I’m writing a book about the state of the media that will be published later this year. It’s called How to Save the Media. You can pre-order it here:

Pre-order

It’s a bold title, I know. But there’s little doubt that the media is in crisis. Even as it seems that more news is being consumed than ever, it hardly feels like we’re getting smarter. Mad kings rule the media economy and reap the rewards. News organizations are doing mass layoffs. Impartial reporting is out; jestergooning is in.

But I believe there’s reason to hope. I’ve seen what can happen when publishers take ownership and audiences directly support the work they believe in. I’ve seen a new media market grow from nothing and watched once-struggling writers find financial security. I’ve seen them build new institutions, giving rise to a generation of fresh voices. And I’ve seen audiences vote for the culture they want to see, funding the voices and perspectives they value—leading to more than 5 million paid subscriptions on this platform alone.

So I’m capturing this pivotal time in the pages of a book.

How to Save the Media is about this era of transition, where old gatekeepers give way to new opportunities and direct relationships reign supreme. It’s about an emerging ecosystem where success doesn’t have to depend on who you know or how well you cater to an algorithm. It shows a way to recover from the collapse of traditional media, and escape the deranging effects of the attention economy.

This book tackles the biggest questions facing the media and society, from how to protect the free press to how to resist a robot uprising, taking readers into rooms with some of the biggest media power players of our time, including berserk billionaires and heroic hacks. I’ll blend insider access with outsider perspective, drawing on my history in media and tech across two decades and three continents, from scrabbling freelance journalist to co-founder of Substack. You’ll see how we got here and where we’re going next—from the temple to the garden.

How to Save the Media will be published by Authors Equity, a new publishing company that practices what this book preaches: authors retain full ownership of their work and receive the majority of the sales revenue. The cover art is by my exceptional colleague Joro Chen.

Pre-orders are available now. They matter more than many people realize; they’re what determine whether a book breaks through and reaches a wider audience. So consider pre-ordering if you believe in a different future for media: one where creators own their work, audiences help shape the culture they want to thrive, and power flows to people rather than platforms. This is about saving the media—but also about making it better than it’s ever been.

Pre-order

After a long and contentious battle, ownership of TikTok has officially changed hands in the U.S., and is now overseen by a consortium of American investors rather than the Chinese Communist Party. In just a matter of days, censorship on the platform seems more prevalent than ever, with users reporting account suppressions and the throttling of political posts, including those about the recent ICE shootings in Minnesota. The new CEO of TikTok is promoting an expansive definition of hate speech; he recently declared, “There is no finish line to moderating hate speech.”

This latest TikTok debacle further highlights a non-negotiable truth for writers, creators, publishers, and artists: If you don’t own your relationship with your audience, someone else can decide whether or not you’re able to reach them. That’s true regardless of the platform. But you can take the power back.

The best insurance against censorship and cultural coercion is to build direct relationships. Creators can cultivate mailing lists that they own and control. Audiences can support creators directly, not just with a fleeting tap on a timeline, but with direct investment into what they’re building. Platforms can set conditions that honor artist ownership. This is about more than just sticking it to The Man. It’s about creative dignity and self-respect. It’s about the present and future of media and culture.

When a platform is built on direct relationships backed by subscriptions, it must serve creators. When its business depends on creators thriving from direct audience support, it must do everything it can to protect and nurture those relationships. That is, of course, the platform we at Substack are trying to build. We believe this model shows the way out of this current media bind, helping creators and their audiences escape servitude in the attention economy and instead perform as active agents in shaping culture.

Platforms shouldn’t own people; people should own platforms.

No one should wait for the next social media crisis to take their destinies into their own hands. Do it now. Start a mailing list. Support the creators you love directly. And tell everyone to stop giving so much of their lives to apps that exploit them and their attention. Something better is already here.

Read more: How TikTok creators can bring their followers to Substack

Today, David Ellison’s Paramount announced that it will acquire The Free Press—founded by Bari Weiss, Suzy Weiss, and Nellie Bowles, and powered by Substack—for a reported price of $150 million. While much of the commentary about the deal has focused on the characters involved, we believe the most remarkable feature of this story is that a media startup went from zero to a nine-figure outcome in the space of three years, at a time when many have been led to believe that news is a dying business.

As much as this deal feels like a seismic event in the media business, it won’t be the last of its kind. The media is going through a volatile transition as the industry adjusts to the ongoing ramifications of the internet and the start of the AI age, but the public’s appetite for trustworthy storytelling is greater than ever. While some of the giants of yesterday are struggling to survive this transition, there is an immense opportunity for ambitious new media founders to build a new generation of institutions.

The Free Press is one such institution, and it is one among many on Substack, collectively accounting for millions of paid subscribers. Among this new class are Sarah Longwell’s politics collective The Bulwark, Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo, Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim’s Drop Site, Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen’s The Contrarian, Richard Rushfield and Janice Min’s The Ankler, Mike Solana’s Pirate Wires, Jerusalem Demsas’s The Argument, and JD Flynn and Ed Condon’s Catholic news outlet The Pillar, to name a few.

We’re also seeing the emergence of new models that take advantage of Substack’s network-centric design and flexible features, including Katelyn Jetelina’s Your Local Epidemiologist, which recently sprouted local variants in California and New York, and spinoff publications created and funded by individual writers who have found success on the platform, such as Judd Legum (Popular Information and Oligarch Watch) and Matt Yglesias, who started the Slow Boring newsletter as well as Politix, a podcast co-hosted with Brian Beutler (Yglesias is also a contributor to The Argument). Emily Sundberg has used her newsletter, Feed Me, as a base for expansion into audio and events, and Lenny Rachitsky has turned his tech expertise into a rampantly successful media business that encompasses text, audio, video, a community, and a premium bundle of AI tools made available to subscribers.

These founders are building here because they can enjoy the distribution benefits of the Substack network—which drives more than 30% of all paid subscriptions across the platform—without compromising their vision. That network growth and discovery via the app means a media business can now scale faster, and more cost efficiently, than ever before.

What once took months to research, compose, and activate is now available out of the box. The founders of The Free Press and Zeteo didn’t need to hire developers, wrestle with a dated content management system, or stress about subscriber profile management. They can instead dedicate almost all of their focus to the work that matters most: their journalism.

In today’s media environment, independent voices who have a direct relationship with their audiences are beacons for a better system. As more of these publishers succeed on Substack, we provide them with infrastructure that flexes to meet their growing ambitions. This new generation of entrepreneurs are producing media companies that bear the same commitment to quality that was once the sole dominion of legacy media, while equipping themselves to thrive in a world of decentralized authority and diminished trust in public institutions—including the media itself.

Substack was first a place for creators to start a publication and community. Now it’s also a place for entrepreneurs to launch entire networks. These founders are the future, showing the way forward to a media ecosystem that can be richer, deeper, more open, and more valuable than what has come before.

If you are energized by the idea of building the next generation of the media, then please let us assure you: there has never been a better time to start.

Let’s build the future of media together.

Get started on Substack

Substack is social media. Yes, okay. It is.

Substack is an app you go to on your phone. Open it and you’ll be presented with a feed of short-form content and links to stories. You can dive into an article, leave a comment, or create a short post yourself. You can share a beautiful image. Publish a quick video. Write a haiku. People can “like” your notes. You can click on the Discover tab and explore what’s trending across the Substack network. You can look at people’s profiles. Send DMs. Join a chat. (Mute the people you don’t want to hear from.)

We started Substack in 2017 as a response to the ways social media was warping culture, so it might seem odd that we’ve somehow built… a social media app. But that doesn’t capture the whole story. Traditional social media apps are designed to lure us into an attention game that keeps us locked in an endless scroll. It can be fun, but it’s often maddening and divisive.

The reason it’s so difficult to extract ourselves from those places is that they serve an important purpose. They connect us to the world and events that shape our daily lives. They are where many creators and audiences find each other. So it’s not surprising that even many of social media’s loudest critics remain heavy users: it’s still possible to find brilliance, beauty, and wit there, even if it’s increasingly buried beneath a pile of preening, posturing, and pure crap.

So, in addition to strengthening the core promise of Substack, we’re building a new kind of social media—or maybe what social media should always have been. Here, you have a media ecosystem with a different set of rules that serve you. This is a place for real human relationships built around stories and culture. The feed is designed to lead you to deeper experiences. Meaningful connection—not shallow attention—is the fuel for the whole machine.

These conditions can make online media both stimulating and nourishing, prizing quality longform work while also facilitating discussion and discovery. They reward depth and trust. They ensure creators own their relationships with their audience and can make real money doing the work they believe in. They protect creative freedom, including freedom of expression itself.

This set of rules attracts the world’s best independent voices, who in turn bring the world’s smartest audiences. The resulting culture is different from what’s in the other places. On Substack, you can find a better quality of conversation and stumble upon great works. You can get closer to the writers and creators you love. You can feel part of something larger than yourself, and not just an avatar in some mad king’s social simulation.

You don’t need to think of Substack as social media to get value from it. Many people come to the platform simply to publish and receive posts, and that works just fine. But when Substack also functions as a network—as a place where people gather—it offers a cultural counterweight to the endless-scroll platforms.

The world doesn’t need another distraction app; it needs better civil infrastructure for online media built with society’s long-term wellbeing in mind. That doesn’t mean we can’t have fun online, but it does mean aiming higher than attention hacks. It means believing that social media’s status quo doesn’t have to be a forever condition.

That is the work we are applying ourselves to at Substack. We believe this better way will prevail—not through some tech geniuses figuring out how to perfectly gamify art and culture, but through building a network with a guiding mission to give more power to creators and more agency to consumers. Giving more power to you.

So, yes, Substack is social media, but it’s more than that, too. It’s a media system built with a different outcome in mind: not an endless scroll, but a culture worth participating in.

To learn more about what makes this place different, check out the below conversation between our CEO and CTO— and —about the “secrets of the Substack algorithm,” recorded at the end of 2024. In the discussion, the co-founders describe how we’re attempting to build a system that rewards depth and relationships over simple views and shallow engagement.

In his farewell address in September 1796, just five years after the First Amendment took effect, President George Washington warned his young nation of the dangers of factionalism. “It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection,” America’s first President said.

More than two centuries on, we could use a little dose of Washington. Emotions are high in the United States in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the subsequent response. The conflict surrounding ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show amid government pressure epitomizes this charged moment.1 The emotion is understandable. It is right to feel devastation and anger about the killing of a man who was participating in open dialogue with his critics. It is also right to reject government censorship. But now anger and anxiety are saturating the media conversation. We don’t have to let those emotions rule us. We don’t have to succumb to the kindling of animosity of one part against another.

We avoid taking political positions at Substack, but we do stand on certain principles, and we discuss them here so that everyone who has a stake in this platform knows what to expect from us. We will always favor a business model that gives independent voices real power, and we will always stand for a free press and free speech. That means defending lawful speech across the spectrum, while enforcing clear rules against incitements to violence and other unlawful content. The consistent application of these principles is never more important than in times such as these, especially as major media organizations and officials have been shown to waver on them.

