By Josh Gondelman — 29 Jun 2026

#190. The Center and You

Hi everyone,

Last week was kind of a blur. I know I started outlining a new writing project and did a bunch of shows. I cleaned out a whole lot of stuff from our apartment which remains, confoundingly, full of stuff. Maris and I put in an application on an apartment and it took several days to untangle some weird errors happening on the application portal but I thiiiink we've got a new place to live. Because we've both been mostly freelance for the last couple of years, it's a little harder to show regular income than it was when we both had steady jobs last time we had to move (nine years ago). I offered that we could pay a few months up front to prove our solvency and they were like...you actually can't do that under New York City law. So my dominant memory of this week is accidentally offering to commit a crime, in writing. Weird week!

Even the nice things that have happened have felt a little glitchy. On Tuesday night I saw a woman a block away and thought "Wow that looks like my friend Tanya!" and it WAS Tanya. And then on Wednesday I bumped into my friend Julie (who lives in New Hampshire) on the subway and we got to have a brief (but really heartwarming) catchup. And then I thought I saw my friend Lyz, but it was for sure not her. I am looking for meaning in these coincidences, but also with this apartment search having taken up so much of my time and energy, maybe I am just looking for meaning...anywhere?

The second of those happenstances occurred while I was on my way to see the Comedy Bang Bang live show at Town Hall with friends of the newsletter Mattie and Jaya and and Natalie and Nikko! Thanks to PFT for getting us in! I could have listened to Paul and Scott Aukerman riff the whole time but of course everyone else killed too. Ego Nwodim and Connor Ratliff were especially excellent! And I laughed a lot at Mike Hanford and Edi Patterson and Anna Bezahler's characters as well. It always knocks me on my ass when people are not only FUNNY improvisationally, but they also stay in a defined character and listen and build with what the other performers are offering.

I ran into John Hodgman at Town Hall (a sorta-coincidence) and the next night was the final show of our little residency at Union Hall with Jean Grae (and musical guest Ruby Laks). I had a really fun standup set doing a few longer bits I don't often have the chance to work on in the city. I also got to read some dialogue as part of the latest installment of Jean's ongoing series: "Stacey Jambles, Ace Private Detective with No Short Term Memory." Jean is so brilliant as a writer and performer, and her work is like no one else's! I am so grateful that John asked me to be a part of this run of shows. While cleaning, I came across my copy of his first book that I received as a gift in college and was struck by how long he's been an important artistic figure in my life! And I've known Jean's work for even longer, since downloading bootleg MP3s of her songs in high school (sorry!). Anyway this was just a small thing but this kind of opportunity is one of the reasons I moved to New York fifteen years ago (as of July 31st) and so I am trying to remember to absorb the joy of it.

Bluesky post by me: I know this is not the biggest concern going these days, but it stresses me out that basically every artist/writer/critic is now expected to create their own tiny empire instead of getting paid by any existing entity to perform a job they've worked to get good at!!!! — Quoting myself here like an asshole.

Also, in a moment of moving-induced-stress vulnerability, I posted this, which seemed to resonate with a lot of creative people, and less with some who feel happy to grow their own garden primarily, and it really seemed to annoy a few hustle culture losers! It's an incomplete philosophy, for sure. I love that people CAN find audiences on their own. And as some folks pointed out, POC artists/journalists have faced this kind of pressure for a long time. But it feels bad that seeking independent fame is not just helpful but borderline compulsory. Even though working for a bigger company has its own drawbacks. One surprising thing I learned is how much this attitude has hit academia too. Where are you all on this? Feel free to comment!

PEP TALK FOR THE CENTER

A map of the US with a circle near the middle and a question mark in the circle. The states are labeled but that's not really important here. — This is what that Jimmy Eat World song was about I think.

