in YouTube and podcasting and Instagram and all of that. And I've also written for magazines. I've contributed to Air Mail. I was a contributor to this magazine here in New York called Avenue for about a year. And when I was in the brief minute I was living in Cleveland, I used to write for Cleveland Magazine. So there is something really great about having an editor and someone to say, rethink that thought. We need another paragraph there because when you're the writer and you don't have another pair of eyes looking at the draft, it can be helpful when you've got another pair of eyes on what you're doing because you're looking at the label from inside the bottle. But flip it around. It's also nice to be independent.
You just need the, the only my sticking point with being independent is the discipline. But like anything else, it's like going to the gym. And once you get into the habit of, and I'm challenging myself to do this, to write something every day, 300 words, it's not that much. Not for me anyway. I can do that. What I need to do is strap myself to the chair and not get up until I've got at least a draft. Doesn't have to be perfect. A draft of 300 words. Then go get a drink of water, pour another cup of coffee, you know, have an orange, do some stretches, and then go back and refine it and then spit it out because it's every day. It doesn't have to be perfect. It's like soap operas. Like there was, like, you know, technically what they had to do in the span of a day is like, you know, so there are a lot of errors, it's not going to be perfect. Heather Cox Richardson is not writing Shakespearean sonnets, you know, on a daily basis. The point is the discipline of getting 1,200 words out every day, you know. So...
That's it about that. Anyway, I am warm in here. I am fortunate to have heat. I am staring at a birds of paradise potted plant that needs a little TLC. I'm going to have to trim off some stalks of that because there's a little... Anyway, and I'm going to do a little cleaning. It's Saturday. And I'm going to work on my own newsletter. So, thank you guys for hanging out. Thank you for listening, watching, however you're consuming this. Thank you for subscribing. And the biggest, sexiest, I want to hook up with all of you. Thank you to those of you who've become paid subscribers. I really do appreciate it. And not just me, but if somebody else on this platform or wherever does something that you find valuable, if you find, like examples for me, you do you, me, I like Michael Ian Black. I like Heather Cox Richardson. I love Andy Borowitz, The Borowitz Report. He's a satirist, political satirist. He is so goddamn funny.
And yeah, so support the people who are doing work that you like. It really makes a difference. And I am really getting so many text messages right now. Yeah, I guess that's the Saturday. What the... And also, by the way, my ringtone, let me share it with you before we go. Because I hate the sound of a ringing phone and I wanted a ringtone that I could enjoy and I changed my ringtone. Because it goes through, here we go, sounds, ringtone. It is called airplane ding. My ringtone is from an airplane. Ready? It's the sound of... Yeah, that's my ringtone. It is so, it's never not pleasant. It's never not pleasant. And then the text tone. When I get a text, please hold. You'll get a kick out of this. When I get a text, where's my text tone? Here we go. Ready? That's when you need the flight attendant.
Wow, George, you're really good at amusing yourself. Yes, I am. All right, thank you guys so much. I love you all. Let's have a good Saturday. Let's keep fighting the good fight. Get some rest, exercise, eat well, take care of yourself so we've got the energy to fight the battle that is ahead of us. All right. Love you all. Bye.
