Hey guys. Hope the weekend was a good one.

Here’s what’s on deck today:

Let’s get into it.

And if you’re new here, welcome aboard. Glad you found us.

If you're not familiar with Jesse Itzler, the guy has done some stuff. Co-founded Marquis Jet, part owner of the Atlanta Hawks, married to Spanx founder Sara Blakely. You get the idea.

Anyway, I saw an Instagram post from him about his family's theme for the summer:

SUMMER HARD.

Basically, go all in. They plan some things out, everyone picks a goal, and they try to squeeze as much as they can out of the season because, as he put it, you don't get this summer back.

I dig it.

And with summer winding down, I realize "FALL HARD" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

But I don't think the mentality has to go anywhere.

It's really easy with kids to say we'll do that later. We'll take that trip next year. We'll go camping when they're a little older. We'll try that when things calm down.

And sometimes that's completely reasonable. But sometimes you just gotta do the thing.

The kids aren't going to be this age again, and there's always going to be a reason to push something to later.

So summer may be winding down. Keep summering hard.

Part of Darren Litt’s radness is that he saw a problem in kids’ health and helped build Hiya around a better way to do kids vitamins.

But at home, he’s also a dad to two teenage daughters in Los Angeles, which means he’s in a very different parenting season than those of us still negotiating bedtime and socks.

It’s more mornings in the kitchen, dinner together, driving someone somewhere, and hearing about whatever drama or funny thing happened that day.

The hard part is knowing when something is big enough to step into and when to let his kids figure it out on their own. More and more, he sees his role as less about preventing every mistake and more about helping them build resilience and good judgment.

He also said something that feels pretty useful: parenting isn’t always about having the right answer. A lot of it is being available, speaking openly, and building the kind of relationship where your kids feel comfortable telling you what’s really going on.

For Darren, the non-negotiable is transparent communication. Most topics should be open for discussion. He’d rather have an honest conversation about something complicated than pretend it doesn’t exist.

Also, no phones at dinner. Big fans of that one.

Boring? Yes. Effective? Oh ya. Run socks came up in our Slack group recently, and we’ve been rocking these Smartwool Targeted Cushion socks for a while now. You can save up to 30% right now, so give ’em a try.

[ Get ‘em here ]

You’ve probably noticed more runners and gym guys wearing those little strips across their nose.

The basic idea tracks: they physically pull the sides of your nose open, which can improve nasal airflow and make breathing feel easier. But the research gets less exciting from there.

Studies generally haven’t found a meaningful boost in VO₂ max, heart rate, or actual exercise performance in healthy people, although some people do report breathing feels better.

There’s also some evidence they can help with congestion and certain types of snoring, but they’re not a treatment for sleep apnea.

So ya, probably not a performance hack, but they’re cheap, low-risk, and if your nose feels restricted when you run or sleep, they’re worth a try.

Intake seems to be the cool brand on the block right now if you wanna dabble.

With school back in session for a lot of folks, you might wanna add this to your list (or at least try it out).

Our kids take hiya’s Kids Daily Multivitamin every morning, and it’s become one of the easiest parts of their routine: one chewable with 15+ essential vitamins and minerals, no sugar, and no gummy additives (thanks, Darren).

More than 6,700 five-star reviews suggest we’re not the only parents into them.

Dad Day readers get 50% off their first order with code DADDAY.

[ Get Started ]

_{Sponsored by hiya. We only work with brands we actually use, and we’ve been using this for years.}

Was talking with a dad friend last week and alcohol came up. No judgment here. We enjoy our beer, wine and cocktails too. But it got us curious where the Dad Day crew lands.