As part of my media diet change, I subscribed to a couple of paid Substacks (Apple wants to auto-correct that word to “substances” which might be more on-point than I want to acknowledge) and also subscribed to some free ones. Dan Pfeiffer’s MessageBox was one of the free ones, and his newsletter this morning poses the question Do Dems Need to Break Up With Legacy Media. It contains this graph of the median age of audiences for different types of media:
Anyway, I generally don’t like email newsletters because they’re hard to link in blog posts, but I’m going to give it a whirl. I’ve always thought Brian Beutler was pretty good, and I subscribed to his paid Substack. Here’s a gift link to his latest piece on the fight against Trump’s cabinet secretaries.
Relevant to the latest anti-trans hate in the House, Zooey Zephyr is an openly trans representative in the Montana state legislature and her fiancé, Erin Reed, has a Substack. Here’s her take on Sarah McBride’s decision to abide by the Speaker’s new bathroom edict. Zephyr and Reed are contributors to Assigned Media and here’s their rundown of post-election pieces trying to keep hope alive in the trans community. Assigned is free as far as I can tell, but I donated anyway.
Another freebie that I’ll probably end up paying for is James Fallows’ Substack. Here’s his post-election piece on disinformation.
One of the reasons I was reluctant to dive into Substack is because all those subscriptions add up. It’s just not scalable to subscribe to everything that’s worth reading. Also, Substack as a platform has its issues. It’s owned by TechBros with an agenda, and like a lot of VC-funded startups, their valuation is crazy. Anil Dash has a thread on this.
So, please feel free to recommend any of your media diet changes, Substack or not. Standard disclaimer that I don’t agree with everything in the pieces that I’ve linked, but I think they’re worth reading for the perspective.
(Since it might come up in the comments, a note on Reed’s take on McBride: when Pelosi put up a metal detector in the House after 1/6 because some R’s wanted to carry handguns onto the floor, the fines were $5K for the first offense and $10K for the second. Presumably this would be the kinds of sanctions that McBride would be subject to. One of the first questions of how she could fight the bathroom ban is how she can do it without going broke.)
frosty
I’ve been reading Fallows since the 1970s when he wrote for Washington Monthly. His substack is the only one where he leaves you hanging at the end unless you subscribe. Every other writer just lets you read the whole thing for free. Clever.
I’m with you on the cost, though. There are at least four that I read semi-regularly. I don’t want to be a freeloader but at $50 or $60 each, that adds up. Same with streaming services. Three or four or five $9.99 charges every month and you’re into real money annually.
Percysowner
If McBride needs a Go Fund Me to fight bathroom fines, I’ll be in.
Kay
More excellent work by ProPublica on the effort by Republicans and for-profit media to conceal any information regarding the consequences of the extreme abortion bans in the United States ( the US is more restrictive of womens rights than Mexico, Canada, Europe and India)
IMO for-profit media is just not a reliable or high quality product anymore. They capitulated to the demands of the billionaires that own them. They turn out cheap junk and charge a premuim for it. I donate to Propublica and NPR now. I’m not paying for garbage. I refuse.
hrprogressive
Since The Youngs are listening to Podcasts more, it would seem to be “low hanging fruit” to try and spin more of those up from a left of center position.
Of course, the barriers to entry both in terms of cost, platform, and trying to compete with the bro-sphere Podcasters who are already established do exist.
But trying to reach younger people thru legacy media is clearly a losing proposition.
Gotta at least make real efforts to reach people where they are.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Kay: Propublica is another good one.
@frosty: Yeah the “gotta pay just when it’s getting good” thing is pretty annoying.
Kay
When the United States Supreme Court outlawed abortion I predicted that the consequences for US women- the deaths, adverse health outcomes and substandard medical care- would be deliberately squelched and downplayed by for profit media and Republicans. That has happened.
I hope the media owners and multimillionaire media stars enjoy those Trump tax cuts. I’ll never buy their product again. They simply don’t cover anything important or real.