As I mentioned last week, I recently did a little work on a rally for a bunch of progressive candidates running for office across New York City. Those candidates overwhelmingly won their primaries, which I think is cool and good. Several other people feel that way as well, which is why those results happened. That is, after all, what elections are. Most if not all of these candidates are likely to win their general elections as well unless Andrew Cuomo fake moves to NYC again and launches a write-in campaign. Although as we saw during the mayoral race, name recognition only goes so far when most people who hear your name go: "Ewwww."

In response to these victories, the political center has extended its hands...to itself...and wrung them to the point of carpal tunnel syndrome. Axios insisted that the less progressive wing of the party is ready for "war." (I would love to see those politicians muster a similarly combative energy when Republicans win elections.) On X, which I will not link to so you have to take my word, former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison wrote: "I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination." Does Jaime Harrison also think that registered Democratic voters who support these candidates hate the Democratic Party? If so, that seems like a way bigger issue! Perhaps one to learn lessons from!

Van Jones posted a five-ish paragraph essay-ish praising the organizing capacity of the DSA and then concluded with some really weird stuff about how people who don't hate Israel, rich people, cops, or "The West" need to get it together and mobilize. Never mind that people who prioritize those things above a social safety net and civil rights and, hell, infrastructure already have a powerful umbrella organization. It's called the Republican Party.

I don't expect that every That's Marvelous reader shares my exact politics. Although I legitimately cannot imagine anyone with an especially firm right-leaning tilt to their worldview sticks around for more than an issue or two. But I can picture some readers who don't always go all in for my mouthy lefty foot stomping and fist pumping. And I appreciate your sticking around as I fire off my missives from the heart of Brad Lander's Brooklyn, ensconced within Zohran Mamdani's New York City, on the east coast of what I still consider Jeb Bush's America (just kidding about that last part...I wonder if someone who believes all those things even exists).

The success of leftist politicians in New York City – and a little less densely across America – does not have to spell doom for the Democratic party if they don't want it to. And not because long-tenured Senators and House Reps have the power to crush insurgent candidates with their mighty incumbent fists (they don't, as we keep seeing)! This can be part of a Blue Wave, if these more avowedly Liberal Dems are willing to learn to surf. The ascent of Democratic Socialist candidates in is not a zero-sum game. It is in fact an opportunity for Democrats to promise and deliver more for their constituents than they may have thought possible.

Despite what stupid people keep repeating because they heard someone in a suit say it: this faction is not the Tea Party, where a small cabal of vicious maniacs hijacked the body of the already extremely racist and homophobic and war-hawking Republican Party by saying the quiet parts loud enough that nobody felt the need to keep quiet about their bigotries and greed anymore. Obviously that was a heavily-astroturfed endeavor, with wealthy benefactors pushing their libertarian ideology at every turn. (I learned this by reading Jane Mayer's Dark Money on my honeymoon and having TERRIFYING nightmares the whole week.) We know that DSA is does not result from similar sponsorship, because wealthy people fucking hate these candidates, which on its own is enough to recommend them, in my opinion. Apologies to Van Jones, lover of the rich.

Even if you find some individual politicians more aggressive or socialist than your own taste, certainly you can build a coalition with them around common issues like making healthcare affordable and protecting immigrants and refugees and stopping Trump (or any president) from pulling the nation into wars that cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives. Staking out these positions has proven that it can be effective and more popular than turning yourself into a Spot The Differences feature from Highlights For Children, where you make four subtle changes from your Republican opponent's platform in order to attract the seven or eight voters whose priorities are "doing something, but not too much" or "racism, but shh."

For all the talk that moderates do about "reaching across the aisle" they could save a little energy by offering a helping hand over a shorter distance to the people ostensibly on their own side of the political spectrum. Lots of smart people would tell you that self-described Centrists are more aligned with Republicans than leftists, and so they don't actually want to do this. (Hamilton Nolan wrote about this last year!) I welcome them to prove me wrong! If these people who love the middle so much are worried about a fracture within the party, they are welcome to adopt what I might call better policies...in the name of unity.

