I will try - I try to add them to regular posts as they happen but as you know I'm bad at logistics. But I'll try and do a roundup every month or two that includes podcasts and freelance pieces.
I was going to send this as an e-mail but decided to share it here, since it applies just as much to Freddie as his audience. I often use this newsletter for book recommendations since very few people in my close circle are interested in recommending books. So far the ones from here have been excellent, so I wanted to recommend an author that I think subscribers of this newsletter (and Freddie) might enjoy.
Her name is Lisa Taddeo and her writing is very irreverent and transgressively funny, obviously influenced by Joan Didion, Bret Easton Ellis, etc. She also provides very female-centric POV's without being reductive, and I don't know what else to say except that her books are very skillfully and tautly put together. One is called "Animal", it's like one unfiltered inner monologue of a very jaded and promiscuous woman. Her other which I'd recommend just as enthusiastically is called "Three Women"; I'd describe it as a series of ghostwritten vignettes about the sex lives of three (real-life) women. Both books were innovative but also just hilarious and easy to breeze through. If you're a philistine like me who refuses to read long books, they're less than 300 pages each.
I think it be great if you could make it on Bad Faith podcast once a month. I'd listen. Now I'm realizing I haven't checked in on that podcast in awhile. Queue'ing up some episodes now.
Have you read Emmett Rensin's book The Complications: On Going Insane in America? (If so, any thoughts?) I'm looking forward to reading your own book on mental illness.
"I’m still consumed with guilt about people paying money for my work and I want to find more ways to make that money feel well-spent."
The only other time I've ever commented here was to say this same thing, but as a paid subscriber, I consider the money to be a gesture of thanks for all the years you were a lonely voice of sanity and a vote in favor of keeping you from having to spend any more time in the wilderness where I don't get to hear that voice. I would continue to pay and do it happily even if there wasn't a single added bonus for paid subscribers. And I am entirely certain that I'm not the only person who thinks so.
Oh yeah, $5/month is worth it for the posts alone, forget everything else.
Just for myself, I wouldn't tune in to a podcast even if it were free. As a semi-luddite I've never understood the appeal of any of them, and I'm fairly convinced they supplant reading in general, which has got to be a bad thing.
That's a shame about the fiction novel, it was certainly rough but had a haunting charm...some stories I read and forget about, others stick around in the head for ineffable reasons. You managed the latter, so I think there's definitely a spark there. (Sans illustrations make it harder, they fit the ambiance perfectly.) Eager for the published second attempt in future.
The low monthly rate here for (deprecated?) yearly subscription is perhaps a guilt-maker on your end, but barely a consideration for this poor paid subscriber. I have few recurring "subs" in general, and this is actually tied for cheapest of them all. Half as much as [recurring charity] that I don't quite have the heart to cancel, less than half of food delivery sub (an actual guilty indulgence), and far less than certain other Substacks. The actual $5/mo Patreon I'm part of posts less than weekly! So your value proposition is just really good, and I consider any extras just that, superfluous excess.
I've listened to a number of your podcasts on mental illness, but I recently listened to the one you did with Ruy Texeira and you were fantastic. I don't know why it surprised me, because your political essays are always insightful and realistic.
I wanted to say as well that "All the Little Unborn Babies" was lovely.
Many American Jews are beginning to get scared at the antisemitism growing in our schools, colleges, teacher unions, and many major US institutions. I’ve always admired your intelligence and rationality, and would like to hear you - a sane and brave voice on so many educational matters - address this problem. We cannot fight this plague without non-Jewish allies.
Your illustrator (possibly) leaving you for your "reactionary social views", reminds me of a post on reddit I was just reading. I got curious by how Kyle Kulinski is eviscerating Joe Rogan on his podcast.
A commenter on that post said that when it comes to politics, that there is very little different nowadays between "center left" and "center right" American men. (I'm assuming it was a man that commented on it, as Joe Rogan's audience is something like 98% male)
Anyhow, I am much more curious to read your latest book on "how the elites ate the social justice movement". It seems as if having the "correct politics" is a constant moving target.
