I am a voracious media consumer. While I like TV and movies, nothing feeds my information hole more than text. Books are great, but what I really like is an endless feed of timely information. And so news publications and really – newsletters! – are what do it for me. I read lots and lots of them. Also, when I’m driving long distances, which is more often for work these days, podcasts are also my jam. And then at the end of the day when I’m unwinding, YouTube videos.
Last December I sent out a list of everything I consume, which elicited more comments than any other newsletter post. So, here is my annual roundup of what I recommend. It’s not everything I read/watch/listen to, but it’s the things I suggest.
Enjoy, and if there’s something you think I should be checking out, please drop me a note!
What I Read For Basic News
National/International: New York Times, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Economist, Washington Post – It’s a broad mix. I’m lucky that most of these are paid for by my job, so I feel like I can dip in and out as needed. NYT/WaPo together cover the waterfront of national news, while Bloomberg has the most unbiased business reporting. FT comes up with spectacular scoops on both the US and UK side, while Economist manages to cover strategic global issues, particularly the green-oil battle and its many permutations.
Chicago: Sun Times, Block Club, The Triibe – Sun Times is punchier and more city-oriented than Tribune, Block Club covers every corner of the city, while The Triibe provides a much needed Black voice to the city. Honorable mention to South Side Weekly and Illinois Answers Project, I just don’t read them as often as I maybe should.
Other News
- The Atlantic – Fantastic commentary and snappy writing.
- The Bulwark – A conservative, non-MAGA perspective.
- Punchbowl News – Super insidery Congressional reporting.
- Garbage Day – The dark side of the web that’s actually driving culture. The most informative (for me) thing I read.
- CNN Reliable Sources – Daily track of what’s happening in media.
- Stat News – The best biomedical/science news around.
- Bolts Magazine – Progressive, activist, political reporting.
Climate
- Climate Diplomacy Brief – Insidery briefs on what’s happening in global negotiations. Down to how bad the toilets and hotels are at COP meetings.
- Distilled – A one-man band writing on the US green transition. Newsy and great journalism.
- Politico Power Switch – The business and politics of energy. Great writing and always relevant.
- Nat Bullard – On and off newsletter, but worth getting for the announcement of his annual giant slide deck on climate.
- Carbon Brief – The European alpha/omega on climate reporting.
- The Gigaton – How to get a job in green tech, and what’s happening in that business space.
- Bloomberg Green – A great, relevant newsletter. You don’t have to be a Bloomberg subscriber to get it.
- Canary News – The best US green/climate reporting available. Often invaluable state-level news.
- Heatmap – Often great reports, but kinda trend chasing. I’m not sure they know what they want to be when they grow up yet.
- Texas Energy & Capital Newsletter – Texas is where it’s all happening in clean energy right now. And this guy documents it all.
- Farm Policy News – From University of Illinois. Farms is climate. This is where you follow that.
- Climate Home News – Global climate news, especially on international negotiations.
Crazy Stuff
- Kottke – 30+ years of a website that’s a grab bag of the internet.
- Tom Scott – For 10 years Tom had a weekly YouTube channel where he showed something strange every week. Exhausted, he stopped that and now does a newsletter, which is great.
- Today In Tabs – Kind of in a (hopefully) temporary slump, Rusty has biting commentary on the media landscape that provides a thrill unlike no other.
- Jodi Ettenberg/Curious About Everything – Limited to bedrest by a horrible accident, Ettenberg reads more than anyone, and tells you which things to check out.
- Laura Olin – A fabulous, arty, sometimes weekly newsletter.
- Links I Would Gchat You – As if your cool friend was gchatting you links, but by email.
- Numlock News – Cool daily facts.
- Science News – Cool science stuff.
- Spoon & Tamago – Cool Japanese stuff.
I Wish I Had Money For
- E&E News – The best energy and climate reporting. Period. But it costs many thousands.
- New York Mag: The Cut – The best culture writing.
- New Yorker – The best writing. But soooo much! I get a new subscription every few years, then get overwhelmed and cancel.
Chicago
- Fooditor – The insider scoop on the Chicago food scene.
- City That Works – A Chicago policy wonk site turning out regular bangers.
- Block Club Arts – Awesome weekly arts recommendations from my neighbor, Gwen Ihnat.
Other Newsletters/Websites
- Construction Physics – How stuff gets built, from the perspective of engineers who do it.