UncleEbeneezer
Brian Beutler has perpetual Murc’s Law Brain. His whole identity is built around being the one guy who is brave and smart enough to criticize Dems. Hard pass.
frosty
@@mistermix.bsky.social: Annoying, yes, but really, we should be paying for writing that we like. They have to make a living too. So I’ll pony up … pretty soon.
Doug R
I had heard that substack actually pays a few right wingers a fair bit of $ to post. Anyone feel free to correct me in comments.
Never liked podcasts, most of them seem to be like talk radio except no time constraints so worse. I guess “younger”-after all 34 is only young to us old farts-men don’t let like reading or they listen to their favorite while they’re driving in their massive trucks or trying to get through their job.
Layer8Problem
Policy messaging and debate through graphic novels will be the next big thing. You heard it here first.
Baud
@Doug R:
Yeah, I can’t enjoy the podcast speaking style.
tam1MI
Yes.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I can’t stand podcasts — so boring.
Kay
This stuff scares me more than anything else with the US going hard Right:
We’re not even going to know what happened. It’s like every fascist government – they’re simply going to stop collecting information if that information reflects poorly on the government in power. If you don’t go along they’ll replace you. We’re not even going to have a record of what occurred, let alone somehow fixing it.
Suzanne
@hrprogressive: Yes. Podcasts are a critical way to reach people right now. As someone who never does one thing at a time, they are critical for me. I can listen while driving or running.
I’ve never listened to Rogan, though!
Starfish (she/her)
@hrprogressive: There are numerous lefty podcast covering so many topics relevant to the left.
I talk to a lot of Canadians on the internet, and they like Canadaland. Here is a Canadaland podcast about how Elon hates Substack. I have not listened to it so I don’t know where it goes.
I like Tech Won’t Save Us. Here is one about the Forgotten Story of How Conservatives Shaped the Internet. I haven’t listened to it either.
There are a bunch of YIMBY podcasts like City Beautiful, War on Cars, etc.
Starfish (she/her)
@Doug R: There are some like that, and this was a big turn off for me. But there are some that run fairly tight, well edited episodes.
Baud
The bigger problem I have with pretty much all media is that I feel like I have to wade through a lot of filler in order to obtain a nugget of real information. I don’t have the patience for that.
Ned F.
I only listen to a few podcasts, my fave being TPM’s John & Kate weekly. Ezra Klein has pretty thoughtful ones depending on his guest, and for entertainment, Al Frankin, who’s a terriible interviewer but I still find it a good gripe fest. All consumed in my vehicle.
I really don’t have time to read a lot of substacks or blogs, I have a hard enough time just keeping up with legacy media.
Butch
@zhena gogolia: I know – TV without the video.
One substack I find worthwhile is Jeff Tiedrich, Everyone is entitled to my opinion.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Ned F.:
This is a must-listen for me, too.
Rose Judson
For obvious reasons, I’m in favor of podcasts generally. However, I agree that the “two dudes [and sometimes a lady] shootin’ the shit about the news” format a great many podcasts follow is extremely tiresome.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: I agree. I cannot listen to them (or NPR/etc. news) while driving either. Too distracting when I should be concentrating on driving – music isn’t a problem though.
Belafon
@hrprogressive: Can you make a podcast that would compete against Rogan from the left?
UncleEbeneezer
@zhena gogolia: I’ve never understood this. There are so many varieties and formats and topics. It’s like saying “I hate books/tv shows/movies.” There are numerous podcasts that are basically just radio shows like you would hear on NPR, only on your computer instead of your radio. In many cases, they are shows that were/still are produced for radio. Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of podcasts I have zero interest in or find boring, annoying etc. But also many more that I love.