Even with the upcoming 2nd Trump Term, I think people are just exhausted by the resistance movement, and also aren't entirely sure of how to contextualize Trump, when he seems just as bad and immoral as *many prior Presidents we had.
*I'm not sure how to equate the "many", as it seems as if the last President we had that wasn't an outright war criminal was Jimmy Carter (and that record might be a bit spotty, too).
In fairness to the people wanting to understand Carter's legacy, as President, he did do a lot lot break Unions in America. So while he's probably not as big of a war criminal as other Presidents, he sure was no champion of working-class men and women, while in office.
FWIW the AI art, despite your best efforts at curation, is hideously ugly. Litter in the blogosphere, disposable, and so similar to the anti-aesthetic of marketing and PR that my brain begins anticipating disposable language to match the art. There is a language, after all, to the unread copy on a knockoff cereal box. And AI art is the visual language of the knockoff cereal box. Not just detritus, not just pastiche (though certainly it is both)--little Spam flags in a Spam war to smother and cover everything that is original and human and decent in language and in art with Spam. Spam that is valuable not for the effect it produces, but for the speed with which it can be produced: 24-7 with near-zero labor costs. Anyway. I get the challenge. For what it's worth, it can be really fun to peruse public domain images (Library of Congress is a fun one, most museums have a section on their website, etc.). Another trick is get a bunch of friends to send you interesting photographs they've taken, with no assignment attached, stick them in a folder...then find stuff that serendipitously works for a given topic, even if it's a little slant compared to the on-the-nose image you will get from AI. Even Wiki Commons has cool images from time to time. I think this search can be its own fun, creative task that really doesn't take much time at all. But I get that (by design!) AI art is faster, still. So do what works. But...my God, it really is so dang clumsy, unoriginal, and ugly! :)
(all the more a hiccup, for me at least, when your writing so often aims for clarity of purpose, sharp originality, and beauty.)
How about post that contains all the links for your podcast appearances. Would that be doable?
I will try - I try to add them to regular posts as they happen but as you know I'm bad at logistics. But I'll try and do a roundup every month or two that includes podcasts and freelance pieces.
Outstanding, thank you!
On any podcast app, if you enter "Freddie Deboer" in the search bar, you'll get dozens of episodes
The search I just ran returned 40+ results instantly.
I was going to send this as an e-mail but decided to share it here, since it applies just as much to Freddie as his audience. I often use this newsletter for book recommendations since very few people in my close circle are interested in recommending books. So far the ones from here have been excellent, so I wanted to recommend an author that I think subscribers of this newsletter (and Freddie) might enjoy.
Her name is Lisa Taddeo and her writing is very irreverent and transgressively funny, obviously influenced by Joan Didion, Bret Easton Ellis, etc. She also provides very female-centric POV's without being reductive, and I don't know what else to say except that her books are very skillfully and tautly put together. One is called "Animal", it's like one unfiltered inner monologue of a very jaded and promiscuous woman. Her other which I'd recommend just as enthusiastically is called "Three Women"; I'd describe it as a series of ghostwritten vignettes about the sex lives of three (real-life) women. Both books were innovative but also just hilarious and easy to breeze through. If you're a philistine like me who refuses to read long books, they're less than 300 pages each.
I’m so happy about the baby. I can’t wait to see pictures and read your reflections on parenting. Boys are the best. ❤️
I think it be great if you could make it on Bad Faith podcast once a month. I'd listen. Now I'm realizing I haven't checked in on that podcast in awhile. Queue'ing up some episodes now.
Have you read Emmett Rensin's book The Complications: On Going Insane in America? (If so, any thoughts?) I'm looking forward to reading your own book on mental illness.
I am halfway through it.
"I’m still consumed with guilt about people paying money for my work and I want to find more ways to make that money feel well-spent."
The only other time I've ever commented here was to say this same thing, but as a paid subscriber, I consider the money to be a gesture of thanks for all the years you were a lonely voice of sanity and a vote in favor of keeping you from having to spend any more time in the wilderness where I don't get to hear that voice. I would continue to pay and do it happily even if there wasn't a single added bonus for paid subscribers. And I am entirely certain that I'm not the only person who thinks so.