- Scope of Work – Stories of how things get built in factories and the struggle to engineer them.
- Bad Astronomy – Star stuff for people who like it, but don’t have higher degrees in physics.
- Orbital Index – The business of space.
- Glenn Kessler – Former WaPo fact checker who went on his own.
- Paul Krugman – Pulitzer-winning economist and former NYT columnist. Writing relevant bangers daily.
- How To Read This Chart – Phillip Bump was a data journalist at Washington Post. He left and this is his personal data journalism blog.
- Phillips O’Brien – UK professor who writes about military and defense strategy, especially Ukraine war.
- Michael McFaul – Former US Amb to Russia and Stanford Prof who writes about international relations.
- Ben Thompson/Stratechery – The definitive tech newsletter.
- Benedict Evans – The view of tech from the VC perspective.
- Daring Fireball – For almost 30 years, a great site on Apple computer, design, and coding.\
- Rest of World – Tech reporting from (mostly) developing countries. Fascinating perspective.
- Matt Levine/Money Stuff – The funniest and best writing about Wall Street finance.
- Your Local Epidemiologist – Started during pandemic, it continues to be relevant in the age of RFK JR.
- Shorpy Photos – Amazing high res scans of photos from 80-150 years ago.
- The Pudding – Awesome data journalism on whacky topics.
- Colossal – Kinda art news, kinda just cool art.
- Coco Larkin Cooks – Fantastic French and Northern Italian home cooking recipes.
- New York Times Cooking – Tons of great kitchen-tested recipes and well organized.
- Epicurious – Decades of recipes from Bon Appetite and the (unfortunately lost) Gourmet Magazine. Terrible organization, super fru-fru recipes that will delight.
Cool Stuff
- Internet Archive – Archived websites from decades ago!
- Webpage Archive – This is how you get over paywalls for real.
- Catenary Maps – Awesome tracker of (almost) every train and bus in the US.
- Doodle – How you schedule meetings between disparate groups of people.
- Huffencooper Guide to NOLA – My buddies Andrew and Cinnamon have spent lots of time in New Orleans. Here’s their (exhaustive) recommendations. I’ve used many of them to great success.
- Green’s Dictionary of Slang – What you think it is.
- Ooh.Directory – A fantastic collection of blogs. Kinda like what Yahoo! Directory from 25 years ago.
- CDMX Tacos – My map of taco spots in Mexico City.
- Electricity Maps – Maps of electricity use from around the world, some of it updated live.
- Flourish – Gorgeous digital data graphing, requires a paid subscription.
- Datawrapper – Not as good as Flourish, but does not require a subscription.
- Nappy – Stock photos with people of color.
- Flighty – If you fly, this is the app. Free version is very good. Paid is unreal.
YouTube
- More Perfect Union – Investigations into economic issues from an organized labor perspective.
- Howtown – A pair of Vox explanatory journalists running their own project – and it’s very good.
- Soft White Underbelly – Interviews of people living on the margins of society.
- PBS News Hour – The only broadcast newscast still worth watching – broken into segments.
- Marques Brownlee – Honestly the best tech and car reviews anywhere.
- Daily Dose of Internet – Every crazy video of the day, reduced into 8 minutes.
- Yummyboy – People making Asian street food.
- Letterman – Clips from the old shows. Still the best talk show ever.
- FailArmy – My guilty pleasure I watch when my wife isn’t around. People fall and go boom.
- Koji Kobura – That synth riff you love so much, decomposed.
- Nerdwriter – Art and culture and why things matter.
- CinemaStix – Why certain film scenes and techniques work from a working film editor.
- The Historian’s Craft – We’re in a golden age of archeology, if you didn’t know. Here’s the latest in various archeological findings, with scholarly citations.
Podcasts
- Conversations with Tyler – Wide variety of interviews with all kinds of smart people.
- David Frum Show – A non-MAGA conservative talks to people.
- Foreign Affairs Interview – As in the magazine.
- Channels with Peter Kafka – Tons of media business scoops by this guy.
- Search Engine – A different topic investigated every week. Maybe start with the Berghain ep. So good.
- Song Exploder – Pop songs dissected, often with the writer of the song.
- Sharp China – What’s actually happening in China.
- Where Everybody Knows Your Name – Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson talk to celebrities.
- Joiners – Chicago chefs and people who work in hospitality. Fascinating.
I’m traveling to Central Europe next week, so I should have some cool insights to share for the New Year!