"We make each other better." Ellsworth, Maine.
A Maine band that doesn't rehearse, Zaal and ZAOstock, Easy Mo Bee, Newark house music, Kamal's crypto brief, and how to work with us.
Happy New Month Friends, Readers and Patrons,
Maceo here.
A band from Portland, Maine told us they don't rehearse. One of them, at 4:05: "We don't do like rehearsals, we kind of just go in the basement and jam and see what happens."
Hear it: at 4:05
The band is Grass Rug. They played ZAOstock on Saturday 3 October, a free music festival on Franklin Street in Ellsworth, Maine.
One of them, at 7:58: "It's been great to grow together too as musicians because we make each other better."
A Maine Band That Doesn't Do Rehearsals | Ellsworth · We Them Media
Grass Rug, a jam band from Portland, Maine, on playing a different show every time, before their set at ZAOstock in Ellsworth.
That film went public on 26 October. Two more from ZAOstock followed. Ryan W. Miller of OPEN X went public on 27 October:
Live Since 14, Music Is All He's Done | Ellsworth · We Them Media
Ryan W.
And "An Open Sign Named This Maine Band" went public on 28 October:
An Open Sign Named This Maine Band | Ellsworth · We Them Media
Gary, drummer of OPEN X, on why the band named itself for staying open to everything, before their set at ZAOstock in Ellsworth.
Shout out to Zaal
Zaal is a community member and a supporting patron of We Them Media. He hosted ZAOstock, and he did an exceptional job activating the ZAO in Maine. He also paid for We Them Media to come and document it. That was awesome.
It was my first time in Maine. I met Zaal through Jed, one of the community members and early supporters of We Them Media. Here is Jed in Abuja, on creative alchemy and purpose:
Abuja, Creative Alchemy and Purpose: JED XO | Episode 34 · We Them Media
Episode 34, recorded in Abuja at the end of Maceo's first trip to Nigeria, the summer of 2024, with the man who hosted him.
I had connected with Zaal in online spaces from web3, but I had never seen him in action until now. Here he is with me and Ohnahji on a Let's Talk About ETH livestream, 52 minutes:
Hacks, Rollbacks and How to Pay a Team With No Money · We Them Media
Fifty two minutes of a three way livestream, the second fireside chat on Let's Talk About Eth, with Maceo and his two co-hosts, Zaal and Ohnahji.
Here is what I saw. Zaal put people first. He invested his own money so his people could have quality time together. He is a community builder. ZAO Festivals produced the festival. Executive produced by Zaal.
I got to connect with people I have met around the world through crypto, and with people in Maine. I also saw the real love of music underneath his community. The diversity of the music stayed with me. The biggest surprise was a rap show that broke out at the after party.
I also got to connect with Lyonsden and learn about his experience as an Indigenous person in the USA. I'm still thinking about that conversation. Hear him play "Smiles from the Rez" (LyonsDen Rez Muzik), one minute, from the festival:
And "Rez Nights, Live":
The videos from that event cover the music, the economics and the people of his community. Start with the three above.
October
In October we covered house music, Black authors and Black literary culture. That ran from the Trenton Book Fair to Easy Mo Bee at Black and Nobel. It was an awesome month.
At the Trenton Book Fair I saw how hard authors, Black authors especially, are working to make an impact and get their work out. Some were spending their own money on tables. They could use support. That is why I started looking at authors, and at how we could help them.
I also danced at Sunday Vybe, a house music event in Newark. I discovered house music there. Meeting Robert Williams and Fauzi was a highlight of my month in Newark. DJ Fauzi says Robert created the club that house music is named for, The Warehouse in Chicago. I also reconnected with an older man I had first met at Art Basel Miami. What links these stories is people who want to make a contribution to their community.
The full Sunday Vybe film, 37 minutes, is on our YouTube channel:
See Robert at the party, at 9:52, where the host calls him a pioneer and he talks about the warehouse:
See DJ Fauzi tell where house music got its name:
And ask whether you are following your passion:
From Trenton, "New Jersey's First True Superhero":
New Jersey's First True Superhero | Trenton Book Fair · We Them Media
Why write the nerdy sci-fi nobody expects from us?
