❤️🩹 10 days later
I, like most of you, have spent the past 10 days trying to make sense of the election. So many emotions, so many conversations, so many people not sure what to do next. As an eternal optimist, I have tried to look at the bright side, but of course it has been impossible to completely avoid feeling despair. What has kept me smiling though is the tremendous amount of hard work I saw so many people put into this election.
Last Tuesday, we left it all out on the field – hosting a massive virtual phone bank, calling nearly 700,000 potential voters across every swing state, with help from John Legend, Ben Stiller, Jessica Alba, Gov. Josh Shapiro, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Ken Jeong (who phone banked with us for all seven hours!), among so many others. It was such an inspiring, high note to go out on. It felt completely surreal that just eight hours later, the election was called for Donald Trump.
I am still trying to figure out where I am going to channel my activism over the coming days and years. All I know for sure is that I will be rolling up my sleeves – not throwing up my hands. No talk of leaving the country, no talk of giving up on America – as I have said over and over, this is still the greatest country in the world. It has its problems (and they are serious), but I believe in this Bill Clinton quote more than ever before:
“There is nothing that is wrong with America, that can’t be cured by what’s right with America.”
Baby2Baby Gala 2024
One of the best examples of what’s right with America? This past weekend’s Baby2Baby gala, which raised $17m to provide basic essentials to children in need. My wife, Kelly, is the co-CEO of Baby2Baby and over the past 13 years, she and her partner, Norah Weinstein, have:
Provided 450 million basic essentials to over a million children in need across all 50 states.
Their disaster relief program provided over 5 million items to areas in the Southeast devastated by the recent hurricanes.
They were selected for Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies of 2023.
Norah and Kelly were selected for Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2024.
Doing a fundraiser four days after an election is a risky endeavor, but the show must go on. Going into the night, it was unclear what the response would be – would people want to get dressed up and go to a party when they were still processing the devastating election results? 60% of Baby2Baby’s operating budget comes from the gala, so the stakes were very high.
Well, safe to say it was a smash hit. The gala always blows me away, but this year was particularly special – raising $17m, $5m more than they did last year, and showing me, and everyone, that people aren’t shrinking away from this country’s toughest problems. Instead of losing hope, people are doubling down, understanding that organizations like Baby2Baby are going to be the ones to get us through tough times.
If you feel hopeless, please consider donating to Baby2Baby. They currently have a waiting list of 10 million children and need every dollar they can raise. Fortunately, elections are not the only way we can make a difference.
If you have been reading this newsletter for a few years, you know the Baby2Baby gala is also my personal Super Bowl of food. It’s where my friends, Jon and Vinny (two of LA’s top chefs), along with Randi Okun (from Caramelized Productions), bring together an incredible lineup of the city’s finest chefs to serve the best food you’ll find at any gala in the world—and this year was no different.
🍽️ Here’s a taste of what this year’s spread looked like:
As a favor to me, Jon Yao from Kato came back with his short rib that he did at Family Fest a few years ago (and that Sawyer and I have been dreaming about ever since).
Moo’s Craft Barbecue made a brisket sandwich that was insane.
Rob Gentile at Stella served his delicious arrosticini.
Mr. Chow was making satay and walnut shrimp.
Ben Hundreds was there for his first time with caviar deviled eggs from The Benjamin.
Evan Funke was making fusilli al pesto (but snuck me some cacio e pepe when he ran out).
Jon and Vinny’s provided unlimited pizza at the end of the night (and some delicious chicken cutlets).
Shake Shack and Roe partnered up for a Caviar Chicken Sandwich that was incredible.
KazuNori was one of the hits of the night — nobody can ever get enough of those hand rolls!
And we had many more delicious eats from our amazing vendors: Stir Crazy, Escuela Taqueria, Bar Chelou, Majordomo, Badmaash, Yangban, Found Oyster/Queen St, Jeni’s and Valerie Confections.
