Happy holidays!

See you next year.

Merry holiday(s) of your choosing, Volts fam!

Just a note to let you know that we’re taking the week off — no content, which means no mailbag episode for December. I kinda forgot that I’m going to be in DC with family all week and won’t have time to record anything. But please, keep leaving your questions. Expect a super-mailbag in January, with my co-host Lisa back in the booth.

I've been thinking about what to offer by way of year-end reflections, but honestly, I don’t have much. I feel pretty profoundly out of sync with the country right now — the zeitgeist, the vibes, what have you. Everything seems too ugly and stupid to bear. It is a dark time for America and it seems likely to get much darker before it’s over.

That is why I’m so grateful I get to do the work I do at Volts. Though the sky is dark, each guest — each story of cleverness or courage or public spirit — is a lantern, a light against the gloom. And if I can’t quite see the landscape clearly any more, if I can’t make out a happy ending through the tenebrous murk, at least each lantern provides enough illumination to make it to the next.

I hope you will stick with me on this journey in coming years, one foot in front of the other, from lantern to lantern, toward a brighter world.

And I hope you all find some measure of peace this holiday season. Love from the whole Volts family.

I took this at a park near my house the other day. Seems promising.

PS. We’ll kick off the new year with a new pod on Jan. 1. It’s on thermal energy networks. An absolute banger.

PPS. I sent my annual fundraiser last month, so I won’t hit you up again, or remind you that paid subscribers are my sole source of income, so forth and etc.

I will, however, tip you off that a Volts subscription is a great last-minute gift! 😉