Mike’s Manifesto .019
THOUGHTS ON SPORTS, MUSIC, TECH, AND THE LIFE IN BETWEEN - Captain’s Log .019
“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”
— Eckhart Tolle
THE OPENING
I have been accused of being too deep for the intro.. Sorry for the J. Cole Pun. Will that change, fuck no. But I will tone it down for this week. Some weeks require that. Others ask for presence. Nothing extraordinary or extravagant. Just a simple line or word to sum up the thoughts and feelings for the week. If I had to use one word for this week, it would be Gratitude.
🏀THE GAME—SPORTS THROUGH A CULTURAL LENS
Worldwide Leader of Bullshit (ESPN)
There has been a lot made of the most recent layoffs at ESPN. The most glaringly blatant firing, because he was not laid off, was the dismissal of Ryan Clark. There was not a very virtuous explanation to the firing. Their actions leading up to it also drove a lot of speculative reports that was harmful to Ryan and the other parties involved. But can we expect anything less from ESPN at this point?
The more disheartening revelation to develop from this was his honest response to the situation on his own podcast, The Pivot. The video brought up to me a lot of memories for how people of color are dismissed and replaced at ESPN. There are several who were unceremoniously removed from their positions without a proper sendoff. Here one day, gone the next. Ryan was the most recent to admit, he tried to tone down to assimilate — that was still not good enough.
ESPN loves powerful voices, just not the truthful ones. The ones who call a spade a spade. The ones who resemble the color of a spade. Truth-tellers who hold others accountable while embracing accountability for themselves. The tide is turning in journalism. Companies believe boisterous voices are the wave, but they can only fit one box. Ryan will be fine, and his situation should be a lesson to the younger generation — never let your voice be silenced by any means because, you can still be replaced even if you do everything right.
🎵THE SOUND—MUSIC AS MEMOIR AND MOOD
Gwen Bunn Just Knows
There are many singers, both male and female, but there are only a select few distinct voices. Gwen Bunn could be considered in the latter. She is the latest songstress to release a project, and it is a bit of a diversion from her previous works. This is a project focused solely on dance, and I can say it did not disappoint.
In a landfill of musical projects that have been released in 2026, this one for me is one that I have enjoyed. It could be the vibe I am settling in as I age, but this EP is a good time in a short amount of time. The standout songs on the project to me are: “Hide & Seek”, “Eyes Locked”, “Riot”, and ‘“Red Eye”. Eyes locked rides me of those DC U Street nights in the early 2000s where everyone was just trying to dance and have a good night. Also, a plus if you left that night with a connection that was built of pure chemistry.
Gwen is an artist that adds a very vibrant, unorthodox element to any song she is on. It is great when artist like her can experiment, while not sacrificing their creativity. An album worth checking out when you want a nice vibe or before you hit the night out.
📡THE DOWNLOAD—TECH THROUGH LIVED EXPERIENCE
3 Tech Stories Worth Watching
There are so many different stories going on in the tech world today, but they mostly circle around the same topic, A.I. Which is a very delicate topic to most because of how much it is taking shape and in some words — over our daily lives in more ways than one. Here are a few stories I am following for this week.
Apple announced their third quarter earnings, which fell below projected figures per Wall Street Market. Numbers can tell so many stories, but one story that spoke volumes was the stock price tumbling by 4% after the report. Apple is also in the process of stockpiling inventory to combat the potential chip shortage. They are also in the process of providing a new program in conjunction with Klarna to “lease” your phone. We are in trouble.
Anthropic is reporting that their newest A.I. models were able to penetrate a number of major companies systems. Now the report felt like gloom and doom, but it also sounded like a tipping their own cap to the feat. To me, it sounds like they have no grasp of Claude and each new agent deployed is going to generate more issues. With Microsoft seemingly changing their partnership to Anthropic, while also trying to compete with them in the A.I. sector is a very telling changing of the guard.
Spotify is taking a different approach and now granting users the ability to add notes to individual songs on their curated playlist. This is a pretty cool feature and one that adds a more personal touch to playlist.
❤️THE REAL—LOVE, GRIEF, GROWTH, COMMUNITY
Growth is Beautiful and Painful
Sometimes you have no idea of how life will develop as you grow and age. Choices that are made transform us more than we realize. Some choices are made for us before we have the agency to understand the gravity of our own freedom to choose. How we grow is depicted on the choices that we make and the ones we do not.
Growth is beautiful in many ways. Growth allows you to evolve. It restructures how you process information, how you love properly, how you navigate the world, and how you see yourself in it. Growth provides you access to versions of yourself that struggle, conform, and become complacent which stalls you developing into the version of you that you would have never gotten to know. There is a divine intentionality in growth. It can feel like a quiet but undeniable hand guiding you towards who God purposed you to be long before you had the clarity to see it for yourself. That process is sacred. It is heavenly even in the moments where you cannot see it. There is a graceful energy that surrounds you when you are transforming into a greater version of yourself.
What is also true, is growth is arduous. It is also one aspect that does not get enough attention.
On the other side of growth, there is removal. Growth does not always add. It can feel like addition by subtraction. It removes the ability for you to stay in habits that felt like survival. It removes relationships that felt like home at one point in time. It removes versions of yourself that you held onto far longer than you should have because they were familiar and familiar felt easy. The one thing that comes along with growth is grief. You start to realize that with evolution, the newer version of you starts to outgrow people and circumstances that once provided you with genuine comfort and happiness. The friends and loved ones who were present for one chapter of your life were never promised to stay for the entire novel. And accepting that, truly accepting it, requires a level of emotional honesty and accountability that most of us resist until we have no other choice. Until our hands are forced.
What I have digested is that removal is not punishment or karma. It feels more like preparation. Every person, place, and circumstance that falls away in your season of growth is making space for what God has already assigned to your next level. The discomfort of the transition is not a sign that something is wrong. It is confirmation that something is shifting. It normally is the sign of a breakthrough.
Growth does come at a cost. It always will. It will cost you loved ones, relationships, relatives, careers, and even hobbies. What it constructs in response is the formulation of a life that is more aligned, more intentional, and more genuinely yours. Comfort is a great place, but nothing substantial grows there.
Trust yourself in growth. When it’s joyous, but most importantly when it’s painful.
WESS RECOMMENDS — 3 LINKS THIS WEEK
SUBSTACK
RANTIN', RAVIN', & REMINISCIN'
This is one article that I recommend everyone read for this week.
SONG
Larry June — “Everything Liquid”
The best song on Larry June’s newest album by far.
READ OR WATCH
PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT - We Followed Kawhi Leonard's Money Trail After Aspiration
Pablo has been all over this story from the beginning and it keeps getting better.
Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.
— WESS