Subscriber Writing, December 2024

Hello folks! Here’s the latest bimonthly roundup of writing written by subscribers, for the month of December 2024. Folks, the time has arrived where I just can’t possibly fit all of the entries into one email of the size accepted by Gmail and other major services, so there will be a “continue reading” link at the end of the email. I have gone to great lengths to prevent this in the past, including mercilessly cutting down your synopses and removing pictures and the Subscribe button, but with more than one hundred submissions this week, that’s not gonna cut it. But that’s OK! People will click through. The ones who weren’t going to read this post will discard it and the ones who were will click through. So it’s all good. Readers, please take a little time and see if any of these descriptions appeals to you. I’ve discovered so much great writing through these roundups, and many who submit things report that they’ve gotten a lot of readers this way. If you aren’t a subscriber and you want to take part, you know what to do.

For starters, please check out my own piece on the 25th anniversary of the film version of Girl, Interrupted, for Typebar Magazine.

Pretty Good Blog, People Who Floss Are Better Than Everyone Else

A highly entertaining, personal yet universal, aspirational-not-shameful dive into overcoming one's mental blocks on flossing.

Amod Sandhya Lele, Moral regress is annoying too

I wish more people rolled their eyes at the norm changes that have hurt me.

Integrity Talk - The Good, the Bad, and the Viability of Co-living

What it's like to live constantly in communal places.

Matthew Clayfield, When they want war, India and Pakistan will always have Kashmir

A long-form piece about occupied Kashmir that is a bit old but worthy of a revisit in the current climate.

Doctrix Periwinkle, Where the Heart is

Reflections on being an immigrant to a Caribbean island, what makes a place “home,” and the idea of “invasive species.”

Zack Morris the Elder, You don't have to carry 64oz of water everywhere you go

You will survive if you don't have a dumb water bottle everywhere you go.

Stony Stevenson, Imagine If Your Psycho Ex Was the Guy Who Shot the Health Insurance CEO

A case against violent endgame politics.

Peter Borkowicz, Father's Day 2024

A poem and some reflections about my father.

Triangulation, What Do Women Really Want?

Our mating minds evolved within certain constraints that might be increasingly disappearing in modern times with mating preferences more and more mismatched with the world of abundance.

Fate Bloomer, If Summer Broke Your Heart, Autumn Shall Heal You

a poem

Agatha Scaggiante, The AI Tarot

An essay on the connection between Artificial Intelligence and oracles, using a tarot deck I generated myself as a starting point.

Julian Gough, The iHole

A darkly humorous short story about the ultimate consumer product. (Shortlisted for the BBC International Short Story Award.)

Lana Starkey, In defense of the Great Replacement Theory's neologist

I argue that Renaud Camus is deeply misunderstood in the Anglosphere and is no 'conspiracy theorist' rather he is 'measured' and a honnête homme of the highest order.

Luke T. Harrington, I told you all the wokepocalypse was coming

“Woke” is on its way out as an aesthetic mainly because it’s encountered the most irresistible of all forces—boredom.

David Brendan O'Meara, My Way to Canossa

Thoroughly absurd and yet all-too-real, My Way to Canossa follows four journeys that re-imagine the Middle Ages amid the political and technological changes of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Joe Mayall, The Election That Ended Liberalism

Donald Trump’s second election shows it’s time to move on from Democratic Party centrism.

The Backseat Policy Critic, Why true representation means Batman should always beat Captain Marvel in a fight

On how the social justice movement ended up marginalising the autistic community in its quest for representation.

Hal Johnson, What is Stand by Me about?

Surprise! It's about why you will never be free!

Nikkitha Bakshani, Evacuate the Dancefloor

A short essay connecting a tarot card (3 of Swords) with a piece of culture (Evacuate the Dancefloor, the 2009 hit song by Cascada). My niche is life writing that examines culture (books, cinema, music, food) through the lens of astrology, tarot, and spirituality.

Jillian C. York, Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism

A look at how our rights online have become increasingly undermined by major corporations' desire to harvest our personal data and turn it into profits

Fan Cleng, Fancleng no.1, or how much to my dismay, the right-wingers became the fun ones

An opening piece for a short series of long-forms working towards political self-criticism.

