In this episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick shares his personal system for staying informed about current events without allowing the news to damage his mindset, energy, or productivity. He emphasizes intentional, controlled consumption and outlines four main channels: (1) the Morning Brew email newsletter, which provides concise, largely non‑political business and market snapshots each morning; (2) a physical copy of the Wall Street Journal delivered to his home, allowing him to pick headlines and read only the sections he deems relevant, primarily business and finance; (3) the All‑In podcast, recommended by his partner, which offers in‑depth, multi‑perspective discussions on tech, finance, and cultural topics that rarely appear in traditional headlines; and (4) live news on SiriusXM during longer drives, where he deliberately tunes into Fox, CNN, and MSNBC to hear the same story from different ideological angles. Throughout, Brian stresses the importance of avoiding passive scrolling on social platforms, framing news consumption as a tool to support personal and professional growth rather than a source of anxiety. He concludes by urging listeners to audit their own information diet, add missing perspectives, and align news sources with their goals, reinforcing the No Days Off mantra that every day is an opportunity to improve.
Chapters
Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into today's topic. Today I'd love to discuss how to stay informed when you don't really want to read the news or log in to something that'll put you down a bunny trail and maybe get you in the wrong headspace. So how do you stay informed? I'm going to give you what I do, not that that's necessarily right, but I'm going to share with you what I'm reading, what I'm looking at on a regular basis so that I can stay informed, but I do not fall victim to to the headlines, both in terms of putting me down a path I don't want to go down, but as well as how it's impacting my overall mood, my energy, and my mindset. Here at No Days Off, and I know all of our listeners feel the same, I firmly believe that your mindset, your attitude, is everything. And I refuse to have outside sources, particularly news sources, but just a variety of things. I don't like them coming at me. I would much rather prefer or control how that's going to come in my direction. So I want to dictate what it is I am in fact reviewing and reading versus it being shared with me, which basically means I'm not on Instagram, I'm not on Facebook, I'm not on other social media unless it's with intent. Be it marketing or collaborating or associating with somebody, I am not there to peruse the various posts because I found personally, just being honest, it puts me in the wrong mindset. So how do we stay informed? I'm going to share with you a couple things that I'm doing that may be things for you to consider, or at the very least, it helps you think through maybe a different process for yourself. So in no exact order, first I'm going to start by talking about a newsletter that lands in my email every morning, and that's The Morning Brew. I think many of you are familiar with The Morning Brew. If not, look it up. What is The Morning Brew? It is snippets of current events and news. I find it, I personally find it, and it's not a political statement, I find it to be unbiased for the most part. I think if it leans any direction, it might be a little left, but I find for the most part it is relatively neutral. A lot of the topics covered are not usually topics that are politicized. So I think that Morning Brew, reading that every morning at 5:00 AM or 6:00 AM when I see it, when I'm going through my morning routine, It gives me an idea as to what the stock market did yesterday, what the current events of today are, what things I'm not thinking about that maybe I should be thinking about. I'm a big fan. Next thing I want to mention, I have delivered to my house, and I've said this on previous episodes, every morning I do receive a paper copy of the Wall Street Journal. Now the Wall Street Journal has a host of, has all sorts of information. Obviously it has a lot of financial information. Wall Street Journal also has world and US news. Now I like the paper for a variety of reasons. Maybe the biggest that I get to physically pick out what I want to read. I choose what I want to read. In other words, it doesn't show up in a feed or show up electronically, uh, without my discretion or my decision to see it. Uh, instead with the Wall Street Journal, I can look at a headline and decide, do I want to read this now? I spend the vast majority of my time within the Wall Street Journal looking at business and financial information. This is to inform me as to the business climate, the economy in which we, you know, in which we exist, in which we operate, and any other related matters to money, finance, business, etc. Next thing, on a weekly basis, I will listen to a podcast that was shared with me by my partner, Caitlin, Caitlin Saunders, who turned me on to this podcast. It's called the All In Podcast. It's one of the top-rated podcasts in the nation, or in the world probably, and it is 4 or 5 guys all from different backgrounds or have different political beliefs, and they spend an hour, hour and a half discussing current events, debating, current events. Each has a very strong opinion. You do find yourself rooting for one guy or the other, but I have found that All In Podcast has made me more informed and more educated around topics that I don't normally cover, like understanding the Silicon Valley Bank failure, like understanding AI, like also understanding the moves being made by Elon Musk in the tech sector and beyond. These are things that don't typically show up in the headlines of the Wall Street Journal or show up in the Morning Brew. I love the topics they cover and I love the debate that these individuals have. So the Morning Brew, the Wall Street Journal, and the All In podcast. The last thing I'll mention, if I am gonna go for a traditional news source, I will listen to that traditional news source while I'm in the car. I have Sirius Radio, I have like SiriusXM, so I have access to a number of different stations. If I am actually going to listen to the news, and typically this only occurs on longer road trips, which I don't love doing this because I'm not controlling what it is I'm viewing, but if I am going to spend time listening, I am actually going to turn on Fox, and I'm going to turn on CNN, and I'm going to turn on MSNBC, and I am legitimately, and this is no joke, I'm going to listen to the same related news because they're all covering virtually the same thing, but I really want to have all different sorts of angles on it. Now, my political beliefs aside, I mean, I think I have some right-leaning beliefs, I have some left-leaning beliefs. I just want to hear multiple sides. I am not under any illusion that I'm getting accurate information from one side or the other. Again, I'm not trying to raise a stir, but I just believe we've got to have multiple points of reference, multiple points of information. And so I will listen to multiple channels oftentimes around the same, the same subject. So the point today, how do you stay informed, control the information that's coming your direction, and ideally have unbiased information that makes you better at your career, makes you better at health, makes you better at relationships, makes you better at life. That's what I'm looking for. I think being informed, especially as an American, is our responsibility. I do not think you should be completely blind. So yes, I don't like the way that maybe media shapes our beliefs and the way we behave. But just because I feel that way doesn't give me an excuse to not know what's going on in the world. So gotta work a little harder these days to make sure you're getting good information. That's what I'm doing. Hopefully, uh, that there's some takeaways for you. The focusing question: where are you going so that you stay informed? What should you be incorporating into your world? What's missing? In that maybe are you covering the topics like business and money if in fact you're in business, or news, you know, having an understanding as to what's going on in the world. What's missing? What do you need to add? And where might you go to get information that is of benefit to you? That's all we have today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
