2025-08-01 08:00:00
Roden Readers — Hello from the swelterdome, the Cape O‘ Temperature Oppression, a.k.a. the Kanto area of Japan in July / August. It is so spectacularly, consistently hot that it’s hard to overstate just how bananas this heat is, how all consumingly present and manic it feels. Can’t outrun it, this Japan heat. “Outside” doesn’t exist from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and even then, you’re swimming through the air more than walking.
2025-07-10 08:00:00
Ridgeline subscribers — I’m Craig Mod and I’ve been buuuuuuurnt out this last month following my epic Things Become Other Things mega book tour. Finally, I’m gingerly emerging from my recovery cave. (But reserve the right to retreat again.) Here’s a fresh dispatch — in praise of small businesses and why overtourism can be anathema to them. A great city is typified by character and the character of great cities is often built on the bedrock of small businesses.
2025-06-16 08:00:00
Roden Readers — What a tour. My god. It’s going to take me a while to fully process the last six weeks. But the tldr is: What a tour, what a wonderful tour. Better than I could have imagined, far exceeding all expectations. Thank you to everyone who showed up. Did you come to an event and take pictures? If so, please drop them in this folder. Thanks. I did a terrible job documenting things and am grateful to everyone who has shared pics.
2025-06-04 08:00:00
Ridgeline subscribers — For years, Kevin Kelly and I have been inviting (to no avail) Rich Roll on Walk and Talks. So it was with great delight that about a month ago, I (Craig Mod, author of this newsletter, Ridgeline; thanks for subscribing) flew out to LA to go on the Rich Roll pod. Rich is one of those intriguing humans who has made a mega name for himself within a huge swath of narrowly defined people.
2025-05-20 08:00:00
Roden Readers — Hello from the halfway mark of the Things Become Other Things mega-tour! Though it’s only been about three weeks since arriving in the States, it feels like I’ve been on the road for about seven years. I’ve done events at: Rizzoli (NYC), Notion (NYC), Politics & Prose (D.C.), Booksmith (S.F.), Microsoft (Seattle), and Third Place Books (Seattle). In the parlance of depressing tech company performance reviews: They’ve all EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS.
2025-05-16 08:00:00
Ridgeline subscribers — Howdy from the Things Become Other Things MegaTour, USA, where I’m on planes, trains, and self-driving automobiles as I make my way back and forth across this flawed and beautiful continent, talking, talking, signing, and stamping things. I’m doing a little walking; I walked around the Botanical gardens in SF, and walked on the Wharf, and took big walks up and down Manhattan but, honestly, I’ve been trying my best to listen to my body and my body has been saying: Be still when you can be still.