And "There's No Black Genre":
There's No Black Genre | Trenton Book Fair · We Them Media
Why dedicate a book fair to the Black writer?
Shout out to Easy Mo Bee. We sat down at Black and Nobel in Philadelphia on 11 October. The full 27-minute talk has been public since 12 October. He is passionate about the craft. He asked many people if they were musicians. At one point he joked that he was the interviewer. He is humble, engaged and a master of his craft. It was cool to see him so tied to both house and hip hop. On Ready to Die he says "I did 6 songs." (1:32):
The Beats Behind Ready to Die, in Full | Philadelphia · We Them Media
How long did it take to make Ready to Die?
On working a beat he says "Don't force it." (11:56):
The Beats Behind Ready to Die, in Full | Philadelphia · We Them Media
How long did it take to make Ready to Die?
What's new since 3 October
The last issue went out on 3 October. Since then 19 long pieces went public on our YouTube channel, and 225 Shorts, as of 28 October. As of 2 November 2026 the archive holds 300 pieces from 16 countries.
Changes on the site, all live:
- A Read section holds past issues of this newsletter and essays. It went up 12 October: wethem.xyz/read
- "We Them, the podcast" holds 14 episodes of my old podcast. They run from 23 June 2022 to 19 August 2023. Each has its full transcript. It went up 20 October: wethem.xyz/podcast-archive
What we learned
Here is what people told us in the interviews that went public from 15 September to 28 October.
Show up. A creator on the Streamer University line in New York said: "I feel like I'm the one that closed my own doors when it comes to being out there. So here I am showing up for myself."
Streamer University Line: Showing Up for Myself | NYC · We Them Media
In line for Kai Cenat's Streamer University auditions in New York is a creator who hand paints shoes and has 5,000 followers on TikTok.
Someone on the same line, after the rain, said: "You show up when no one else does, and then eventually people will know to expect that you're going to show up, and they'll show up."
Streamer University: Didn't Make It, Still Popped Out | NYC · We Them Media
The camera finds people still coming off the audition line for Kai Cenat's Streamer University in New York, now that the rain has stopped.
Cat's point: crypto makes sense where people cannot trust the money. She lives in Argentina. We met her at ETHConf in New York. She said: "people in the US, they kind of place a lot of trust into the traditional finance system because they've just never had a problem with it."
Crypto for People Who Can't Trust Their Bank | ETHConf NYC · We Them Media
At ETHConf in Manhattan, June 2026, Maceo meets Cat McGee of the Solana Foundation, from Ireland and living in Buenos Aires, and Juanpi, who does AI…
Then: "people don't really trust the peso."
Crypto for People Who Can't Trust Their Bank | ETHConf NYC · We Them Media
At ETHConf in Manhattan, June 2026, Maceo meets Cat McGee of the Solana Foundation, from Ireland and living in Buenos Aires, and Juanpi, who does AI…
Learn slowly. Wanda, at the Black Blockchain Summit 2024, said: "So I'm taking my time. I'm taking incy-wincy bits, incy-wincy baby steps, because I don't want to lose money."
Baby Steps Into Crypto, With Young Mentors | BBS 2024 | DC · We Them Media
On Day 2 of the Black Blockchain Summit 2024 at Howard University in Washington, DC, Maceo sits down at an outdoor table with Wanda, who taught herself…
Jordan, a developer at ETHConf, said: "I'm a technical person and even for me, it's confusing and hard to keep up with."
DeFi Is Confusing Even for Developers | ETHConf NYC · We Them Media
At ETHConf in Manhattan, June 2026, Jordan Greenberg of Weehawken, New Jersey, a Web2 developer whose career "took in a different path than Web3," is back…
My read: nobody here waited to be picked. Wanda takes baby steps. Cat explains crypto from the peso up.
Kamal's crypto brief
Kamal co-writes this newsletter. Here are two of the items he flagged. I checked each against its sources.