Layer8Problem
@Butch: I. Read. Faster. Engaging presentation is all very well but a half-hour old-school TV news presentation or a CBC/BBC top of the hour news read is just at my limit. I just want the information without the Maddowesque long intros or the spritely back and forth between the fun-loving regulars. Running things 1.5 times faster only makes it slightly more bearable. I rely on good research, decent editing, and a reliable source of content that delivers. People seem to want distraction with their content.
brendancalling
I changed my media diet quite a while ago. I no longer read the New York Times at all, and I am about to cancel my subscription to the Washington Post. I like to listen to the Ben Joravsky podcast out of Chicago, And I also like the podcast by Driftglass and Blue Gal, I think it’s called cornfield rebellion or something like that. Anyway, it’s really good. I haven’t listened to NPR in about a year and a half. Honestly, for straight news, I just listen to my local ABC affiliate KYW.
cain
@Kay: I too am a paying member of pro publica. I suspect that pro publica is going to be an important establishment in the years ahead and the Democratic voter money needs to support it
UncleEbeneezer
@Suzanne: Me too. Perfect for when I’m doing chores and am tired of all my fave music.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: I can’t stand radio
zhena gogolia
I did have a crush on Ben Joravsky in college though—maybe I should check him out
Suzanne
@UncleEbeneezer: I cannot imagine getting news via the TV. I almost never watch TV or movies. I will sometimes turn on a comedy special while I fold laundry or change the bed or whatever, but I just don’t have time for formats that demand two kinds of attention!
I like to listen to podcasts while I draw/model.
Scamp Dog
@Kay: Women dying from failed pregnancies strikes me as something that will get out eventually, but I don’t know how long that will take. You will hear a bunch of preachers amplified by conservatives about the mysteries of God’s will, and how they so nobly sacrificed themselves, blah blah blah. What the increasingly atomized American population will think of it is beyond me.
TBone
@Kay: here’s the substack antidote.
Abortion Every Day:
https://jessica.substack.com/
By Jessica Valenti, Shero!
(In addition to Propublica)
If people don’t want to subscribe, just click on the “No thanks” and go right on in through the front door.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Rose Judson:
Yes – I especially dislike this for podcasts that should be completely written ahead of time (Morbid, a true crime podcast, is pretty much unlistenable for me).
TBone
@Butch: 💜 he frequently brings to my attention things I might have missed otherwise.
narya
Strict Scrutiny, prosecuting DT, Gastropod, Talking Feds (usually), sometimes Pod Save America (yes, I know), Serious Trouble, Pack Your Knives
i listen when I walk (music for running) and I skip annoying bits
might add Steve Vladek’s or Law Dork
i find them informative, since I stopped reading WaPo and FTFNYFT
TBone
The Philadelphia Inquirer send out a free email newsletter every morning. Some stories are paywalled, some not, but you can look up headlines at MSN or archive and get the story.
The blurbs for each story are also informative.
Kristine
So if Speaker Johnson considers Rep. McBride a man, she can use all male-only facilities?
If he already said no to that, I missed that part.
Doug R
@Layer8Problem:
The late great John Lewis had a graphic novel “March” based on the march on Washington DC.
Doug R
@Starfish (she/her):
CBC radio does run a show called “Podcast playlist” where the hosts discuss good podcasts and broadcast the best ones. But that’s a highlights show, so it’s not so tedious.
Rose Judson
@narya: Serious Trouble is my exception to the “two dudes shootin’ the shit about the news” format, because one of the dudes in this instance is PopeHat, who has actual legal expertise (and Josh Barro, but, still).
JGreen
@brendancalling: Driftglass and Blue Gal’s podcast is officially called the Professional Left Podcast. They introduce it by saying “from the cornfield resistance….”. I don’t listen to podcasts except to that one occasionally. They are very good speakers and can be really funny.
Kristine
In other news, MIT is going tuition-free for families making less than $200K.
If the family makes less than $100K, other fees are included along with a books/personal expenses allowance.
