Subscriber Writing, September(ish) 2025

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Hello folks! Here’s the latest bimonthly roundup of writing written by subscribers, for the month of September(ish) 2025. 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 meaningfully grown their audience this way. (If I didn’t think a lot of great work was shared in these, I wouldn’t keep doing it.) This post well exceeds most email client length limits, so please click on through.

If you aren’t a subscriber and you want to take part in this opportunity in November, you know what to do. Be kind in the comments, far kinder than you feel you have to be with me.

Roxanne Palmer, Action at a Distance

A short science-fiction / romance comic, about a lonely alien torn between duty and desire.

Beth, AI News and (maybe) more

AI news roundups

Eric Stinton, Can Settlers Ever Be Pono In Hawai’i?

One Hawaiian cultural expert thinks unity among all cultures is possible. Another says no way.

Amod Sandhya Lele, The secret of mindfulness meditation

I don’t know why introductions to mindfulness don’t tell you this.

Matthew Vernon Whalan, Bullock: Chronicles of Deprivation and Despair in an American Prison]

An expose of the inhumane living conditions in Bullock Prison in Alabama, chronicling six months in the lives of prisoners there as the plumbing and heating systems break down through a winter that’s unusually cold for the region, with firsthand interviews and exploration of the legal history.

Barrett Hathcock, Later Capitalism: A note on Miranda July’s ‘All Fours’

Following the money trail through this fantasy of marital liberation

Chris, If I Can’t Paint, I Don’t Want Your Revolution

AI might change the nature of art - but is that actually a good thing? And what is the nature of art in the first place?”

Alykhan Velshi, An insider’s look into how the Canadian government lost half a billion dollars in a spectrum policy dispute

The author reflects on the disorienting moment of being personally singled out for criticism by a judge in a half-billion-dollar court ruling, tracing how spectrum policy decisions and media leaks turned into one of the Canadian government’s most costly mistakes.

Samuel Kao, An Evening at the Car Dealership

I saw the “Dimes Square” play, and I was not impressed.

Christopher J Feola, Writer or publisher: ya gotta pick one

Freddie DeBoer, professional writer, and the Freddie DeBoer newsletter are two separate and somewhat incompatible businesses requiring separate business logic. Successful writing businesses focus on building a brand that publications consistently pay, while media businesses are all about audience management.”

Eponynonymous, The death of a tree

An essay about finding meaning in the accidental death of a Japanese maple tree.

Aron Blue, I Hate Children

A true story from my extremely brief career as a substitute teacher.

Tony Bozanich, Polymaths You Should Know: Athanasius Kircher Edition

Athanasius Kircher had a colorful life but was often wrong, and wrong in the most spectacular fashion.

Alykhan Velshi, Canada will never build another oil pipeline

Canada will never again build an oil pipeline, no matter what the politicians say, but Ottawa keeps the ghost alive as a tool of leverage against the West.

Sarah Rogers Morris, Want to Save Democracy? Teach Art History

A close look at visual comparison, a foundational classroom practice in art history that fosters a distinctive form of critical reflection essential to public life in a democracy.

Matthew Landis, Sunscreen Optional

A short story about summer employment at the public swim club.”

Triangulation, Where Is My Mind? Wittgenstein and Asperger Syndrome

Did the famous philosopher philosophize about his own cognitive difficulties? Did he turned Asperger’s into an advantage?

Nigel Bowen, Has the Great Winnowing Commenced?

A post exploring whether the AI-driven mass automation of white-collar jobs is already well underway.

Elie Nehme, Second Thoughts on Airline Deregulation

An article about how neoliberalism ruined the airline industry.

Adam Whybray, On Donating a Kidney

The before and after of donating a kidney.

Triangulation, Where Is My Mind? Wittgenstein and Asperger Syndrome

Did the famous philosopher philosophize about his own cognitive difficulties? Did he turned Asperger’s into an advantage?

Andrew Berg, 3 Tensions the American Christian Left Needs to Wrestle With

Do we leftwing Christians want to live in a nation based on Christian values, or not?

Brian Howard,At the Mercy of the Gods - A Greece Travel Adventure

For those who have spent any time travelling in Greece, this story will hit home.

