Hi!

I hope your 2026 is starting off well. January is a time for new things, and that applies to me this year, for sure. Because I’m starting a second newsletter.

But I have to warn you — you probably won’t want to subscribe. It’s meant for people who work in communications or a communications-related role/industry, So, please, don’t bother subscribing if that’s not you — you won’t like it, you’ll end up not opening it, and that actually ends up hurting me in the long term. If you want to help me grow it, please share it with people you know who work in PR and the like — it’s meant for them. And thanks!

It’s called The Comms Stack — my tagline is “Your Weekly Look at How AI is Changing Communications.” As the tagline suggests, it’s focused on helping comms pros leverage AI. I’m planning on sending the first newsletter next Wednesday.

I explained why I’m starting this — and how it’s part of my path as a lifelong learner — on LinkedIn, here, but if you’ve been reading Now I Know for a while, you can already guess a lot of my “why.” I lean into my curious side and let that go where it takes me, discovering a lot of cool things along the way. And I learn best when I write about what I’ve learned and when I share that with others. AI is changing how everyone works, and as a communications and marketing professional, I’m no different. This is my way of creating a habit that incentivizes me to stay curious, process what I’ve learned, and sharing it — thereby preparing myself for that world to come.

Again, I hope you don’t join me on this new adventure unless, of course, it’s relevant to you. I’m sharing this new endeavor in case it is relevant, and also, because sharing is a good idea regardless.

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: Every Rose Has Its … Jalen?: Meet the original Jalen.

Tuesday: The Case of the Missing Milk: After writing this, I learned there’s a rumor — unproven, per Snopes — that Al Capone had a role in expiration dates appearing on milk bottles.

Also, thank you to readers Dan W. and Richie A. for suggesting that, in the words of the former, “They need to put a picture of The Milk on milk cartons. Maybe someone will find it.” Great joke, wish I thought of it!

Wednesday: How to Claim Antarctica: It’s already been claimed, though.

Thursday: The $3 Grocery Bag That Became a Global Status Symbol: Trader Joe’s created an accidentally awesome product.

Long Reads and Other Things

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “Confessions of the Working Poor” (Macleans’s, 19 minutes, December 2025). The subhead: “I work hard, buy quality clothes and fake my way through dinner-party conversations. I’m also part of a fast-growing Canadian underclass.” The author talks about living with unstable income and financial strain that leaves her struggling to afford basic needs and excluded from traditional benefits.

2) “My Playdate With the Watch Nerds” (The Cut, 17 minutes, December 2025). This may be behind a paywall — sorry if you get stuck. (It was hit or miss for me.) It’s a funny story by a guy who doesn’t really think much about watches, who decides to go to “Rolliefest,” a two-day gathering of people who fawn over five- and six-figure watches.

3) “‘This extraordinary story never goes out of fashion’: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone” (The Guardian, 13 minutes, December 2025). This was a nice end-of-year list that isn’t an end-of-year list. Plus, it mentions Jólabókaflóðið, which I wrote about in 2015.

Have a great weekend!

Dan