What is Ideas Over Drinks?
It’s an email newsletter that features short personal essays, reviews of interesting reads, plus cocktail recipes and techniques. The project is currently on hold, but you’re welcome to sign up if you want to be notified about any of my future writing work. Here are a few examples of past issues:
Mental health is hard to talk about. And I want to talk about it anyway.
The Mint Julep: Discovering the Black bartenders behind this classic
A case for reading more true fiction: On Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Who I am
I’m Jason Basa Nemec, a writer whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Lily, The Rumpus, and numerous other publications. I have a Ph.D. in English, and I’m also what people like to call a stay-at-home dad. A former bartender at fine establishments in Boston, Chicago, and Portland, I believe in racial and gender equity, kindness, and well-crafted whiskey drinks. Also, coffee.
Why subscribe?
Because I’m not a jerk. And also because I’m an avid reader who comes across a lot of ideas worth sharing. Sometimes I even have funny parenting stories to tell. Fair warning: some of my stories can be really earnest and vulnerable. And another heads-up: I’m not afraid to talk about topics like race and politics. You know, the type of thing some of us were taught not to talk about at the dinner table. I’m not saying it’s easy, and I’m not saying I won’t make mistakes in this work—I am, after all, a white man who doesn’t want to white-mansplain—but I think we’re at an inflection point right now as a culture, and I believe that critical thinking and honest conversations are part of the way forward.
You have options
A free subscription gets you two newsletters per month, sent directly to your email on alternating Friday mornings. The first one is primarily Ideas-based: what I’m learning, reading, listening to, working on, and then some. The second newsletter drops in the middle of the month and is more Drinks-focused, featuring a lot of stuff you can put together at home, along with a few pro tips to impress your friends.
An optional $5 monthly subscription fee—think of it like a tip jar for your bartender/writer—gets you four newsletters per month instead of two, as well as access to the full archive.
Note: paid subscriptions are currently on hold.
Where we contribute
Each month, Ideas Over Drinks donates 20% of the income from subscriptions and any commissions from my Bookshop.org page to an organization that aligns with our family’s values of education, racial and gender equity, and hospitality.
Are you in?
Then click the button below! I’ll never sell your email, and I’ll work hard not to send you any junk. Just ideas over drinks.
