Newsletters on Life

Lieutenant, you would do me an enormous favor if you stopped calling me sir. The Shatner Chatner is a newsletter full of Daniel Lavery’s thoughts and feelings. It features thought-provoking personal essays, weird jokes, and opinions that give you a sneak peek into the writer’s mind. The author shares things you never knew you wanted to hear - from random observations and hypothetical scenarios to truthful stories about transition and family estrangement. Subscribe to Daniel Lavery’s niche worldview and enjoy 21st-century poetry.

Musings from a standup comedian and startup veteran The Rubesletter is a weekly newsletter where NYC comedian, writer, and filmmaker Matt Ruby shares his takes on different events happening around the crazy world we live in. Navigating through life in 2022 after everything we’ve been through feels like walking on a tightrope…without a balancing stick. In this newsletter, the author aims to share his perspective on things like tech, politics, society, and life and offer no BS advice to people who wish to see things from a different angle. You’ll find fun reads for everything ranging from learning how technology works, creative stand-up advice, and rants about the woke left Subscribe to the Rubesletter to get a different perspective on life, an interesting take on recent events, and relevant advice straight to your inbox every week.  

Chipping away at the inscrutability of modern life, popular culture, and how we feel about both. Maybe Baby is one of the leading culture newsletters on Substack. This newsletter is an attempt by Haley Nahman to understand the confusing yet exciting world around her, learning about modern life (and how to survive it) along the way. The author hopes to inspire people and offer a unique approach to life by sharing her personal stories and cultural critiques especially aiming at self-delusion, cognitive bias, mass media, and how our lives are affected by all three. Subscribe to Maybe Baby for weekly essays, recommendations, podcasts, and monthly advice where the author takes in 3 questions from readers and gives her detailed answers.

Weekly art, writing, and creative inspiration. A newsletter from the desk of Austin Kleon is not your ordinary curation. Being a writer who draws, the author sparks your curiosity by visually narrating different tips and tricks. Think of a technique on how to make a map of your mind or exercises to help you feel thankful. In addition to his creative bursts, you will get a list of ‘10 things worth sharing’. You can expect links to articles on how a book is made, music recommendations, original reviews of moby dick and so much more art-related things.  Want to engage with your creative side? Subscribe to Austin Kleon’s newsletter and get inspired. 

Newsletter with exclusive essays, good things, a book club, special devotional series, and so much more. “Super Jesus-y” newsletter is a mixture of soul-searching, feminism, and GIFs. Field Notes is a community as well, it is full of book recommendations and conversations with its readers. Sarah Bessey publishes questions and encourages discussions, shares prayers, and provides tools to practice all in the same newsletter format. Join the community in doing great work in the world.

figuring out how to be and raise ethical, joyful humans in beautiful, horrible times. The examined family is an honest, personal newsletter that encourages you to reflect on your life and to rethink and reassess what it means to live a good one. Courtney Martin reckons how the world has changed, shares the daily struggles of living in quarantine, and offers a Sunday Times Snapshot of “5 things worth noting from today’s New York Times”. The examined family is a mixture of essays, Q&As with activists from different fields and has an engaged community of like-minded, wise people.

Blackbird Spyplane is yr no. 1 source for “unbeatable recon” into style & culture Blackbird Spyplane is a cultural digest on all things COOL, it’s goofy, a bit ironic, and quite nerdy, but most of all - it’s undescribably cool. The essays are slang-full, nostalgia-heavy (think 2000’s internet vibes) pieces on culture, clothing, and the aesthetic that combines it all. They express their point-of-view through a well-fitting lingo of their own: “compulsive jawn-coppers” is how they describe themselves. It’s a brilliantly chaotic newsletter filled with celeb Q&A’s, giveaway, cool collabs, and their exclusive paid membership-only SpyMall. Subscribe to BBSP to get the freshest takes on our cultural zeitgeist and unapologetically edgy visuals.

Get It Together is a weekly newsletter full of original essays, interviews, and commentary about music, art, and building a creative life. Written by a queer-feminist person and tailored for elder Millenials, cynical queers, and independent artists, Get It Together is first and foremost - honest. Lauren Denitzio shares their real thoughts, tells you about things that they love and asks the right questions to understand how other artists figure it all out. The variety of issues range from learning to stop worrying and thoughts on Anthony Bourdain to interviews with book authors and behind-the-stage action (Warriors fans wru?). Subscribe for a “little ranty, pretty queer” publication and get it together yourself. 

Reflections on longing, confusion, and joy. Expect commentary on the human condition with a touch of humor, anger, and questioning. Ask Molly is an existentialist advice column with lots of perfectly placed fucks. Heather Havrilesky shares her wisdom exploring all things that are messy, frustrating, or unpleasant. Explore topics from marriage to little guys, politics to mean girls and you’ll see - Ask Molly tells exactly what you needed to hear.

Writing worth reading. The Browser is a daily newsletter that hosts five recommended articles, a podcast, and a video. Every day Robert Cotrell goes through a thousand articles and recommends five things worthy of your attention. The Browser is focused on writing with a lasting value and prioritized on best rather than the latest. The editors always provide their own original description with an explanation of why they believe this is a good piece of writing and why it is worth reading. Subscribe so you can “always have something to read on the train and interesting things to say at dinner.”