I am your narrative guru and your pop culture brain for hire and the guy in the room who knows which way is north and how the words should sound, which is why I wrote this sentence without using the word “storyteller.” I’ve made TV and podcasts and docs and written a couple of books, like MOST TRIUMPHANT, a meditation on Keanu Reeves’ life in the arts, and the forthcoming QUANTUM CRIMINALS, featuring paintings of characters from Steely Dan songs by Joan LeMay with text by me. Most recently I wrote and hosted THE BIG HIT SHOW, a docuseries for Spotify/Higher Ground featuring multi-episode stories about the making of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, the redemption of the Twilight saga by its devoted fan base, and how Pokemon took over the world. I’ve written profiles and essays and criticism for some of the best publications on Earth. And yet my biggest fans are still the people who discovered me through Grantland, where I wrote a column about the NFL for two years despite knowing almost nothing about football.