That’s…wonderful.
lowtechcyclist
@UncleEbeneezer:
Since people keep referring to all these damned laws, could we have a list of them in the lexicon? Preferably all in one place, so that when I look up Murc’s Law, whatever that is, I also see what Poe’s Law is, which I’m sure I’ve looked up before but still can’t remember.
TBone
Wonkette does a morning “Tabs” news rundown on the daily also too.
Suzanne
I really enjoy podcasts that are a deep dive on a topic. I liked “The Big Dig” about the project in Boston, “Last Seen” about the robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum, and “Presidential”, which was a series, one episode about each president.
RA
“Nancy Mace is wasting her time and tax payer money with her ridiculous bathroom bill. There are 2 family restrooms located at the end of the tunnel from the Capitol north wing elevators on Level E2. There are also 10 located in the Capitol visitor center. For those who don’t know what they are, a family restroom is a private, lockable facility that’s designed to be used by people of any gender, including families with children and those with accessibility needs. They are also known as unisex or single-user restrooms.” from X user Hey Jo
So I suppose her next crusade will be to shut down those restrooms.
TBone
@Kristine: U of Texas did that yesterday too!
https://www.utsystem.edu/news/2024/11/20/ut-system-regents-greatly-expand-affordability-and-access-texans-through-promise-plus-program
Kristine
My favorite podcasts are Lore, Welcome to Night Vale, and Ask a Spaceman! All tightly-scripted, and I can see where that would make a difference.
I don’t follow political podcasts. Reading it is rough enough.
artem1s
Don’t make the victim pay for their stupid rule. Make the perpetrators.
There has to be some sort of ADA or civil rights laws that say you can’t use means testing for only one person of a membership organization. If McBride has to provide proof of sex when she pees so should every other person in the House. There are laws concerning equal access and treatment that have nothing to do with trans rights.. If they really want to start down this path? Make the R’s commit to it. Why not have everyone produce a sex ID’s to get into any bathroom in the Capitol?
Start with DNA swabs for everyone in government and then extend to anyone coming into the Capitol – Senators, Reps, staff, visitors, family, etc, etc, etc…. Everyone has to prove what sex they are via DNA testing and can’t use an antiquated means such as ‘assigned at birth’ on a ‘short form’ birth certificate decades ago.
That’s the sort of road blocking the lawyers can provide and not have McBride be the only one who is a target. Widen the target of the egregious rule and put the onus on the perpetrators to prove it’s a necessary measure.
lowtechcyclist
@Doug R:
Remember when “pivot to video” was the media catchword? Podcasts came along seemingly right after ‘pivot to video’ turned out to be a chimera. And I was going “pivot to audio? This is somehow better??“
MattF
I’m pretty happy with my subscription to AppleNews+. There’s a very large number of magazines, newspapers, and websites that one can follow and it’s easy to use. Also, I just don’t like podcasts— the Apple podcast client supplies a transcript, and that’s usually what I use.
Kristine
@Suzanne: Oh. “Last Seen” sounds like my kind of podcast.
UncleEbeneezer
Since we are talking podcasts and other new forms of media, I’m gonna signal-boost this one again:
Terrorism, Israel and Dreams Of Peace– (YouTube link) an EconTalk interview with historian/journalist Haviv Rettig-Gur. Haviv speaks in a very simple, common-man fashion, getting to the heart of things based on language of humanity, not Academic-speak. And he brings a perspective that has been frighteningly rare in all of the discussions of Gaza on the Left: the perspective of the people in Israel. He really illustrates that the Zionist boogie-man that so many Progressives and FreePalestine people in the West peddle is deeply out of touch and a complete distortion of what Zionism really means to Jews/Israelis as the center of their religious/cultural/ethnic identity. Haviv has great respect and empathy for the suffering of Palestinians and even admits that the perspective that leads them to support Hamas is not at all crazy. But so is the perspective of Israelis. He takes the listener through the history of Zionism, the persecution that made it necessary in the first place, the history of the multiple wars with neighboring states and his own perspective from his time serving in the IDF during the Second Intifada, and what it was like to watch the relentless suicide-bombings, purposefully targeting Israeli children, almost every day.
