HOW NOT TO LAUNCH A CONTENT HUB

Jesus christ on a stick, this is amatuer hour.

I found via The Trend Report that Kamala Harris is launching Headquarters, “the new Gen-Z led progressive content hub.”

The announcement video was posted on the official HQ Twitter account (here), a 28 second video clip made in a conference room explaining that it’s where you’ll find the latest of what’s going on, and meet and revisit with courageous leaders.

No mention of the URL, or any sort of call to action. Just to “stay engaged” and “I’ll see you out there.”

So the HQ Twitter profile has a link: headquarters.news, which links to…

… a Substack Welcome page.

This annoying Welcome page “feature” can’t be turned off, but a quick Google search will tell you how to avoid it.

I skipped this by clicking the tiny X in the upper right corner. C’mon, take me to the “the new Gen-Z led progressive content hub” already!

That’s it, folks. That’s the new Gen-Z led progressive content hub.

No video (nah, save that for social media, I guess).

This was posted on Feb 5th, and I’m writing this on the 8th (I guess nothing much has happened since this initial post).

And the Substack About page hasn’t been updated, leaving the generic default text; “Join the crew,” are you kidding me?

How do you launch this without some already published “meet and revisit with courageous leaders” posts, as mentioned in the kick off video?

How do you launch this without having an updated ABOUT page?

How do you launch this without any video, branding, or images?

How do you launch this without links to resources about registering to vote, or how to contact your elected officials?

How do you launch a “content hub” like this in 2026?

THE MAGIC IN THE ROOMS

There is a magic to the rooms. The spaces, the theaters, the clubs, the bars, the back porches.

I came across Roddy Bottum’s “These Rooms,” which was an eloquent journey into all sorts of rooms, weaving the magic with the turmoil, and everything in between.

“The rooms of punk rock, don’t get me started. Where we are as a youth, as a celebration, as a rebel in our lives at the pinnacle of what matters, politically, protesting, being together and the sheer volume of the music as it comes off the stage, the pits, the shine of those shows, the drunk dumbness of becoming who we. become and the strength of that.”

I’m turning 50 this year and still remember the community centers and basements and feeling the floor shake in a second floor apartment in Brookyn that was for some reason accessible only via the fire escape.

Then a good friend sent me this video of the great Ian McKellen on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, talking about live theater, and doing anything to be in those places, and the magic that happens if only we get off our fucking phones.

It’s the rooms, the spaces, the theater of humanity that endures, that allows the magic to happen, the let me find these two different pieces on this morning and to put them into a blog post that is accessible around the world via the web browser that ships on every smart phone.

WE CAN JUST DO THINGS

I love this so much:

Recently there was a cold snap and a road nearby iced over – it was in the shade and cyclists kept on wiping out on it. For some reason the council didn’t come and salt it.

Somebody went out and created a sign on a weighted chair so it didn’t blow away. And this is a small thing but I LOVE that I live somewhere there is a shared belief that (a) our neighbourhood is worth spending effort on, and (b) you can just do things.

From Matt Webb of Interconnected.

THE APPEAL OF INTERNET RADIO

Something about live radio really intrigues me. That you can turn something on and speak, and people could hear it, but you don’t really have numbers or metrics to see who’s tuning in. Not like YouTube and Twitch streams, you know?

With Macrowave you can do that straight from your Mac, and anyone with a web browser can listen in.

I messed around with Blast Radio years ago, streaming from Abelton Live, and people could listen via the app. Afterwards you could download your “show,” and I pieced them together into a HUNTERTHEN album.

TEN SNOWY MILES

Woke up to a few inches of snow outside my window, and thought of how difficult it’ll be to walk10 miles. Sidewalks filled with snow and ice slow down my walking pace, and sometimes forces me into the road, which isn’t ideal.

This photo was from my first walk, around 9:11am. I had a Zoom call at 10am, and knew I had to get some distance in before that. It was just 0.5 miles, but every bit helps for later in the day.

It’s a Saturday, so town is pretty quiet, aside from snow blowers and plow trucks.

I walked through the college campus twice. Doubled back on some streets. Slipped a few times, but never fell.

The photo above was from my 2nd walk of the day, at 1:17pm, just after an hour-long live stream I did on Substack talking about Break Up With Social Media Day.

After this walk I was at 4.46 miles for the day, with 5.54 miles to go.

My third walk of the day was my longest. When I set out at 4:17pm it was 33°F, but 84% humidity, so I felt comfortable wearing my new shorts (Path Projects, sooo nice).

The photo above was at 4:34pm, with the sun setting nicely.

By 5:07pm there was a good amount of steam fog, where moisture evaporates off the snow. Can’t really tell from this photo, but it was wonderful.

This walk was 4.17 miles in one hour and 15 minutes, which brought me to 8.55 miles for the day.

I stopped at my house, grabbed something to drink, and checked my mileage: just 1.4 miles to go. I went back out for my fourth walk of the day, which took about 30 minutes, bringing me to 10.1 miles total.

Total walking time was three hours, six minutes.

According to my Apple Health app that’s 24,628 steps.

So 17 days into the new year I’m at 177.3 miles, about 10.4 miles per day.

I LOVE MY JOB

I wrote recently, “I felt a pang in my stomach, of how I’m not writing and publishing enough, or sending enough newsletters every week.”

That’s especially true for this blog, but I’ve been posting every day over on my Social Media Escape Club site.

And setting up interviews. And planning things out. Raising rates on my sales pages. Sending video messages to people. I talked on the phone for FIVE HOURS the other night with my best friend.

Just now I hosted an hour long Zoom call with a special guest and it was lovely. The right people came together into the right space to be together for this one magical moment that we’ll never have again.

Afterwards I got an email from our guest, saying “Your gang is a hoot.”

I love my job.

BRING THIS BACK

I see this quite a bit. People posting photos of old tech, old gear, things from the 90s, colorful iMacs – “bring this back.”

Yes, do it. You don’t need permission. You don’t need the OK. Just fucking do it.

Write in cursive, buy a Polaroid camera, make a mix tape, burn a CD, buy a VCR from the thrift store, get a skateboard, collect old magazines.

No app, no platform, no techbro is gonna deliver this to you on a plate, so make the retro tech 90 worship life that you’re craving.