The senseless murder of a public figure and a censorious reaction that uses it as a pretext, though different in nature, are both grave assaults on freedom. But we must not mistake that seriousness for inevitability. In each case, most of their power to silence depends on creating fear in others who would speak.

That’s not going to work.

The forces that pull us toward chaos and division are aided by the fiction that a cycle of escalating violence, censorship, and retribution is fait accompli. It is not. Already, both of these attempts are backfiring. People from across the political spectrum are stepping up to show that speech is more powerful than fear. The efficacy of their actions is supported by history, in which civil freedoms have repeatedly prevailed over attempts to oppress. We are here to play whatever small part we can. Whether you see yourself in Charlie Kirk, in Jimmy Kimmel, in both, or in neither, you are welcome on Substack—and you can rely on us to uphold your right to speak.

Across the internet, a new ecosystem of independent voices provides robust resistance to the centralized systems and institutions that would otherwise injure our discourse. Charlie Kirk himself was an example of this movement, with an audience of millions. Independent voices like Kirk exist across every political persuasion in the new media economy, which is proving increasingly resilient. We are also seeing the rise of a new generation of journalistic institutions that are less vulnerable to the financial pressures faced by many legacy media corporations of the last century.

This is a period of rebuilding for the media after a messy transition instigated by the reordering effects of the internet. We all have an important role to play in ensuring that it will be a better, more open, and more valuable system than what came before.

The factionalism that George Washington warned about now spreads through feedback loops that reward outrage, which is an incentives problem as much as a politics problem. More-intentional models for online media coupled with strong protections for independent voices offer a solution. We will get there by heeding Washington’s remarks as he stepped down from the presidency—because, just as our problems today resemble those of his time, the solutions remain the same: transcend the pressures of factionalism; seek enlightenment over enragement; and fight for the principles of a free society.

These are fundamental American values—ones that drew us here as immigrants, and which are admired the world over—and this is the project we are committed to at Substack. We are so thankful to those who have joined us, and to the independent voices who are showing the way to a better future.

We’ve turned off comments for this post. As always, feel free to share your perspective in a Note, in a post, or by restacking.

Today, we’re announcing $100 million in Series C funding, led by investors at BOND and The Chernin Group (TCG), with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Rich Paul, CEO and founder of Klutch Sports Group, and Jens Grede, CEO and co-founder of SKIMS. BOND’s Mood Rowghani will join our board. We’re thrilled to partner with these investors, who bring a wealth of experience across tech, media, and culture, as we put this capital to work serving creators and their communities.

We’re living through a time of rapid technological change, one that’s reshaping how we communicate, create, and live. Every leap forward brings both promise and peril. The tools we hoped would uplift and enrich us have too often degraded or dehumanized us instead. Now, as powerful new technologies emerge daily, they arrive freighted with both hope and anxiety. The challenges ahead are real.

But this time of flux also holds tremendous opportunity. A growing number of people are navigating the chaos by choosing independence. Audiences are investing their attention and money in what they value, not just what addicts them. Creators are building livelihoods based on trust, quality, and creative freedom. They know the future belongs to those who build it.

At Substack, we believe the heroes of culture are the ones who shape it. Technology should serve them, not the other way around. That’s why we’re building tools and a network to protect their independence, amplify their voices, and foster deep and direct relationships. These are the people who will lead us to a better culture, and a future we can believe in.

This funding is our chance to get behind them. We’ll invest in better tools, broader reach, and deeper support for the writers and creators driving Substack’s ecosystem. Already, hundreds of millions of dollars flow from audiences to creators there every year. Millions use the app weekly, and pay for the work they discover. But this is just the beginning.

The model is working—across writing, audio, video, and communities—and this funding lets us go further. We’re doubling down on the Substack app, which is designed to help audiences reclaim their attention and connect with the creators they care about. We aim to prove that a media app can be fun and rewarding without melting your brain. An escape from the doomscroll, and a place to take back your mind.

We’re also building tools that give superpowers to anyone who has something important to say. Creators face enough challenges without juggling logistics and expenses. Substack should feel like a studio in your pocket—we take care of everything except the hard part: the creative work itself.

Most importantly, we’re building an economic engine to power this entire cultural ecosystem. Our model is simple: creators make money by serving their communities, and Substack succeeds only when they do. Audiences vote with attention and money for the culture they want, acting as collaborators in shaping a media ecosystem rooted in intention and connection. And everyone is part of a network that rewards trust, not manipulation. Substack is growing fast around the world, and we’re accelerating our work to bring the platform to new markets, so more people everywhere can support the creators they care about.

Independence shouldn’t mean going it alone. We’re building technologies that work for you, not against you—helping you carve out your own space on the internet, where you set the rules. It’s a system that rewards integrity, curiosity, and courage.

None of this happens without you. To everyone publishing on, subscribing to, or just exploring Substack: thank you. We’re honored to play a part, and excited for what this funding will unlock. The future of media belongs to you, and it can’t come soon enough.

I. The Revenue Riviera

It’s 95 degrees with 95% humidity and I’m in a green-walled holding pen called Amazon Port, surrounded by soaked-through T-shirts, discussing the intricacies of affiliate links with a business development guy who is roasting like a chestnut. La Croisette—a famous beachfront promenade in this sultry stretch of southern France—has been transformed into a maze of wooden pavilions, where barmen in straw hats sling margaritas and mocktails for a heavily perspiring blob of ad execs and acolytes who have gathered for the industry’s biggest and booziest networking event of the year.

The Cannes Lions.

On a large stage to my left—just past stalls that tout Prime, Influencers, and Storefront—a mic’d-up MC in a green dress hypes an upcoming presentation to an audience of 12 people on laptops. Just across the street, grand hotels are topped with logos the size of Cessnas declaring that they’re the temporary property of Snapchat and LinkedIn. Tonight, 50 Cent will perform at a beachfront party for precisely 30 minutes.

For more than a decade, the Cannes Lions has held near-mythical status in my imagination. It celebrates the world’s best creative ad work, bringing together the brightest minds in advertising and the media platforms that carry their messages to the masses. It’s a platinum-plated excuse for anyone within spitting distance of an ad exchange to briefly escape their everyday lives and behave like mini Richard Bransons and souped-up Anna Wintours on rented yachts in the pink-skinned party town.

What am I doing here?

Well, I’m doing a few meetings and hosting a dinner for creators and their agents, but mostly I’ve come to bear witness to how far the media world bends towards advertising. And, just quietly, I’m seeing if it’s possible to imagine an alternate universe in which the Cannes Lions might have less of a say in how our media is made.

II. The Great Interruption

I first heard of Cannes about 15 years ago, when I was a freelance journalist living in Baltimore. While I was most interested in writing stories about culture and politics, the meager sums that freelancing commanded weren’t enough to cover rent. So I took on a side gig, writing up the awards entries for advertising agencies. The job was tedious—helping agencies win Cannes Lions for campaigns that sold shampoo—but the market value was, unfortunately, greater than getting stories about life and art published in magazines.

My view of advertising was neutral at best. I appreciated that ad revenue funded the publications that printed my stories, but I also knew that its influence could distort journalistic incentives. When I was a magazine reporter in Hong Kong, for instance, the Chinese tech company Tencent paid to fly me to Beijing for a story heralding its nascent ad business that got it on the cover of the magazine. At a different magazine, the publisher killed our planned cover photo of a rising indie band because the young punks didn’t look glam enough to please the luxury brand that had paid for the back cover. My colleagues wrote glowingly of five-star resorts in the Maldives that neither they nor any other ordinary human could possibly afford, all covered by the hotel chains whose ads appeared alongside the reviews.

Those were the days when magazines could command a steady income from advertising. The rise of social media put an end to that.

In the 2010s, the rivers of ad dollars that once flowed to print media were redirected to a couple of internet giants that would reshape the media landscape. They offered a better deal to the shampoo salesmen. The currents of the ad rivers didn’t slow for a second as they cut a new course.

Today, ad agencies don’t need to seek the favor of editors and publishers. The agencies can just go directly to influencers who know how to play the algorithms.

At Cannes this year, creators were second only to AI as the subject du jour. Social media companies flew them in and put them up at fancy hotels. Endless panels featured them. Media platforms threw parties for them—and they’re smart to do so.

There are many creators who produce great work without sacrificing their integrity for ad revenue, and amazing businesses built. But they still must play the game, even if they do so subconsciously. A podcast episode tends to be an hour long, with spots for ads woven into the narrative. A news story is frequently interrupted by a display unit or a screen takeover. A Reel often directs a viewer to an online store that pays the influencer a kickback from resulting sales. Advertising doesn’t just interrupt the content—it shapes it.

But I sometimes wonder if the greater tragedy is one we can’t see.

Since the advent of the internet, advertising has been the dominant funding mechanism for media. We’ve seen what it can produce—the Mr Beasts, Joe Rogans, Addison Raes, and Charli D’Amelios. We know the bright-lights names, the big numbers, and the flashy showcases. We’ve witnessed an entire industry, with its own supply chain, factories, and sub-economies, sprout from its soil. But we haven’t seen what it obscures. We don’t know what it has prevented from emerging in the first place. We don’t quite know what—and who—it has locked out.

III. Benefactors and Benediction

In the early 1700s, the writer Alexander Pope pioneered direct subscriptions as a way to fund his work, promising to deliver his translation of the Iliad in installments over six years. The new model would give Pope total control over his work, freeing him from subservience to a rich benefactor—the standard model at the time. He ended up attracting about 750 subscribers—dukes, earls, and bishops among them—and made the equivalent of millions of dollars.

Pope’s model was later adopted by newspapers and magazines, which paired subscriptions with advertising to fund generations of great journalism. Now we’re beginning to see how powerful that model can be when paired with the internet—and placed in the hands of individuals. Each year, billions of dollars flow directly to artists and creators. On Substack alone, there are more than 5 million paid subscriptions. More than 50 Substack creators make over $1 million a year.

We’re still in the early days of this new economy, however. For more than 20 years, most online media was free and monetized with advertising. It wasn’t until the 2010s, with the arrival of Netflix, Spotify, and Patreon, that we started to pay for online content at scale.

When audiences directly support the creators they most love and trust, new kinds of media businesses can thrive, and new works that don’t fit comfortably with the ad model can flourish.

Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, a dramatically narrated show with six-hour episodes on obscure historical topics, wouldn’t have gotten off the ground had he relied only on advertisers. His main source of revenue comes from paywalled episodes.

Science education channel Kurzgesagt spends hundreds of hours on each of its animated educational videos. Ad revenue alone can’t sustain that kind of work, so the channel relies on tens of thousands of Patreon supporters.

The British lifestyle writer had a career in traditional media before she discovered she can support herself through audience subscriptions on Substack. She’s now free to write what she wants, on her own schedule. (Gannon has said of her editorial freedom, quoting Bill Cunningham, “If you don’t take their money, they can’t tell you what to do, kid.”)