It’s a really great interview and imo, we need far more like it to counter the misleading and antisemitic narratives of Zionism as a Colonial, Imperial, Racist threat that are so prevalent on the Left.
TLDL: as Haviv notes towards the end, for Jews in Israel, Zionism is the only reason they are still alive/around.
Bupalos
Little surprised by the vehemence of the “you are not ALLOWED to shut up and dribble” crowd on that sub stack comment thread.
To make progress we need well disposed politicians with power, we need activists, we need representation… we need a lot of things. Sarah McBride has worked her ass off to be more of these things than 99.9% of people on the planet, has an idea about how she can continue to do the most good (that in my opinion is a lot smarter than those criticizing her) and is being met from multiple directions with people demanding she be something else and do something else.
A new congressperson is not the person you want to head up your civil disobedience campaign. It’s like asking Jackie Robinson to refuse to play until blacks are equally represented in the league. How about DIFFERENT people (maybe even the people expressing their profound disappointment in her?!!) step up and do the civil disobedience part?
TBone
Here’s where I remind everyone that your free public library comes with free online access to newspapers so you don’t need to subscribe.
Support your local libraries!
Sure Lurkalot
@Rose Judson:
Even newsy podcasts need tight scripts and I agree, the “shooting the shit” ones leave me feeling like I’m eavesdropping on a meandering conversation to nowhere. Also, lazy.
I recommend the news/political commentary centered Professional Left Podcast, worth a trial listen even to those who have deemed podcasts unworthy.
https://open.spotify.com/show/5aJNKa1dQRuRwhsVihHvOa
Suzanne
@Kristine: I’ve also listened to college lecture series released on podcasts. Yale released a whole semester’s worth of lectures from a Civil War history class, and I loved that.
Martin
@RA: Nancy Mace just wants attention and people keep giving it to her.
Betty Cracker
Podcasts can be a great way to hear different perspectives, but most political/current events podcasts seem heavily dependent on legacy media for source material.
@Rose Judson: The only complaint I have about Books of All Time is that I’m all caught up and have to wait for new episodes. Really loved the recent Sappho piece.
The Upanishads episodes were also great. I had a weird Wallace Stevens flashback when I heard this Parmenides quote:
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
UncleEbeneezer
@lowtechcyclist: Murc’s Law: only Democrats have agency.
Ie- ignore whatever GOP does and keep blaming Dems.
Source: commenter Murc at LawyersGuns&Money
(It’s mentioned semi-regularly here, which is why I didn’t spell out the details.)
TBone
I’ll be enrolling in Lifelong Learning soon:
https://www.bucknell.edu/academics/beyond-classroom/academic-centers-institutes/bucknell-institute-lifelong-learning
ArchTeryx
@Scamp Dog: In other words, they practice a religion involving human sacrifice. That’s the terms I use, and considering the number of hit terror dogs that start hollering when I do it, it strikes a nerve with these assholes.
Kristine
@artem1s:
I would like to see that. I finally found the thread in which a biologist points out how difficult it can be to define male and female. The best post in the thread:
MattF
@TBone: Also, note that the app Libby gives access to your local library’s media once you’ve signed in with your library card. I’ve been using it to screenshot and then print out the monthly Harper’s Magazine cryptic puzzle.
UncleEbeneezer
@Kristine: I tried Lore (since it is right in my wheelhouse) but I can’t stand that type of approach. It feels too much like Prairie Home Companion to me. Which is unfortunate, because I’m friends with a lady who is married to the writer/producer of Lore and they are both cool/good people. I keep my options of his podcast to myself, lol.
TBone
@MattF: 💙😻
My only apprehension with that is app data collection and sale to unsavory actors. Librarians don’t do that shit.
