Hey guys. Matt McManus here. This platform, this community, us, means a great deal to my partners and me, simply because men don’t really collaborate the way we’ve built it here. So I’d like to introduce you to something new I’ve been doing that I think can make you feel like an individual and part of a community at the same time.
The topic is news.
For a hundred years, we’ve gotten the news from a paper, from the television when we get home, or from what people say on the subway, on the train, in our ears at work. More often than not, it happens in the morning. And if there’s new news, it happens in the evening.
The world has changed, and we all know it, thanks to AI. The main difference for me is this: you can Google something, and it gives you everything that’s on Google. But now you can be hyper specific.
I woke up one day and thought, I don’t want bad news first. I want good news first. So that’s what I told my prompt. I use Claude. Use whatever you like, but you should use something. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do for a living, or where you live. It’s where we are now. I’m not trying to force it down your throat. I’m saying it can help you in ways like this.
I was going to CNN or Politico, as well as Fox News, just to get perspective. I was raised by a Democrat and a Republican at the same time, so I like being exposed to both sides just to have a general awareness. But after decades of this, I realized I was consuming someone else’s priorities. And my priorities had shifted.
News goes way beyond what’s happening in the world. I like knowing what’s going on with music. MTV News was great at that in the 80s and 90s. Believe it or not, Kurt Loder and everyone under him at that platform informed me in a super sharp way. That doesn’t exist anymore, so I sought my own way.
I live in LA. I’m from New York. Both coastal towns. But I want to know what’s going on in between, too. So I started adding to this prompt piece by piece. Every morning, it tells me what’s going on in the world I want to live in and the world I’m currently living in, if that makes any sense.
My lineup looks like this:
Good news first.
The weather in LA and New York City, because I’ve got a foot in both.
The important news of the day.
The Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, and Jets, in brief, since those are the teams I follow.
Entertainment news that matters to me as an actor and a creative.
A fun health fact for a man my age.
Cool New Balance shoes on the market.
New food fads, because I love food.
Hip hop and pop culture for someone my age. No new rappers.
A realistic take on astrology for a Libra man. No yah yah.
Cool things happening in LA that day or that week that I could actually go to: paint and sips, burger launches, free events from Hollywood out to Silver Lake.
And then there was a turning point. A regular guy could be an editor.
I edited my news, but I did not curate it. Because if I’m curating it, I’m leaving out the things I maybe agree with, or maybe disagree with. It doesn’t matter. I want to know what culture is saying.
Now, I’ll be honest with you. There’s a bubble risk here. I’m not asking you to live in a bubble where the news you don’t want never comes toward you. That’s why I kept important news in my lineup. Good news comes first, but the rest of the world still shows up. I choose the order I meet it in, not whether I meet it. And AI can get facts wrong, so as a good editor, I still check my sources.
If you want to build your own, I’ll walk you through it below.
