Courtney Cook

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Reading on the Phone
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Reading on the Phone

Substack's new phone app + recommendations

Courtney Cook
Mar 9
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Reading on the Phone
courtneycook.substack.com

Hey there, survivalists,

I’m dropping this mid-week mailing to share some good news for all of us weirdos who read long form writing on their phones: Substack has released its first phone app.

click through to see the video (and hear surprisingly calm piano music)

Some quotes from the announcement, which I quite liked:

. . . As media businesses became more and more anemic, writers were relegated to content-production roles and playing attention games on social media, where “engagement” is prized above all else, including quality and truth.

It is clear to us that these problems can’t be solved with a tweak to an algorithm or a just-so regulation. Instead, the entire system needs to change. With Substack, we have set out to build an alternative media ecosystem . . . where writers are rewarded with direct payments from readers, and where readers have total control over what they read . . .

It is an app for deep relationships, an alternative to the mindless scrolling and cheap dopamine hits that lie behind other home screen icons. It offers a quiet space to read, where the work itself is given the spotlight and you’re not pulled into status games or trivial diversions.

iphone users can get the app here. Android users, like me, have to defer gratification a bit longer. Here’s the waitlist.

If this inspires you to financially support independent writing, here is another thing to click.

Here are some newsletters that I actually fish out of the chaos of my email so that I can read—which is honestly my best recommendation.

Gossip Time is clever and nicely snarky and is positioned for something like ‘middle millennial ‘ up through GenX.

Gossip Time
Bill Hader and Anna Kendrick have been dating for an amount of time that will shock you
Hello and welcome to Gossip Time, a weekly guide to the stars by Allie Jones. This week: a comedian and an actress have a secret relationship, a pop star and a different actress have a secret baby, and Colin Jost and Pete Davidson buy the Staten Island Ferry…
Read more
6 months ago · 15 likes · Allie Jones

For balanced, thoughtful, information about Covid-19 and other matters of public health, Eric Topol’s Ground Truth delivers.

Ground Truths
Where do we stand with Omicron?
There has been a flood of new data in the past few weeks regarding Omicron’s impact throughout the world, and specifically on the influence of vaccination (with or without boosters) on symptomatic infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, including durability. It’s actually remarkable how much and how quickly we are learning about Omicron and our abilit…
Read more
6 months ago · Eric Topol

Betsy Marro’s The Spark treads similar terrain to that of Survival by Book: creativity, books, life; think of it as our West Coast booksister.

Spark
Forbidden Fruit
What was your forbidden fruit? Think back. You’re thirteen again, or twelve or any age when the adults in your life consider you “too young” for certain reading material, movies, music, or art. Did that make you want it more? If you got your hands on a book, a story, a comic, or went to a movie that was not “age-appropriate” how did it impact you…
Read more
4 months ago · 8 likes · 17 comments · Elizabeth Marro

The Lunar Dispatch has all of your moon-gazing covered.

The Lunar Dispatch
Snow Moon 2022
Dear Lunatics, This weekend, while working on a story, I paused for half an hour to plot out moon phases. Most fiction writers handle the moon like a careless gaffer, and I was determined to show our nearest celestial body more respect. At least the detective novelist Alan Bradley had the courtesy to include the following postscript to one of his books…
Read more
5 months ago · 15 likes · 7 comments · Will Dowd

Why is this interesting? is old school, high quality, feature writing on interesting topics that we have forgotten to care about because they are not in the shape of memes.

Why is this interesting?
The Sleeper Train Edition
Colin here. Over the course of modern travel, we’ve largely optimized for speed. Long, overland routes that would have taken weeks have turned into short-hop commuter flights. In the US, planes are favored in lieu of trains due to the sorry state of Amtrak. The ritual of the long journey seems out of favor. But in some places, it is coming back…
Read more
4 months ago · 7 likes · 2 comments · Colin Nagy

Feeling a bit uneasy about inflation, gas prices, the world economy? In Big, Matt Stoller’s lens is monopolies, but his range is expansive.

BIG by Matt Stoller
Monopolies Take a Fifth of Your Wages
Welcome to BIG, a newsletter on the politics of monopoly power. If you’d like to sign up to receive issues over email, you can do so here. In 2018, a new Federal Trade Commissioner named Rohit Chopra began stirring up trouble at the agency. There are five commissione…
Read more
4 months ago · 12 likes · 7 comments · Matt Stoller

If you are hungry, enjoy beautiful art design, or just want the Wordle of food blogs, try Above the Fold

Above the Fold
Year in Review: So Many Dumplings, So Little Time
Welcome to Above the Fold, a free newsletter all about dumplings and the people who make them. Like what you see? Subscribe and it’ll come straight to your inbox twice a month (and sometimes more…
Read more
7 months ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Leah Mennies

If you need to know the difference between a leftist and a liberal, (you knew I had to drop one of these) Freddie deBoer’s your guy. I like him for his range of interests and moral courage. He’s not for the politically faint of heart, though, so look after yourselves.

Freddie deBoer
Please Just Fucking Tell Me What Term I Am Allowed to Use for the Sweeping Social and Political Changes You Demand
You know personally I’ve been achingly specific about my critiques of social justice politics, but fine - no woke, it’s a “dogwhistle” for racism. (The term “dogwhistle” is a way for people to simply impute attitudes you don’t hold onto you, to make it easier to dismiss criticism, for the record.) But the same people say there’s no such thing as politic…
Read more
8 months ago · 511 likes · 364 comments · Freddie deBoer

Ok, now I gotta go back to my day job. Happy reading and don’t forget to share the love.

Become a Survival by Book influencer—you know you want to.

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Elizabeth Marro
Writes Spark Mar 10Liked by Courtney Cook

Hey, thanks for including me and Spark, Courtney! I like the idea of being the West Coast sister to Survival By Book.

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