Harshing Andrew's Vibe, Stealing Andrew's Bit

While it seems like only yesterday, it's been a whole-ass decade since I was the digital producer for Too Beautiful to Live, a daily podcast and attempt to cure global loneliness hosted by Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh.

Based out of the Pacific Northwest, TBTL was part of Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media's podcast network. I was responsible for posting their show to the internets, writing show descriptions, creating and sending their newsletter, updating their blog, fact checking, and sorting out the brown M&Ms from Luke's show rider.

(Kidding about the M&Ms. When I was part of one of MPR's seasonal purges, Luke was the first person to call me and offer his unconditional support, including buying a sword from the mall to threaten some C-suite swells. I will fight God for that man.)

Andrew has since assumed responsibility for the TBTL newsletter, which I hope he writes from a barstool at his beloved neighborhood Eagles Aerie in Seattle. He also sends it every Friday. Close readers of Midwest Excellence may know that I've mentioned that no one reads Friday newsletters. Sorry you had to find out like that, Walshski.

I will note here that my claim, while correct, applies to corporate newsletters. TBTL is a unicorn. Their audience is LOYAL loyal. Andrew could send it at 5pm on Christmas Day and the opens and click rates would make a Best Buy marketing exec walk into traffic.

Still, I should have been more clear in my statement, especially after Andrew mentioned my newsletter in his newsletter, sending a boatload of fresh subscribers to the Midwest Excellence inbox.

To add insult to injury, on Monday I wrote a whole thing on the wild world of Arizona attorney commercials. In Andrew's non-TBTL downtime, he and the wickedly talented Genevieve Haas (not the avocado one) host After These Messages, a podcast about...commercials.

Oof. Just, oof.

Since we all know cyberbullying comes in threes, both these incidents took place after current Too Beautiful to Live digital producer and half-man/half-bear Jon Sklaroff reached out to me to offer welcome advice on my foray into independent media (TBTL, no longer with MPR, is n0w a 100% listener-funded enterprise), subscription rates, and buying t-shirts in bulk. As a Terrible Businessman™, I've yet to incorporate his wisdom. But I will!

Anyhammer, consider this my apology:

*Listen to TBTL and maybe join me as a supporter. Definitely subscribe to the free newsletter.

*Watch Luke on CBS Sunday Morning or listen to him on Live Wire and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. (He has a lot of jobs, people. I'm probably forgetting one.)

*If you're ever at the Eagles in Seattle, buy a round of Rainiers for Andrew, Ders, and Camaro Kev.

TODAY IN MURALS

Wes Burdine, proprietor of St. Paul's Black Hart, informed me that the artist behind the La Guitarrista image featured in Tuesday's newsletter is Rock Martinez, the same person responsible for his bar's fucking iconic Megan Rapinoe mural.

Minnesota is just a big small town, and parts of it extend to the desert southwest.

See you tomorrow for Minnesota's 85th best county.