The Substack Podcast

Canadian journalist and media critic Jesse Brown is well known in his home country for big media scoops and uncompromising commentary. These days, he’s creating a name for himself as a media entrepreneur, too. With his latest venture, Canadaland , the former columnist has created a podcast network funded by its audience through Patreon . In this interview, we discuss Brown’s colorful career, his s...

Today, we’re moving into paid podcasts with the launch of a tool for audio publishing. The first Substack publisher to use the tool is Anthony Pompliano , who is launching a daily podcast for Off the Chain that will be available to his paying subscribers. We’ve always believed that one of the great benefits of Substack is that you can subscribe to a person. That power is intensified when you can a...

Bill Bishop is the author of the Sinocism China newsletter, and our very first publisher on Substack. In this interview, we discuss his secrets to building a great newsletter business and his fascinating career, from running video tape for news stations at Tiananmen Square during the 1989 massacre, to co-founding the financial news site MarketWatch, attempting to build a gaming business in boom-ti...

Luke Timmerman is a veteran biotechnology journalist that decided to launch his own subscription-based publication (The Timmerman Report) because he wanted to create a better incentive structure for himself than advertising allows. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com

First as an investigative journalist, and now as an analyst, Emma Beals has been covering the rise of ISIS and the wars in Syria and Iraq since 2012. During that time, reporting on the conflicts has become so dangerous that the nature of war reporting itself has had to change. Journalists, now targets in these wars, have increasingly turned to digital tools to augment their reporting. This is a pu...

Judd Legum founded Think Progress nearly 15 years ago and grew it into a publication read by tens of millions of people. But earlier this summer, he decided to step down from his role as Editor-in-Chief, where he oversaw 40 staffers, so he could start something new. The goal was to create a newsletter that would explain politics not as a spectator sport, but as an important institution in which we...

Jessica Lessin was a star reporter at the Wall Street Journal who had built her reputation covering companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook. It was her dream job. Until one day… she quit. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com

Mara Wilson knows good storytelling. As a child, she starred in Matilda, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Miracle on 34th St. Today she writes about what it was like to grow up as a child star, decide to leave acting, and figure out what she wanted to do with life. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com

It’s hard to get 20,000 people to sign up for your email list, but Walt Hickey has done it with his daily newsletter Numlock, which tells the news by numbers. When I asked him how, he kept coming back to three big ideas: write every day, deliver via email, charge readers directly. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, vi...

This week, I spoke to Matt Taibbi, contributing editor to Rolling Stone, journalistic heir to Hunter S. Thompson, and author of serial novel The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing: Adventures of the Unidentified Black Male (published on Substack). I started the discussion by asking Taibbi about his views of the current state of the dopamine-driven attention economy, where loudmouths and outrage merc...

Will there ever be a "Netflix for Podcasts?" How is the podcast advertising business evolving? And how do you build a focused newsletter into a full-time job, while staying sane? This week's episode of The Substack Podcast answers these questions and more. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com

Ann Friedman has crafted a journalism career on her own terms, combining freelance writing for major national outlets with a weekly newsletter and Call Your Girlfriend, a podcast she co-hosts with Aminatou Sow. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com

Tim Urban explains how he grew Wait But Why into one of the most popular blogs on the internet. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com

A preview of what's to come. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit on.substack.com