Thaddeus Haas, Handle With Care

Our times call for a nuanced approach to dealing with each other and the world around us. Here is my attempt at providing a user's guide.

Todd Brewer, Notes From the (Crumbling) Ivory Tower

The state of academic theology today and the economic pressures driving its increasing politicization.

Mari the Happy Wanderer, It’s the Zibelemärit: In Praise of Eccentric Festivals

We explore the history and meaning of a unique Swiss festival, enjoy some silly photos, and learn to make a great dish for holiday parties.

Christopher Jay Jones, Visitations

Can Jenna Mae and Mack get through one visit to Mother without hearing morbid tales of death and despair? Probably not, but her apple pie makes it all worthwhile.

Tom Barrie, AI will show you the face of God

A niche Youtube channel is using generative AI to create “living” images of the Bible. It’s as tacky as it sounds

BJ Campbell, Black Lives Matter Killed 8,682 Black People

A mathematical analysis of the 2020 murder spike caused by the Floyd riots, ACAB activism, and police defunding shows over 8000 excess black murders by the time the effects of the riots normalized in 2023.

Brian Howard, My Martha Stewart Story

A first-hand account of my experience as a lawyer at the Martha Stewart criminal trial, including a rip-roaring celebrity encounter.

Sam Venis, The Island of Eternal Life

A reported feature from the heart of Próspera—the private, tech-forward Central American territory at the center of the movement to cure death

Nick Roman, I Welcome Our New Robot Underlings

An examination of the latest developments in domestic humanoid robots

Jennie Lightweis-Goff, Democracy is for Losers

A polemic against electoral triumphalism.

T.J. Elliott, Our Testing: A Personal History

Check especially the link titled Our Commonplace Book: A Quotes Collection.

Megan Gafford, Amor Fati

Physics may try its damnedest to instill in us existential dread at an incomprehensible universe, but biology will always be the most offensive science. Biology forms the parameters of our fate, and fate treats us harshly.

M.L.D., Sovereignty Games

What does it mean to be pro-democracy but against liberalism? An exploration of what features we might expect to find in successful political games, without appealing to "Enlightenment values" or "liberal principles."

T. Scott, Ghouls

This time, it's not just a bunch of clowns. They're on a mission.

Matt Tuthill, The Endless Love and Memories of O.A.R.

A long-form profile of the band O.A.R. (Of A Revolution), from their founding in 8th grade to present day.

Kody Cava, Capitalism Destroys Traditional Family Values

An examination of how the capitalist system degrades traditional modes of living, the rule of law, strong communities, individual liberties, and the Christian faith.

Twerb Jebbins, The 2024 Election was Decadent and Depraved Pt. 1

A humorous analysis of political parties as brands, comparing them to Pepsi and Coke, setting up the other three parts of the series with references to Foucault (I know you don't like him) and Jacques Ellul.

Julia Norza, This Place With Its Old Plantations

On the pan-leftist faith in mere survival as resistance, and concomitant failure to effect change.

Mike Andrews, The Corporatisation of Political Design from Blair to Kamala

The design of the Harris campaign reflects how western politics has been captured by corporate culture. And here we are.

Cydney Hayes - In Between Gods, Looking for Work (if you need to get past the paywall, here's the gift link.)

An investigation into an underground, secretive clubhouse in San Francisco, where obsessions with AI, religion, technofascism, and loneliness converge. Is it a cult? Let's find out...

Anthony Rafael Worman, On Desire & Destination (from Secular World Order) - https://zanthony.substack.com/p/on-desire-and-destination

This is a short essay combining the art of travel with storytelling structure.

Nigel Bowen, Both the Left and Right misunderstand migrants

Why both the overly positive and overly negative portrayals of migrants are mistaken

Jessica Nordell, A Path to Deep Creativity

Tips from a brilliantly effective creativity coach

Erica Etelson, What's-Still-The Matter with Kansas?

A 20-years later retrospective on the most influential book of 2004

Chris Pearce, Not Every Fictional Dictator is a Fascist

It’s easy to call a fictional character a fascist, but doing so frequently misses the point

Christopher J Feola, Learn to code - Bad career advice since 1999

Entry-level coders aren’t worried about AI...because their jobs were outsourced three decades ago.