I believe that lots of people proudly identify as Liberals, and that they want progress but are concerned with the practical costs of striving for it. And not every candidate can necessarily win under all circumstances. These are differences that I think we can reconcile in good faith. But self-avowed "Centrism" is a nothing ideology. What exactly are you trying to be at the midpoint of? Also, why? And when the left or (more frequently) the right shift further out, do you do that too in order to stay in the exact middle? More importantly, what are your actual principles? Every position is in the center of any two positions that average out to that one. If you only stake out a narrow enough spectrum, anyone can position themselves as being in the middle.

Whenever someone describes themself as a Centrist, it feels like they think the moral of the story of King Solomon was to actually cut the baby in half. I'm not even saying you have to pick a side. But I do expect people in politics to hold onto a set of values that they think will serve the public. And I have a hunch that supporting "rich people" and "The West" aren't going to cut it.

PEP TALK FOR A READER

I have done a tiny amount of editing to this request and added a nickname as well. Good luck to this reader on their race!!!

I have a bicycle race in two weeks that I'm not adequately trained for, nor have I ever raced at that elevation. I'm feeling really bad about it!
- Sore de France

Please take it to heart when I say that you do not have to feel bad about not training well for this bicycle race. That's not to say everything is going to be fine. It probably will feel horrendous to take on this endeavor at unprecedented altitude while you are not in race shape. Which is why there is no use in beating yourself up now: You will have ample opportunity to suffer during the race itself.

Given this lack of preparation, you are almost assured of a bad time while you are cycling. And just as I'm encouraging you to go easy on yourself now, you should probably be a little lenient on race day too. The only thing I can imagine worse than the inevitable cramping and wheezing you're about to face is the elective agony you'd opt into by pushing your body towards limits it's not ready to approach. You're going to want to give a maximum reasonable effort, but if you go beyond that, your physical vessel is liable to find itself torn apart like a wedding cake entering earth's atmosphere from space.

You can – I'm assuming — get yourself slightly closer to ready for this competition over the next little while. But maybe not. I don't know much about bicycle races. Maybe you're at the point where rest is the most helpful thing, and you can't flip that around and say you relaxed the last several weeks, so you're going to train extra hard for the final couple. This could be as good as it's going to get for all I know.

Not every race is going to be your best race. I know that is true because otherwise the last person who broke a world record would inevitably break it again next time. Or at least tie it, which would be almost more impressive. A career-long streak of photo finishes with your past self. I bet it would feel satisfying but also frustrating. The fact that I've spent a whole paragraph speculating on this extraordinarily unlikely (but not quite weird enough to be sci-fi) scenario probably says something about me, but I will not interrogate what that is.

You're almost definitely going to ride a subpar race by your standards. But that doesn't mean it's not worth doing. One meal every week is the worst meal you eat that week. One text you send it the most awkward text. Very little gets better and better forever. What's important is that you hold your head high (metaphorically at least...that seems like a suboptimal cycling technique) and do your very best*** (the asterisks represent asterisks). The greatest thing about doing a bad job this time is how much easier it is to do better next time.

And, if you play your cards right, you can brag about how you made it to the finish line without your hamstrings snapping in half like a Kit Kat bar! It's a win-lose situation, but sometimes that's all we can ask for.

PICK-ME-UP SONG OF THE WEEK:
Tierra Whack - "Brazilian Wax"

I cannot resist a big bright horn sample like this with rapping over it also like this. And the looped vocals on the beat? This is basically a honeypot for anyone who was in college when Kanye West broke big. It's a shame that guy became a recluse in 2016 and was never heard from again. Tierra Whack barrels through this < 2.5-minute track without stopping for air even when the beat disintegrates beneath her like bricks dropping into lava as Mario runs across them.

Whack wants the money and the credit that's owed to her, and she's not going to flatter any chumps to get it. Good luck finding a brushoff more casually withering than: "The more I get to know you/The more I think less of you." I love a chorus, but sometimes you don't need a chorus. Just make your points and move it along. Let's go.