- The Binance theft. On 29 October, about $6.3 billion left Binance, the largest crypto exchange. Binance calls $6.3 billion its estimate of the total impact. Its first finding is that an attacker got in through a DevOps engineer's compromised laptop. Binance and its partners froze about $3 billion on-chain. Binance says "User funds are safe" and that it will cover losses from its SAFU fund and company funds. The FBI says North Korea is responsible. Binance.US says it was not affected. Kamal's questions: how the wider crypto economy recovers, and whether institutional investors keep their confidence.
Binance estimates security breach impact at $6.3 billion - ABC7 San Francisco
Binance said its initial investigation into a security incident suggests an attacker may have gained access through a compromised laptop belonging to an engineer.
- Uber, HSBC and Franklin Templeton. On 30 October, crypto.news reported a test, first reported by Bloomberg, in which Uber used a tokenized Franklin Templeton money market fund on the Canton Network. Uber bought on a Thursday and sold on Sunday, so its cash kept earning over the weekend. That added 1.5 days of yield. HSBC supplied the tokenized deposits. Uber has not said how much money it moved. Kamal's take: this is traditional finance using decentralized finance, and he asks why Canton over a bigger network.
Uber earns extra weekend yield in Canton blockchain pilot
Uber tested HSBC tokenized deposits and a Franklin Templeton fund on Canton, earning 1.5 extra days of yield through a weekend treasury investment.
Come see the site, and join the bounty
Come and check out our site: wethem.xyz. Tell us what you think. Reply to this email with your feedback. It all comes straight to me.
If you want, you can also contribute to our current standing bounty. We are teaching people about inflation, bitcoin and fiat currency. The bounty pays people who teach one person how the three relate, on camera, and show that the person learned it. Anyone can add to the pot. The page is here: wethem.xyz/onequestion
Add to it or enter on poidh: the bounty on poidh
If you want to understand how inflation, bitcoin and the dollar relate for yourself, start with these:
A computer science student learns bitcoin, at Howard. Six minutes, and the example the bounty points to: Watch it
A freshman learns why the dollar is losing value, at Howard. Seven minutes: Watch it
Bitcoin as a hedge against a weakening dollar, at Howard. Seven minutes: Watch it
An author on power and why the dollar is not your friend, 19 minutes: Watch it
We are working with clients now
We Them Media now works with clients. Right now they are authors, former educators and creatives.
Why now? Our workflows have found a rhythm. And working with a few clients showed me what I bring. I coach people who are not savvy with social media. I help them build a voice and a brand by being themselves. For months, patrons have stepped up to support this work. That gave me clarity. I can help others build income around what they already love and do, but have not yet earned from online.
The people who come to us want their personal brand to be an asset and a stream of income. They want to make a difference in the world while doing it.
One small win so far. I set a client up with new YouTube and social media accounts. We have made hours of content with them, and it starts to release this November.
Want a team to help you scale your social media presence? To build your website? To find ways to drive traffic and convert it into sales, or into something different? We are here to be of service. Let's connect.
My team and I are open for business, and we are taking clients.
Our goal is to help you build an engaging online presence, and to drive results in your business. This isn't content for content's sake. The question is how we make sure the people who can get value from you can find you, and pay you for it, as close to passively for you as possible.
Here is how it works. You record. We cut, caption and schedule it. Nothing posts without your OK. That is The 90-Day Relaunch, for creators, authors, shops, artists and people with something to say or sell.
For ninety days we produce your socials from what you made, relaunch your accounts, build you a website if you do not have one, and help you start a newsletter. At the end you run it yourself or keep us on at $500 a month. It is $2,500, paid in three monthly payments. We promise the work and the numbers. We cannot promise sales or followers.
For our supporters, we are being flexible. You already bring us real value, and we want to reciprocate it even more. Come and talk through what you need, and we will see what we can make work.
The first step is a free 45-minute consultation. Come with two things: a picture of what a win looks like for you in the next 12 months, and who online you already learn from. Maybe someone you want to become a peer to.
To get started, reply to this email with your inquiry. Or check out the site for more information and to book a consultation: wethem.xyz/work-with-us
A thank you to the Patrons of We Them Media. You give money to support our mission to become a leading public media platform. This month I look forward to working with new clients and helping people step into their own voice online.
I appreciate you.
– Maceo