Even those who have been successful with the ad model are discovering new riches. Violet Witchel, a young chef who creates recipes that have a tendency to go viral, turned her large social media following into lucrative brand deals, but she has since found that Substack subscriptions bring in much more—and more consistent—revenue.

Then there’s the longer tail: a creator middle class succeeding in ways the ad model never allowed. There are the local news operations, sports team specialists, niche experts, and passion projects that may never reach ad-friendly scale but cover their subjects with real depth. There are those who spend hours crafting the perfect sentences, and take literature so seriously that they devote days to well-informed reviews, publish their own fiction serially, and dissect the state of pop culture with the careful attention otherwise reserved only for the academy. And then there are the wild romantics, spiritual nonconformists, dogged reporters, and edgy anthropologists who will always be many things, but only very seldomly “brand safe.”

How many more great minds have been missed by the constraints of the ad model? How many life-changing creations were never conceived?

Advertising had little to do with helping these voices come to life. It is energy that was previously hidden. Indeed, under the ad-focused model that has shaped media for generations, many of these creators would never have considered trying to make a living from this work. Now they can look at ad revenue in a different light—as an option rather than a master.

We’ve spent two decades exploring what advertising can do for online media. Some of the results inspire awe: trillion-dollar companies, individuals with audiences larger than countries, and some of the most entertaining content ever made. But that world, represented by the early summer swarms on Cannes’s rocky beaches, has limitations. It concentrates power in the hands of a few platform rulers, puts the audience’s needs below the advertiser’s, and strips creators of ownership.

In any case, that world is starting to look old, and a new world is emerging. While it will have its own imperfections, it offers so much promise. What will it look like when we’ve spent two decades exploring what direct payments can do for art and media?

There are millions of new voices waiting to be discovered, and incredible new works about to be revealed. New supply chains, factories, and sub-economies are starting to come online. And if you zoom in for a close-up, you’ll see, in undeniable detail, the birth of a new cultural economy—this one in service of creators and their audiences.

IV. Beautiful Shores

The sun has sunk low and slipped behind a cloud, accompanied by a faint breeze, as black-tied waiters at the Hôtel Belles Rives pour rosé from magnums into our glasses. Ten of us are seated around a circular table on the hotel’s deck with an enchanting view of the bay, the lights of Cannes sparkling on the headland across the water. It’s the first night of the festival—but the last for me—and we’re hosting a quiet dinner for creators and agents who are interested in Substack but don’t yet know it deeply. At the end of a day of relentless heat, loud music, and hardcore networking, we’re all finally appreciating a moment of calm.

“Wow, we can actually have a real conversation here,” says a creator whose TikTok audience tops a million.

About 100 years ago, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, briefly lived in a villa that became this hotel. During that tumultuous period of his life—marked by his alcoholism and her madness—he started writing the tortured romance Tender Is the Night, one of his great novels. We’ve put a copy of the book at everyone’s seat.

As the host, it’s my job to propose a toast. I raise my glass and speak of how media power changes when creators own their audience relationships. “Instead of working for the algorithms,” I say, “the algorithms can work for you.”

We clink glasses, we drink, we eat. Twilight turns to night.

I now know what I’m doing here. Next time we come back, I promise myself, we’ll host more dinners.

Earlier this month, —a writer based in Melbourne—was detained, interrogated, and sent back to Australia by U.S. border agents, evidently in response to articles he had published on Substack.

Kitchen, a former Columbia University student, had written firsthand accounts of the student protests that took place last year.

“Look, we both know why you are here,” a border agent at Los Angeles International Airport told Kitchen, according to his account of the incident for The New Yorker. “It’s because of what you wrote online about the protests at Columbia University.”

Border agents questioned him about his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict, combed through his phone, and pressed him about the details of his intended visit. He was held in a windowless holding room for hours, alongside other detainees, before eventually being put on a flight back to Melbourne.

The Department of Homeland Security later stated he was denied entry for providing false information about prior drug use. According to Kitchen, a border agent elicited his admission of drug use only after detaining him, searching his phone, and questioning him about his writing and political beliefs.

This isn’t about Kitchen’s views. It’s about a core democratic value: the right to express dissenting opinions without fear of state retaliation. In an era of growing censorship around the world, it’s more important than ever that the U.S. stand up for free speech—not just in practice, but in the example it sets for the world.

Earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance took this perspective on the global stage. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, he talked about the rise in government censorship worldwide and promised that the United States would champion free speech: “Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer them in the public square.” It’s a principled stance, and one that should apply regardless of who is in power or what the writer believes. Denying someone entry over their Substack posts sends the opposite message.

Dissent, debate, and free discourse are fundamental to progress and a free society. At Substack, we’re taking steps to protect writers and using our resources to advocate for free speech. We recently expanded the Substack Defender program, which offers legal support to writers and creators in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and we have partnered with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression to offer legal assistance to writers who are lawfully in the U.S. and have been targeted by the government for the content of their writing. But ultimately, we’re a private company, and, like everyone, we must rely on the protections of U.S. law and democratic custom. This principle must not fall.

Whether or not you agree with Kitchen’s posts, it’s stories like his that remind us free speech still comes at a price. We’re sharing his story not because of politics but because of principle: no one should have to accept censorship as the cost of entry.

On Saturday, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will take place against a backdrop of political tumult and media collapse. Once a marquee event for Washington’s political class, it now anchors a weekend of parties with a festival-like feel, where the nation’s power brokers gather to drink sponsored cocktails, gossip about industry trysts, and, ostensibly, celebrate the First Amendment.

Substack is hosting one such party—at the exact same time as the Correspondents’ Dinner, which will proceed this year without either its scheduled comedian, Amber Ruffin (whose criticisms of President Trump proved too controversial), or the president himself.

The president won’t be at our party either, but hundreds of other media people, Important Political Figures, and independent journalists will be. They come from different political persuasions, backgrounds, and convictions, but they are all on the front lines of a foundational shift in media—a reimagining of how we understand the world around us in this period of profound transition.

This year’s events come with a fair serving of discomfort. Traditional media institutions continue to contract, often locked in open hostility with the presidential administration. The social media feeds that dominate mindshare are pushing us to outrage and division more than ever. Public trust in the media has cratered to historic lows. It’s not clear that everyone who will be attending these parties even shares a common view of what “press freedom” means. Even the new wave of political influencers is not immune to this confusion. Some critics worry, reasonably enough, that the new voices are not so much uncovering truths as credulously shilling for their ideological teams while getting high on clicks.

But the people who will be at Substack’s party, in person and in spirit, are living proof that the reverse can be true. Many of the publishers who are thriving on Substack today cut their teeth in legacy media, and they are carrying forward those values and journalistic standards into this new space. Others come from outside that system, bringing fresh perspectives and insight to the political discourse, challenging authority and speaking truth to power. It is a sometimes cantankerous lot—argumentative and skeptical; prickly and proud. They’ll probably have fun in one another’s company on Saturday night and then be at each other’s throats the next day. And that’s as it should be. The strength of this place is in its free people. This contest of ideas—the dialogue and disagreement, the dissent and dispute—is what makes America great, and it’s what makes Substack great too.

We are all now part of an ecosystem that can usher in a new kind of order, where the power is distributed among the many instead of the few. We can take part in a discourse that unleashes expression rather than suppresses it, but that also demands substance—where success is built not on momentary clicks but on deeper connection. The people who will join us on Saturday night are the pioneers of this new order, refusing to bow to the cynicism of the current media moment and showing the way to something better.

And you are too. Your support of these independent voices is a vote not just for them but for a better media system—one that combines the quality of traditional media with the reach of social media. You are investing in a system that rewards integrity, that is powered by relationships instead of attention, that redistributes ownership and power. In this new order, we are all now the power brokers. That’s what we’ll be celebrating this weekend, and then for years to come.

Live shows on Substack cover a lot of ground. You’ll find discussions of politics, war, and AI—but also sheet-pan gnocchi, Botox debates, and the finer points of skateboard history. In the coming weeks: gets candid about aging with ; chess grandmaster breaks down global power plays; goes live from her kitchen; and sits down with burlesque icon . It’s all happening on Substack, so make sure to subscribe to the publishers to get notified.

If you’re thinking about starting your own live video show, check out our latest guide to help you get started. Already hosting one? Share it with us in the comments—we’d love to see it. You can also explore other live shows and find helpful tips and FAQs on this page.

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This week’s schedule

Monday, April 7:

The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire Live, 12 p.m. ET

• Oldster founder interviews guests about what it’s like to be exactly their age, using the Oldster Magazine Questionnaire as a springboard. During this week’s conversation, Sari will be speaking with actor, activist, and artist .

• Subscribe to get notified:

The Next Move with Garry Kasparov, Mondays at 5 p.m. ET

• With the strategic insight of a chess grandmaster and the shrewd instinct of a political dissident, analyzes today’s most pressing issues and suggests the next move.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Mondays Live with Jess Craven, Mondays at 7 p.m. ET

• Every Monday, political activist, content creator, and author discusses what’s happening in politics and, more importantly, what you can do about it.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Messy Mondays at Night, Mondays at 9 p.m. ET

• Every Monday night, reads viewer-submitted messy mail and leads a live kiki on relationships, love, and sex.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Tuesday, April 8

Big Salad & Friends, every other Tuesday at 12 p.m. ET

• Every other Tuesday, and guests chat live with readers, covering topics like adult friendships, parenting teens, and whether or not to get Botox.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Wild Live, 12 p.m. ET

• Every Tuesday, New York Times bestselling author speaks with philosophers, economists, spiritual elders, and energy futurists to explore the (meta)crises of our time. For the premiere, she will be joined by to discuss neoliberalism, collapse, and how we can reclaim our sense of agency.

• Subscribe to get notified:

How Do We Fix This?, Tuesdays at 3 p.m. ET

• During this weekly series, author confronts the challenges of upholding liberal values in an increasingly illiberal world. With clarity and resolve, she and her guests discuss why truth still matters and how we can navigate today’s cultural turmoil with integrity and principle. For the first episode of her show, she will speak to of . Together, they’ll explore how we form our beliefs and why it matters, offering tools to better understand both our own perspectives and those of others.

• Subscribe to get notified: The Overflowings of a Liberal Brain

Both Are True, Tuesdays at 4 p.m. ET

• Part comedy, part philosophy, and 100% a cry for help. During his weekly show, and guests discuss creativity, culture, and chaos. In this week’s episode, USA Today bestselling author will teach Alex how to become a Substack superstar. Next week, on Tuesday, April 15, he will talk about navigating parenthood and the experience of writing her upcoming book with former domestic-violence prosecutor .

