Hey friends! Hope you’ve been well.

I’ve been staying busy with video editing and managing behind-the-scenes band work, but I wanted to write a quick update for you. 
I’ve got a new goal to do one of these updates every week. This one is just gonna be a blog post, but I aim to start making vlog updates too (cause I like them and miss doing them). So you know you can always check back and get updates, and I can spend less time on social media platforms (more on that in a minute).

1 . What Do We Call This Thing?

I’ve been struggling with a name/title for my work for awhile. What do I call this? What do I call my YouTube channel? I used to be “The Podcast Dude”, but I’ve been mostly working with tech startups and my band for the past 8 years or so, so that name doesn’t really fit anymore…

How do you find a title for everything you’re doing when you’re playing drums and helping manage and grow a band but also helping people make video podcasts, but also doing photography and writing and design and more? Seems impossible. Or maybe I’m overthinking again.

I was listening to one of my favorite writers (Ben Thompson, Stratechery) on the drive home from picking up band merch in Denton this week, and he was talking about what Americans used to do well, better than anyone else, back when we were working on sending rockets to the moon and other big projects like that — explore & grow.



Explore & Grow.

That was perfect, I thought. It encapsulates my ethos and overall goals for my life better than anything I’ve heard before, so I’m gonna steal it and use it.

I’ve always loved exploring and growing, so this is an invitation to you to join me in the journey (if it sounds like a good time). We’re gonna explore the world. We’re gonna explore music and what it means to be someone who creates music and art in 2025 and beyond. We’re gonna study and learn and grow from the experiences and stories and books and lessons that other people share.



Explore & Grow. I like it. Let’s roll with it.

2 . Changing Focus - Less “Social Media”, More Long-Form Writing & Video

We’re overstimulated by screens, social media, constant notifications, the 24-hour news cycle, doomscrolling—this just floods our brains with cortisol, which is adrenaline, and then it perpetuates anxious thinking. — Sleep Dreams - Wired Magazine, Jan 2026


Social media doesn’t feel social anymore. It doesn’t feel like platforms like Instagram and TikTok are optimizing for connecting people. Seems like they were designed (or redesigned) to keep everyone scrolling and watching short form videos and ads. I don’t feel good about it anymore, and it’s a black hole that sucks time & attention. If it was just stuff from the people I choose to follow, that would be fine, but all the apps are constantly trying to put shit I don’t want to watch in front of me.

I do like keeping up with friends, and writing and making videos and sharing updates with you all, so my plan is to share an update once a week via an email newsletter and my website, and post a video version to YouTube as well.

My goal is to stay off of the social media platforms as much as possible the rest of the time. They just take more of my time and attention than I’d like and it feels like doing free work for those corporations.

I’d rather spend my energy intentionally, writing and filming and sharing something substantial once a week instead of giving away fragments of my time and attention multiple times every day.

Wish me luck. :)

3 . Recommendations (What’s Good?)

Stuff I’ve been enjoying lately.

Watch - Bugonia (Movie)

Two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

Strong contender for best movie I’ve seen this year. Must watch. 
 After this and Poor Things, director Yorgos Lanthimos has shot to the top of my list of favorite filmmakers.

Watch - Pluribus (TV)

From the guy who brought you Breaking Bad, this one is a little hard to describe. It’s science fiction, but not really what you’d expect. My favorite thing about it is the questions it asks about what it means to be an individual that is also part of a larger collective, and if the decisions we make in the pursuit of happiness actually lead to the best outcomes for ourselves and others.

There’s also a ton of dark comedy and moments that had me howling with laughter. The pacing feels uneven at times, but overall I’ve enjoyed and think it’s worth watching for the philosophical questions at least.

Listen - “Head is Like a Sinking Stone” - Tigers Jaw

I’ve been a Tigers Jaw fan since 2009 (I think?) or so, when I saw a recommendation from Eric Solomon on Twitter. 

I love all their albums, but my favorite to date was their collaboration with Will Yip for their 2017 album “Spin”. If you’ve been following me for awhile, you know I hype up Will Yip every chance I get.



If you’ve been living under a rock or are new to this genre of music:

William Yip is a Grammy nominated American record producer, audio engineer, songwriter and musician. Yip is an owner of Studio 4 Recording in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Yip is also the owner of Memory Music, an independent record label that he launched in June 2015, that features projects worked on at Studio 4.

Yip’s partial discography includes producing, engineering, mixing, and mastering recordings for artists such as Lauryn Hill, Panic! at the Disco, Circa Survive, Code Orange, Anthony Green, Blacklisted, Title Fight, Turnstile, The Wonder Years, The Disco Biscuits, King Sunny Adé, The Fray, Keane, Balance and Composure, Superheaven, mewithoutYou, and Movements.

If I remember correctly, I first became aware of Will’s work when I heard Balance & Composure’s 2013 album “The Things We Think We’re Missing”. It was so perfectly recorded, mixed and mastered, and sounded absolutely incredible. Ear candy. The perfect drug. Etc.

I’ve heard a lot of great records in my years, but that one was a standout, so I had to find out who was involved with making it. And that’s how I found out about Will Yip and his work. I’ve been a huge fan ever since. Every time I hear that a band I like is working with him, I shout “YES” and jump in the air and do a fist pump in celebration. He’s that good.



That new Turnstile record? Yeah, that was him. (The band rules too, obviously, but he just has a way of elevating every band that comes into his studio to record.)



Anyways, back to Tigers Jaw — when I saw that they had a new single out and listened, I knew right away that they were working with Will again. And that makes me incredibly fucking happy.



So yeah, go listen to that new Tigers Jaw song, and presave the album.

Ok that’s it for this week, be good to each other and I’ll see y’all next time.


Aaron Dowd

Sunday, December 7, 2025

Fort Worth, TX