Eural Joiner
Jumping in with my obligatory and regular shout out to “The Rest is History” podcast, hosted by two very engaging Brits, Tom “I’m not Spider-man” Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. They just wrapped a gob smacking 5 part series on the US in 1968 that was really enlightening (each episode was chronological, but also focused on a singular actor – LBJ, MLK, RFK, George Wallace, finally Nixon).
One concept that entangles with our current political scene…how successful, really, is the left politically? Culturally they dominate the memories of the time period, but politically the left was constantly steamrolled by the emerging (?) racist, fascist, rightwing GOP party machine. The fact that Nixon sounds damn liberal compared to today’s GOP shows how far things have been sliding for over a generation.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Bupalos:
There were some very negative reactions on Bluesky yesterday, too, which I thought were at a minimum premature. Part of the reason I decided to subscribe to Erin’s Substack was to see if there was going to be any moderation by the critics. None so far.
TBone
@TBone: they do one-day classes like this at the public library too:
3D Armchair Travel with the Nottises to the Orkney Islands
Location: PUBLIC LIBRARY FOR UNION COUNTY
Room: Large Meeting Room
Date: Thursday, December 5, 2024 (one day)
Time: 4:00 PM-5:15
BILL Members: Join us for a walk back in time, to a place where people settled more than 5,000 years ago. View a ring of standing stones that predates Stonehenge, see the remains of a Neolithic village, marvel at hilled burial cairns, and hear about the ‘Fin-Folk.’ Blue skies, a bracing wind, wonderful hospitality, and great food complete the adventure!
Special Notes
Armchair Travel presentations are a special benefit included with your BILL membership. These slideshows are given by members, for members. Your reservation assists BILL in setting up enough chairs in the library’s large classroom before 4 p.m.Armchair Travel provides a fun and relaxed means for learning about another place we may never have seen before, or gaining a new perspective on somewhere we visited long ago. It’s often amusing to see how things (and people) used to look. If YOU have photos and stories from past travels, please consider sharing them with your BILL peers. Contact the BILL office with your ideas for a slideshow.
Bill Arnold
@Layer8Problem:
Yeah, there would be a (large niche) market for a cheap (or free) service that turns podcasts into accurate transcripts. I’ve read a few people who say that they use whisper (AI speech transcription, free models) for this locally, on their laptop. If worried about accuracy/hallucinations, reading while playing a podcast at sightless-people-speed (more than 2X, special software) might work.
MattF
@TBone: This is their privacy policy. Seems reasonable.
TBone
@MattF: thank you!!!
This part is where I get stuck:
…may collect and store certain PII and non-PII related to your interactions and use of our Services, including but not limited to, IP address, device type, device ID, operating system, library card number, Adobe ID, library name, lending history, holds, reading progress, bookmarks, highlights, notes, and online activity.
I am a stubborn stickler.
Geminid
@Martin: I’m pretty sure Mace will run for the Senate in 2026 and I look at anything she says or does in that light. She is positioning herself for the Republican primary.
Rose Judson
@Bill Arnold: Apple now does this automatically for some shows. It’s not great for shows with multiple speakers, but it works well for single-voice nonfiction. (I always publish my transcripts to my website and link in the show notes. Accessibility for those with hearing impairments, as well as accommodating people who’d rather read.)
ArchTeryx
@UncleEbeneezer: Even simpler: Murc’s law is the GOP telling the Dems, “Stop hitting yourself!” while punching them over and over, and the media all agree with the GOP.
Rose Judson
@Betty Cracker: Thanks! I’m actually editing Ep 20 on Confucius now – Audacity crashed last night, and the source audio files wound up corrupted. It’s been a long day.
I LOVE that quote.
Suzanne
@Bupalos: I agree with you.
Sarah McBride isn’t in the same position as most people. She’s in a role now that requires that her primary focus needs to be her constituents. Not herself or trans people as a whole. She understandably wants to do a good job at her job.
Other people can fight this fight for her.
