"Have You Considered Starting a Substack?"
On individuals versus institutions, and posting versus print.
“Have you considered starting a Substack?”
For years, I rolled my eyes at this question, posed to me like it was obviously a better alternative to working for the dreaded “legacy media.”
My reluctance was in part laziness, in part principled stance.
I entered my career in the twilight of media’s Golden Age, when newsstands still existed, a coffee table wasn’t complete without a stack of magazines, and serious people read the daily paper along with their morning coffee. (Coincidentally or not: We were all a lot happier then, weren’t we?)
When people began asking why I didn’t go independent, the answer was simple: I want to do ambitious reporting, and I didn’t have the audacity to believe I could do it without editors, copy editors, legal review, fact checking, etc.
That is still the case. Big, important stories take a village. That is why there has been such a concerted, well-funded effort to poison you against institutional media. I’m not saying these institutions are perfect, but they are capable of doing things that no individual can achieve alone. So in order to do the kind of work I care about, I’ll mostly continue to partner with legacy publications with significant resources and talented teams. But since so much of my work is thematically connected, and I’m no longer in-house at a single publication, I wanted to make sure there was a single place I could put it all in context.
So here I am, freelancing. Mostly for print publications. And telling you about it on Substack.
A Place to Show You What I’m Up To
First and foremost, this will be a place to share snippets and links to my work that I publish elsewhere. I have some stories I’m really excited about coming out in places like the New York Times, Vanity Fair, WIRED, the MIT Technology Review, and more. I realized I needed a place to tell you all about them—plus podcast interviews, musings, reporting dispatches, and other life updates.
About the Title
If you’ve followed my work at all, you’ve noticed a fairly consistent theme: I’m obsessed with understanding the ultra-wealthy and the subtle ways their influence moves through society—eventually making its way to you.
A Place to Engage
I’ve met some amazing friends and sources by connecting with people who read and respond to my work. This will be a place to share what I’m reading and reacting to, and to hear from you!
I’m Not Asking For Your Money (Yet!)
My goal is to tempt you to subscribe to the excellent publications I'll be writing for. I promise your $8/month is better spent on an entire publication than a single author. (Disclaimer: I’m not promising I will never ask you for money. In this rollercoaster of a career, I know better than to try to predict my own next moves.)
Curiosities 💫
In typical husband fashion, my husband just sent me an article suggesting that lead poisoning may have brought about the decline of the Roman Empire. Excellent news as Gen X continues to take power…
Over the weekend, I ran into my old friend Stephanie Jenkins, who told me all about her nonprofit Archival Producers Alliance. Apparently archivists are scrambling to develop techniques to determine what historical footage is real and what is AI generated, so that history doesn’t get overwritten. Scary!
Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI execs just teamed up to launch the first massive pro-AI super PAC, Leading the Future. If you want to guess how this will go, I recommend learning more about how pro-crypto super PACs like Fairshake have succeeded in making sure crypto remains the Wild West.
The new Wolf Alice album is stunning. May it be the soundtrack to a beautiful fall season.
Thanks for stopping by. I promise not to harass you with constant emails, and I promise to keep things interesting! 💫
