Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Looking Sideways: 10 Things
Here are this week's ten things I thought were worth sharing.
Congratulations to listener and reader Christian Jermyn, who is the winner of a brand new Finisterre Yulex wetsuit following the recent Open Thread q&a about all things Finisterre with founder Tom Kay. To catch up on that discussion, click here. Massive thanks to Tom, Larry, Bronwen and my friends at Finisterre for helping make that happen. Got an idea for an Open Thread topic or guest? Let me know.
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1. Day job alert - we have been busy rebranding and repositioning All Conditions Media, the agency I help run when I’m not working on Looking Sideways (and yes, we just inked a new partnership with a rather well-known new outdoor player). Read the breakdown in our latest Substack post:
2. Friend-of-the-pod Lauren Hill’s The Physics of Noseriding is now free to watch over at the Patagonia Australia YouTube channel. It’s a good ‘un.
3. Congratulations Mia Brookes, who just won snowboarding slopestyle gold at the World Champs. Mia’s been all over the news here in the UK, soundtracked in now traditional-style (think Jenny Jones’ bronze in Sochi) by an emotional Tim Warwood on BBC comms (click here).
4. This week’s listening part 1: a really fascinating and even-handed look at the etymology of the word ‘woke’ by Matthew Syed. Worth listening to for the story of how blues singer Leadbelly was the first person to use ‘woke’ in its current context.
5. This week’s listening part 2: an episode of the You’re Wrong About podcast which asks: why does everybody hate Chris McCandless, the endlessly contentious Into The Wild protagonist.
6. The news that mountaineering brand Eddie Bauer have shelved their entire ambassador team in favour of “brand contributors, a varied group of adventurers, photographers, fishers, kayakers, and more, all with large social media followings” (ie influencers) feels like a bit of a watershed moment. Will the other big beasts follow suit? Is this a good moment for access and diversity? One thing is for sure: the comment section on that Instagram post (above) is very definitely not impressed.
7. In which Dilbert creator Scott Adams, like so many edgelords before him, discovers the hard way that ‘being cancelled’ often simply means ‘being held accountable for having extremely objectionable and offensive views’.
8. Interesting piece from my pals at Much Better Adventures, in which writer Dani Redd asks ‘Why can’t I find women’s adventure gear that actually fits?’
9. Friend-of-the-show Lucy Small has a new film coming - watch the trailer for Yama above.
10. Finally - I’m hosting a live conversation with Chris Burkard in London on Friday 10th March! Its another of my irregular live conversations in collaboration with my friends at Db. Details on the flyer above - it’s ticket only but I have a limited number of tickets for my paid subscribers! If you’re a fully signed-up paid legend and want to attend, hit me up me in the comments and let me know why. First come first served!
Hope you enjoyed this week’s selection. Leave a comment, or if you’re paid subscriber who has any feedback or questions about the newsletter or recent episodes of the podcast, you can contact me directly in the subscriber chat thread.
Hey Matt, will the Chris Burkard conversation be recorded? Would be great to hear about his latest exploits.
Would love to attend the live with Chris - loved his pod so to hear more in first person would be great! 🙋🏻♂️