Recommended by The First Person with Michael Judge
Laurie Garrett is a must read for any thinking and feeling human being. By far journalism’s most celebrated science writer, she's the only person ever to win all three of the Big “Ps” of journalism—the Pulitzer, the Peabody, and the Polk. And for good reason, her writing and reporting is unequaled.
Hemley moves seamlessly from genre to genre—journalism, novels, memoir, travel writing, autofiction—always revealing the truth and beauty in places too many of us overlook.
As an old-school journalist and writer, I’m not big on “self-help” writing. But Tara Schuster’s Substack is the exception—a no BS zone full of good humor and great advice. Thanks, Tara, for helping me be grateful for the miracle that is my body and soul.
The Brennan Center and Michael Waldman's Substack "The Briefing" is full of in-depth reporting and analysis that is always enlightening and sometimes terrifying. Many are both. Read them. Our judicial branch is failing us at the highest levels, and when I say "us" I mean all Americans.
Deborah Stein’s mind and heart are like her paintings and writing… honest, joyful, heartbreaking, and miraculous. I can’t get enough of everything she does.
Why read Rekha Basu? In-depth reporting and brilliant writing, but above all a moral compass and commitment to the truth that is needed in these confusing times. Rekha is the real deal, a testament to rock-solid journalism. Read her work.
Harmony Holiday sings the truth in every post, not just about music but the souls from which it rises and flows. Like the music she loves, every sentence is "a portal to all kinds of renewal and understanding." Beautiful, brilliant, and necessary.
Brilliant, dispassionate analysis from one of the best reporters and writers of our time.
In 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" “A republic, if you can keep it,” replied Franklin. Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American is necessary reading for anyone who wants not only to “keep” our republic, but better understand and protect it.