A whole lot of people who are smarter than me are writing about what’s going on around us and publishing their essays on Substack – the platform I’m using to publish my daily musings. Substack newsletters are almost always available in a “free” option, and they also allow you the opportunity to pay a small amount per month (usually about $5.00) to read more content. The world is very complicated right now (maybe it always was), and I read a lot in order to make sense of it. Here are a few Substack newsletters I read regularly.
Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American. This is the newsletter I start every day with. She is a history professor at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, Reconstruction, the American West, and the Plains Indians. In her newsletter, she chronicles the events of each day in the larger context of American history. She’s been writing this daily newsletter since September, 2019, and it is the most successful individual publication on Substack.
Spencer Ackerman writes Forever Wars, whose mission he describes as to chronicle, investigate, and interrogate the continuities, departures, and permulations of the War On Terror. He says he writes twice a week, but I see his newsletter more often than that. Members of my local Indivisible Group, WIG, have become familiar with Ackerman over the last few months as our book group read and discussed his book Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Distablized American and Produced Trump. I just discovered this newsletter a few days ago, but it has become my second go-to source.
Economic Robert Reich produces his newsletter Robert Reich several times a week. In it, he talks about the transfer of power – in particular, economic power – from the vast majority of Americans, towards a wealthy and financial elite. Economics drives many (if not all) of the decisions governments make; Reich explains the economics behind the decisions.
Established in 2018, The Bulwark describes itself as a news network dedicated to providing political analysis and reporting free from the constraints of partisan loyalties or tribal prejudices. It lists 16 contributors on its “About Us” page, and you’ll probably recognize some of the names. The articles tend to focus on foreign policy issues.
MSNBC anchor Ari Melber produces his newsletter Ari Melber. He describes his newsletter as a “one-stop shop” where you can access his reporting, writing, and dispatches on news, law, culture, and music. He publishes a journalistic piece very Tuesday, and often something more casual about culture or music at the end of the week.
Brandon Jarvis publishes Virginia Political Newsletter every weekday. I have found it valuable enough to become a paid subscriber to the tune of $5.95 a month.
CBS News icon Dan Rather publishes Steady, writing 2-3 times each week about the news but also about lighter topics. His essays are usually shorter than some of the other newsletters.
Robert Hubbell began to write Today’s Edition in 2017 to “provide hope and perspective to [his] family after the unexpected results of the 2016 election.” He writes daily, Monday–Friday, and his essays are insightful and hopeful.
Greg Olear launched Prevail in 2019 to write about politics, history, national security, foreign affairs, organized crime, dirty money, global corruption, the fight for democracy, and, on Sundays, poetry and literature. This is what he says about what motivated him to begin this newsletter: For four years, the United States was held hostage by a criminal con man—a money launderer for the mob, a handmaiden of Vladimir Putin, and the gravest threat to the republic since the Civil War. This story was largely missed by the mainstream media, which prioritizes the day-to-day and often ignores the Big Picture. PREVAIL seeks to provide context to the headlines, to connect the dots, reveal the history, and make the traitors easy to spot.
Journalist Steven Beschloss began writing America, America in 2021 (I think) and he writes two times a week about “unfolding stories and issues that define our country and social-political life).”
Bari Weiss, an award-winning journalist and author, writes Common Sense for the “tens of millions of Americans who aren’t on the hard left or the hard right who feel that the world has gone mad.” Her newsletter appears several times a week.
There are many many more Substack newsletters – approximately 20,000+, with over 500,00 subscribers. Click Here and then click on the plus sign to see all the topics you can choose from if you want to read more on this platform.
If you’re interested in writing your own Substack newsletter, it’s not hard to do. There are no admission standards. You just go to the website, open up the menu under the “writers” tab, click on “for bloggers,” and start your newsletter. What you do after that is entirely up to you. I have been writing my newsletter since February 6, and I have 16 – yes, 16 – subscribers. I don’t have a “paid” option for my newsletter – it’s free. I write because I enjoy it. It keeps me thinking. I find that I engage with the world more readily – I’m always on the lookout for newsletter content.
Thanks for reading.
Well, that's awesome...and thanks for Prevail.