Kristine
@UncleEbeneezer:
Oh well. To me, it’s just storytelling.
I tried one episode of the Amazon series, and that didn’t work for me.
They did a podcast for a while called “Behind the Lore” during which the researcher for a particular episode would talk about their search for info and some of the items that didn’t make it into the podcast. I don’t believe that show still runs, and I miss it.
MattF
@TBone: I guess one needs to know their business model… [sigh].
Geminid
Laura Rosen has a good Diplomatic Substack. I mainly know Rozen as a news aggregator, but I’ve read some of her long-form pieces on the Middle East and I thought they were very informative. Besides her work as a reporter, Rozen was on the editorial board for Al Monitor and I believe she currently works in a similar capacity for the news site JustSecurity.
I encountered Laura Rozen through Cheryl Rofer, and I’ve since encountered some good Middle East reporters through Rozen.
frosty
@Layer8Problem: Seconded. Don’t make me waste my time listening to you talk. Write it down, I’ll read through it (or skim it) in a fraction of the time it takes to listen. I don’t follow any podcasts at all because of this. Not even if I’m doing something else – I don’t want to listen to chatter while cooking, driving, or raking leaves.
Sounds like there’s some interesting stuff out there for people who like podcasts though. It’s just not for me.
UncleEbeneezer
For me, the best discussions of politics are ones that are just regular-degular people (but smart, well-informed ones from marginalized communities) talking about politics. But it’s not ALL they talk about and they aren’t part of the politics/media world.
Layer8Problem
@Bill Arnold: Nah, I’m a paranoid IT guy. Don’t want The Man learning my preferences and leanings though their AI hocus-pocus. 🙂🙂
ETA Oh yeah, that boat sailed.
UncleEbeneezer
@Kristine: I think it’s that precious tone of voice that they always use and the sound effects. I hate sound effects in my narrative podcasts. I get why they do it and understand the appeal, it just isn’t for me. I really wanted to like Aaron’s first podcast about the Salem witch trials (in part because I and his wife both grew up in Topsfield MA, which was part of Salem Village back during that time). But the story has so many characters and tangents etc., that it made it really hard to stay engaged.
eclare
@MattF:
I was so happy when the one podcast I listen to occasionally started putting out a transcript. I just don’t like the podcast format, I’d rather read.
It wasn’t a podcast, but the one radio show I liked was Cartalk.
Quiltingfool
@Kristine: Many years ago a high school teacher in a neighboring district had a blood typing lab. Students could determine their blood type. One student found out he was adopted because his parents had blood types that could not have resulted in his type. (Say both parents were Type O and he was Type A). Imagine that dinner conversation!
I remember telling my mother I was A-, so either she or dad had to have Type A. She vehemently insisted they both had Type O. I told her the only way I could have A is if she stepped out on dad! She was mistaken about their blood types, and I know my momma would have never stepped out!
BarcaChicago
@UncleEbeneezer: Thank you, I really value this recommendation.
UncleEbeneezer
@BarcaChicago: You’re welcome. Rettig-Gur absolutely shatters the Left’s stereotype of Zionists. He’s incredibly smart, nuanced, doesn’t do the Islamophobia that can be so common among staunch Pro-Israel advocates, and really seems to try to be fair to both sides while also being honest about the complexity and the history. I learn SO MUCH every time I listen to him. His two-part interview on the Unpacking Israel: What Is Zionism? podcast is also well worth checking out. (He’s also very funny in that dry/sarcastic, self-effacing way that is so common among many of the Jewish People I know/love).
different-church-lady
This is not good news at all. We have every right to mistrust legacy news gatekeepers, but at least some of them still have an interest in veracity and public good. Social media and podcasts are just a wild west, even if a number of them are on “our” side.
dnfree
@Kay: I started donating to Pro Publica and Mother Jones last year because they’re putting in the hard work of investigating.