Nicky von Hartz Shapiro, You Can't Blame the Phones Forever

Yes, smartphones suck. Now what?

Kensington Pride, On the Marketplace of Ethnicities

A short essay on a workplace where ethnicities are treated as commodities

Andrew Doris, The Killing You Pay For

Moral clarity on the war in Gaza that does not rely on ingroup values.

Andrew Berg, Yes In My Spare Room

Increasing housing density can start with us.

Josh off the Press, Political Conversations at the Thanksgiving Table

In my family, it's a bit of a pastime to talk politics at the dinner table.

Dorian Tatem, My Grandmother’s Ages

A reflection of my recently departed grandmother's many lives.

Nancy Friedman, Anatomy of a Slogan

Language lessons from a losing presidential campaign.

Eva Sylwester, Weekend Entertainment Guide 9/13/24 + Full Moon 9/17/24

I’m finally ready to go public with a big prediction: I think that, by April 7, 2027, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts will be more focused on issues related to neurodiversity than on issues related to race.

Ishan Mukherjee, To attract talent, pay asymmetrically

Why offering prestige, interesting work, and interesting coworkers as compensation is like price discrimination

Eric Stinton, The Weight of Departure

A short essay about tropical storms, illness, change, and what it means to be here.

Dana Leigh Lyons, Quieting Food Noise (Without Ozempic)

A three-part series on how to quiet food noise (and other unhelpful thoughts or cravings) naturally

Daniel Gonzalez, Death Row Restaurant

‘The Bear’ meets ‘Mindhunter’ in a novel exploring society’s obsession with authenticity.

Ian Greenleigh, The Multipoint Edition

On multipoints, the magical locations where three or more boundaries meet.

Andrew Turner, Andrei Rublev

A review of the epic medieval saga by the legendary Russian director Andre Tarkovsky.

Matt Lutz, Well, then, you're a Republican

A short take-down of a stupid and counterproductive rhetorical cudgel.

Kate Imbach, Dutch Deadline

Weekly in-depth analysis of the biggest issues in Dutch news, written in Amsterdam.

Dirk Hohnstraeter, Inconspicuous refusal and quiet remarkability

Seven suggestions on how to make a difference IRL

Sara Eckel, How I'm Staying Sane

The future looks rough, but I refuse to pre-game my misery.

Luke Allen, GentriVacation

An organizing primer, using a specific issue facing many rural communities, and some simple ways for ordinary people to do something about it.

Matthew Vernon Whalan, (Bullock Prison, Alabama) Prisoner Discusses Living Incarcerated With HIV, Violence, Overcrowding, Barriers to Getting Mental Health Support

More reporting on conditions in Alabama prisons with firsthand source for Hard Times Reviewer

Michael Rand, The Friscalating Dusklight

A Substack dedicated to dad life, modern life and the creative process

Cathy Reisenwitz, How the gender pay gap gave me empathy for men

Yes, the gender wage gap results from women’s choices. Also, when women make choices, we do so under constraints. Maybe it would serve women and leftists well to open ourselves up to the possibility that men facing a loneliness epidemic and education achievement gap and deaths of despair are also making choices under constraints.

Meghan Bell, The Dangers of Reading Too Much

Does excessive reading exacerbate autism and other psychiatric diagnoses?

Justin DaMetz, At The Crossroads

Taking stock and finding hope, post-election, with Frodo and Sam.

James Mills, Reading Prison Mail; A Glimpse into Another World

These are first impressions gleaned from reading a lot of prisoners’ letters.

Jeremy Rice, I Used to Think about You All the Time

Notes on Yo La Tengo.

Frederick Prete, Can A Praying Mantis Help Blind Children Find Their Way?

A retrospective look at how my intellectual passions, travels, and struggles with self-doubt led me to my current passion: creating haptic-enhanced mobility aids for people who, like me, are visually impaired.

