I dropped the ball 🗣️🍷

Back in September, I made a commitment to the journalists of Project C, a group of creators with an excellent mission that I was so lucky to join. Participating in our community’s Back Indie Media drive was as easy as sending out an issue of the newsletter I was already keen to revive.

Then I didn’t do my homework.

These journalists write newsletters that I open and read as if each new issue were a crunchy snack to wash down with a refreshing spritz. I knew that you, who care about food and culture and well-written essays, would love to hear about my friends’ publications.

Publications like The Food Section, whose Hanna Raskin just published an data-driven investigation into how state-run liquor stores underserve the public.

Labors of love like Andy Dehnart’s Reality Blurred. He’s been writing TV criticism for over 25 years. His oral history of the creation of The Amazing Race gave me hope and perspective for the race that my filmmaking partner, Emilia, and I are still running to get our own ambitious travel show ready for you.

Creators like Yulia Denisyuk, who’s contributed to Nat Geo, TIME, and the BBC, who now pours her talent into a podcast about global stories of culture, travel, and resistance.

The Jiffy covers the Hudson Valley’s local culture with humor and affection. Remote Queer offers resources on visas, taxes and healthcare to LGBTQ+ digital nomads and remote workers. Amplify Respect is “Radiolab for trans people,” sharing empathetic stories and resources to help readers and writers speak about trans people with respect. L.A. Taco writes tacos and fights I.C.E.

Current Flow State continues the strong tradition of great writing about fly fishing.

I had fly fishing on my mind back in September at the moment I realized I’d been pushing myself too hard. Emilia and I were filming a season of Modo di Bere TV in upstate New York when she pulled the car over in Victor to shoot B roll. I looked out the window to see a wooden bridge over a charming stream, trees that dripped with golden leaves.

Victor! A memory floated by. A fly shop I visited to learn where to fish in New York told me to visit Victor, but I never made it north of Roscoe. I wanted to jump out and see the beautiful shots Emilia would capture, and look for trout in the stream.

Instead I was so tired that I stayed in the car and admitted how run down I felt.

Leaning on my people this fall has meant trusting Giulia, our video editor, one of the most efficient creatives I’ve ever met, as she kept the fall season of the podcast on track. It meant appreciating Michele, the magazine editor, for her implacable positivity when it took two months longer than we’d planned to reboot the newsletter and magazine. Emilia and I have proven over and over that respect for humanity—including one another’s—is Modo di Bere TV’s secret sauce.

But it was our pseudonymous columnist, Kurmudgeon, who took the pressure off with this text, after I apologized for not posting his autumn-themed article until almost December:

This isn’t a “sorry I haven’t posted in a while!” newsletter. I don’t like to open those. I just want my favorite creators to be able to do the work I love them for. That’s why I’m writing on Giving Tuesday to ask you to back indie media.

In order to publish at the cadence and glory we’re capable of, publishers like me can’t just lean on our collaborators. We can’t only learn new platforms and skills. We have to learn to collaborate with our audience by asking them to upgrade to paid.

For creators like me and my colleagues in the Back Indie Media Drive, the key to publishing consistently isn’t our own personal talent and hustle. It’s you.

You are the one media should serve, not billionaires.

Indie journalists are dedicated, but it’s paid subscribers who are creating the vibrant future of independent media.

That’s such a great thing!

As you choose which creators you upgrade to paid for, I’m so happy to finally introduce you to my friends from the Back Indie Media drive. Click the button below to peruse their leading coverage in Food and Travel, Culture and Comedy, Local News, Climate and Nature, Healthcare, Housing, Finance and more.

These are creators worth supporting:

You can become a supporter of Modo di Bere for $8 a month at patreon.com/mododibere, or click the button below to pay once a year and save 16%.

Thank you for reading this newsletter! I’m so glad you’re here.

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