Known Issue

We welcome Kelly Garrett back to discuss a treatise he wrote about postures for success when dealing with groups. Leading with vulnerability and listening with openness. Sounds obvious right? Almost like these things are issues…that we…know about. Well, there’s more to it, turns out. Listen to learn more!

In our first solo episode, Allen shares some personal insights about the process it's been to get to this point with Mabee, and how managing everything all the time, all at once, really is the task right now--and how that makes striving, refinement, and growth in midlife more challenging.

Allen & Whitney have a brief yet robust conversation about kids’ evolution through the middle years of elementary school and the coincidence of these years aligning with their release of Mabee at the Market, a story of an eight year old dealing with the anxieties of life’s many inputs.

In another special episode of Diminishing Return featuring Alex Brownstein, originally recorded in February 2025, we hear foreshadowing of things that have come to pass in the last year. Plus, a funny story about having a cold.

Allen & Whitney share details of how they became children’s book creators: their publishing journey for Mabee and the Gravy, the editorial, proofing, and book launch process, and how it feels to hand someone a physical copy of a thing you pour so much of yourself into. Then, a little behind the scenes on their experiences getting feedback on the book and what it means to press through the artist’s journey.

The Known Issue podcast introduces a new recurring show, BOXES with Justin Vincent! In this inaugural episode, Justin waxes poetic about the evolution—or devolution—of LinkedIn, before the two discuss the future of work--which may or may not exist at all. Just like everything else!

Question: Did that bar in the trash compactor in Star Wars, Episode IV ever stand a chance of saving the crew, or was their fate already in the hands of a feisty AI bot? This informs today’s topic: The Squeeze. Aging millennials are stuck right in the middle of…everything. Young kids, aging parents, and job displacement from AI. We’re looking for footing wherever we can find it. Uncertain about the future in a seemingly unprecedented way in modern society. So, what do we do about it? Then at the end, Kelly & Allen introduce a fun new segment called, “What Does It Look Like I’m Doing?!”

Allen and Whitney ask and try to answer the question, “how did this all happen?”, share a mindfulness mantra, the failure to balance it all, the underlying and pervasive sense of failure that comes with the inability to ever achieve perfection, and why (at least we believe) we do what we do.

Allen and Alex use a few keywords with GPT to track down an old story, caution listeners not to confuse Oz the Mentalist with the HBO series, and discuss the pitfalls of a solo cross country drive with kids. No problems were solved.

Allen’s opening statement where he says it’s time to cut the bullsh*t. Then, a nice discussion with Kelly Garrett about the amorphous life stage known as Generativity, where it came from, and where it’s all going.