Barry Goldman, What the Law Supposes

A rumination on legal decision making

Jinny So, Red Zone Son

A mixed Black/Korean teenager, condemned by the red zone for his race and the blue zone for his faith in a futuristic splintered America, must survive both his conscription into a red zone militia and his imprisonment in a blue zone re-education camp where he is forced to ally with the very drill instructor who once tormented him - all in order to be reunited with his little sister.

Stan Hister, Bad people do bad things

A dash of Trump, lots of Proustian prose - totally original, not to be missed!

Matt Pope, A Christmas Encounter

Tale of a Christmas mugging, among other things. Thanks!

The Ivy Exile, Geometries of Geopolitics

What frontiers of exotic mathematics can tell us about a smarter, more nuanced politics.

Mitch Bogen, Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift, and Genius Inflation

This essay unpacks the whole Taylor Swift is the Dylan of her generation thing. Feel free to link to another installment in my Dylan series or anything else on my blog if you prefer.

Peter James, What Should Teenagers Be Reading? I Have One Suggestion

On the timeless relevance of David Foster Wallace’s Something To Do With Paying Attention

Alta Ifland, TikTok, Water, Energy, the Romanian Elections, ESCU, Putin and Trump

An analysis of the cancellation of Romanian elections by Romania’s Supreme Court, with a detailed description of all the actors involved and of their relation to Putin and Trump.

Burke Bindbeutel, The Youth is the Future

Sex, cruelty and motocross in Paul Verhoeven's Netherlands

Sean Vernon, Book Review: “Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer”

Commentary and meta-commentary on Dr. Lilly’s most confounding work.

Kim Witten, Mele Kalikimaka is a thing to say…but why?

A short history that is a big glass of Christmas, a shot of language, and a sprig of code

Bram E. Gieben, God from a machine? On storytelling and the singularity

Our faith in the AI singularity may be like the third-act twist in a bad movie… nothing but deus ex machina.

Jonathan Kissam, Bum a smoke?

In which I consider whether cigarettes might actually be better for you than smartphones. And definitely cooler.

Dan Murphy, Zzyzx

A short story about the messiness of lore and camaraderie in military culture.

Nigel Writes a Blog, Spotify Wrapped is an Algorithmic Sadfest

Spotify Wrapped is bad, and I'm tired of this cloying, engagement-baity app insisting otherwise.

Noam Dagan, Birthright

A short story about a self-authored birthright trip to Israel that lands a young man in the middle of a war and an identity crisis.

Tony, The Twin Cults

A Borgesian short story about a college student who stumbles upon a very big discovery - perhaps too big.

Mazin Saleem, Straight Panic: Twelve Days of an Eyes Wide Shut Christmas

Why did Kubrick cap his career with a Christmas movie? How did he manage to smuggle a conservative parable into art-house erotica? Did the Illuminati really merc him for exposing himself as a formalist filmmaker? Join us for this festive series.

A.J. Fezza, Grieving a Celebrity

A reflection on the meaning of Anthony Bourdain’s life and work

Richard Hollman, How Much Longer Will I Be Considered Jewish?

As defenders of Netanyahu's brutality have long sought to redefine Israel's behavior as just and defensive, and his critics as Anti-Semitic, will Jews who oppose him similarly be redefined so as to preserve a definition of Judaism as one synonymous with support for Israel?

Bill Stark, Men aren’t reading fiction, but literature has bigger problems

The rigid moralizing of mainstream fiction is alienating more than just male readers.

Tapirclip, Roasting Apple Black by WhytManga: The Prelude

Part 1 of a review of “Apple Black."

Matthew (The Low-Level), The Unreality of Scientific Literacy

The push for scientific literacy and critical thinking has encouraged a view of truth as coherence rather than relationship to empirical-material reality, supporting a metaphysical over materialist politics.

Shelby Kearns, Boarding House at the End of the World

The case for bringing a stranger into your home

less than zero, Anora

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winning new film Anora marries old-school film craft to a tale of shallow zoomers hurting each other. Does it work?

Education Realist, The Pandemic Counterfactual

What if governors had resisted overwhelming media pressure and kept the schools open in March 2020?

Reuben Bard-Rosenberg, Conclave and the Liberal Abyss

Conclave reveals a vacuous Liberalism, incapable of meeting the challenge of the insurgent right.