Oh yeah, $5/month is worth it for the posts alone, forget everything else.
Just for myself, I wouldn't tune in to a podcast even if it were free. As a semi-luddite I've never understood the appeal of any of them, and I'm fairly convinced they supplant reading in general, which has got to be a bad thing.
That's a shame about the fiction novel, it was certainly rough but had a haunting charm...some stories I read and forget about, others stick around in the head for ineffable reasons. You managed the latter, so I think there's definitely a spark there. (Sans illustrations make it harder, they fit the ambiance perfectly.) Eager for the published second attempt in future.
The low monthly rate here for (deprecated?) yearly subscription is perhaps a guilt-maker on your end, but barely a consideration for this poor paid subscriber. I have few recurring "subs" in general, and this is actually tied for cheapest of them all. Half as much as [recurring charity] that I don't quite have the heart to cancel, less than half of food delivery sub (an actual guilty indulgence), and far less than certain other Substacks. The actual $5/mo Patreon I'm part of posts less than weekly! So your value proposition is just really good, and I consider any extras just that, superfluous excess.
for this paid subscriber, I don't need "subscriber only" stuff. I just value your writing and want it to keep appearing.
Plus one to this
I've listened to a number of your podcasts on mental illness, but I recently listened to the one you did with Ruy Texeira and you were fantastic. I don't know why it surprised me, because your political essays are always insightful and realistic.
I wanted to say as well that "All the Little Unborn Babies" was lovely.
Many American Jews are beginning to get scared at the antisemitism growing in our schools, colleges, teacher unions, and many major US institutions. I’ve always admired your intelligence and rationality, and would like to hear you - a sane and brave voice on so many educational matters - address this problem. We cannot fight this plague without non-Jewish allies.
Your illustrator (possibly) leaving you for your "reactionary social views", reminds me of a post on reddit I was just reading. I got curious by how Kyle Kulinski is eviscerating Joe Rogan on his podcast.
A commenter on that post said that when it comes to politics, that there is very little different nowadays between "center left" and "center right" American men. (I'm assuming it was a man that commented on it, as Joe Rogan's audience is something like 98% male)
Anyhow, I am much more curious to read your latest book on "how the elites ate the social justice movement". It seems as if having the "correct politics" is a constant moving target.
Even with the upcoming 2nd Trump Term, I think people are just exhausted by the resistance movement, and also aren't entirely sure of how to contextualize Trump, when he seems just as bad and immoral as *many prior Presidents we had.
*I'm not sure how to equate the "many", as it seems as if the last President we had that wasn't an outright war criminal was Jimmy Carter (and that record might be a bit spotty, too).
In fairness to the people wanting to understand Carter's legacy, as President, he did do a lot lot break Unions in America. So while he's probably not as big of a war criminal as other Presidents, he sure was no champion of working-class men and women, while in office.
FWIW the AI art, despite your best efforts at curation, is hideously ugly. Litter in the blogosphere, disposable, and so similar to the anti-aesthetic of marketing and PR that my brain begins anticipating disposable language to match the art. There is a language, after all, to the unread copy on a knockoff cereal box. And AI art is the visual language of the knockoff cereal box. Not just detritus, not just pastiche (though certainly it is both)--little Spam flags in a Spam war to smother and cover everything that is original and human and decent in language and in art with Spam. Spam that is valuable not for the effect it produces, but for the speed with which it can be produced: 24-7 with near-zero labor costs. Anyway. I get the challenge. For what it's worth, it can be really fun to peruse public domain images (Library of Congress is a fun one, most museums have a section on their website, etc.). Another trick is get a bunch of friends to send you interesting photographs they've taken, with no assignment attached, stick them in a folder...then find stuff that serendipitously works for a given topic, even if it's a little slant compared to the on-the-nose image you will get from AI. Even Wiki Commons has cool images from time to time. I think this search can be its own fun, creative task that really doesn't take much time at all. But I get that (by design!) AI art is faster, still. So do what works. But...my God, it really is so dang clumsy, unoriginal, and ugly! :)
(all the more a hiccup, for me at least, when your writing so often aims for clarity of purpose, sharp originality, and beauty.)