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hi, i'm ash!
Creator of the New Travel & Design Series, 'OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES.'
Travel writer & host, cultural explorer, and architecture & interiors freak.
Meet ash >
I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β
I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β I THINK YOU'RE REALLY GREAT β
The Newsletter
Every week, we're exploring global culture through the lens of the home. From floorplans to fixtures, we examine how houses are built, designed, and decorated around the world (with a side of sass, of course!)
The Podcast
The only podcast where we pass on the pyramids and poke around in the plumbing. Iβm Ash, and I'm, exploring the strange, smart, and wonderful ways houses are built, designed, and decorated around the world.
The Books
A new series of OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES books designed to help you try on a new life in different places around the worldβby getting to "go behind closed doors" inside local homes to discover what it's really like to live there.
Iβm π― in on the side gig for funny obits. Letβs rock death.
Would it not be FANTASTIC, HAHAHAHAHAHAH
I mean I would want mine done funny before I go, I think thereβs a real goldmine here π
THAT’S interesting – have a writing studio that does your obituary WITH you, pre-death! I LOVE IT. I’d so do that, too, to be honest.
When youβre ready, let me know! Iβve had this idea for awhile but being a team is always betterβ¦ π
Ash – do you think it is still my job to have 50% of the world disagree with me when I am writing a local newsletter? Weβve discussed this before, but I try to avoid political commentary. Iβm not avoiding the topics. I wrote about voting last week, I feature inclusive events all the time like queer friend mixers and drag brunches, and I even wrote about our community struggles with homelessness & lack of shelters. As the world gets worse & worse, I find myself leaning more into wanting to piss off half of my townβs population. The problem is Iβd likely piss off more than half. Iβm a blue dot and a very red town. I started this newsletter to connect with people based on values, not political identities. But I do feel like Iβve had to turn the dial down on my voice in order to appease my audience. Iβm thinking that as things keep growing, I will feel my way to a place that feels more in alignment. Maybe I will be less angry at the world by then and not want to scream into the abyss about everything wrong with people.
AHHHHH!!!! I am SO glad the local newsletter lives and is kicking ass, Megan!!!!!!!!!!! Hell YES, my PA girl!
Here’s what I think:
Personal brands writing personal newsletters should have an opinion, a perspective, a viewpoint.
But, so should brands – don’t you think?
Without it, it’s not really a brand. It’s a summary.
BE THE BRAND. BE ICONIC. BE WHOLLY YOURSELF. YOU GOT THIS.
Thank you, friend. I really needed to hear that. Iβve been feeling the internal friction building for a while now. I wouldnβt say Iβve been out of integrity with what I write, but there have been moments when Iβve softened a sentence or cut a line just to avoid alienating someone whose politics donβt align with mine.
Every time Iβve done that, Iβve asked myself WHY. And the honest answer has always been because I didnβt want to exclude readers based on political identity. But Iβm realizing that if someone disagrees with me that deeply, it probably means our values arenβt aligned anyway.
I want to build a community where I can show up as my whole self. Not some filtered version of myself made palatable for everyone else. I can share my opinions without being exclusionary, but I canβt keep editing myself out of my own work.
Hi Megan!
Based on your previous self-description in your earlier thread, I wanted to add that I also tried my hand at writing a political piece for the first time last week. Not interested in writing political pieces at all, but was testing how far you can take standing in your own opinions using one of the hot topics of the day (politics is definitely that). In short, it gave me the ick.
Not because I felt I had to shrink my opinions, but because I found the least educated, least informed lazy people come out of the woodwork to hurl unresearched ideas at you for the sake of preserving their own worldview. It’s a grand opportunity to reassure themselves that they’re alright. That their lives aren’t one ginormous dumpster sausage. And it’s instantly exhausting dealing with these adult toddlers (and these little phermone trolls can be found on both sides of the aisle).
So, it sounds like we are on opposite sides with regard to some issues, but I will say that if I read one of your political pieces and it was written unapologetically standing in your own confidence backed up with smart, well-thought out ideas that dared to tweak my perspective just a smidge, I wouldn’t be able to help but admire you and want to know more. And that would make me a fan (which of course you would adore because then we’d be Einstein besties).
Sometimes it’s not our beliefs that prevent us from coming together, it’s the execution on sharing those beliefs with the world. I don’t think you should shrink yourself at all. I think what we both should do is double down and learn how to show up as message mercenaries who expertly deliver the message in a way that is a force to be reckoned with– THAT’S the power. Not what you believe but how you deliver it.
As for those adult troll toddlers?
Turning up your message will piss them off so badly they’ll scurry back under the raisin box they came from. Problem solved.
Hope this helps π
Godddd I could smell this post from my inbox.
Quick question: is crowbar similar to Meat & Hair? Cause I got that one from you (love it more than cheese) and I’m so down for rocking with you again. Love, an OG fan.
HA!!!!!!!!!!!! Well I would LOVE to have you!!!!!! This is def 100% different from Meat & Hair. As much as I LOVEEEEE that class, that one is more about sentence-level editing techniques to make you writing zhuzh-y, and this is more about: What do you write? How do you write it? And, how can you write things people actually want to read?
Also there may be unicorns handing out prosecco in this one. Or at least there will be in our hearts. π€£
Say less, I’m in.
I just signed up for the unicorns and the prosecco. I’ll bring the π§.
“The leftover STD spores of the internet.” π π π π π π π π π π Yeah, writing “how-to” content does feel like puttign together IKEA furniture. I HATE IT!!! But then i wonder if sharing a moodboard was useful or helpful at all and WHY did I take the time to create it??? I find people are reading but its not turning into any dolla dolla bills.
Same on the dolla bills π
AI Dumpster Fire π₯(YESS, ASH!) β and itβs only growing more ablaze every day. People are believing everything they see…(AI ads, videos — it’s insanity!) Also, since it’s Halloween month, I can only compare it to the old “flaming-bag-o-shit” on the porch we’re trying to stomp out, but we’re ruining our Doc Martens in the process. Bring on the funny obits – we need them!
Love it. Thanks.
get out of my head witch!! jk please stay here its lonely
ALWAYS. IN. MY. HEAD!
Dude – cracking piece and exactly the punch in the face I needed today. Fuck these content motherfuckers!! One of my best posts was about WANKERY which is 100% not a word.
A couple of specific points:
1) Can I join Team Funny Obits? I have a personal vendetta against our weirdass cultural inability to discuss DEATH and also think this would be fun as hell. Plus who wouldnβt want one??
2) I was reading quickly and thought you wrote βHow to Build a Website Without Punching a PENGUIN in the Faceβ. I would 100% read this article.
SPUNK xx