266. Read. Look. Drink.

We’re voracious consumers of culture. And each week, a member of our team shares the words, images, and beers that inspired them.

READ.// “Freelance writing is like that scene from Aladdin where the cave collapses, and Aladdin has to hop from rock to rock as everything around him falls into a pit of lava. Talk about a life full of excitement!” Thanks to Carlos Greaves and the team at McSweeney’s for the reminder of how emotionally untenable being a writer can feel! A key part of this journey, after all, is moments of Nietzsche-fueled existential dread about purpose, skill, and the ability to pay all your bills at the same time. Laughter is the best medicine, so I’m just gonna take another serving of this short satire every four hours and hope my symptoms don’t continue.

LOOK.// Ah, yes. There’s that existential dread again. “Jeremiah Ariaz was looking for signs of democracy” is a helluva explanation of this photo essay that shows the remnants of print newspapers across Kansas. Some newsrooms are carcasses stripped bare. Some are time capsules with withering books and machinery that might as well be in museums. Desks and workable phones still exist at others. Ariaz’s travels remind us of the power that used to exist in these spaces, and what happens when it disappears. “I have to feel that something is missing when that ability for a citizen to engage is lost,” Ariaz said.

DRINK.// Athletic Brewing Company’s Round of Cheers Brut IPA
My primary care doctor told me I needed to drink less alcohol for the foreseeable future. It felt somewhat ironic that I heard this on my 38th birthday—and had just recently come across this non-alc beer by one of the leaders in the space. This beer is maybe the best non-alc IPA I’ve ever had; if I’m not gonna drink the real thing, the facsimile—dry, and with a clear hop profile—will do just fine. I just have to reconcile the fact that no regular craft brewer wants to make Brut IPA, and how funny it is that one of the best versions of the style may just come from Athletic.

Words by Bryan Roth