The Saturday List - August 16, 2025
What I'm Listening to, Watching, Reading, and Rediscovering This Week
(Above is what happens when you ask ChatGPT for a logo. Don’t quit your day job, Chat!)
Back for round three…took a break…switched the order of business but here goes:
Listening To: Songs of the Decade (So Far)
Is it self-serving to post your own list? Nah, because the music is awesome.
On my Area224 site, I posted this a few weeks back, and got a little help from Canadian Steve. Here are just a couple of the songs on the list:
Let’s start with Chappell Roan. “Pink Pony Club” is guaranteed to pack the dance floor.
In the same vein — powerful female with a unique sound and appears to have come out of nowhere but really hasn’t — here’s Lola Young.
Canadian Steve (referenced above) has a pick: “Ghosts Again” by Depeche Mode.
Oh and of course there’s my pick — if pressed, and it has some stiff competition — from a Pennsylvania band called The Districts. Here’s “Cheap Regrets”…
Watching: How to Really Think Strategically, with Michael Watkins
Michael Watkins is a professor at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He’s also the author of The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, which is an excellent book for leaders (you don’t have to be moving into a new role YET to get a ton out of the book).
He’s great at breaking down complex subjects into simple steps — hey, you might call that “Pattern Recognition,” which is one of his six steps in this video! — and shows that here with a video on the Big Think website called “6 key abilities of strategic thinkers.”
And if you want a deeper dive (!) here’s a video interview that goes for an hour or so on “Future Ready Leadership with Jacob Morgan.”
Reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear
I remember first reading this best-seller while I was on a vacation (Humblebrag Alert: I was in Brazil) and being rather floored at how really simple it sounded to build the kinds of good habits — or to stop the kinds of bad habits — in your life.
The power of this book: I’ve seen variations of the “never miss twice” concept seemingly everywhere. Trying to build win streaks — in my case, going to the gym, even when I don’t feel like it — can be tough; but if you avoid building losing streaks, the improvement will stack up.
(And, having missed last week’s edition of The Saturday List, well…I dragged myself back to the keyboard.)
Here’s an Amazon link to the book: Atomic Habits.
Rediscovering: Shakespeare Solos
The Bard died in 1616.
In 2016, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his death, The Guardian commissioned leading actors to perform some of the most memorable speeches from Ol’ Bill. (Can we call him that?)
Here’s one of my favorites and yes, Bobby Axelrod is British in real life.
See y’all next Saturday, as we inch closer to football season.