• Subscribe to get notified:

Szeps Live, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET

• Szeps Live is an unfiltered, unscripted, and unmissable weekly livestream where spars with the sharpest minds, boldest thinkers, and, occasionally, just himself. This week, Josh opens the floor to your questions in a special “Ask Me Anything” session. Next Tuesday, April 15, he will be joined by talk show host and political commentator as they discuss the future of the American left and where the Democrats go from here.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Wednesday, April 9

The Rushfield Lunch, Wednesdays at 2 p.m. ET

• Every Wednesday, The Ankler columnist goes live on Substack for a lunchtime chat with the most interesting people on Substack: writers, artists, business people, and weirdos of all stripes.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Out of the Wilderness, 4:30 p.m. ET

• Join every week as he talks to elected officials, party strategists, and others with smart ideas on how the Democratic party can find its way back to political relevance.

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Vicky Ward Investigates, Wednesdays at 5 p.m. ET

• Investigative journalist and bestselling author discusses the news of the week with top sources from her 35-year career. Vicky has covered everything from Donald Trump to Kate Moss, and no topic is off-limits. In this week’s episode, she will dive into the latest headlines and offer her signature perspective with author Michael Wolff. Next Wednesday, April 16, she will be in conversation with lawyer and bestselling author .

• Subscribe to get notified:

Jenn Eats Goood LIVE, every other Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET

• Join from for easy meal prep ideas, approachable dinner recipes, and everything in between. Expect to learn simple recipes and skills to make life easier (and tastier!). In this week’s live video, Jenn will be cooking sheet-pan gnocchi with spicy sausage and broccolini, paired with creamy lemon mocktails.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Rob Henderson’s Office Hours, Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET

• Join —bestselling author, psychologist, and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute—for an unscripted, thought-provoking live show that explores the hidden forces shaping class, status, and human nature. Rob challenges conventional wisdom, looks at new “luxury beliefs,” and uncovers the psychology behind the views that define our culture—and our lives. This week, he will discuss the social paradox of narcissism and social media. Next week, on April 16 at 8 p.m. ET, tune in to learn about the evolutionary psychology of anger.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Thursday, April 10

The Counteroffensive, Worldwide, 10 a.m. ET

• Join veteran war correspondent from wherever he is around the world. Based out of Kyiv, he covers the conflict in Ukraine from a human-interest perspective. Every week, Tim speaks with guests about why freedom is worth fighting for and what to do about the rising wave of authoritarianism around the globe. During this session, he will be in conversation with , Lt. Col., U.S. Army (Retired) of .

• Subscribe to get notified:

Amped Up with Cliff Schecter, Thursdays at 2 p.m. ET

• Every Thursday, chats with newsmakers, experts, and entertainers to share the untold stories behind the headlines. With a mix of insight, humor, and real talk, these candid discussions are sure to inform, entertain, and amplify the good.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Still Pushing with Mike Vallely, Thursdays at 3 p.m. ET

• Skateboard pioneer welcomes you into his home to share stories, insights, and inspirations from his life on and off the board. This week, Mike looks back on his unexpected role in the Hangover films. Next Thursday, April 17, he’ll dive into behind-the-scenes stories from filming the iconic Bones Brigade video The Search for Animal Chin. Later this month, hear about his collaborations with Spike Jonze in the late ’80s.

• Subscribe to get notified:

The Jessica Yellin Show, 5 p.m. ET

• Every week, connects the dots on politics and power, tech and culture, and care and community through conversations with experts and newsmakers. This week, Jessica sits down with to explore Trump 1.0 vs. Trump 2.0—from shifts in media coverage to changes in political power and public discourse. They’ll also take a look at the first 100 days and the evolving influence of right-wing media. Next Thursday, April 17, Jessica will be in conversation with , the Nobel Prize–winning economist. Later in the month, she will be joined by , the political commentator, author, and former White House adviser.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Friday, April 11

Live with Azeem Azhar, Fridays at 12 p.m. ET

• Stay ahead of the curve with ’s weekly take on what matters most in AI and technology.

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Nir & Rupar, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET

• Join of and of as they go live every Friday afternoon to discuss the week’s biggest political stories, from the top of the ballot on down. They explore the policy and political impact of the biggest issues, bring on guests, and take questions from viewers.

• Subscribe to get notified: ,

Live Q&As with Dr. Lucy McBride, Fridays at 3 p.m. ET

• Every Friday, answers questions, helping people manage their mental and physical health with intention. This week, she’s joined by Dr. Sharon Malone, author of the book Grown Woman Talk, for a conversation on menopause, hormone replacement therapy, and how to confidently advocate for yourself at the doctor’s office.

• Subscribe to get notified:

STARF⭐️CKER LIVE!, Fridays at 3 p.m. ET

• Every Friday, spills the unfiltered tea on sex, celebrity, and infamy with special guests. Tune in to the premiere episode on April 11 with burlesque icon , celebrating both the launch of the show and Liz’s first anniversary on Substack.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Coming soon

The Ink Live!, Anand Giridharadas

• The opposite of doomscrolling. , the journalist, author, and publisher of , hosts a live interview show every Monday and Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET, taking viewers behind the scenes and beyond the moment with brilliant minds and bringing unvarnished truth, ideas for action in a crisis, and grounded reasons for hope. On Monday, April 14, at 12:30 p.m. ET, Anand will be speaking with ’s Ruth Ben-Ghiat to clarify what we’re seeing and living through under the second Trump administration, and the latest developments in the fight against authoritarianism. Then, on Thursday, April 17, at 12:30 p.m. ET, he will be joined by political strategist and messaging expert for a closer look at how we talk about our political crisis and plans for building a free America.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Doctor’s Lounge, Dr. Jeremy Faust

• A weekly chat with ’s and top experts. Tune in every Tuesday at 1 p.m. ET to learn what doctors really talk about when they’re off the clock, and expect to get the latest in medicine, science, and health. On Tuesday, April 15, at 1 p.m. ET, Dr. Faust will speak with Dr. , a nationally recognized expert in infectious diseases and public health, an editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, and a CBS News medical contributor.

• Subscribe to get notified:

The Unspeakeasy Live: A Happy Hour For Your Thinking Habit, Meghan Daum

• The Unspeakable Podcast is now The Unspeakeasy Live! Every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, writer and podcaster sits down with guests and friends (and sometimes fans) for free-ranging, uncensored, and always Nuanced AF™ conversations about the most interesting topics of our time. On Tuesday, April 15, at 3 p.m. ET, Meghan’s premiere episode will feature on the state of the culture wars and also Katie’s forthcoming book, Drink Your Way Sober: The Science-Based Method to Break Free from Alcohol. Then, on Thursday, April 17, at 3 p.m. ET, hear from Meghan and as they discuss the housing market.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Subheader, Under the Desk News

• Every Thursday at 2 p.m. ET, of gabs about the latest headlines and emerging stories with a unique and interesting guest. On Thursday, April 17, V will be speaking with , founder and president of Run For Something, a national organization committed to recruiting and supporting young progressive candidates running for down-ballot office.

• Subscribe to get notified:

HOUSEGUESTS, Jessica Reed Kraus

• The internet’s official political and pop culture living room, hosted by Jessica Reed Kraus and featuring special guests. Tune in for the first episode on Thursday, April 17, at 8 p.m. ET.

• Subscribe to get notified:

KK Takes of the Week, Konstantin Kisin

• Every Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET, answers your questions about the biggest stories of the moment with his trademark clarity, humor, and straight-talking analysis. Whether solo or joined by guests, he cuts through the noise of mainstream narratives and reactionary takes to make sense of what’s really happening. In a time of clickbait and ideological spin, KK Takes of the Week offers a grounded, thoughtful perspective for those who want to understand the world without the distractions. Catch his show on Friday, April 18, and join Konstantin every Friday after for your weekly dose of clarity.

• Subscribe to get notified:

The sound of Substack has evolved beyond the clack of keyboard keys. Listen closely, and you’ll hear guitar riffs, piano chords, sung melodies, conversations, and harmonies reverberating across the platform.

What started as a sanctuary for writers has expanded into a vibrant home for musicians, spanning genres and generations. Here, artists share their work on their own terms—new songs, covers, lost demos, behind-the-scenes glimpses of their creative process, videos, and longform writing—while forging meaningful connections with their audiences.

Refuge from a broken industry

Musicians once had many reliable ways to make a living, but the music industry hasn’t served artists for a long time now. Streaming services pay them a fraction of a penny per play. Touring has become prohibitively expensive. Social media platforms expect artists to give away their work for free, while surrounding it with ads that generate profits for the companies but not for the musicians.

Substack offers something different: independence, ownership, and the ability to earn an income directly from their work. Here, musicians nurture genuine relationships with fans who value their art enough to support it. As told us, “Substack feels more of a kinship than other platforms—a common understanding that ours is a cultural and humanistic site. There is not a shred of antagonism or polarization; the connection shared is benevolent and lively.”

A growing community of artists

Pioneers like , , , and music writer were among the first on the platform, finding, in Jeff’s words, “a sort of open, kindhearted community that I only dreamed was possible before Substack.” Since then, artists of all kinds have arrived in droves.

This week alone, we’re thrilled to welcome legendary producer and bestselling author , electronic artist and animal-rights activist Moby, multi-instrumentalist , feminist punk icon of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, indie-rock legend of The Shins and Broken Bells, celebrated producer and artist , brilliant singer-songwriter of Typhoon, UK pop and R&B artist , and frontwoman of the English post-punk band Dry Cleaning.

And tonight in New York, we’re hosting an in-person vinyl listening party at an old-school record shop with acclaimed author . He’ll be joined by indie singer-songwriter , genre-blending pop artist , writer and filmmaker , culture critic , and Grammy-nominated country artist .

From early on, musicians told us they were hungry for the ability to do live video. So we built it—working with of The Decemberists to develop a special version with wide-spectrum audio specifically designed for live music performances. Whether musicians want to present intimate concerts from their living room or jump into conversations with other artists, they have a new mode of expression on Substack and a new way to connect with their fans.

Announcing the Substack Sessions

In celebration of the thriving music community on Substack, we’ve scheduled a bunch of live sessions over the coming days. Already this week, Patti Smith played songs live with her longtime collaborator Lenny Kaye, and Rick Rubin talked with me about his plans to build an interactive creative community on Substack.

I recommend tuning in live for the upcoming sessions—there’s a special backstage intimacy to seeing your favorite musicians up close and casual, and it’s also a great opportunity to discover someone new. Here’s a schedule of what’s ahead. Be sure to sign up for these artists’ Substacks so you don’t miss out.

