The Smell of Smoke After Fireworks

I hope everyone enjoyed a safe and relaxing 4th of July weekend. We had a great time visiting with friends and family and getting recharged. This is not so much a full post; I’m just sharing a few thoughts and a handful of links to interesting reads and bits of news from the last few days.

Independence Day Weekend

My boys and I watched the fireworks in our neighbors’ yard on Saturday night from their bedroom window. What amazed them most was not the fireworks themselves, but the thick plumes of smoke that rose up and wafted through the tall forest that surrounds our home. Later that evening, as I took the trash out to the curb, I could smell the heavy smell of gunpowder mixed with rain. It’s a smell that you get perhaps once a year, but it takes you back to the last time as soon as you notice it.  I still think that smell might be the most powerful sense of all.

Last night we were home before any fireworks began, but a proper barrage started as they lay in their beds getting ready for sleep. They thought it was a thunderstorm, and Jen and I were happy to let them think as much in order to get some rest.

Afterwords from The Future of Podcasting is You 

• If like me, you’re into podcasts and where the medium is going, you may be interested in this new development from the folks at Podbean. Their new advertising program allows brands to get placements on Podbean hosted shows that are read by the show hosts themselves.  Select shows offered this before, but this is a nice benefit for a network.  

• The latest issue of the Hotpod Newsletter from Neiman Journalism Labs is out. Particularly fun is the included profile of the Relay.FM podcast network.

• I was featured on a fun live interview last week with the team at Carpool Talk Show.  Stay tuned for the replay link.

Reminders of Unspeakable Acts

• Legendary author and holocaust survivor Elie Weisel, passed away this weekend at the age of 87. What amazes me is that he actually wrote 57 books; something which seems to be glossed over given his most famous recounts his experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp.  Check out these powerful recaps of his life from the New Yorker and New York Times and get a sense of what is lost now that one of the few remaining witnesses passes away.

• In a bizarre twist today, the leader of the KKK, David Duke responded to (and seemingly condoned) an antisemitic tweet from Donald Trump.  

• I’m listening to one of my favorite all-time albums, the HELP charity album for the war in Bosnia.  It’s a fantastic collection of music, pulled together to support aid for a particularly dark time in recent history. This article from the Guardian recaps the history of the project fairly well, 15 years on.