Hello, my name is Chris Bowers. Thank for your reading my content, and thank you for your activism. If you have a few minutes, I would like to tell you my story.
Two years ago, I started Bowers News Media because, after 20 years in political media and activism, I wanted less of my time and resources eaten up by overhead like meetings, conferences, travel, performance reviews, social media, hiring, HR, lawyers, several layers of copyediting, or trainings. Instead, I wanted as much of my work energy as possible spent on producing impactful actions, insightful analysis, lucid news explainers and practical life advice for grassroots Democrats. Further, I wanted it all written in my voice, according to my beliefs, rather than writing what someone else believed for them.
The only way I saw to pull this off was to be simple and to be small. So, I teamed up with an old friend of mine who was retiring, political science professor Dr. Matt Kerbel of Villanova University, to see if just two people, with only an email list (Bowers News Media, run by me) and a Substack (Wolves and Sheep, run by Matt), could bring a national audience impactful, timely, accessible political activism, analysis and news explainers on one of the big issues of our time: keeping our democracy intact.
It was not easy to take the plunge and leave my job of 14 years managing the email list and activism department at Daily Kos. While I had been thinking about starting my own pro-Democratic and pro-democracy media and activism organization since 2017, to be perfectly honest I was scared to do it because of how much was at stake. Specifically, as the sole breadwinner for my family, I was worried about leaving a job that I could never hope to replace, thus causing my family's financial downfall.
Instead of just worrying, I decided to find a way to overcome this fear. So, in October 2023, borrowing an idea from the ancient philosophy of Stoicism, I decided to practice my fear of having a drastically reduced income and see how it felt.
One week while my spouse was out of town, I took care of my son and myself while spending as little money as I possibly could. For food, I bought enough groceries for the two of us for the week for only $141. All seven days, I completed all of my chores and errands entirely on foot. For entertainment by myself, I walked around the neighborhood and listened to Great Courses lectures. For fun with my kid, I bought a cheap bag of Halloween candy, read to him a lot, and played a bunch of board games and video games that we already owned. In total, I spent less than $150, and felt kinda great. Most importantly, my fear of a drastically reduced income went away, as I realized the outcome was not as scary as I thought it would be.
A few months later, I turned 50, and realized that there were more things I was afraid of than just a steep drop in income. At work, for several years I had already been afraid of saying the wrong thing and getting fired, or of speaking my mind and getting cancelled out of progressive politics. However, with my birthday making it clear that time really was passing before my eyes, I was increasingly afraid of living my entire life without ever following my dream, and also of serving a bad example to my son by being too afraid to strike out on my own.
Finally, in late March of 2024, after talking it over with my wife and finally deciding to take the plunge, I called up Matt Kerbel to see if he was interested in joining me on this new venture. Matt is an old friend of mine--we even wrote a book together about a decade ago--and he just happened to be retiring from his post as a political science professor at Villanova University. Instead of deciding to fade into retirement, he almost immediately accepted my offer to team up.
A little over two months later in June 2024, Bowers Kerbel Media launched. Bowers Kerbel Media is the joint organization that operates both the Bowers News Media news and activism email list and the Wolves and Sheep Substack, which provides professional political analysis, impactful activism, and practical life advice .
It's been pretty hard work so far, with only a handful of days entirely off from work. However, I knew what I was signing up for when I launched a political media and activism organization. During the six years I spent as a full-time blogger at MyDD and Open Left from 2004-2010, I had to work an average of 320 days a year, so I am used to this and I can handle it. Also, I believe that grassroots donors should know that the people they are supporting are working their butts off for them, so I see this hard work as simply part of the deal.
I am writing all this to ask you to become a paid subscriber to Bowers News Media and its associated Substack, Dr. Matthew Kerbel's Wolves and Sheep. Becoming a paid supporter to either Bowers News Media or Wolves and Sheep gives you the benefits of supporting both, as both are operated by Bowers Kerbel Media.
In addition to supporting political activism without exaggeration or fear, plus insightful political analysis and lucid news explainers of major electoral and legislative campaigns, paid subscribers receive access to my weekly Life in Activism column where I offer practical advice I have learned from my 22 years in politics on how to make a difference in in the world while still enjoying every day of your life.
You also receive an extra article a week from Matt who spent over 30 years as a political science professor at Villanova, access to our monthly interactive political briefings, the ability to comment on our articles, and the chance to ask us questions during our thrice-monthly "Ask Us Anything" series.
Becoming a paid subscriber to Bowers Kerbel Media requires starting a monthly donation of $8, or an annual donation of $80 to Bowers Kerbel Media on this ActBlue page, or through an $8 monthly, or $80 annual, subscription to Wolves and Sheep on Substack. You can also write a personal check for $80 or more to Bowers Kerbel Media, the address of which is 620 Park Avenue, #402, Rochester, NY, 14607.
Thank you for your time,
Chris Bowers