For the final episode of this season, we spoke with Nathan Tankus of Notes on the Crises, who writes about the pandemic-induced global depression and how policymakers should respond to it. Nathan started his newsletter at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States in order to analyze the economic impacts of the global crisis. Nathan has been recognized as a prominent voice in economic policy. His newsletter has followers ranging from journalists to economists, including those...

We spoke with Paula Forbes of Stained Page News, a newsletter about cookbooks. For her, it’s a place to geek out about cookbooks - where she can write about news, recipes, and upcoming releases. Paula has a multifaceted view of the culinary world. She worked as a professional cookbook critic for over a decade, writing for publications like Eater, Epicurious, Lucky Peach, and Food 52. She also has a background in cooking for restaurants, and in 2008 she published her own cookbook, The Austin...

We spoke with Terry Nguyen of gen yeet, a newsletter about Gen Z culture, memes, and trends. Her honest and thoughtful writing covers youth culture on the Internet, technology and consumer trends, and generational commentary – all with the goal of demystifying and humanizing Gen Z. While Terry’s day job is writing at Vox on cultural trends, she started her newsletter because she wanted to share “a Zoomer’s perspective,” pushing the narrative around how people consider her generation and what...

We spoke with Fiza Pirani of Foreign Bodies, a newsletter that destigmatizes mental illness, centered on immigrant and refugee experiences. Fiza’s created a community of people who resonate with her vulnerability and mission to give a voice to populations that aren’t typically featured in mainstream media. Fiza was born in India and lived in Saudi America before moving to America, and she personally struggled with depression and a lack of belonging. As a journalist, she felt compelled to...

We spoke with Francine McKenna of The Dig, a newsletter about accounting, audit and corporate governance issues at public and pre-IPO companies. Through her newsletter, Francine analyzes the most widely-held and widely-shorted companies in the world. After two decades of working for companies like KPMG and PwC, Francine’s original goal was to write a book. She started an anonymous blog, just to help her get material on paper. Over time, she amassed such a loyal following that she quit...

We spoke with Zach Haigney of The Trip Report, a newsletter covering the business, policy, and impact of psychedelics. With a background in clinical research and acupuncture, Zach has closely followed the psychedelics industry for years. As the topic started to gain momentum, he was inspired to write about it. Zach covers not just the business and policy landscape, but also the science behind psychedelics and their long-term cultural impact. These diverse focus areas have allowed him to gain...

We spoke with Kevin Muir of The MacroTourist, a newsletter about trading and investing that aims to make finance fun. Formerly a proprietary trader, Kevin quit his job at a bank in the early 2000s to start working for himself, and he still trades his own capital to this day. Kevin started keeping a journal about trading, but so many people asked for his opinions that he decided to share his writing publicly. Today, he shares his passion for the markets with a loyal following of paid readers,...

We spoke with Erin Cook of Dari Mulut ke Mulut, a publication covering news across Southeast Asia. Erin started her newsletter early in her career while working for a daily newspaper in Jakarta, Indonesia. After she found that broader regional news was lacking, she decided to expand her focus across the ASEAN region. We spoke to Erin about how international journalism has changed over the years, how independent writing helps her be more nimble as a reporter, and why it pays to have friends...

We spoke with Nikhil Krishnan of Out of Pocket, a newsletter that’s tackling healthcare with an entertaining and approachable voice. While working on the healthcare research team at CB Insights, Nikhil started an industry newsletter that grew to 90,000 people. He then worked at a clinical trial company and now writes about healthcare full-time on his own newsletter, which he started earlier this year. We spoke to Nikhil about why he’s trying to make healthcare more interesting, his early...

For our inaugural Season 2 episode of the Substack Podcast, we’re pleased to chat with Tony Mecia of The Charlotte Ledger, a publication focused on local business news in Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States. Tony started as a regular journalist who decided to strike it out on his own. He started a newsletter and spread it the old-fashioned way, relying on word-of-mouth from friends. Today, The Charlotte Ledger is a full-fledged business: when we spoke, Tony had just started hiring...

We invited Delia Cai, author of Deez Links, to speak to an audience of Substack writers in New York about how she grew her newsletter to 2,700 signups. Delia started her daily media newsletter as an intern at Atlantic Media. This transcript has been lightly edited for readability. You can also check out the slides from Delia’s talk.. Takeaways Be your newsletter’s wingman. Talk it up to everyone. Borrow other people’s audiences to reach new readers. Build credibility by getting other...

We invited Emily Atkin, author of Heated, to talk to an audience of Substack writers in New York about how she successfully launched paid subscriptions. Emily left her job at The New Republic to start Heated, which offers original reporting and analysis on the climate crisis. Her newsletter is now her full-time job, bringing in six figures of revenue. This transcript has been lightly edited for readability. Takeaways Focus on building your free signup list first. Announce a paid launch...

We invited Walt Hickey, author of Numlock News, to share with an audience of Substack writers in New York how he thinks about spinning off multiple newsletters for fun and profit. Walt started off with Numlock News – where he writes about the numbers behind the news – then added paid subscriptions, an Oscar Awards supplement, and a book club. This transcript has been lightly edited for readability. Takeaways Multiple newsletters are a lightweight way to experiment with new ideas. Use your...

Of all the writers who use Substack, no one is as good at promoting their newsletter as Judd Legum, publisher of Popular Information. Judd was previously the editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress and has also been a political campaign researche… Read More Get full access to Substack Blog at on.substack.com/subscribe

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Bill Bishop is the author of the Sinocism China newsletter, and our very first publisher on Substack. In this interview, we discuss his secrets to building a great newsletter business and his fascinating career, from running video tape for news stations at Tiananmen Square during the 1989 massacre, to co-founding the financial news site MarketWatch, attempting to build a gaming business in boom-times China, and ultimately starting Sinocism.

Luke Timmerman is a veteran biotechnology journalist that decided to launch his own subscription-based publication (The Timmerman Report) because he wanted to create a better incentive structure for himself than advertising allows.

First as an investigative journalist, and now as an analyst, Emma Beals has been covering the rise of ISIS and the wars in Syria and Iraq since 2012. During that time, reporting on the conflicts has become so dangerous that the nature of war reporting itself has had to change. Journalists, now targets in these wars, have increasingly turned to digital tools to augment their reporting.

Judd Legum founded Think Progress nearly 15 years ago and grew it into a publication read by tens of millions of people. But earlier this summer, he decided to step down from his role as Editor-in-Chief, where he oversaw 40 staffers, so he could start something new. The goal was to create a newsletter that would explain politics not as a spectator sport, but as an important institution in which we all have a responsibility to participate. He calls it “news for people that give a damn.” The...

Jessica Lessin was a star reporter at the Wall Street Journal who had built her reputation covering companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook. It was her dream job. Until one day… she quit.

Mara Wilson knows good storytelling. As a child, she starred in Matilda, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Miracle on 34th St. Today she writes about what it was like to grow up as a child star, decide to leave acting, and figure out what she wanted to do with life.

It’s hard to get 20,000 people to sign up for your email list, but Walt Hickey has done it with his daily newsletter Numlock, which tells the news by numbers. When I asked him how, he kept coming back to three big ideas: write every day, deliver via email, charge readers directly.