No. 6: What Earns the Time
What earns the time
No. 6 · May 13, 2026
A quick weekly read shaped by what we're seeing across lodging, wineries, and hospitality.
I’m running an experiment on myself.
For most of my career, I’ve consumed content the way most people I know consume content: opportunistically, distractedly, and sometimes all over the place. There’s always a tab open. There’s always something to scroll to. There's always a podcast I'm behind on. By Sunday night, I usually couldn’t tell you what I actually learned that week.
A few months ago, I started running a simple test on whatever I was reading, listening to, or watching.
I asked myself three questions:
Inform: did I learn something I didn’t know?
Educate: can I actually use what I learned?
Entertain: did I enjoy the time I spent?
That's it. If something does one of those three things, it has earned its time. Two, I'll tell someone about it. All three is rare. And when it happens, it's usually not an accident; somebody worked hard to make it that good.
This little filter has been surprisingly useful. Also a little annoying.
A surprising amount of what I was consuming did none of the three. It wasn’t necessarily bad. It just wasn’t doing anything for me.
The industry coverage I was reading because I thought I should. The podcast I put on because silence felt unproductive. The Substack I subscribed to in 2022, rarely read, and still haven’t dared to cancel.
I want to be honest, I still get this wrong constantly. I get pulled into things that fail all three jobs at least twice a day.
And I’m still learning what you find informing, educating, or entertaining.
This week, I want to do something a little different.
Instead of three picks, I’m sharing The Bench: a list of podcasts, essays, articles, people worth following, and videos that have helped me learn something, apply something, feel a little better, or just take a breath and laugh.
Each one has earned its time for at least one of the three jobs. Most earn two. A few earn all three.
Future issues of the Brief will narrow back to a few deeper picks. But today, The Bench.
Thanks for reading,
Mike
The WineCountry Business Podcast
Episode 6: Noah Friedman - Investing Beyond Alcohol
This week Andrew talks with Noah Friedman of Top Shelf Ventures, an alcohol-focused fund that sees hundreds of companies a year and works directly with some of the most interesting ones. A vantage point most operators inside the industry never get.
Noah lays out his investment thesis, what's actually growing in the category, and where the structural advantages are hiding in plain sight.
If you're tired of reading the doom version of the industry, this is a better use of your time: a clear look at where consumer demand is actually moving.
Listen on WineCountry Business, Apple Podcast, and Spotify.
The Bench
The list below is mine. I read, listen to, or watch all of it.
This is not meant to be comprehensive. It is meant to be useful.
Some of these sources help me understand what is changing. Some teach me something I can apply. Some simply make me laugh, which is not a small thing.
For shorthand:
I = Inform: I didn't know that.Ed = Educate: I can use that. E = Entertain: I enjoyed that.
Here's why each one earned a place on my bench, and here's where I think you might find value too.
PODCASTS
The WineCountry Business Podcast Yes, of course this is the first one on the list. We produce it and recommending anything else first would be either modest or dishonest.(I + Ed) · Free
Acquired Three-and-a-half-hour deep dives into the strategy behind the world's most consequential companies. If you can't find one of the 200+ episodes that fascinates you, the problem may not be the podcast.(I + Ed + E) · Free
Invest Like the Best Patrick O'Shaughnessy asks better questions than most interviewers and somehow gets builders and investors to actually answer them, which is rarer than it should be.(I + Ed) · Free
Lenny's Podcast Practical product and growth conversations that translate to hospitality more directly than most operators realize. You'll catch yourself taking notes you didn't expect to take.(I + Ed) · Free
The Art of Accomplishment Joe Hudson is the executive coach Apple, Google, and OpenAI leaders quietly book. The podcast is what he sounds like when he's not charging by the hour. Emotional fluency for people who thought they were past needing it.(Ed + I) · Free
Track Your Life with Boyd Varty 8-15 minute episodes from a South African lion tracker turned writer. Just listening to his voice is the closest thing to a vacation you can take during your commute.(E) · Free
