The best activity you can do this summer
It will take over your life for eight weeks and you'll be nothing but grateful.
Psst: we have another AMA podcast coming up soon! Submit your questions for John and/or me here or just leave them in the comments. You can listen to the first one here!
In so many ways, John and I are trying to raise our kids just as our parents did. And even though the 2020s look a lot different than the 1990s, we’ve found it’s actually quite possible. It’s not an exact copy-and-paste, however: sometimes, something comes along that bumps us out of our generational grooves. For the last few years, for us, that has been neighborhood swim team — and in today’s newsletter, I’m going to make the bold argument that everyone should participate in just such a team.
Of course, I know that’s not possible — for starters, the infrastructure simply doesn’t exist in large swaths of the country, including the corner where we grew up — so we’ll also focus in on this larger idea: community-based, multi-age, physically-engaging activities are disappearing from society in 2026, but our screen-based world needs them now more than ever. Find one in your local context, get your kids involved, and then do everything you can to support participation for as many other kids as possible.
Seth Kaplan recently made a similar case in After Babel, arguing that local, youth-led community groups are among the most powerful tools we have for restoring the rich, place-based social lives that children need to flourish. He highlighted Scouts, Little League, 4-H, and youth ministries in his piece, and I couldn’t agree more. I’d just like to add another to the list :)
With that being said, here are the top five reasons I think you should join a neighborhood swim team. Some are swim specific, but most apply to any community-based group of your choice. Let’s dive in! 💦