2024 Highlights & Favorite Moments

In this week's P.O. Box:

I’m a sucker for year-end lists and retrospectives. I made my first music list in 2006 as a sophomore in college and have kept the tradition going for almost two decades now (oof).

One of the nice things about writing a weekly newsletter is I essentially have a running diary of what was going on in my life throughout the year, so it makes it easy to pluck out the highlights.

Below are a handful of the things that defined 2024 for me, including the annual video featuring the best moments on Youtube from the year (s/o Zach & Lou on the edit):

📚️ We launched The P.O. Box Book Club

I wanted to commit to reading more in 2024 and the offseason book club was the perfect way to ensure I stayed motivated and on track. We read 15 books between January and August, and naturally, I had to rank all 15. Here are my Top 4:

4. Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

3. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

2. Recursion by Blake Crouch

1. Paradise Sky by Joe R. Lansdale.

The biggest hack for unlocking more time for reading was eliminating my phone from the bedroom. I’m coming up on the one-year anniversary of implementing this and don’t plan to ever go back.

I recapped my three biggest lessons learned from the book club in this post.

I plan to bring it back in 2025, although maybe with a less rigorous schedule.

Shout out to everyone who participated and shared thoughts in the Discord, especially Eddie who carried conversation throughout (and posted his Top 5 favorite books in there earlier this week).

📺️ We doubled down on YouTube

I made a big shift this year to focus more time and resources on making pre-produced videos on the Deposit Kingdom channel.

I threw a bunch of ideas against the wall while trying some new things and still playing the hits.

It was cool to see thesis of the play come to fruition with a couple videos blowing up in the heart of draft season and adding 4K subs over the course of the summer.

Big h/t to my editors, Chris Moreno and Buck St. Thomas, who took the production quality to the next level.

I plan to double down on the channel in 2025 and also make time for more unique one-off projects like Fantasy Feud, but not until I take a pretty big break and plot out exactly how I want to attack things this offseason.

💸 We had our best year of DFS

After enjoying some moderate success in 2023, I went hard at the DFS tournaments on Underdog this year.

I won a couple of small tournaments and then had three teams finish Top 10 in the big Battle Royale contest in the span of a few weeks.

The top highlight was undeniably finishing 2nd for 20K in Week 9 with a team I drafted during a Deposit Kingdom video.

The games are getting increasingly tough, but strategizing, drafting and making content for these contests each week was so much fun.

👧 We soaked up April becoming a toddler

It was a blast watching April go from a baby to a full-blown toddler over the span of this past year.

I put together a little video of clips from 2024 if you want to watch her grow up in real time.

Year 1 with April was all about learning on the fly, while this year I tried to clear my schedule to spend more time with her (+ reduce my tilt on Sundays) and then savor every second.

I’m very grateful to have her in our life and to get to parent with Lauren, who continues to amaze me as a partner and mom.

Below are my favorite albums/songs of the year, if that’s your thing.

I’ll be back next week with some New Years Resolutions (and keep an eye out for a show with Davis on the same subject).

Thank you to everyone who reads this and watches the shows or hangs out in the Discord or helps behind-the-scenes on the production team.

It’s hard not to get sappy when you get to do what you love with a ton of great people.

Here’s to 2025…

If you read this newsletter, the No. 1 is no surprise, but hopefully a little something for everyone across these selections.

⏺️ Albums: 

10. Maggie Rogers - Don't Forget Me ("Never Going Home")

9. Faye Webster - Undressed at the Symphony ("Lego Ring")

8. MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks ("You Don't Know The Shape I'm In")

7. Nourished By Time - Catching Chickens EP ("Hell Of A Ride")

6. Hovvdy - Hovvdy ("Forever Piano")

5. Bullion - Affection ("A City's Never")

4. Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood ("Right Back To It")

3. Jack J - Blue Desert ("Wrong Again")

2. Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee ("If You Hear Me Crying")

1. Mk.gee - Two Star & the Dream Police (all of them). 

🎶 Songs:

10. Panda Bear & Cindy Lee - "Defense"

9. Chanel Beads - "Idea June"

8. Night Tapes - "loner" 

7. Good Looks - "If It's Gone"

6. Charly Bliss - "Tragic"

5. Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - "Peligro (Danger)"

4. Vegyn - "The Path Less Travelled"

3. Erika de Caser - "Lucky"

2. Amen Dunes - "Purple Land"

1. Caribou - "Got To Change"

🏆️Fantasy Life roundup. A week’s worth of newsletters, plus a sneak peak of my Week 18 shell.

🤯 CASH PARTY: The Best Week 18 Plays w/ Derek Carty. All the free squares were discussed.

⏰ OOTC: Best Scroll The Eff Up Plays On Underdog. The unspiciest pick ‘ems.

🚢 Ship Chasing: Winner’s Circle. Big hits from the community on UD, DK, and FFPC.

☣️ LOLZ: A new sports betting tout. An exploration of the Mr. Beast engagement photo.

💪 THE SWOLECAST: Week 18 First Look. The one where Dave got a book made about him.

☕️ POURTFOLIO REVIEW: The Bucs Deliver ‘Ships (Week 17 DFS Recap). The moment I morphed into the Cash Game King.

One show on tap this weekend, available for Youtube members:

🥃 Solo DFS After Dark (Sat. 9pm ET)

Need more newslettering? Check out the Fantasy Life newsletter I write five days a week: