There's a moment about halfway through where I start crying about the X composer, that small text box you type a tweet into. I built my whole way of writing inside it. Brain to post button, no editing, nothing in between. Since we came off the platforms, everything I write goes into a Google Doc instead, and it has felt like a small death I did not expect to grieve.

Before that we lay out what 2025 actually cost us. We ended three communities in one email. I stepped down from hosting the walks on their third birthday, right when I loved them most, and handed them to Julia, who was quietly dropping hints that she was pregnant. We locked the laptops in a closet for two weeks and came out knowing exactly what had to go.

Then the episode turns into something we did not plan, which is the two of us coaching each other in real time.

In this one:

- The two week screen detox, and how to approximate it if you have a job and cannot go dark

- Cam names his real block, and it isn't fear of being seen

- The image of a wave pouring into a red solo cup, and why that is the actual pain

We start in a pumpkin dress joking about a benefit concert and end somewhere neither of us expected, with a solution that took ninety minutes and one cry to find.

For the ongoing version of these conversations, explore The Board: https://www.theboardwalks.com/the-board