Today, April 3

• 1 p.m. ET: in conversation with

• 2:15 p.m. ET: Murray, Kentucky-based singer-songwriter performs songs from her forthcoming album

Friday, April 4

• 11 a.m. ET: of Hiss Golden Messenger performs in his home studio

• 12 p.m. ET: of My Brightest Diamond discusses song arranging for chamber ensembles

• 4 p.m. ET: performs solo with electric guitar in his attic studio

• 6 p.m. ET: is live from The Loft, with some songs and surprises

Saturday, April 5

• 4 p.m. ET: joins in conversation

Sunday, April 6

• 3 p.m. ET: of Typhoon plays songs from the studio, including a new one and maybe a few requests

Monday, April 7

• 1 p.m. ET: , solo artist and multi-instrumentalist of The Walkmen, in conversation with illustrator and writer

• 3 p.m. ET: David Longstreth of in conversation with of Mount Eerie

• 5 p.m. ET: in conversation with comedian W. Kamau Bell

• 7 p.m. ET: chats with Substack co-founder and plays some songs

Tuesday, April 8

• 12 p.m. ET: presents his first transmission, an ephemeral, frenetic audio-visual experience

• 1 p.m. ET: presents new songs from her still-in-progress album

• 8 p.m. ET: performs new and favorite songs and discusses how art helps us stay grounded and inspired in challenging times

Wednesday, April 9

• 2 p.m. ET: (Lou and Adelle Barlow) gives an intimate tour and music demo

• 3 p.m. ET: Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast in conversation with singer , discussing motherhood, creativity, and identity

• 6:30pm ET: with an intimate, cocktail-hour performance on piano in her living room

• 10pm ET: presents “Bonnieoke: A Pop Anthem Sing-Along”

• 11:15 ET: brings us behind the scenes at the Roxy in L.A. as she goes onstage with the Go-Go’s

Thursday, April 10

• 3:30 ET: goes live from soundcheck at the Playhouse

• 4 p.m. ET: plays some songs and shares the stories behind them

• 5 p.m. ET: performs new and old songs from home

• 9 p.m. ET: of The Shins goes live for a Q&A with a special surprise guest, followed by a music performance

Friday, April 11

• 12 p.m. ET: of Dry Cleaning presents her first livestream reading, performing work-in-progress lyrics, short poems, and more

• 1 p.m. ET: presents music and words from NYC

• 2 p.m. ET: discusses and plays unreleased songs from his forthcoming record

• 3 p.m. ET: has some drinks and plays a new song

• 4 p.m. ET: plays a live set from the Machine Shop and debuts a new song

• 6 p.m. ET: in conversation with Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards on making new albums and mid-career artistry

I'll leave you with a clip of Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye performing “Wing” at Patti's house.

If you’re a musician on Substack and plan to do a live session, please tell us about it in the comments below. We’d love to check it out.

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We are living through the most significant media disruption since the printing press, and it explains everything from why you can’t stand your neighbor to our current political tumult.

Until recently, the best way for political figures to gain influence in developed democracies was to look good on television, speak in measured tones, and develop relationships with the people who controlled the media. We are still only just coming out of that era. It is an era that gave us leaders such as Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair, and Angela Merkel.

Today, we live in a more chaotic environment, where the narrative frenzy of social media has given rise to political movements that gain power through exploiting attention of any kind, positive or negative, from moral panics to fulminating podium-thumpers. We’ve gone from “Ask not what your country can do for you” to dunk tweets and death-by-emoji.

Our media systems don’t just convey information—they shape how we think and behave. Political culture responds accordingly. We’ve seen how this cultural interplay unfolded with the arrival of the printing press, which in the mid-1400s broke the literate elite’s monopoly on information and subverted the Catholic Church’s dominance. We saw it with the introduction of radio, which allowed political leaders, for the first time, to speak directly to citizens in their homes, placing new emphasis on emotional appeal. And we saw how television elevated image and personality above nuanced policy discussion.

None of these transitions was instant. Revolutions like this can take decades to fully unfold. What we’re experiencing today may be the most intense phase of a profound transformation that began years ago.

But, as we know from history, this is not a permanent state. The printing press’s arrival, for instance, caused massive economic and social turmoil, but it ultimately helped birth the Scientific Revolution. The internet may be on a similar path, with initial destruction followed by renewal. While this period of change is in many ways destabilizing, it can also ultimately help culture flourish.

Sacking the temple

For decades, we lived in a world dominated by traditional media, characterized by top-down control, centralized authority, and official opinion. It was a stable system, and, though it probably offered some false comforts, it communicated a sense of security in its predictability: the city newspaper over breakfast, radio news for the commute, the national TV broadcast before dinner. Cronkite, Rather, the New York Times, CNN, Oprah. This solidity, however, came with rigidity. Only a few perspectives were on offer, and it was hard for new voices to break in—they had to be let in by favor. The media’s institutional power went hand in hand with political institutional power. Collectively, this system amounted to something like a temple, with its own doctrines, rituals, and priesthood. (Good luck to the unbelievers.)

That system is falling apart now. It has been for a while, of course, but the entropy has reached an accelerated state. First, Craigslist laid waste to the classifieds business that had propped up many newspapers; then Google, Facebook, and YouTube won the ads business that almost all of the media depended on; and now the subscription streaming services—Netflix, Amazon Prime, Max—are taking out TV’s other knee. These are all irreversible trends. The temple will only crumble further; the priests will only get sicker. Their time is past.

Today, we live in the age of chaos media.

Traditional media’s rigid order has been replaced by mayhem. Conflict supersedes consideration. Speed overwhelms verification. This system is, in many senses, a marvel, with massive democratization potential. Anyone can have a voice, and your idea, if the winds blow just right, can reach billions of people in an instant. One of its great virtues is that it demands that everyone—even the powers that be—speak to each other directly, and others can talk back. Now the savviest politicians sit down for long interviews in nontraditional formats and show their thinking.

But just like in the old system, chaos media still concentrates economic power, with the majority of the rewards going to the platform owners. Of course, there are social effects too. We’re no longer tuning in for rituals and rites, but instead subjecting ourselves to a parade of loudmouths and lunatics, where common sense struggles to find a voice. We’ve gone from catechism to cacophony. Trump, Musk, Kardashian, Cuban, AOC, Hawk Tuah. We are now preeners, yellers, credulous fools, conspiracy theorists, and moralizers. Sometimes it’s fun!

Our political culture now mirrors chaos media culture. Opponents are not just to be argued against, but humiliated. Followers are asked not just to consider the benefits of a certain position, but to show fealty to a specific doctrine. Disfavored policies and institutions are recast as evil and immoral.

This media flux is more than just the swing of a pendulum. It’s the beginning of ecosystem change. We are moving away from the era of centralized institutions to a time of massively distributed voices. So far, it has been messy as hell. But not all chaos—presuming it doesn’t last forever—is bad. Indeed, chaos is often a necessary stage of evolution.

It is possible to view the current upheaval as a moment of transition. What we’re seeing now could well be the emergence of a new media organism that hasn’t yet found its order.

If you look closely enough, you can see some green shoots of hope emerging from the temple’s ruins.

Growth of a garden

The democratization of media is a revolution that the internet has so far only half realized. Yes, now everyone gets to have a voice, but the economic gains still accrue mostly to the powerful at the top. If you publish a perfect post on Instagram and it influences the thinking of millions of people, the financial benefits that it generates go disproportionately to Mark Zuckerberg. When you publish a groundbreaking video on YouTube, that platform ultimately determines who gets to see it and how much money it can bring you.

In this sense, the media today is like electricity in the early 20th century. Thomas Edison demonstrated the first practical incandescent light bulb in 1879, but it wasn’t until the 1920s that electricity started becoming common in people’s homes. It took the advent of the electric grid for the electric revolution to fully take hold. Today’s media equivalent of the electric grid is economic autonomy for independent voices. Until now, the power (ahem) has not been well distributed.

Economic autonomy gives independent voices freedom. It means they don’t have to be answerable to someone else’s agenda to pay their bills, and they can be less vulnerable to the inconstant winds of chaos media. It lets them focus on doing their best possible work and gives them more energy to serve their communities. It allows for a new order to emerge, separate from the interests of the central authorities, with wealth distributed among the many and not the few.

A distributed system that gives economic autonomy to independent voices resembles a garden more than a temple. Handled with the right care, it can bring order to social media’s bedlam.

In a media garden, where biodiversity flourishes, there can be more winners and better coverage of a vast multitude of niches. In such a system, everyone has a role in shaping the culture they live in. Creators can thrive on the support of their followers, who can simultaneously help the work spread.

While some worry that such a system will lead to more echo chambers, we believe the opposite could also be true. By networking diverse communities together, this garden-like system makes it easy to move freely and be exposed to new ways of thinking in a more moderate environment, removed from the quick-twitch subcultures of chaos media.

Unlike chaos media, this distributed system can be rooted in trust, since the rewards flow to those who respect relationships rather than gaming algorithms. This relationship-centric model is apparent in YouTube, where people show up for their favorite shows and creators (Don’t forget to like and subscribe). But even there, the relationships are mediated and controlled by advertisers and the platform itself. Direct subscriptions foster a deeper connection and stronger sense of trust. For publishers to thrive in this incentive structure, they must deeply serve their audiences.

This system gives rise to new media personalities such as , who turned a spurned book proposal into a thriving community, What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, which in turn scored her a deal for a new book that became a New York Times bestseller. And it gives more power to independent interviewers such as , who hosts deep discussions with prominent thinkers in science, tech, and culture, fueled by a mix of direct payments and ads. New gatekeepers will emerge under this model, but unlike in the old systems, audiences will choose for themselves which communities improve their online lives. It’s a more organic ecosystem, where trust forms the root system connecting diverse communities, allowing us to think together rather than shout each other down.

The chaos of our current media moment cannot last, but no one knows exactly what the new landscape will look like when it stabilizes. That’s precisely why your choices today matter so much. Every subscription, every share, every minute of your attention is a vote for the culture you want to see flourish. You can choose to invest in a system that values deep relationships over the flimsy validation that chaos media offers. You can reclaim your attention from the doomscroll feeds and pour it like water onto the seedlings of a better future. These actions aren’t just about getting better content or contributing to a healthier media economy—they cultivate a richer, more thoughtful culture capable of addressing the complex challenges of our time. It’s a culture worth subscribing to.

When someone has spent so much time on social media that their grip on reality has loosened, they are often implored to “touch grass”—get offline, go outside, smell the roses. It’s meant as a reminder that there’s a living, breathing world right there that can restore their health, if only they would venture out to it.

There should be a similar saying for people who have overindulged in disposable online content, reminding them to reconnect with the world of art and culture. “Touch paper,” perhaps. Hold vinyl. Flip playbills. Browse shelves.

The internet has solved the problem of boredom, inundating us with abundant entertainment, letting us scroll to the end of the universe, never bereft of content. And that’s the problem. We’re so busy consuming that we risk losing sight of what truly nourishes us. Our social media diets are making us cultural slovens, overstuffed with the digital equivalent of candy and fried chicken.

Allow us, please, to mount a gentle resistance.

We’re relaunching what was until yesterday called Substack Reads. This publication is now called The Substack Post. Its purpose is to help you connect with and appreciate great culture in all its forms: writing, film, imagery, video, audio, and in-person experiences. We want to hold up great art and culture to say: behold this beauty!

Substack Reads was a good name with a good mission, focused on surfacing great writing by great writers. But as a name, The Substack Post captures more. Why settle for a double entendre when you can have a triple? It refers to the posts that land in your inbox, waiting to be savored. It nods at publishing predecessors like the Washington Post and the New York Post, which themselves evoke the historical gathering place for news. And it embraces the online post—an artifact that spans formats, from words to images to video. Call it post-modern, if you like.