Smartless Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett interview a surprise guest while making each other laugh. Pure entertainment, no agenda, no homework required.(E) · Free
The Rewatchables Just good clean fun here. Bill Simmons and a rotating crew breaking down great movies the way you'd break them down with friends after a few drinks. The show is essentially a permission slip to quote movies for the rest of the week.(E) · Free
ESSAYS & NEWSLETTERS
The Marginalian Maria Popova's weekly collection of observations, poems, and notes on life. Exceedingly beautiful, somehow free, and has absolutely nothing to do with business, which is exactly why it earns The Bench.(E + Ed) · Free
One Useful Thing Ethan Mollick on what AI actually changes in real work, which is the version of the AI conversation worth your time. The other version is mostly people in suits being excited at conferences.(Ed + I) · Free
Stratechery Ben Thompson's strategic analysis of platforms, distribution, and business models. The free Friday Update tells you whether the paid version is worth the price.(Ed + I) · Free + paid tier
Not Boring Packy McCormick writes business strategy that's actually entertaining, which the title is daring you to dispute.(I + Ed + E) · Free + paid tier
The Profile Polina Marinova's weekly long-form profiles of unusual builders and operators. She's been doing this every Sunday for nine years without missing one, which tells you something.(I + Ed + E) · Free
Every Daily essays on AI, software, and the business of knowledge work, written by builders who are using what they write about (not just reading about what other people are using).(I + Ed) · Free + paid tier
Steven Kotler The leading working researcher on flow states and peak performance, and the rare neuroscience-adjacent writer who can explain his own work without making you Google a single word.(Ed + I) · Free
Jamie Wheal Neuroanthropologist and author of Stealing Fire and Recapture the Rapture. Writes about meaning, performance, and what makes humans actually thrive. Heady in the best sense, and never dull.(Ed + I + E) · Free
Growth in Reverse Chenell Basilio reverse-engineers how the best newsletters became must-open, which is exactly the question I'm trying to answer about this one.(Ed + I) · Free
Skift The industry-standard travel and hospitality intelligence source. Not always exciting, but reliably worth the scan, which is its own kind of compliment.(I + Ed) · Free + paid tier
TNMT Lufthansa Innovation Hub's research on travel and mobility, refreshingly out of the mainstream and full of signals you won't catch in the trade press because most of the trade press isn't looking.(I + Ed) · Free
PEOPLE TO FOLLOW ON X
@bchesky Brian Chesky posts like he's still designing Airbnb, not running it from a board seat. Useful for anyone who builds anything for other humans. (I + Ed) · Free
@levie Aaron Levie has been one of my most-read follows for years. Box's CEO writes about enterprise AI with the curiosity of an operator and the speed of an analyst, and he's funny enough to make all of it readable. (I + Ed + E) · Free
@morganhousel One Housel sentence about money or time and you stare at the ceiling for ten minutes. He's done it to you before, he'll do it again. (Ed + I) · Free
@Super70sSports Ricky Cobb's vintage sports photos with deadpan captions. This follow makes me laugh every single day. The mustaches alone are worth your time. (E) · Free
@HumanityChad A feel-good follow in a content ocean often loaded with negativity. "Restoring Your Faith in Humanity" is short clips of people being decent to each other, and it's the one account I open knowing I'll come away slightly better than I went in. (E) · Free
VIDEO & DOCUMENTARIES
Jiro Dreams of Sushi The documentary on mastery, repetition, and standards. 81 minutes that will change how you think about anything you're trying to get good at, including making sushi, which you probably aren't.(Ed + E + I) · Paid (rental/streaming)
The Bear The closest fiction has come to capturing hospitality as a moral and operational practice. Real, raw, and unexpectedly beautiful in moments, with chaos that's both the point and extremely good television. The “Forks” episode is one of the most inspiring episodes of television I’ve ever seen, still gives me goosebumps when I watch it. (Ed + E + I) · Paid (Hulu)
A Thought To Leave With
A useful reminder for this week’s theme. The moment we decide we already know what matters, we stop paying attention. The best operators, writers, investors, and leaders I know stay open a little longer than everyone else. They keep testing what they think they know. That is usually where the learning starts.
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
- Epictetus
See you next week