Kristina Usaite, How Losing My Mother Shattered My Sense of Self and Love

A raw, intimate meditation on loss, love, and the emotional wreckage grief leaves behind.

Alexander Zaitchik, McKibben Goes Electric

A review of Bill McKibben’s new book Here Comes the Sun

Erica Etelson, Beyond Resistance: A Fourth Way Populist Politics

We know what we’re against. What are we for?

Hal Johnson, My Kindergarten Teacher Tried to Kill Me

A true story about the time my kindergarten teacher...well, “tried to kill me” is irresponsibly hyperbolic, but, dude, it wasn’t good.

Bek, Unschooling Policy #1: All I Need To Be A Better Parent Is A Global Paid Care Economy

A global paid care economy including paid families, direct support professionals, doulas, and interpreters.

Mustard Clementine, What’s Possible Matters More Now Than What’s Probable

A call to rebalance our thinking - to value context, intuition, and what could be, as much as what’s already known.

Joanna Cazden, Everyday Voice Care: The Wellness Guide for Singers, Actors and Talkers

Vocal health and injury prevention in simple language from an arts-medicine specialist

Zack Morris the Elder, It’s amazing how bad video games are compared to 30 years ago

Video games suck these days. They’re very bad.

Stephen Skolnick, The Schizophrenia Gene

An original hypothesis on the root-cause etiology of psychosis in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, integrating data from a recent metagenomics study and a meta-analysis of microbiome/metabolomics studies.

Alex Dabertin, Roman History Under the Stereoscope

A neat overview of all 2100 years of Roman history with recommended sources

Laurence Miall, Progressive Cultural Weakness

Introduces some new terms to describe the current progressive moment: “the Nancy Reagan” moment and the “omniposition.”

Thaddeus Haas, We All Deserve Tears...

When confronted with the tragic sense of life, if you aren’t crying, then you aren’t paying attention.

Logan, Boys Are From Skyrim, Girls Are From Instagram

A consideration of how atomizing entertainment technologies affect boys and girls differently, because social media inflames desires, while video games simulate the satisfaction of desires.

Amy Letter, The Enshittingularity

A web ‘zine take our present shitpocalypse

Hanifesto, The Burden of Expression

A piece about Charlie Kirk and the marketplace of ideas

Kody Cava, I Don’t Know Anymore

A gentle musing on trees, dirt, bugs, aging, and what the tiny things of nature mean to small children.

PeterJames, State

A short story about memory, emotion, and high school football

Josh off the Press, While I was celebrating my birthday, I had a friend who was living his last day

I love celebrating birthdays, even birthdays of people I loved and lost. Yet, how do I now celebrate my birthday, when someone I knew incredibly well died on that very day?

Alexander Shalom Joseph, The Clearing

The Clearing, a novella forthcoming 10/15/2025, follows a disillusioned man who, while caretaking a remote mountain ranch, begins to experience unsettling encounters as he builds a path towards a clearing in the woods, which may offer redemption—or ruin.

Journal Club with Myka, Rethinking Autoimmunity

We’ve been told autoimmunity is the body attacking itself. But what if that story is too simple? This series explores lupus, science legends, and surprising new ideas about how our immune system really works.

Luke Cuddy, To Improve College, “Publish or Perish” Should Perish

How the unspoken rule of higher education impedes effective teaching and learning.

Luke Cuddy, Critical Theory and its Discontents

Defending the claim against critics that critical theory has infiltrated and taken over higher education.

Chris Dalla Riva, How One Man Changed Songwriting Forever

Though songsters from Tin Pan Alley to Motown have been trying to craft perfect pop songs for decades, nobody has done it quite like Karl Martin Sandberg. After failing to make it as a hard rocker, Sandberg assumed the name Max Martin and not only went on to find more success as a songwriter than anyone before him but reshaped how popular songs are created. (This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book “”Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves”“.)”

Josiah Duran, First, I Wanna Talk About Those Pants...

Netflix sells “replicas“ of outfits from K-Pop Demon Hunters in their web store. I give “replicas“ of outfits from K-Pop Demon Hunters way more attention than they deserve.

Andrew Doris, Do not lionize debate theater

Charlie Kirk devoted his life to shock jockey clickbait. If we fail to distinguish between productive and unproductive speech, we miss why the internet generations are losing faith in words to begin with.

Mari, the Happy Wanderer, The Luddites Had a Point

The Luddites were not wrong to mourn the loss of their way of life, and those of us worried about looming losses due to AI aren’t wrong either.

Steven Aoun, Fear Factor

Douglas Murray versus Joe Rogan : the pot calling the kettle white.

Skye Sclera, Please stop calling ADHD a fucking “superpower”

The dominant discourse treats ADHD like it’s something enviable, admirable and adorable. This is, frankly, insane and irresponsible (and I say this as both a psychotherapist and someone formally diagnosed). ADHD is treatable but not curable, and untreated ADHD is living ugly and stupid. It is not “”manic-pixie-dream-girl disease.

T Scott, Summer 2025

This is what it felt like to witness the end of the American experiment.

Dirk Hohnstraeter, Five reasons to appreciate contemporary art

Activism isn’t one of them.

Marie Bjerede, Thinking Fast and Slow about Charlie Kirk

Do our reactions to this horror depend on how we are wired?

Jimmy Nicholls, Toxic male progressives

The medium is the message, the vibe is the view

Noach Głuchowicz, Ruining it for the rest of us

A satire about the otherwise fine symbols we no longer get to use thanks to genocidal nudniks abusing them.

Noach Głuchowicz, Monsters (and other lies)

A poem responding to Israel’s “double-tap” attack that killed journalists at a hospital in Gaza.

Mazin Saleem, How to make it new

A modern TV show Ezra Pound would’ve loved that beat the internet at its own game.

Richard Dooling, I Would Prefer Not To

Newsletter issue 4, announcing pub date for my new novella and stories.

Tom Barrie, Hey, where did all the torture porn go?

An essay on The Cabin in the Woods, Saw, and a specific, bloodthirsty moment in horror filmmaking

Twerb Jebbins, A Life in Five Deftones Concerts

A personal history told through five Deftones concerts. Late 90s nu metal culture, drinking and drugs, what being from a small town means, and getting old.

Sara Eckel, On Ambition, Status and the Need to Be Seen

)Was shedding all this a sign of personal evolution, or just a cop out?

Geoff MacDonald, How should we talk about happy and unhappy singles?

I, a psychology researcher, try to convince singlehood advocates that there is more to not enjoying singlehood than stigma.

Jonathan Kissam, The war machine keeps turning

Ozzy sings “War Pigs” one last time for a fallen world

Luke Allen, The Courage to Enter the Arena

Remarks on justice, power, and God, to a group of teenagers

Mitch Bogen, The Power of Falling Short

How I came to understand Browning’s assertion that “a man’s reach should always exceed his grasp.

Barry Goldman, The Munro Doctrine

Law, Justice, and legal reasoning

Evan Harkness-Murphy, Your Lady of Fatima.

Longform skeptical article about a purported miracle in Portugal; deep empirical work, rhythmic sentences, great pacing. I would like to recommend the article it responds to as well but won’t link it here to avoid screwing w/ formatting

Christian Näthler, The Illusion Called “Me”

How do we let go of who we think we are?

John Brundage, How to Read More

I share what helped me break through the mental and emotional obstacles to reading, and how my life has been enriched as a result.

Alexander Kaplan, Rejection Letters

A poem for all the Substackers (like me) who can’t get published in a traditional outlet.

Peter Dresslar, Assignment, Module 7. Complex Adaptive Systems

Just some light homework.

Matthew Gindin, Ephemerality

On non-grasping, and on wonder.

Jason Zencka, Lone Women

A book review of Victor LaValle’s 2023 LONE WOMEN with reflections on genre literature.

Samara, bee mine:

A bee-keeper’s daughters in the rural Southwest learn their lessons the hard way”

Duncan Gammie, What We Can Learn from Serial Killers

A narrative essay about how evil is a failure of consciousness, and what that means for the rest of us.”

Dr. Krystal Stark, Making the Case for Autodidacts

This article argues for the continued value of autodidacts—self-taught learners who thrive outside formal systems—in an era where education is increasingly standardized and constrained. It highlights how self-driven learning cultivates resilience, creativity, and autonomy, qualities urgently needed in today’s cultural and educational landscape.

Brian Edwards, Gradient Descent

An uncanny “”autobiography”“ of Sam Altman composed not by him but by AI—a satirical yet unsettlingly believable portrait from inside the systems remaking our world. More field recording than memoir, capturing boardrooms as confessionals and strategy memos as theology.

Kyle van Oosterum, Liberal Guilt Won’t Save Us: a very short note on the limits of self-criticism

Liberals should own their mistakes, but blaming themselves for every authoritarian turn erases voter agency and indulges a double standard. Self-criticism is healthy; liberal guilt is not.

Paul Sagar, Diary of a Punter

Coming to terms with high level spinal cord injury. Think of the writings here as letters sent back from a place that nobody should ever have to go, and from which there is no return.

Eugene Earnshaw, The Tiger and the Ape

Is morality objective or subjective? A tiger and an ape consider the question, with the ape’s life on the line.

Ray Dorl, The Pitchfork “Best Rap of All Time” Poll: Fuck Condé Nast as a Staff, Publishing House, and as a Motherfuckin’ Crew

A takedown of a recent Pitchfork poll to choose the best rap albums of all time, which featured a “dropdown” menu omitting artists and albums that are critical to the history of rap music.”

Damian Penny, Cancellation Court Is Now In Session

Whichever side is trying to get people fired, can we at least set some consistent ground rules?

Nathaniel Page, Now is the Time for a Cigarette

A plea for the old addictions.

Noach Głuchowicz, The St. Petersburg Summit Declaration

A satire, based on the NATO Hague Summit Declaration 2025, projecting a decade into the future.”

Tom Watters,PILCROW

Substack’s first serialized novel competition. Each quarter, we will present excerpts from the unpublished novels of three finalists, and invite our subscribers to vote on one to be fully serialized on the Substack. Quarterly winners will receive $1,000 and both finalists $500.

Dan Hoyle, 2003’s Chicago Summer of Openness, and the Friendships Across Divides that Endure

SeeKnow, Coco, and I were all 23 years old living on the same block in Chicago. They were Black, working-class and from the South Side, I was a middle-class white boy who just graduated Northwestern. We hung out and hustled together that whole summer. Instead of going our separate ways, 22 years later, we’re still friends.

Burke Bindbeutel, Cycloptic Modernism

The Palais de Justice in Brussels was for a time the biggest building in Europe.

Joe Ballou, From Moonshots to Stardust

How everyday leaders in the labor, women’s suffrage, and civil rights movements integrated key virtues to guide their actions - and what it teaches us about our long-term commitments and impact.

Justin DaMetz, Ten Theses on Charlie Kirk, free speech, debate culture, and the making of legacies

A few things that can all be true at once.

Eva Sylwester, Buy now on Amazon — Changing of the Guards: Pluto on the Precipice

Here’s a conspiracy for you: no one benefits more from cancel culture than the likes of David Icke!

Carol DeBoer-Langworthy, An Outbreak, Two Pandemics, and Karmic Healing

The plays of Neith Boyce: Anarcho-feminist writer’s reputation is confirmed by nature & validated by late production.

BD Allen, A Murder in Min’Krinath

A short story about the power of community.

Andy Dornan, The Gestalt in the Machine

Genre-blending technothriller about a journalist racing to track down a killer and take down a Silicon Valley mogul who believes in immortality through AI.

Dana Van Ostrand, This is Horrific. Are We?

the wheel keeps on spinning

Jon Busch, The Left Has Forgotten How to Party

Being a liberal used to be a lot more fun. What happened?

Matthew Clayfield, My guts are not here for you to love: Some notes on MAS*H

While MASH had been sneaking onto my radar for a couple of years, I’m still not entirely sure what compelled me to watch it, in its entirety, this year. Usually, when I’m in a funk, I’ll rewatch Seinfeld or The West Wing. MASH, it turns out, is better than either.

Ash Sanders, The Last Resort

At Bombay Beach, a half-ruined former vacation town on the edge of the dying Salton Sea, absurdist philosophers, artists, and everyday townsfolk have undertaken a radical experiment in post-apocalyptic living.

Education Realist, Teacher Credential Test Cheating

Three widespread cheating rings in nearly 30 years and the stories get dropped almost immediately by the national media. Why?

R.B. Griggs The Majesty of Language

LLMs as reminder of humanity’s greatest achievement.