Parfigliano
@Geminid: Sure Mace is doing this crap for a ’26 Senate run but never forget she’s also doing it because she’s a low life piece of shit that enjoys the cruelty.
It’s in her reptilian blood.
Starfish
Matt Gaetz TF out. Sounds like he is not going to be Attorney General.
steve g
My understanding is that senators and representatives each have a half-bath in their office. The “single-sex” bathrooms are ones made available to lobbyists and other visitors. McBride can easily ignore the kerfuffle. The GOPers are presumably doing this for performative reasons because they are pricks.
Geminid
@Parfigliano: I was not extenuating Mace’s behavior, just examining her motivations as politician.
Betty
@Percysowner: Fetterman has offered use of his private bathroom to McBride. I am guessing other Democrats with private bathrooms are doing that too.
Betty
A good podcast is that of Greg Sargent at The New Republic. Good range of guests and a fair but left-leaning approach.
Avalune
I started a social media/news media diet recently too. Trying to disentangle from some things entirely. Put screen time limits on the few I haven’t cut off. Have been poking around on Substack and even started one so I can scream into the void about knitting or art or whatever. Next week’s issue is actually about social media diet lol! I have such a love hate and hate relationship with it. And given they are going to be like stasi coming up here…and Trump is getting even more power to hack your phone per Ronan Farrow in New Yorker… kind of makes me want to throw my phone out the window.
lowtechcyclist
Dead thread, but my takeaway from that graph is that Dems shouldn’t give up on trying to bring some of those legacy media to heel, to the extent that it’s doable.
Take newspapers. A median age of 60 for their readers means as many people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are reading newspapers as people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s are doing so. Dems should do what they can to favor newspapers like the Philadelphia Inquirer that don’t follow whatever ‘narrative’ the FTFNYT has come up with, and stay away from papers (and other media) that fall into the “Who goes Nazi?” description. Maybe if the Quisling papers can’t get Dems to answer their phone calls, they might change their tune. Or maybe not, but if they don’t, they definitely shouldn’t be given any deference by Dems.
EthylEster
I never watched cable news. It offered me nothing. Much like broadcast news. And this summer I ditched Comcast. I find talk radio repellant.
As for podcasts, I am a consumer of several but I am picky. I don’t want to hear two people shooting the shit. Boring. So I subscribe to a couple of BBC history-oriented podcasts that are really book chats. The host has read the book and has some familiarity with the topic. History Hit from BBC bundles several that focus on different periods so my ancient and medieval history obsessions are satisfied weekly. And I endure the ads in the others that I am not ready to pay for, like Gastropod. I listen to no podcasts that address contemporary politics. I want knowledge, not opinion. I regularly listen to Melvyn Bragg’s In our Time and the CBC’s Quirks and Quarks science show.
I have subscriptions to NYT and WaPo but haven’t consulted them since the election. Some guy on a blog (!) suggested substituting the Guardian so I created an account there and threw some money their way.
I read Daniel Larison’s substack for awhile but only because he stopped blogging. How is a substack different from a blog, except for the money?
Bort
I like Democracy Now. At least when they don’t have the Award Winning Asshole Glenn Greenwald on. I don’t always agree with them, but at least I know I’m not being sold nonsense. Other than the Seattle Times, I’ve abandoned most “legacy media” like the Washington Post (cancelled). And I say this as an actual boomer who grew up idolizing the media after reading the Boys on the Bus by Tim Crouse.
hw3
Congress Critters don’t have to use the public restrooms, they each have their own in their offices.
“Each member’s office contains a bathroom…” Buzzfeed Dec 14 2017
This is just more performative cruelty by the hateful.
Avalune
@EthylEster: Aside from the money I think the fact Substack is kind of its own ecosystem is the primary difference. A blogger has his own domain and has to drive viewers to it via various means but that finding others and “restacking” other people’s stuff and notes which are kind of like tweets are all inside the Substack app/ecosystem, so less work to drive engagement sort of? Makes me think of tumblr for bougie people 😜