7/31/2020 Recommended Issues: Beauty, comics (!!!), and more...
Issues Worth Reading...
I’m going to change up this week’s issue a little bit from the normal “issues that flew under your radar”...
Many newsletters are written on a platform by a company called Substack -- and Substack just vetted 940 newsletter writers who applied to their Fellowship for Independent Writers. This week, Substack announced their 10 winners (yes, the odds of winning were lower than the odds of getting into Harvard), which write about a variety of subjects (finance, sourdough, literature, healthcare, faith, college athletics and more...) and hail from around the globe.
Given that Substack clearly believes these writers are incredible and that they are adding valuable perspectives to the world, I thought it would be worthwhile to share some of their writing with you-- and you can decide if any of them align with your interests. I read through a lot of newsletter issues by these new Fellows and picked ones that seem to epitomize the writer’s style and theme. Here they are:
Importantville, by Adam Wren.
Issue: “. . . to tame the savageness of man” on July 29, 2020
Adam writes about Indiana politics, business, and power in the Trump era… so his newsletter likely isn’t for all of you. But what’s interesting about this particular issue is that while it tells a story related to protests and civil rights back in the day of MLK, he questions whether we will have the same growth and leadership that blossomed from that time. It’s not “an Indiana story”, it’s a humanity question. That’s why this one is worth reading. Read it...
Amy McQuire
Issue: We must bear witness to black deaths in our own country on May 29, 2020.
Amy writes about Australian Aboriginal rights--and is keenly focused on settler-colonialism, justice, and violence. So again, not for all… but invaluable for those with an interest in learning more about this area. She is deep, thorough, passionate -- and trying to help get visibility to a community in need. This issue is particularly worth for reading for everyone because, while there is much global support for Black Lives Matter and outrage at the murder of George Floyd, it will get you thinking about your own country and minorities (like the Australian Aboriginals) who may not be receiving such visibility and support. Read it...
The Diff, by Byrne Hobart
The Diff is also one of our favorites; we’ve even called it out in our newsletter before! Byrne writes weekly to over 9k subscribers about inflection points in finance and technology. He asks intriguing questions like “Why are toys such a bad business?” and thoroughly works through the answers. He’ll dive super deep into a concept, like “The Bullwhip Effect” , first making the concept understandable and then relating it to something current in tech/finance. Other times, like this week’s issue on Jio & Reliance, he’ll just jump into a current event/occurrence and provide an incredibly insightful background and synthesis, plus forward-looking thoughts. In each newsletter, after the main (often quite long) chunk, he also always provides some little nuggets of fascinating analysis on current tech/finance activities (like reasons for dollar shortages right now). If you like to learn and think, there’s no way you could ever go wrong with The Diff... Read: The Bullwhip Effect and Jio & Reliance (the nuggets at the end are super worthwhile even if you can’t make it through the Mariana-Trench-deep info about Jio & Reliance) ...or just subscribe and have them come to your inbox weekly; you won’t be disappointed.
Beauty IRL, by Darian Symoné Harvin
Issue: Beauty in June: A Month in Review on July 2, 2020
Darian writes about beauty at the intersection of politics and pop culture through breaking news, trends, and personal experiences. This particular issue definitely demonstrates her ability to weave these all together, and how she can open your eyes in a way that you may not have expected when you heard this was about ‘beauty’. Darian’s newsletter is no series of tips and tricks; she presents data about the beauty industry, talks about how it has responded to Black Lives Matter, discusses global brands’ rebranding of skin lightening products, and more. Even if you don’t think you’re interested in “the beauty industry”, you’ll definitely have some interesting things to talk about after reading this issue (and her others too). Read it…
Drawing Links, by Edith Zimmerman
Issue: Slow running on July 22, 2020
Now this is a UNIQUE newsletter. It’s comics. Yes, you got it. She writes and illustrates a newsletter of comics. The content of the comics tends to come from her life...although some are more imaginary. She also usually presents a set of links at the end of her comic which cover a wide range of things she has found interesting. This issue seems emblematic of her style...comic drawings of how she’s feeling as novice runner, with some positive takeaways, and some interesting links. If anything, this is worth a read to see how someone actually makes a living writing a comics newsletter (or at least tries -- she quit her day job a year ago to do this full time!) Read it...
There are a few more in the Substack Fellows list, but I’m realizing this newsletter has already gotten fairly long! I’ll hold off on the others for next week.
I hope you’ve found some of these newsletters or issues intriguing! If there are any categories of newsletters you’d like to learn about, feel free to let me know. I’d love to hear from you: newsletters@narrowscale.com.
As always, if you’re interested in receiving more from any of the newsletters above, you’re always welcome to subscribe to Importantville, Amy McQuire, The Diff, Beauty IRL, or Drawing Links.
Feedback is always helpful..how did you find this issue?
~Jessica
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