Morning Brew - 🍻 Join the club

Giphy

Today’s hot commodity: Clubhouse invites. The buzzy, audio-based social media platform launched last April and is now valued at a cool $1 billion. Joining a Clubhouse room is like listening in on a phone call (not in a creepy way), podcast recording, or hot gossip session. But like a table at Rao's, you have to know someone. You can also cop an invite on eBay for $100. The platform is still struggling with serious content moderation issues, but since its launch, A-listers including Mr. Wonderful, Issa Rae, Michelle Phan, and Elon Musk have RSVP’d. Whether you’re feeling the FOMO or just curious, here’s your deep dive: 

• First, the basics: everything you need to know about Clubhouse. 
• Ready to hop in line? A brief explainer on how to join. Hint: Start asking around. 
• Elon Musk joined the club on Monday at 1am EST. If you missed his live bedtime story, here’s a transcript of his convo. 
• Four reasons to be skeptical about Clubhouse (and a few positives), according to media reporter Mark Stenberg. 

Read: 

• The single best way to improve your writing. It may be awkward at first, but it works. 
• Rewarding yourself with five minutes (OK, an hour) of scrolling through Instagram is sabotaging your productivity. It’s called context switching, and it can cost you up to 23 minutes at a time. Here’s how to reclaim your attention span. 
• A book list for Black History Month by The Strategist’s Tembe Denton-Hurst. My rec: The Office of Historical Corrections. It’s an incredible collection of short stories about race, family, and friendships. Every story is a gem, and Danielle Evans’s writing draws you in and keeps you wanting more.  
• Exercising doesn’t just do physical wonders. It actually builds new brain cells, says Wendy Suzuki, PhD, a neuroscientist at NYU. Start with easy exercises you can do in your studio apartment.

Listen: 

• R&B meets lo-fi beats with Soulection Radio, the weekly radio show to power you through the rest of Friday’s to-do list. A new show airs every Saturday. 
• Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy, authors of No Hard Feelings, on how to embrace your emotions at work without getting called "sensitive."
• On Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, the incredible Carey Mulligan discusses her career and what starring in Promising Young Woman meant to her. Her other new movie, The Dig, is a moving must-watch. 

Watch: 

• Giant pandas rolling around in the snow. 
• Gabe Adams—an uber-talented breakdancer with Hanhart Syndrome, a rare medical condition that took his limbs. 
• Tour Serena Williams’s Miami home. Her trophy room dazzles, but the karaoke room is where we’d end up at the party.
• If cold-blooded, heart racing, graphic thrillers are your thing (not mine), consider watching Below Zero, which you might’ve already noticed on Netflix’s Top 10 Picks.

Get those creative Coffee Creamer juices flowing, folks. 

Chobani is looking to add a new flavor to their tasty coffee creamer lineup, and your idea could become the cream of the crop.

All through February, dream up a Creamer flavor concoction you think would wow the flavor gods. 

If your creamer makes a splash with the Chobani cream team that judges submissions—and Chobani fans who’ll vote on the top three finalists—you’ll cash in on $75,000 and see your flavor in a dairy aisle near you. 

Even the two runners-up will get $15,000 and $10,000.

Dream sweet dreams of cream (and cash) and submit your idea here.

Try It: 

• Bark: If you, like many of us at the Brew, have a new canine companion at home, keep track of meal times and daily dog walks with Pup to Date. 
• Organize: Feeling tab overload? Manage and reference your recent search history (!) with the chrome extension Tabbs.
• Track: A curated list of financial tools and resources for creatives.
• Share: Spend more time enjoying the creative process and less time on logistics with Air—the whiteboard for your team’s images and videos. They have a free tier, and they recently announced a brand-new creator program. 

Buy It: 

• Curate: Deck out your apartment with classy home goods from Yowie, a Philadelphia-based shop featuring independent artists, makers, and designers. The one-of-a-kind, hand-poured rainbow gourd candles are destined for the shelfie.
• Sprout: One of my favorite spots for Valentine’s Day gifts is EcoVibe, a Portland-based plant shop. The planters (all from small makers and manufacturers) are almost cuter than the plants, except that Hypoestes “Polka Dot Plant.” Plus, 1% of all their online sales support local non-profits. 

Jake Guzman's Instagram

Ditch your frozen-shut windows and meander your way through the Cocora Valley in Colombia. It’s home to the tallest palm trees—up to 200 feet—in the world. Follow Jake Guzman for more adventurous outdoor photos. 

You only need 5 more referrals to receive Sidekick stickers.

If there’s one thing we know about laptops, it’s that they hate being naked. Get your comp some fresh Sidekick stickers.

Hit the button below to learn more and access your rewards hub.

Or copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/sidekick/r/?kid=303a04a9

** A Note From Chobani

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter Contest by: 2/28/21. To enter and for Official Rules, visit http://www.chobanicoffeecreamer.com/.