We live in a fraught time for culture. The economic models that once supported journalism, performance, art, and community are eroding. Our attention is hijacked by forces that amplify the ugliest sides of humanity, rather than reflecting what makes our shared time together on Earth so extraordinary. Artificial intelligence churns out slop, political discourse is reduced to memes, and hard-edged ideologies threaten the arts’ financial lifelines. All this, and Married at First Sight is still on television.

The Substack Post is a place for what’s beautiful in this world, a showcase for the genius of the human mind and its ceaseless creativity. Here, we’ll reflect the wild, weird, and wonderful waves unleashed when independent spirits flourish, supported by a community of people who value culture enough to invest time and money in it.

Though it’s digital, The Substack Post is here to remind you of the pure pleasure of touching paper—of engaging with culture that feels intentional, lasting, and real. The texture of the experience is what truly matters: the friction that slows your pace, the substance that commands your attention, the evident care that rewards your focus. This texture can exist in any medium that respects your intelligence and values your time. The Substack Post will highlight the best work published on this platform, serving as a portal to the heart, an underground passageway to the soul, a speakeasy for the sublime. And now that we’ve committed to the metaphor, who knows—maybe one day we’ll even bring you a print edition.

So please, join us as we salute the most important people in the world: the people who value culture, who treasure the soul connection, who fall at the feet of the transcendent, who understand the perfect pause, who crave more than a reel, who thrill to a lover’s kiss from centuries ago, who are dying to hear what you have to say, who share this platform and recognize it as a stage, and a garden, and an armchair by the fireplace, and a fortress for meaning.

Let us all tap on that little heart. Let us all be active readers. Let us all take up the Post.

Today we are celebrating 5 million paid subscriptions on Substack. This comes less than four months after our co-founder Hamish McKenzie shared that we crossed 4 million paid subscriptions. It is a milestone that can be enjoyed in purely transactional terms: these are real people rewarding the work of writers and creators with real money, allowing them to achieve and maintain their independence. But to consider this purely as a financial achievement would be myopic. What we want is to create a wealth of culture.

Five million paid subscriptions represent 5 million different tastes, perspectives, political views, and psyches. They represent dog lovers, cat owners, food allergics, hat wearers, high-heel haters, opera aficionados, recipe experimentalists, nudists, puritans, cinephiles, royalists, classicists, crocheters, and some who would prefer not to. Five million paid subscriptions represent 5 million multitudes, yet by buying a subscription to support a mind they love, they are united in their desire for a better cultural model. No matter who they are and whose independence they decide to protect within this ecosystem—from political commentators to fiction writers to chefs to podcasters to musicians—these subscribers understand that what they are truly paying for is the structure of a better collective consciousness built on a foundation of trust. They may be paying as little as $5 a month to curate their attention, take back their mind, and protect creative freedom, but they know that not exercising this agency would be a much higher price to pay.

Thank you to all who are building Substack with us, and thank you to all the millions of free subscribers too, who are keeping it a vibrant and healthy, ever-expanding network. To want to create a better culture is a mad ambition, to be sure. But 5 million paid subscriptions proves that we are well on our way to realizing it. And the best is yet to come. We are building not just a wealth of culture but an embarrassment of riches.

Join us this Thursday, March 13, through Saturday, March 15, for Substack’s inaugural food festival. Grubstack brings together top food writers, chefs, and culinary creators from around the world for live cook-alongs, bake-offs, virtual tastings, and in-depth discussions on today’s biggest food trends and topics—all streamed exclusively on Substack.

Download the app now to join the conversations, and subscribe to your favorite participants to get notified when they go live.

Get the app

Here’s what you can expect, with more details to be revealed this week.

Thursday, March 13

11:00 a.m. GMT / 7:00 a.m. ET

How to host this spring and summer, with Laura Jackson and Rosie Kellett

• Join and as they cover everything you need to know to host in style this season, including trends, diets, budget, and more.

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12:00 p.m. GMT / 8:00 a.m. ET

Live from a French kitchen, with Simon Auscher

• Join in Nice as he cooks an early-spring risotto, sharing the skills and know-how that have made him one of the hottest chefs around.

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3:00 p.m. GMT / 11:00 a.m. ET

Fresh from the field, with Finn Harries and Julius Roberts

• Regenerative farmer and chef and farmer explore the farm-to-table journey from their Ibiza and Dorset holdings.

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4.00 p.m. GMT / 12:00 p.m. ET

Anna Jones and Carla Lalli Music, in conversation

• Join , cook and cookbook author, and , cookbook author and video host, as they talk food.

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5:00 p.m. GMT / 1:00 p.m. ET

The joy of greens, with Melissa Hemsley and Hetty Lui McKinnon

• Discover how to build a meal around your favorite vegetables, eat more plants, and save the world with and .

• Subscribe to get notified: and

6:00 p.m. GMT / 2:00 p.m. ET

From kitchen to cookbook, with Dorie Greenspan and Clare de Boer

• Join cookbook author and chef and writer as they discuss how they cook, write, and eat.

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7:00 p.m. GMT / 3:00 p.m. ET

What French women really eat, with Manon Lagrève and Chloé Crane-Leroux

• and reveal how to make French-inspired cooking part of your everyday life.

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8:00 p.m. GMT / 4:00 p.m. ET

The work of food, with Jenny Rosenstrach and Christina Chaey

• Join and for an honest conversation about building a freelance career in food, what really makes up that work, and their career histories—as well as their most popular recipes and kitchen strategies.

• Subscribe to get notified: and

9:00 p.m. GMT / 5:00 p.m. ET

Cook-along with Samah Dada

• Join TV host and cookbook author , known for her delicious vegan treats, as she shares her know-how. Make sure to subscribe to her Substack for all the details of her upcoming Grubstack Live session.

• Subscribe to get notified:

9:30 p.m. GMT / 5:30 p.m. ET

Chicken quesadillas with Chef Zealand

• Join food creator , famous for teaching his followers how to cook comfort food, as he hosts a cook-along of his legendary chicken quesadillas.

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Friday, March 14

12:30 p.m. GMT / 8:30 a.m. ET

War and food, with Felicity Spector and Tim Mak

• Tune in to watch and explore the realities and challenges of feeding Ukraine under siege.

• Subscribe to get notified: and

1:00 p.m. GMT / 9:00 a.m. ET

A speedy lunch cook-along, with Rachel Khoo

• Craving delicious homemade food but short on time? Join international food writer and broadcaster as she creates two delicious dishes in just 30 minutes—with a bonus recipe if time permits. Rachel will share her favorite shortcuts while celebrating the little pleasures that transform everyday meals into moments of joy.

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2:00 p.m. GMT / 10:00 a.m. ET

Bake a classic Victoria sponge, with Remi Idowu

• Cook along with as she shares helpful tips for the fluffiest cake and reveals how to pick the best ingredients.

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3:00 p.m. GMT / 11:00 a.m. ET

Taste a Spanish market haul, with Nicola Lamb and Milli Taylor

• Join chefs and cookbook authors and as they pick the best produce from the stalls of Sán Sebastian, for an exploration of Mediterranean flavors (and the best things to buy and bring home from your holidays).

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4:00 p.m. GMT / 12:00 p.m. ET

Tex-Mex masterclass, with Tim Laielli

• Join live from Austin as he crafts a dish packed with bold, sizzling flavors straight from the heart of Texas.

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4:30 p.m. GMT / 12:30 p.m. ET

A spring supper, with Skye McAlpine

• Join to create a light spring dinner—cook together in real time and enjoy a meal to remember. Skye will share the ingredients on her Substack in advance, so make sure to subscribe.

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5:00 p.m. GMT / 1:00 p.m. ET

The science of delicious, with Nik Sharma and Dan Souza

• Join chefs and as they reveal the secrets of recipe development.

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5:30 p.m. GMT / 1:30 p.m. ET

Caroline Chambers and Deb Perelman in conversation

• Join and for an in-depth discussion. Make sure to subscribe to their Substacks to find out more.

• Subscribe to get notified: and

6:30 p.m. GMT / 2:30 p.m. ET

3 high-protein meals to prep, and overcoming meal prep roadblocks, with Jenn Lueke

• Join as she preps Key Lime Chia Pudding, Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs with Cherry Tomatoes, Chickpeas, and Pesto, and High-Protein Creamy Tomato Soup. She’ll also be answering FAQs related to meal prep and take questions from live viewers.

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Saturday, March 15

10:30 a.m. GMT / 6:30 a.m. ET

Ben Lippett and Tomos Parry in conversation

• Hear from , chef and recipe developer, and , chef and founder of the London restaurants Brat, Mountain, and Brat x Climpson’s Arch. Make sure to subscribe to their Substacks to learn more.

• Subscribe to get notified: and

11.30 a.m GMT / 7:30 a.m. ET

Kitchen hangs, with Rosie Birkett and Jeremy Lee

• Join food writer behind the scenes in the kitchen with chef to talk prepping for a pop-up service, writing menus, and much more.

• Subscribe to get notified: and

12:00 p.m. GMT / 8:00 a.m. ET

The art of solo dining, with Emma Gannon and Eleanor Wilkinson

• Join , author of Table for One, and , author of One Pot, One Portion, for an uplifting and practical exploration of how to make the most of cooking and dining out when you’re solo.

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3:00 p.m. GMT / 11:00 a.m. ET

José Andrés and Ruth Rogers in conversation

• Join chef, restauranteur, and founder of World Central Kitchen in conversation with chef and restauranteur Ruth Rogers.

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4:00 p.m. GMT / 12:00 p.m. ET

Chefs in conversation, with Yotam Ottolenghi and David Lebovitz

• Join and in conversation about their lives in the food world, cooking and baking, and their favorite brunch recipes.

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7:00 p.m. GMT / 3:00 p.m. ET

Ruth Reichl and Bill Buford in conversation

• Hear from two of the foremost figures in food writing, and . Make sure to subscribe to Ruth’s Substack to find out all the details of their upcoming Grubstack Live session.

• Subscribe to get notified:

8:30 p.m. GMT / 4:30 p.m. ET

Cook-along with Gaby Dalkin

• Join , the founder of What’s Gaby Cooking, Dalkin&Co, Little Mouths, Big Palates, and Gaby’s, from her California kitchen to create one of her favorite family-friendly recipes.

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And more…

We put out the call to the foodies of Substack to create their own Grubstack events, and they answered it beautifully. Join Sally McKenna to discuss “The Shifting Food Ecosystem” (Saturday, 1:00 p.m. ET), Nicki Sizemore’s “Knife Skills Live Class” (Thursday, 11:00 a.m. ET), Victoria Granof’s lethal how-to guide “Delicious Poisons: A History, with Recipes” (Saturday, 2:00 p.m. ET), and Kate McDermott’s “It’s Pi (π) Day: Let’s Make Dough”—which, of course, starts at 3:14 PM PT (Friday, 6:14 p.m. ET)—to mention just some of the events that are taking place this week. Visit the Food & Drink tab via your homepage or the Substack app to discover more.

