While constantly interviewing and covering others — and having the privilege of popping into your inbox 365 days a year — I've rarely exposed my own inner journey as I helped found three companies.

• That was partly a defense mechanism, and partly a Darwinian effort to keep public attention on our team and our journalism.

This morning, I'm putting it out there. Jim VandeHei, Axios CEO and my best friend of 20+ years, is out with "Just the Good Stuff: No-BS Secrets to Success."

• It's a blunt, super-actionable book that's been 50 years in the making — going back to Jim's years as a cutup in Oshkosh, Wis.

Why it matters to you: Life's secrets are surprisingly learnable and replicable. Jim is opening his iPhone diary.

The backstory: After transcending a 1.491 GPA and warnings from a guidance counselor that he wasn't college material, Jim packed his University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh degree into his diesel VW Rabbit — and headed for D.C. with no job.

• A belly slosh along the way (Page 216) helped put him on a road where he finishes every year fitter than the last.
• Jim became a top reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. He co-founded Politico, Axios and Axios HQ. He and his wife, Autumn, adopted a son, Kelvin — a wise, chatty and thriving sibling to a soccer-star brother, and a sister who's a gifted musician and writer.
• And Jim wrote it all down.

Behind the scenes: I was a newshound who paid little attention to much beyond the next story. As we worked together 15 hours a day to build Politico and then Axios, Jim pushed me to open life's aperture.

• No person has cared more about making me a better reporter, leader and person than Jim. Period.

💡 I've learned to be a more outspoken leader, more candid in giving feedback, and quicker to say no — all of which run counter to my please-everyone default. I've taken more time to take care of myself.

• We leaven our always-on work metabolism with fishing, hiking and Packers games. I've lost 20 pounds. We're headed to Brazil for my 60th birthday later this year. We can laugh at each other's bountiful tics.
• Lots of the lessons flow from Jim and me — in cahoots with our co-founder, Axios HQ CEO Roy Schwartz — trying to unlock better ways to run companies. As you'll see from stories throughout the book, we all drafted off each other.

The bottom line: "Just the Good Stuff" isn't aspirational — it's how Jim actually grew. The learnings will serve you and yours.

Order here, with net proceeds going to the Zotheka Foundation, to provide mentoring and money to young people for vocational programs or college.

• If you'd like to buy for your team or board, get a bulk discount here.

Columbia University's board is facing new pressure from a group of House Democrats to "act decisively" and end an ongoing pro-Palestinian encampment on its campus or resign, Axios' Andrew Solender writes.

• Why it matters: Calls for Columbia officials to resign have largely been confined to the GOP. So this is a major escalation in Democrats' rhetoric on the high-profile demonstration.

📝 In a letter to the university's board of trustees, 21 House Democrats write of their "disappointment that, despite promises to do so, Columbia University has not yet disbanded the unauthorized and impermissible encampment of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish activists on campus."

• The letter is mostly signed by a group of moderate and swing-district members, including 10 Jewish lawmakers, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.).
• Among the signers is Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the former House majority leader.

The other side: Several high-profile progressives have gone to college campuses in and around their districts to show their support for the demonstrators.

• Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), both members of the progressive "Squad," visited Columbia on Friday.

The House is scheduled to vote this week on at least one antisemitism measure that is dividing House Democrats.

🔎 Zoom in: Dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups clashed on UCLA's campus yesterday after crossing a barrier meant to separate them, CNN reported under the headline: "Protests put major universities on edge."

• The L.A. Times wrote it was "large and noisy but mostly peaceful."

The number of campus arrests rose to at least 800 over the weekend as police broke up encampments at schools across the country, according to a New York Times tally.

• Axios Explains: What's behind the protests ... Share this story.

Former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met yesterday in Miami to make up after their brutal primary fight, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

• Why it matters: DeSantis is a prodigious fundraiser — and Trump badly needs the cash in the general election against President Biden, Axios' Alex Thompson and Justin Green write.

Trump and DeSantis hadn't spoken since the Republican primary ended, The Washington Post reports.

• Share this story.

Average household wealth for those under 40 in the U.S. is up 49% from its pre-pandemic level, Axios' Emily Peck writes from a new analysis by the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

• Why it matters: Young households haven't seen wealth growth like this since the Fed started tracking the data in 1989.

Stunning stat: Millennials — currently ages 27-43 — saw their wealth double over this period, according to the analysis.

🔎 Zoom in: Americans under 40 have seen big asset gains while reducing some liabilities:

1. Average housing wealth rose $22,000 — as homeownership rose and home prices soared.
2. Liquid assets climbed courtesy of leftover savings from pandemic relief and higher wages.
3. Financial assets, mostly stocks and mutual funds, increased by an average of $31,000.
4. Nonhousing debt fell by $5,000. With more money in their pockets, people could pay off credit cards (the student loan moratorium helped), or not take that debt on at all.

Keep reading ... Get Axios Markets.

Elon Musk made an unannounced trip to Beijing yesterday to seek approval for Tesla's driver-assistance software — which is available in the U.S. but not China.

Why it matters: Musk is doubling down on the software, known as Full Self-Driving, as Tesla struggles to sell cars and drive revenue, Reuters reports.

The visit paid immediate dividends, Bloomberg reports:

1. Tesla will partner with Chinese tech giant Baidu for mapping and navigation functions to support what it calls Full-Self Driving, or FSD.
2. Tesla passed a key data-security and privacy requirement, which will help bring FSD to market in China.

🚘 Zoom in: Tesla also wants permission to transfer data collected in China overseas so it can better train its algorithms.

• The company keeps data from its Chinese cars on servers in Shanghai, according to Reuters.

The intrigue: Musk canceled a planned visit to India last week, citing "very heavy Tesla obligations."

• Keep reading.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't directly order Alexei Navalny's February death in a remote Russian penal colony.

• The assessment is "broadly accepted within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency," The Wall Street Journal reported.

Between the lines: Putin was still ultimately responsible for Navalny's death, the agencies found. But there was "no smoking gun" that he directed in.

• Keep reading.

Goldman Sachs is warning bankers against sneaky business trips to Paris so they can watch the Summer Olympics on the company's dime, Bloomberg reports:

• "The Wall Street giant has told employees in an email that any trips to the French capital city between July 24 and Aug. 14 must first get approval from its finance department."

Pope Francis — visiting Venice, Italy, for the first time — is greeted by gondoliers yesterday. He traveled to the lagoon town to see the Vatican's pavilion at the prestigious Venice Biennale contemporary art show.

• Go deeper: The Holy See's prison exhibit.