I love listening to podcasts and have wanted to learn more about podcasting so I took Seth Godin/Akimbo’s Podcasting Workshop this winter. After months of work and learning, I launched Ep. 1 of Granite State Golfers a few days ago. The podcast features some of the top amateur golfers in New Hampshire. You can find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I hope you will listen.
A GOLDEN ERA OF GOLF CONTENT
For avid, albeit often frustrated, golfers like me, there is so much awesome golf content being produced. Some of my current favorites:
Chasing Scratch podcast. This is hands down my favorite golf podcast as it is personable and incredibly relatable. Kudos to Eli and Mike for sharing their journey to scratch and for all the laughter they provide.
The Golfer’s Journal. If you are not a member and subscriber, get on it! You are missing out on ridiculous golf stories and images and a beautiful print magazine. Also, once you are a member, join the Broken Tee Society (BTS) and get involved with other avid and obsessed golfers in the BTS community on Discord.
Jon Sherman and Practical Golf. Jon is one of the best golf twitter accounts loaded with useful, thoughtful information to get better.
The Fire Pit Collective. Headed up by Matt Ginella and Alan Shipnuck, they are producing and promoting great aspects of the game like their latest announcement about ‘The Grind.’
Random Golf Club. Led by Erik Anders Lang, I love their videos (be sure to check out the Breaking Erin Hills series which features a foursome of amateur golfers - amazing production) and pushing an important “all are welcome” vibe.
The Fried Egg. Led by Andy Johnson, I love their videos on course architecture.
No Laying Up. NLU produces so much good content from their podcast to their videos. I loved their recent Tourist Sauce season as they played and traveled through Michigan.
Fore Play. (Nothing intended by listing them last.) Part of Barstool Sports and led by Riggs (great follow on twitter and Instagram - I really like his daily nines.)
And this is just scratching the surface. I am grateful for all these people and everyone who is creating golf content. Keep it coming!
Updated Jan. 17, 2020: The Creative Mornings talk is now available - see here. There were five speakers that morning (each about 5 mins long). I went first but encourage you to check out the other four - all good storytellers.
For many years, I’ve had the kernel of an idea. The itch to share that idea. With some Brene Brown courage, I finally was presented with the right opportunity yesterday morning thanks to Creative Mornings Portsmouth/Kittery. Five different speakers spoke on the November global theme of lost. I spoke about the need to expand our concept of gender equality so it is inclusive of boys, many of whom are not doing well. CM will be posting the video of the five talks (all of which were awesome) and I will post it here when it is up.
I’ve had a wide range of emotions and thoughts about yesterday's news that President Huddleston is retiring at the end of the next academic year: sadness (for me and UNH), happiness (for him) - but mostly gratitude. I’ve had the pleasure and honor of working with Mark for the past seven years. There are many traits I’ve come to admire and appreciate about him: keeping the focus on the vision amidst a lot of noise and distractions; a calm demeanor in the face of challenges; and a core set of guiding values - among many. But the more I thought about my time with Mark and the past seven years I realized that what I admire and appreciate the most has been his deep passion and commitment to UNH’s public land-grant mission to not only educate NH’s best and brightest but to make sure UNH is doing all it can to make NH the best state we can for its residents. As a native son of NH, and a proud UNH alum, I have a strong, in-my-blood affection for the Granite State and UNH. (The license plate on the family car is UNH-603). In 2011, at the height of the great recession, NH was facing a large budget deficit and UNH’s state funding was cut by 49% - the largest single year cut in the history of public higher education in the country. None of UNH’s options were great on how to handle this sharp cut in funding. However, Mark made it clear from the beginning that we would do three things: 1) minimize tuition increases for students 2) protect academic quality and 3) protect entities like Cooperative Extension that provide vital services, programming and research for NH residents. We weathered the storm and thanks to his leadership and focus, we accomplished all three things.
Thank you, Mark. Thank you for all you have done for the past 10 years to strengthen UNH and New Hampshire. I look forward to the next year.
(Dispatch from Washington DC, the day after Pres. Trump delivered his address to Congress.) I understand why "lobbying" and "lobbyists" are bad words for many people but as I often say, it depends on what you are lobbying for. I spent yesterday on Capitol Hill lobbying for UNH. Each year, around this time, Jan Nisbet (my great colleague and UNH's Sr Vice Provost for Research) and I meet with our Congressional Delegation and talk about our priorities and requests in the upcoming appropriations process.
We covered a wide-range of topics (and you can learn more by checking out some short videos UNH has created on these topics): multi-trophic aquaculture, static pile aerobic composting, heliophysics and solar weather, mapping the ocean floors, flow physics and boundary layers, internet crimes against children, helmetless tackling to reduce concussions, adaptive sports programs for disabled veterans. .
One of the joys of my job is learning about a wide-range of topics and understanding the research our talented faculty and students conduct to make our communities, state, nation and world a better place. This is what public research universities do across the nation and this is what I lobby and advocate for.
And in the coming days and weeks when we see a national discussion about the federal budget, keep in mind that all the topics I just mentioned come out of the "non-defense discretionary" part of the budget which makes up about 15% of the federal budget. It is this part of the budget that drives innovation and makes America great and it is this part of the budget that should not only NOT be cut, it should be invested in.
I am grateful to my talented UNH colleagues and to the hard working staff of our Congressional delegation, the delegation members, and the staff of the various committees.