Hosting your own Grubstack Live event? Share the details—date, time, and anything else you’d like people to know about it—in the comments below. Sharing on social media? Remember to use the hashtag #grubstack and tag @substack when you publish a Note.

Appointment viewing is back, baby. Some of Substack’s top writers and creators—covering topics like politics, health, sports, comedy, meditation, and more—are launching recurring live video shows, bringing their work to life in real time.

There’s a rawness to live video that pre-recorded media can’t replicate: the immediacy of unfolding conversation, the thrill of real time reactions, and the chance to engage directly with the creators you’re watching. Below, you’ll find the schedule of what’s playing this week, and a preview of what’s coming. So mark your calendars—or, better yet, subscribe to get notified.

This week’s schedule

Daily

The Jim Acosta Show, Daily at 4 p.m. ET

• breaks down the biggest political and cultural issues of the day with the decision-makers and politicians calling the shots.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Monday, 2/24

Coffee with The Contrarians, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 9:15 a.m. ET

• Join The Contrarian co-founders , , and special guests to get your morning dose of democracy—breaking legal and political news essential to safeguarding against autocracy.

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Tuesday, 2/25

College Football Lunch Break, 12 p.m. ET

• and of answer questions at the best time of day to talk about college football: lunch.

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Explore the Edges, 1 p.m. ET

• Every week, speaks with luminaries to uncover the science, stories, and strategies behind pushing limits and living a more fulfilling life. For the first episode of Explore the Edges, Michael Easter’s guest will be , known for his roles in movies like Remember the Titans, American History X, and Blow. Ethan completely overhauled his life, losing 250 pounds and discovering elite fitness. They’ll discover what Ethan learned on the path, and how his wisdom can help you—no matter your goals.

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WTF 2.0, Tuesdays at 1 p.m. ET

• WTF 2.0 is a popup series from during the first 100 days of Trump 2.0, hosted by , and featuring live check-ins with fellow reporters, analysts, and pundits asking: WTF is really going on? In this week’s episode, Jonathan V Last will speak to of , where they will discuss Democrats in the wilderness.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Movement Month Live, Tuesdays at 4 p.m. ET

• Every Tuesday throughout the month of February, superstar broadcaster, author, and DJ talks to women who exercise about helping other women get moving for health and happiness.

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Szeps Live, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET

• Szeps Live is an unfiltered, unscripted, and unmissable weekly livestream where spars with the sharpest minds, boldest thinkers, and, occasionally, just himself. For the inaugural episode, Josh is joined by everyone's favorite Swedish-Irish-Bostonian ne'er-do-well, (, ). Will Trump impose a new tariff, repeal the constitution, or annex a friendly nation while we're live on-air? Maybe all three. Join Szeps and Moynihan to make sense of the increasingly senseless.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Wednesday, 2/26

5 Minute Energy Boost, Wednesdays at 11 a.m ET

• Yogi helps you reset at your desk with a short midweek recharge.

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The Hanania Show, Wednesdays at 4 p.m. ET

• discusses the latest news from the Trump administration, including court cases, appointments, attempts to control the bureaucracy, and foreign policy. Hanania cuts through transient and less important distractions to provide fresh insights into what matters in the Trump administration and how what it is doing will ultimately change the country. He also covers the new version of the resistance as it emerges to challenge the Trump-Elon co-presidency.

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Rob Henderson’s Office Hours, 8 p.m. ET

• , bestselling author, psychologist, and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, explores the hidden forces shaping class, status, and human nature in this unscripted, thought-provoking live show. Rob challenges conventional wisdom, explores new luxury beliefs, and uncovers the psychology behind the views that define our culture—and our lives. In this debut episode, Rob will be break down the concepts of dominance, prestige, and power.

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The Aaron Parnas Show, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET

• Every Wednesday at 9 pm ET, gets straight answers out of elected officials and change agents in politics while covering all the breaking news of the day.

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Thursday, 2/27

Meidas Meet Up, Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET

• Join and on Thursday at 1 pm ET as they discuss key issues shaping democracy in this new Trump era—tackling disinformation, holding bad actors accountable, amplifying grassroots efforts, and exploring real actions that make a difference.

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Subheader, Thursdays at 2 p.m. ET

• Every Thursday at 2pm ET, gabs the latest headlines and emerging stories with a unique and interesting guest.

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Droll Call, Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET

• 13-time Emmy Award winner and creator of TheTweetOfGod, sits down with comedy writers to talk about writing comedy and the last time they were employed.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Friday, 2/28

Live Q&A, Fridays at 3 p.m. ET

• Every Friday, answers questions, helping people manage their mental and physical health with intention. This week, she will be speaking with ParentData CEO Emily Oster as they discuss taking control of your health amid misinformation, chronic disease, and confusion about who to trust.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Coming soon

Big Salad & Friends,

• Every other Tuesday, Joanna Goddard and a special guest will chat live with readers about big topics like making major life decisions, deepening friendships as an adult, whether to get Botox or other treatments, parenting kids and teens, and the list goes on!

• Subscribe to get notified:

House Guests, Jessica Reed Kraus

• The Internet’s official political and pop culture living room.

• Subscribe to get notified:

The Somcast,

• On the first Friday of every month, Alex Mill's creative director, Somsack Sikhounmuong, will share a behind-the-scenes look at his life.

• Subscribe to get notified:

The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire,

• Sari Botton will host a regular interview series with featured guests from the Oldster Questionnaire column. Join Sari on Wednesday, March 5, at 3 p.m. ET as she goes live with of , founder of Sassy and Jane magazines, Jane Radio, Jane Pratt Show, and XOJane.

• Subscribe to get notified:

The Mike and Alex Show, Michael Shellenberger and

• Michael Shellenberger and Alex Gutentag, editors of Public, discuss current events — and their deeper, darker psychological significance.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Live Meditations,

• Dan Harris will lead regular live meditations, guiding subscribers through simple practices to reset and recharge.

• Subscribe to get notified:

KK Takes of the Week,

• KK Takes of the Week is a 30-minute show where Konstantin Kisin answers your questions about the biggest stories of the moment with his trademark clarity, humor, and straight-talking analysis. Whether solo or joined by guests, he cuts through the noise of mainstream narratives and reactionary takes to make sense of what’s really happening. In a time of clickbait and ideological spin, KK Takes of the Week offers a grounded, thoughtful perspective for those who want to understand the world without the distractions.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Live d'écriture avec Géraldine Dormoy,

• Every Thursday in March at 1 p.m. ET, French author and journalist Géraldine Dormoy will host a live writing session in French that will include 4 short writing exercises. She will debrief with subscribers between each exercise and, at the end, she suggests one or more exercises to do between now and the next show. Something magical happens during these live shows (it even works on replay): her readers dare to write! Even if they've never written before, they go for it, buoyed up by the energy of the group.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Kitchen Hangs,

• Starting March 6, join Rosie Birkett fortnightly on Thursdays at 6 am ET as she talks all things cooking (and life!) with guests over coffee in her kitchen.

• Subscribe to get notified:

Méditer avec Lili,

• Every morning at 7.30am CET during the week of March 10th, Paris-based author, yoga instructor, and meditation teacher Lili Barbery will host live meditation sessions in French. Lili will help subscribers get the day off to a good start, sleep better, set intentions, and, above all, clarify their thoughts.

• Subscribe to get notified:

We are a ravenous bunch, hungry for food 24-7. We snack on food-creator videos like they’re fancy hors d’oeuvres, gorge ourselves on cooking shows, and can spend hours savoring long-form essays on Malaysian cuisine like they’re fine old wines.

It didn’t used to be this way.

Once upon another time, food was little more than sustenance. There was no conversation about the provenance of the fish on your plate. No one wanted to know the name of the chef at the restaurant round the corner (or to spend half an hour watching their knife skills on your phone). You ate the food in front of you, preferably with good people around. That was how it was.

The world of food was smaller back then; certainly less entertaining and intellectually bountiful, tied up at both ends by the few who felt entitled to talk about it. It was the land of the great and the godly—the eminent food writers at one end, the celebrity TV chefs at the other.

But not anymore. We are 30 years into a food revolution that has seen cookbooks become as pacy as pulp fiction. Social media stars being made out of teens experimenting in their mum and dad’s kitchen. The world of food writing and restaurant reviews has been handed over to anyone who has an interesting point of view about food, while videos about food—gonzo tasting trips, cook-alongs, documentaries—are now as entertaining as a Hollywood film.

Nowhere is this shift more evident than on Substack, where the world of food and the new power players within it are pushing boundaries, galvanizing communities, and revolutionizing the food industry.

Here, you’ll find both established names exploring new ideas and fresh new voices tearing away at the established ways of doing things. Here is a place where food people can express themselves and their ideas about food exactly as they want—through writing, of course, and in podcasts, videos, live videos, and community chats.

You can step inside the mind of as he shares his thoughts on AI and the future of restaurants (as well as his secret cauliflower recipes). You can join on his search for the perfect tavern burger. Or watch social media cooking sensation as she whips up her famous “cheese with noods” from the comfort of her own home. And subscribers can connect directly with these creators in comments and chats, asking questions and sharing feedback as they go. In this way, Substack not only brings you, the audience, closer to your food heroes than ever before—it also brings your food heroes closer to you.

Whether they’re Michelin-starred chefs or budding food vloggers, creators are reimagining what the future of food media looks like. Take Jonathan Nunn’s , which started life as a food newsletter but has gone on to become one of the most culturally en pointe magazines in the world. Or ’s community chat channel, which has become the hottest place in town to discuss everything from what cookware to buy to how to pick the best winter veggies. Some of the world’s most celebrated food writers, like , , and , share the actual places they pay to eat at, while ’s has become as vital as the Michelin Guide for figuring out exactly where to get a table in Paris.

My point is this: food, and the conversations and content being created around it, has never been more exciting. And we want everyone to be part of it.

To that end, next month we’re hosting an event we’re calling Grubstack: a live video food festival taking place from March 13 to 15 showcasing the new frontier of food media.

Listen in as New York super-chef chews the fat with culinary guru . Join and as they discuss their lives and careers in food. Explore the Spanish food markets of San Sebastián with , and listen in as tells the tale of how he left the world of cheffing to become a Substack sensation. This is just a taste; stay tuned for the full lineup and schedule. Every session will stream live in the Substack app, bringing a food festival to the palm of your hand.

This is a golden age of food media—one that feels warmer, more intimate, more ambitious, more inclusive, and, most of all, more democratic than ever before. Come and take your seat at the table, starting on March 13.

Host your own Grubstack event

If you’d like to participate in the food festival by hosting your own live video, send us an email at grubstack@substackinc.com. We’ll send you customizable assets and a playbook to help you promote and host a successful event.

At Substack, we are ardent defenders of a free press. We’ve seen firsthand that one of the greatest threats to that freedom is the ability of the wealthy and powerful to use spurious legal threats to silence reporting and opinions that challenge their interests.