Getting to enjoy world-class food while supporting such an amazing organization is why the Baby2Baby gala is always my favorite night of the year. Congrats to everyone who put on this incredible event and thank you to those who came and/or donated!
I admittedly haven't had much time (or energy) to watch anything these past 10 days, but at the gala, I was lucky enough to see Nelly perform some of his most iconic songs. Hearing him sing “Ride Wit Me” and “Hot in Herre” was not only awesome, but also took me back to my favorite era of music … it was glorious, if only for a moment.
He brought down the house when he had Baby2Baby board member Kelly Rowland join him on stage to sing their 2002 hit single “Dilemma.”
If you too would like to be transported back in time, you can watch their performance here.
My latest guests: Team Axios, including: co-founder Mike Allen, communications reporter Eleanor Hawkins, and North Carolina reporters Lucille Sherman and Zachery Eanes.
Where: Zoom
Why: Axios is one of the most trusted news sources in the world. I wanted their take on the election as well as what four more years of Trump means for them and the media industry at large.
Mike Allen quote:
“The shards of glass idea is that the media ecosystem that … I grew up with was: four national papers, three national networks, a couple wire services. And it's almost like that that globe of information was dropped and shattered, and now you have one shard that's Joe Rogan, and one shard that's Alex Cooper, and one shard that's Axios, and they don't really overlap or intersect … And so if you're a communicator, if you are an organization, if you are a company, if you're a campaign, you're going to have to find different ways to talk to these different shards. And understanding that that scattered, shattered media ecosystem is our reality, both as a news consumer and as a content producer, will help you understand our world a lot better.”
Stay tuned for updates on our next Lunch With Jamie! If you haven't already, apply for my members-only Zoom series, so you can hear thought leaders from diverse fields — from politics to entertainment — discuss the most pressing issues of our time.
Bostwicks Chowder House and The Palm with Molly Steinman, Riley, Mark, Lily, and Nina Patricof; Barcelona with Duncan Montgomery and Lynette Howell Taylor; Copper Modern Indian Cuisine with Andrij Parekh, Erin Benach, and Lynette Howell Taylor; Angry Ales with Duncan Montgomery; M Sushi with Riley; Mai Phi with Jon Montepare, Lynette Howell-Taylor, Derek Cianfrance, Andrij Parekh, Mariela Comitini, and Maggie Ambrose; Legion Brewing Co with Rachel Halilej, Nika Burnett, Andrij Parekh, Mariela Comitini, Inbal Weinberg, and Derek Cianfrance; Osteria Georgi and Top of The Hill with Riley and Kelly; Bavel with Ben Shenassafar, Jordan Okun, and Chris Bender.
As always, a special thanks to the With Jamie Crew:
Aaron Michaelson, Aaron Stern, Adam Saper, Adam Smith, Alex Tse, Andy Wang, Anthony Jacobson, Ashley Sawyer, Ben Hundreds, Blake Lively, Bobby Kim, Chad Gutstein, David Geffen, David Gelb, David Katzenberg, David Nathanson, Eater, Eli Meyer, Food & Wine, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jamie Patricof, Jason Spivak, Jerry Greenberg, Jeremy Smith, Jerrold Son, Jessica Alba, Joe Varet, Jon Buscemi, Jon Shook, Jordan Okun, James Ponsoldt, Kate Burr, Katie McNeill, Kelly Sawyer Patricof, Lawrence Longo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Rosenthal, Marc Rose, Martha Patricof, Matt Haimes, Matt Karatz, Max Chow, Max Shapiro, Max Winkler, Neal Moritz, Paul Zucker, Peter Goldwyn, Phil Rosenthal, Rachel Halilej, Riley Patricof, Sawyer Patricof, Sarah Meyer, Shu Chowdhury, Todd Steinman, The Hungry Tourist, The Infatuation, Vinny Dotolo.
Today's email was brought to you by Jamie Patricof and team, including Stazy Mazo, Michaela Sullivan and Juliet Bartz.