Newsletters on Life

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.

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.  

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.

Cabinet of Chic Curiosities for Avid Traveling Lovers Travel in the past and back with Messy Nessy. Join Vanessa on her traveling adventures and get her most eye-catching delights delivered to your inbox every week. The purpose of her fun-filled journeys is to share them with her followers and take them along with her through historical sites, bustling markets, and breathtaking gardens. Tune in to her newsletter to discover her engaging travel stories like the lost romance of the Transylvania Spa Town, a summer in Paris’ treehouse bars, and a trip to Sweden to discover where the real hobbits take the summer off. Subscribe to Messy Nessy for 13 of her most obscure yet interesting discoveries to start your Monday and a few conversation starters every Friday and stay for the always inspirational website

A weekly extraction of fascinating things humans put on the Internet. For curious people in a hurry.  This Week’s Worth provides insights, summaries, and links to the creme de la creme of the world wide web. Personal development looks like the main theme running throughout the newsletter, but you can expect loads of different stuff. The topics range from best beliefs sourced from HN to articles on historic events and from book notes and insights to “how-to” blog posts. Subscribe for content and stay for tweets and GIFs of the week!

Coffee shop sounds sent to your inbox every weekday. Whether it’s 4 hours of Parisian cafe ambiance, 30 minutes of grinding and pouring coffee goodness, you’ll feel like you’re out there, enjoying the coffee, without leaving the comfort of your house. Coffeehouse has evolved from only 2 sentence commentary next to a link to interesting ramblings on productivity techniques and recipes to make your own drink (mostly something other than coffee).  Subscribe for the coffe shop sounds and stay to learn and connect with fellow remote workers.  

judge mathis recaps + occasional sad garbage bitches gotta eat is a blog turned into the newsletter, turned into a recap of episodes of Judge Mathis. Samantha Irby shares her personal experiences and captures powerful truths, which are all very relatable. She’s also giving recommendations for books, she’s reading, snacks she’s making, and things worth watching on TV. Samantha Irby’s writing is raw and hilarious. Expect stories about awkward sexual experiences, recipes for green things that look like health, and, of course, lots of recaps on Judge Mathis, presented through the author’s comical lens.

No Girl is an Island is your semimonthly ray of sunshine + free therapy in a world that wants more compassion, kindness, and cat videos. You won't find politics, preaching, or tips on how to synergize your workspace. Instead, you'll receive doses of art, music, articles, recipes, or videos that I found funny, useful, or simply worth sharing. Reading Lani’s letters feels like listening to a friend. These free-spirited thoughts could sometimes be very honest and personal, other times just witty and cute, but they are always very relatable. Subscribe for a fresh dose of honesty and enjoy your therapy session!

A weekly missive in which I write about books, behavior, and the brain. Tune in! Tom White considers the newsletter a work of experimentation. White Noise is the author’s attempt to make sense of the content he consumes, as “putting pen to paper help elucidate the what, the why, and the how of things.” White Noise targets thoughtful, curious minds with the smooth prose and nonfictional insights that come from extensive reading, thinking, and real-life experiencing. 

Weekly observations from the Internet Wilderness. Naive Weekly is a personal newsletter that will take you out of your internet bubble. Prepare to jump through links, fall down rabbit holes, and discover unimaginable corners of the web. Kristoffer organizes the newsletter into specific sections for roadside flowers (“single-purpose websites reminding us that the internet is beautiful”), field notes (curation of interesting blog posts that keep the internet diverse), and collections (think of Strava art and 90s screensavers). The author also shares interviews with readers of Naive Weekly and other personal projects, like Penpal cafe, that connects people through letters. Subscribe to explore the ever-expanding internet jungle through Kristoffer’s extraordinary lens.