That’s why, five years ago, we started Substack Defender, a legal support program for independent journalists and creators. The program vigorously defends against such abuses and contributes to a climate where people on Substack can speak freely. Through Substack Defender, we work with first-rate media lawyers to provide free advice and direction to Substack publishers who face legal challenges or pressure because of their work.

Today, we’re reiterating our commitment to protecting independent creators and announcing a significant expansion of the Substack Defender program.

The program, which has provided crucial legal protection for publishers since its inception, will now extend coverage to Canada and the U.K., in addition to the U.S. We’re redoubling efforts to use legal means to protect and uphold publishers’ rights to freedom of the press and freedom of expression, reflecting our belief that a robust, independent media ecosystem requires not just technological tools but also vigorous protection of publishers’ rights to pursue truth.

This kind of support for publishers is especially vital now, given the heightened political environment. The new presidential administration has a record of using the courts to silence journalists and has issued threats against those in the media. Let’s be clear: anyone who uses such intimidation tactics against creators on Substack will also have to reckon with us. We will use our financial and legal resources to forcefully oppose any bad-faith efforts to dissuade Substack publishers from doing their work.

Since Defender launched in 2020, we’ve supported cases involving alleged defamation, trademark infringement, and copyright infringement, helping dozens of publishers.

“Substack Defender is a tremendous program,” says , the publisher of . “As an independent journalist involved in investigative journalism, it is heartening to know I have someone to turn to for legal advice. And on the occasions that I needed to use Substack Defender, the guidance I received was prompt and effective.”

Dr. of shares a similar experience: “The Defender program came in clutch when I felt genuinely scared of a potential lawsuit (and felt very alone). Having access to top-tier legal support not only helped me stand my ground but gave me the confidence to pursue stories that matter, even when they challenge powerful interests. It was a reminder to me that, with Substack, being independent doesn’t mean being alone.”

Political journalist , the publisher of , used Substack Defender after receiving a threatening demand letter from a high-powered lawyer in Washington, D.C., representing the subject of his reporting, a congressional candidate. “Within hours,” he says, “Substack Defender deployed legal counsel on my behalf with a response letter defending my journalism and basically telling the candidate’s attorney that we looked forward to the discovery process—something that would only result in more transparency for readers. The challenge to my reporting ended right there.”

From Substack’s founding, we’ve believed that freedom of expression isn’t just an ideal—it’s a necessity. When publishers know they have solid legal backing, they can focus on what truly matters: pursuing important stories, building relationships with their readers, and contributing to a media landscape where truth and independence thrive.

Learn more and apply for legal assistance at substack.link/defender.

Learn more

Principles have a price. Anyone can stand up for their values when it’s popular and easy, but principles are tested when standing up has a cost.

I’ve had a chance to learn this lesson over the last eight years watching many courageous writers, journalists, and thinkers who stand up and exercise their freedom of expression, often at significant cost to themselves.

In the past few weeks, political commentator and editorial cartoonist each quit the Washington Post in protest of leadership decisions that, as Rubin put it, “undercut the values central to The Post’s mission and that of all journalism: integrity, courage, and independence.” They’ve left rare stable jobs in journalism to strike out on their own—Telnaes in her Substack Open Windows and Rubin in The Contrarian, a new media project with a bold credo: Not Owned by Anybody.

Journalists don’t just face silencing at legacy media institutions. was turfed off pre-Musk Twitter—a crippling sentence for a journalist—for publishing criticism and counterclaims about the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

published the manifesto by suspected killer Luigi Mangione and the J.D. Vance dossier when legacy media outlets refused, out of a belief that the documents served the public interest. He did so even while facing bans from X and Meta.

ran the original Twitter Files, shedding light on the government-backed censorship of that era. He was pilloried by the mainstream media for breaking this story, but rather than throwing in his lot with the other team, he ended up disagreeing with them too, and found himself shadow banned by X for his trouble.

Bans and boycotts are not the worst consequences for speaking your mind—a fact literary hero , who was violently attacked for his writing, understands all too well.

These are just a few examples of people of all political stripes who have risked real cost for telling the truth as they see it. You may not agree with all of their reporting or align with their perspectives—given the spread of their ideological bents, it would be impossible to do so. But we can admire the courage of their convictions and support their right to speak.

Elon Musk has been a vocal supporter of free speech. It’s no secret that we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but he deserves a lot of credit for advancing freedom of speech on X, before it was popular and in the face of fierce criticism and opposition. But Musk’s record is not perfect—he has been credibly accused of censoring his political opponents in addition to his commercial ones. Mark Zuckerberg recently announced favorable changes in policy for Meta that should result in freer expression on its platforms. His stated reasons were a change in public sentiment and a new administration, reflecting a real change in the culture. Those who welcome the press freedom changes at Meta owe a debt to those who took a principled stand when the wind was blowing the other way.

But just because the winds have changed does not mean we can now take freedom of the press for granted. In politics and business, it is easy to stand for free speech for your own side, but once given the power to censor, it is tempting to use it. President Trump campaigned on supporting free speech but has filed lawsuits against news outlets whose election coverage he didn’t like, raising questions about how consistent that support will be now that he’s in office.

At Substack, we remain committed to supporting everyone, from all tribes and persuasions, who flex their expressive rights on the platform. We deliberately built the platform in a way that ensures robust protections for expression. On Substack, the people who subscribe to you—not executives, activists, or advertisers—decide what kind of speech to support.

We will continue to support editorial freedom and the hands-off approach to content moderation that we have had in place since the company was founded in 2017. This does not mean anarchy or a descent into lowest-common-denominator shouting. Instead, it means that the people who use the platform get to set the rules for their own spaces on the internet.

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Join us this Friday, January 31, for the Substack Market Forecast Summit. As financial markets and media evolve, this virtual event will bring together leading Substack finance, business, and economics publishers for live, thought-provoking conversations streamed exclusively on the Substack app.

The Substack Market Forecast Summit is for those eager to understand the forces shaping the economy, whether you’re a seasoned investor or simply someone looking to better understand the financial outlook for the year ahead.

Throughout the day, you can expect to hear of in conversation with of ; of chatting with Stripe CEO Patrick Collison; of and of , among others. These sessions will explore the opportunities, risks, and trends arising in 2025, straight from trusted independent voices. Check out the schedule above and find more details at substack.com/financesummit.

Download the app now to join the conversation, and subscribe to your favorite participants to receive a notification when they go live.

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9:30 a.m. ET

The World in 2025, with Paul Krugman and Azeem Azhar

Nobel Prize–winning economist and of will discuss the economy, AI, and geopolitics in 2025 and beyond.

10:30 a.m. ET

Trump, Money, Drones, and Wars, with Pippa Malmgren and Dan Denning

of and Dan Denning, research director at Bonner Private Research, will take on the biggest geopolitical issues for investors in 2025. Does Donald Trump’s new memecoin ($TRUMP) have its roots in an ancient Roman sea battle? More importantly, could it force the Fed to stop inflating away the value of the U.S. dollar and give Trump a way to circumvent Congress?

11 a.m. ET

Charting the Uncharted in 2025: Economics to Geopolitics, with Dominic Frisby and Joel Bowman

Join two renegade thinkers as they chart a course through the unpredictable terrain of 2025. of will be in conversation with of for a discussion ranging from economics to geopolitics.

11:30 a.m. ET

The View from the Bottom: Solo GPs on the Venture Landscape, with Mario Gabriele and Packy McCormick

of and of will discuss the world of solo General Partners, sharing their perspectives on the opportunities, challenges, and lessons that shape their work in investing.

12 p.m. ET

Is a Sustainable Recovery on the Horizon? With Danielle DiMartino Booth and Adam Taggart

Data suggests that the U.S. may begin to exit a recession in 2025, depending on how policymakers and the economy respond to the delayed recognition of job losses that started in April 2024. Join , publisher of and author of the book Fed Up: An Insider’s Take on Why the Federal Reserve Is Bad for America, and of as they explore how we can determine if a sustainable recovery is truly underway.

12:30 p.m. ET

Opportunities, Risks, and Strategies for Investing in 2025, with Pieter Siegers and Bertrand Seguin

Pieter Siegers of Compounding Quality and of / will guide you on investing wisely in 2025. Where are the opportunities? And the main risks? To measure is to know. Plenty of examples will be given to inspire you for the new year.

1 p.m. ET

From Financial Markets to Financial Planning, with Douglas Boneparth and Sam Ro

Douglas Boneparth, founder of Bone Fide Wealth and publisher of , and of TKer.co will discuss the outlook for markets in 2025. What are the risks and opportunities? What does it mean for your finances? And how should individual investors think about it all in the years ahead?

1:30 p.m. ET

View from London: Future of the Finance Industry, with Stephen Clapham and Marc Rubinstein

of and of will discuss the future of the finance industry, offering insights and global perspectives from London.

2 p.m. ET

How Inflation Will Shape Bond Portfolios in 2025, with Kevin Muir and Adam Taggart

of brings 25 years of trading experience and deep background in macroeconomics to this dialogue with of , where they’ll discuss what inflation will look like in 2025 and how that will affect your bond portfolio.

2:30 p.m. ET
Preparing for the Great Wealth Transfer, with Ally Jane Ayers and Lindsey Stanberry

of and of will discuss how women can prepare for the “great wealth transfer” and ensure that their spending and investing align with their values.

3:30 p.m. ET

Prediction for Financial Scams in 2025, with Matt Taibbi and Matt Stoller

Join of and of to talk about scams and big business in 2025. From self-dealing in the private equity realm to cryptocurrencies and monopolies, how will commerce operate in the second Trump term?

4 p.m. ET

Decoding the Options and Bond Markets for 2025, with Dan Passarelli and Russell Rhoads

of and of will delve into what the options market reveals about 2025. These financial thought leaders will share insights from the bond market, options volatility, and more, offering guidance on the timing of the next interest rate cuts and strategies likely to succeed in the year ahead.

5 p.m. ET

Venture Capital and the Private Markets in 2025, with Eric Newcomer and Andrew Reed

of and Sequoia Capital partner Andrew Reed will discuss how startup investing is shaping up in 2025. How do the M&A and IPO markets look for private-venture-backed startups? What are the tradeoffs between staying private and going public right now? They will also explore trends in venture capital, like the rise of megafunds, and Andrew will share what he has learned over the years from his Sequoia partners about investing in startups.

5:30 p.m. ET

How Can the U.S. Stay Ahead Technologically? With Noah Smith and Patrick Collison

How can the U.S. stay ahead technologically? What do people really need more of, and how do we get it to them? of and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison tackle the hard-hitting questions.

6 p.m. ET

Dollars, Bonds, and Their Impact on Digital Currency, with Michael Howell and James Lavish

of and of will discuss how movements in the U.S. dollar and bond markets shape the crypto ecosystem, impacting prices, adoption, and market stability.

Visit substack.com/financesummit to see the full lineup and to learn more.

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