The Notebook: Join Me Live Tonight--and Where Should I Go Next?

The midterms are coming fast, so our schedule is accelerating.

First—let’s talk.

Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, I’ll hold a live YouTube AMA exclusively for paid members of Real Patriotism. No guest, no formal program, no predetermined subject: just your questions and our conversation.

Ask me about the news, the midterms, Iowa, independent journalism, the book I’m working on—or anything else that’s on your mind. I especially want to hear what stories/issues/people you think I should be paying closer attention to right now.

Paid members: The link for tonight’s AMA is attached for you in this newsletter, and I’ll email it to you as well.

Before tonight’s live Q&A, I want to share our first America in Person documentary again. If you haven’t watched “America in Person: Iowa—What Are Elections For?”, I hope you’ll take the time.

This isn’t a campaign roundup or a bunch of candidate soundbites strung together. It’s not punditry—much.

Instead, it’s an attempt to get underneath the noise of our politics and listen to people where they live, where we met them: at the Iowa State Fair, in farm country, at a barbershop in Des Moines, at town halls and farmers markets.

What we found was not a country consumed by politics. In fact, many people we spoke with seemed tired of the noise and rancor of the national political debate.

They were thinking primarily about their farms, their children, their schools and churches, health care, housing, the cost of living—and whether the next generation will be able to build a decent life in the places they call home.

That was the real Iowa reality check.

If the film speaks to you, please share it.

Send it to someone who might not normally read Real Patriotism. Post it on social media.

The more people who see and share this work, the more reporting we can do—and the more Americans we can bring into the conversation.

Nobody assigned this. Nobody focus-grouped it. It exists in part because readers of this Notebook sent me names, addresses, insights, and encouragement.

Below the paywall, I’m giving paid members the first look at where we may go next—and asking you to help shape the assignments.

That kind of access and participation is part of what membership means here: not merely receiving extra material, but helping build the journalism itself—being part of what I call this “civic newsroom.”

Members don't just read the reporting. They help decide what gets reported.