Once a month I'm gathering up the things I’ve been watching, reading and listening to - mostly circling fatherhood, analogue life and adventure, and where those worlds collide.

It’s a new format for subscribers and the aim is simple: a shortlist of ideas worth your time from the endless digital thicket known as the internet.

Edition 1, lesssgo:

I listened to this 8 part Apple podcast whilst sanding my staircase (not a euphemism) and it’s single handedly redefined what “family adventure” means to me. It tells the story of the Robertson family, who sailed around the world in the 70s until their boat was sunk by orcas in the Pacific. They survived 38 days adrift on a rubber lifeboat with a bag of onions, some citrus, a few bits of salvage and a man they’d picked up en route (who they didn’t eat).

It’s stunningly produced and a genuinely gripping tale of fatherhood, ego, raising resilient kids/deckhands and a relentless commitment to the idea of adventure…but at what cost?

I’ll be the first to admit I am shit at ponytails and my daughter reminds me every time I attempt one. At her gym class recently I failed so spectacularly the instructor had to intervene, and I swear I heard her tut.

The Secret Life of Dads podcast recognised this collective shortcoming and hosted a braiding workshop in a London pub. The video went viral and sparked a flurry of similar events around the world.

Blokes earnestly plaiting to the clink of pint glasses is objectively funny, but beneath the lager foam is something pretty wonderful: dads trying not to be passengers in their own homes. Love it.

Jamie Hargreaves, 23, has just ridden from Derby to Sydney, retracing the exact route his dad Phil cycled in 1984. He followed the same roads (geopolitics permitting), rode the same model bike and rather impressively recreated the same photos 40 years later.

As a saddle-scar-carrying member of the UK-to-Australia cycling fellowship, I followed Jamie’s trip from day one. There’s something deeply satisfying about this kind of intergenerational call to adventure and a brilliant reminder that kids don’t just inherit your eye colour, they inherit your madness too.

Eric Dane, best known for Grey’s Anatomy, passed away last week aged 53 after living with ALS for two years. Shortly before his death, he recorded a six minute message for his two daughters, released posthumously as part of Famous Last Words.

It’s disarming watching a man distil his life down to what actually matters, speaking about presence, love, friendship and bravery. This is a powerful watch that’s stick with you for a while.

I read this essay by Sam Graham-Felsen and immediately thought of three people I should probably ring. 

Many of us can relate to that feeling of friendship-fade that creeps in once the vortex of marriage, kids and careers roars into our lives. Unless there’s deliberate effort made to hang out, to call or at the very least fire off a whatsapp message, those deep, hard- earned bonds that came so easily when we were younger seem to loosen, and it can feel really bloody lonely. This fantastic piece articulates this frustration brilliantly (and is a call to action to do something about it!)

John Niven is one of my favourite writers with the uncanny ability to bring me to tears of rib-shattering laughter (The Amateurs) and full-blown gut-punch heartbreak (O Brother). His latest, The Fathers, manages both on multiple occasions within it’s 357 pages.

Following two new dads from very different sides of the Glaswegian tracks, colliding over parenthood, pride and modern masculinity, it’s a gritty satire that slaps uncomfortably hard. Once you’ve caught your breath you’ll realise that beyond postcode, politics and bravado the same fear hums underneath us all: we’re probably far more alike, and more fragile, than we care to admit.