Good morning, Hank. It's Tuesday.

The 19th Project for Awesome starts in three days, but the fundraiser at projectforawesome.com/donate is live now with incredible perks that you can get only during the P4A, like a brand new episode of my podcast: The Anthropocene Reviewed. And so much more. projectforawesome.com/donate

So, listen, according to the actuarial tables, this should be the unhappiest portion of my life. 48 is right around when things on average bottom out in terms of life satisfaction, but one of the joys of middle age, at least for me, is having friends you've known for 30+ years. Like, that's a joy I literally could not have known at 29. I mean, when I first met my friend Daniel Alarcón, we were a couple of proper teenage dirt bags. Just look at this picture, Hank. I mean, look at it. The Jägermeister t-shirt, the backwards cap, the oversized jeans. Chef's kiss. My wife Sarah and I also went to the same high school; Another person I've known for over 30 years and she always says that when I was in high school, I was like surrounded by the smell of stale cigarette smoke. And looking at this picture, I believe it.

Daniel, meanwhile, looks cool to me because he's always looked cool to me. He was one of our high school's best soccer players on a state finalist team, albeit the state was Alabama, while I wasn't good enough to even play for our high school team. And also, he was a brilliant writer. Like, our class was packed with great poets and short story writers, but for some reason, Daniel just stood out. Like, he always wrote with such nuance and beauty without ever sacrificing clarity.

Daniel was born in Peru and I remember reading the stories he would write set in Peru when he was like 15 or 16 years old and thinking these should be in The New Yorker, and now they are. He grew up to be a very successful writer. He wrote one of my favorite novels, Lost City Radio. He also co-founded the Spanish language podcast Radio Ambulante. He won a MacArthur Genius Grant. I'm not gonna stop bragging on Daniel. I was a huge admirer of him in high school and I am still a huge admirer of him. Like, his recent podcast with Serial, The Good Whale, about the whale from Free Willy is flatout brilliant.

Then there's our friend Sean, who was a groomsman in my wedding and who I've been friends with since I was a frail, anxious 14-year-old, as opposed to the frail, anxious 48-year-old I am today. See, you can change in adulthood. I haven't, but you can. Sean is now a successful podcast producer and has the best taste in music of anyone I know. He and I have laughed incredibly hard together, but we've also had some of the most important, deep conversations that I've ever had in my life.

Anyway, last year, one of our friends from high school passed away. And since then, I've been thinking a lot about high school. How lucky I was to go to school in that little place with those wonderful people, but also how complicated and difficult that time was, like, a friend of mine from high school recently observed, "That place saved my life, but it also did lots of other things." I sure as hell don't miss the other things, but I am incredibly grateful for the friendships which have waxed and waned over the decades without ever disappearing and which have really held me together. Like, the love people shared with me in those years is with me still.

So when Sean and Daniel recently asked me if I would make a podcast with them, I didn't say yes. I said hell yes. It's called The Away End, and it looks at history and beauty and corruption and our personal histories through the lens of soccer—the game that has animated so much of our friendship over the last 35 years. And it's intended to get you ready and entertain you through the 2026 Men's World Cup, which was supposed to be a celebration of North American cooperation co-hosted by Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, and now appears that it will be, uh, something else. So, if you're interested in soccer and/or how nations become nations and/or my glorious years as a middle school athlete, check out The Away End wherever you get your podcasts.

I find sometimes that old friends like siblings need shared projects as an excuse to connect. Like, this whole YouTube channel, the Project for Awesome, everything that's grown out of it ultimately exists, Hank, because I wanted to get closer to you and thought if we had a shared project that might work. And it has worked for almost 20 years. Ultimately, I wanted to start The Away End with Daniel and Sean because, for lack of a better term, I miss them. I miss sharing stories with them, and so now I'm back to sharing stories with them. Plus, now I have a professional reason to watch soccer (as if I needed one).

But to return to that U-shaped happiness curve, this is a difficult period of life, right? Like teenage kids, aging parents, health scares, and on and on and on. But having friends for over 30 years to ease you through it is a hell of a gift and I could not have imagined when I was younger how good it would feel to love and root for people for over 30 years. It occurs to me, Hank, actually, that you and I have been friends, or at least siblings, for over 40 years, which is probably why you're my favorite person to root for.

Hank, I'll see you on Friday.

P.S. Very excited about this year's Project for Awesome. Also, congratulations to everybody at Complexly on officially becoming a nonprofit. However, I want to be clear that complexely will not be eligible for a Project for Awesome grant because that just feels weird, like we should not benefit even indirectly from the Project for Awesome, so, uh yeah, just wanted to establish that. Hank, Nerdfighteria, projectforawesome.com/live noon Eastern on Friday. I will see you there. I can't wait!