The Substack Podcast

We asked writer, author, and podcaster Emma Gannon to share her advice on maintaining your energy to keep writing. Emma has had an extraordinary few years, publishing four more books , continuing her acclaimed podcast Ctrl Alt Delete , and adding ever more value to her ever-growing community. Emma recently moved her newsletter, The Hyphen by Emma Gannon , to Substack, where she also shares discuss...

We asked Alicia Kennedy to share her advice on interviewing. She calls From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy Podcast , her weekly podcast that’s part of her food newsletter, “a curated conversation series.” She recently wrote about her belief in unscripted, unedited interviews here . Read on for her advice, or listen to her read it aloud above. Dear writer and podcaster, what’s the secret to a good inte...

The best thing about being a podcaster is the joy of a really good conversation. It feels like that moment at a cocktail party when you find yourself in a corner by the cheese table, chatting with the most interesting person there. And then it gets even better: you get to share that conversation with your listeners, who come along for the ride and experience it with you.  But then you click publis...

As we kick off the Substack category tour , we asked Kate Lindsay , co-author of Embedded , to share some writer-to-writer advice about creating trust with your readers. Co-founded with Nick Catucci, Embedded is a twice-weekly guide to new internet creators including trends and weekly interviews with “very online” people . Read on for her advice, or listen to her read it aloud above.​ Dear writer,...

As the year draws to a close, we asked Anna Codrea-Rado to share a piece of writer-to-writer advice about taking stock of one’s creative accomplishments. Anna writes Lance , a publication all about building a freelance career without burning out. Read on for her advice, or listen to her read it aloud above. Dear writer, How do you stop to recognize what you've accomplished? And how do you refocus...

We are pleased to announce the launch of Story Club , a new Substack by beloved author and teacher, George Saunders. With its unique, educational, community-oriented structure, Story Club will offer a masterclass in storytelling and the craft of short fiction. The concept is modeled after Saunders’ latest book, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain , in which he unpacks a handful of short stories by four...

Four years ago today, Bill Bishop launched the first-ever Substack publication. It was his newsletter about China, Sinocism , which he had been writing for free for five years for an audience of policymakers, diplomats, academics, investors, executives, and journalists.  I had known Bill for almost a decade from my previous life as a reporter and was a regular reader of Sinocism. Around the time t...

Last week, ​Substack hosted a briefing and live Q&A with health and parenting experts aimed at answering questions about the latest data on kids and COVID, including back-to-school safety, vaccine timelines, and risk trade-offs. We organized the event in order to tap into the collective expertise of parenting and data expert Emily Oster and epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina , two Substack writers wh...

Last Wednesday, we hosted a workshop with  Elle Griffin  of  The Novelleist  to learn about how to serialize fiction on Substack. When Elle finished writing her first book, she began to research the best way to publish it, but what she found was distressing. 98 percent of books published in 2020 sold less than 5,000 copies , and traditional publishing offered few viable paths for less established...

Last week, we hosted a workshop with Tony Mecia of The Charlotte Ledger to discuss covering local news on Substack. Tony worked in journalism as the business reporter and editor with the Charlotte Observer before he decided to strike it out on his own. He started The Charlotte Ledger and grew it the old-fashioned way, building relationships locally and relying on word-of-mouth from friends. Today,...

In early June, we hosted an interview with Mike of Nongaap Investing to discuss finance writing on Substack. Mike is a former activist investor who writes about investing, corporate governance, board dynamics, and the power of incentives.  We asked Mike to speak in part because he’s a lot of fun, and also because ​Mike’s an inspiring example of the success we are seeing many finance and investing...

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 economi...

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...

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 “...

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 Arabia before moving to America, and she personal...

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 h...

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 psy...

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 writi...

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,...

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...

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. To...

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 everyo...

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 r...

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 readabili...

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 researcher and lawyer. I convinced him to join me on a special pop-up episode of the Substack Podcast to share his advice on how to run a one-man newsletter business, b...