Hey! Do you have two hours this fall? If so, I'd like to teach you to organize!

And other updates and assorted nonsense from my kids' first week back at school

You all know how much I love back to school pictures, so here’s my addition to the canon

It’s been a while since I’ve done an odds and sods newsletter, but there’s a fair bit going on over here at White Pages Headquarters (a well-worn Ikea Poäng in the corner of my bedroom), so I thought I’d celebrate my kids’ second day back at school with a bit of useful (mostly self-promotional) information and some assorted nonsense.

TOPIC ONE: Fall Barnraisers Classes

Are you feeling some urgency about the state of the world? I bet! Me too! And that’s why I offer free classes where I teach you (somebody with a big heart but perhaps not a lot of organizing experience) how to either plug into or build a scrappy, sustainable organizing effort in your community. It’s especially focused on organizing in majority White spaces (why? because those are communities that have often gotten in the way of efforts for the common good), but all are welcome. No experience necessary! Nor do you need to have a specific organizing focus! Are you obsessed with big issues like the upcoming U.S. political election or the war in Gaza? These are for you! Alternately, are you trying to get more affordable housing in your neighborhood, more support for your local public school district, or trying to drum up interest in a union in your workplace? They’re also for you! Do you have no idea what or how you’d like to organize but you’re like “I wouldn’t mind a pleasant two hour Zoom with a nice guy who uses his hands too much when he talks?” Are these for you as well? I think you already know.

Interested? Oh, that’s great. All the details are here and you can register here, but since you’re here, take a look at the current lineup of classes. Nice, right? These are all on Zoom, so you can do them from wherever.

• Wednesday, September 25: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM US Central Daylight Time

• Friday, October 4: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM US Central Daylight Time

• Thursday, October 10: 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM US Central Daylight Time

• Wednesday, October 16: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM US Central Daylight Time

• Tuesday, October 22: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM US Central Daylight Time

• Monday, October 28: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM US Central Daylight Time

Cool, right? Please register! We’ll close registration for each course 48 hours before go time.

TOPIC TWO: Did you know that I offer these classes for free and also offer the vast majority of The White Pages content for free and I love doing that, but because this is my day job, I also need, you know, to have some income coming in, which means…

I could use your help! Contrary to popular belief, offering free organizing trainings, writing a newsletter about White People Politics Stuff, and also publishing a book that is not titled Harry Potter And The Interesting Stories I Could Still Be Telling If I Didn’t Instead Choose To Spend My Life Being Mean to Trans People is not an immediate ticket to “Scrooge Mcduck Swimming In A Pool of Gold Coins” money.

To think this could have been my life had I chosen a career in Duck Private Equity rather than woke newslettering.

That’s to say, while I usually share a “hey, your subscription to The White Pages makes a huge difference, could you consider helping out?” pitch at the end of my essays, those aren’t just fluffy words. I hear frequently from folks that this newsletter offers something that doesn’t exist elsewhere on the Internet— big-hearted, optimistic, funny (?!), capable of wrestling with class and race and gender dynamics in an outstretched-hand-sort-of-way— and you know what? I agree with them! And I’d love to be able to keep this space trucking.

So yes, as I’m sure you’ve heard before, paid subscriptions matter a bunch to operations like mine. But! I also know that money’s tight for a lot of y’all, so you know what? Let’s do a sale! For the next week! 20% off the cost of a subscription, but still with all of the benefits (the subscriber discussions, access to our shared Discord community, bonus essays and even a free sticker if you’d like).

TOPIC THREE: Other assorted newsletter updates

How are things going over here in White Pages land? Great, I think. I try not to pay too much attention, but we’re at just about 11,000 free subscribers (about 700 of whom are either paid subscribers or folks whose membership I’ve comped, hence why I’m passing the hat up above). This newsletter is my most consistent source of income, which is currently at “approximately what I made as a first year teacher in 2003” levels, but would be nice to have at “around what I’d make as a first year teacher in 2024” levels for the sake of my family’s long-term sustainability. There are folks here from every state and, theoretically at least, over 100 countries. To the one person who reads this newsletter in Botswana and Mongolia, respectively, hi! According to the much-too-busy Substack dashboard, a lower percentage of folks open my emails than they did a few months ago, but there’s a higher level of engagement with each post. Neither of those things make much sense to me, so I don’t think too much about it.Analytics? I’d rather not, if I’m being honest.

What I do know is that you all are quite lovely, that your comments and emails make my day, and that I enjoy imagining— whether this email is the most or least welcome addition to your inbox each week— that we are connected in some way.

As for content, I have been writing more about the U.S. election than I anticipated. I began the summer fully intending to do a full ten movies in my summer movie series, as was the case last year. Part of the reason why that didn’t happen was the fact that I got distracted by U.S. politics, but I also didn’t want to force ten essays about movies if I didn’t clearly have something interesting to say. Will I toss a few more of those movie essays into the fray soon? Yes, but likely in a way that stretches the definition of “summer.”

TOPIC FOUR: Garrett, in addition to nuclear levels of White guy earnestness, we’ve come to rely on this newsletter for your trenchant observations on regional sandwiches… any news there?

I’m so glad you asked. My crew drove to Pittsburgh this past weekend for a family gathering on my wife’s side. While I have an immense level of affection for that town (a Rust Belt town with impressive topography? Say no more), I’d never tried that community’s iconic tourist sandwich. You know, the one with the fries and coleslaw crammed between two thick slices of white bread. My thoughts? Not bad, but starchy! I’m glad that I ordered multiple sides of ranch. Also, jeez if I didn’t make a mess of things.

Want to see a great Pittsburgh picture, though?

It’s the heart that does it for me.

TOPIC FIVE: Am I still doing book tour stuff for The Right Kind of White?

Yes, at least a bit! If you’re anywhere near Brookings, South Dakota (a town that has a prominent role in the book, actually, and is also home to the mighty Jackrabbits of South Dakota State University), you should come to the South Dakota Festival of Books from September 20th-22nd. I’ll be there, as will a ton of really impressive authors. This was a dream festival for me, and I’m just verklempt that I get to talk about the book with people who know and love East River, South Dakota.

Speaking of places that I love (that are also featured in the book), stay tuned for more details but I’ll be doing a couple events in Washington D.C. (not home of the Jackrabbits, though we won’t hold that against it) from October 17th-22nd.

Beyond that? Sure, but nothing I’m ready to announce yet.

TOPIC SIX: For summer childcare reasons, my inbox has been an absolute mess recently, so yesterday I did a mass deletion spree but wanted to make sure you saw the two emails I deleted most vigorously because… jeez!

No thank you! On both counts!

TOPIC SEVEN: How did the first day of school for my kids.

Good, as best as I can tell. It’s the first year that they’re going to different schools. That’s the thing about parenting— kids keep getting older, roughly one year at a time. I won’t be sharing porch pictures of my kids here, in spite of how much I love seeing all yours, because the whole public platform with kids thing is a tricky balance. Here’s a shot of all the families waiting to get in the door at our beloved neighborhood elementary school, though. It’s not a particularly great picture but you get the vibe. There was a balloon arch this year! The weather was perfect! First days!

TOPIC EIGHT: I finally updated the “Song of the Week” Playlist

Here it is, on both Apple Music and Spotify. Sorry for letting myself get behind on it (and by “behind,” I mean “apparently I haven’t updated it since February. Oof!”).

More importantly, you all, thanks for being here. Sincerely, I hope to get to know some more of you in the upcoming Barnraisers courses, but even if that’s not the case, just know how much it means to me to know that y’all are out there, doing your best to make our world a little gentler and safer. Appreciate you putting up with my nonsense.