This is Kendra

Tom Brady in the broadcast booth looking down toward the field during an NFL game

Tom Brady in the Booth: Where Energy Meets Expertise

Posted on December 21, 2025January 3, 2026 by Kendra Trammel

Early reactions to Tom Brady’s presence in the broadcast booth focused on his voice and delivery. But beneath the noise was something more interesting: genuine enthusiasm rooted in lived experience. This piece explores why presence, not polish, is what ultimately earns credibility.

If 2025 had a punctuation villain, it would be the em dash. Somewhere along the way, its rhythm, flexibility, and authority got mislabeled as artificial—as if humans hadn’t been using it long before algorithms ever learned to write a sentence. The accusation says more about cultural misunderstanding than about the mark itself. Years ago, while working in agency life, a client couldn’t wrap their head around why I kept using the em dash. It annoyed them. Not because it was wrong, but because it was unfamiliar. They didn’t understand what it did, so they assumed it didn’t belong. That moment stayed with me—a reminder of how often discomfort disguises itself as critique, especially when it comes to language. Here’s the truth: tools don’t invent style—they reveal it. The em dash didn’t become expressive because of AI, and AI didn’t teach writers how to think in cadence. It simply surfaced habits that were already there. Writing has always been about judgment, restraint, and intention. The mark is innocent. The voice behind it is what matters.

The Notorious Em Dash—Friend or Foe?

Posted on November 16, 2025January 3, 2026 by Kendra Trammel

If 2025 had a punctuation villain, it would be the em dash. This short reflection looks at how tools get blamed for taste—and what that misunderstanding reveals about language, discomfort, and voice.

Illustration created for This is Kendra.

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Tom Brady in the Booth: Where Energy Meets Expertise

The Notorious Em Dash—Friend or Foe?

This Is Kendra

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