What I’m Reading - 9/3/2023

Highlighting the women of Substack who insipire me

Hello from Ten Eyck Brewing on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. After a long August of travel and work, I needed a weekend to myself. And the weather is absolutely GORGEOUS. This morning, I went to Easton, where I worked at the Weather Gage on an op-ed I’m coauthoring, did some shopping, and bought myself lunch at the Wardroom.

I won’t lie. I love the two things I bought 😂.

.

Then, I came here to work on this newsletter and a few other things. There is nothing like some Taco Cat - one of their lagers - to make anyone’s writing better.

Speaking of making my writing better, this week, I had one of my last sessions with

Writers at Work with Sarah Fay

. We’ve only chatted four times, but I feel we’ve known each other much longer. She gave me some advice on this newsletter that I could implement immediately, and she has given me more support and promotion than I ever expected.

Another fun thing has happened over this summer - and part of it has to do with knowing Sarah and the Substack algorithm. It’s finding this amazing group of female Substack writers.

This week, I recorded a podcast where the host asked where I draw inspiration from that isn’t immediately from my field of work. I started rambling off names. 

1. Kate Hill
   whose
   The Camont Journals with Kate Hill
   briefly transport me to the French countryside. (It’s now on my bucket list to spend a week or two at her writing retreat.)

2. Emily McDowell
   ’s story about the truth of going mega-viral is a wise and cautionary tale. Her vulnerability and how she shares it is inspirational. 

3. ❤️ Jenny Blake
   ’s Pivot book was a must-read for me when it came out, and now her newsletter has moved to Substack. She has Rolling in D🤦🏻‍♀️h, which she describes as “Divine disaster diaries from a breadwinning business owner living in New York City.”

4. Amy Odell
   ’s Back Row is my guilty pleasure looking into the fashion industry.

5. There’s

   Kelly Maher
   , my OG substack buddy, whose work in politics is the closest to mine, but she writes about goats and her urban farm in The Real Best Life.

6. Kate McDermott
   feeds my desire to bake more, though I don’t. 

7. Amanda Saint
   ’s The Mindful Writer reminds me to slow down and that a life of mindfulness and writing isn’t necessarily one to be lived quickly.

8. My friend

   cass marketos
   is a compost expert with a newsletter called The Rot. She also has a book coming out soon based on her Substack.

9. Jamie Varon
   ’s recent piece on Plot Twist about The Over-Romanticization of Being Human stopped me in my tracks as she was putting into words why I might hesitate to start any project (cough: book, cough: podcast), but also my mantra for this newsletter which is to just do it and put stuff out even if it sucks.

10. Elizabeth Gilbert
    and
    Samantha Bee
    joined Substack this past week as well - something I’m very excited about.

It’s not just what these women write that has inspired me lately, but how we’ve been engaging with one another on Notes and in the comments of our newsletters. When I listed these newsletters to Sarah, she started laughing, as she has also worked with many of them. When she tagged me in a Note as a fan, they responded kindly.

The kindness and support you have shown me by reading this newsletter is more than I could have asked for. The support of these fellow writers to keep going is the sprinkles on top. If you need some inspiration, check them out.

Also, do you have some favorites? Leave them in the comments.

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What I’m Reading

1. The Washington Post: Elon Musk Is Still on Twitter Despite Russia's Propaganda Efforts

2. WSJ: The Real Story of Musk's Twitter Takeover

3. The Verge: The end of the Googleverse

4. Pluribus News: Judge Blocks Arkansas Social Media Law Aimed at Moderation

5. The New York Times: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Concert to Be Made Into a Movie

   1. Puck: How the Swiftie Cinematic Universe Came to Theaters

6. Axios: Major Websites Are Blocking AI Crawlers from Accessing Their Content

7. Benedict Evans: Generative AI and the Question of Intellectual Property

8. Benedict Evans: When Tech Says No

   I’ve long wanted to write a newsletter on the nuances of when tech says it wants regulations but also says no to some of them. Benedict Evans’ piece goes into why some laws might actually be bad.

9. Morning Consult: Brands & Politics Intersection Chart Pack
   Most U.S. consumers (56%) believe American companies are becoming more political, though fewer say such corporations are becoming more culturally conservative (28%) or more culturally liberal (39%).

10. The Connector
    : WhatsApp and the Micro-Organizing of Protests

11. Axios: How Yahoo sparked a renaissance under new owners

12. Semafor: What happened to the TikTok ban? 

13. AP News: Mexico Confronts Fake News and Social Media in 2024 Elections

14. The Washington Post: ChatGPT breaks its own rules on political messages

15. The Verge: Judge Dismisses Republican Lawsuit Against Google Over Gmail's Spam Filtering

16. The Globe and Mail (Canada): Meta's News Ban Fails to Dent Facebook Usage

17. Facebook Newsroom: Raising Online Defenses: Protecting People on Facebook

18. Microsoft: Russia’s African coup strategy

19. Twitter Blog: Supporting People's Right to Accurate and Safe Political Discourse on Twitter

    Many news outlets reported that this was Twitter turning political ads back on everywhere when, in fact, they’ve been allowed in the U.S. since February - the news here is that this ban will be rolled back globally.

Cool job alert!

National Endowment for Democracy: Director, Independent Media and Information Space

RIP Jimmy Buffett

It was sad to wake up to a text from my friend sharing that Jimmy Buffett had died. Some of my favorite memories from the mid-aughts are of friends and I renting a camper to go down to Jiffy Lube and hang out with all the Parrottheads. I loved 5 o’clock somewhere with Alan Jackson. I hope he’s putting on a concert in heaven for everyone right now.