Hey gang — it’s been a minute. What have you all been up to for the past 2+ years? “What have I been up to?” you ask? I’ve been busy doing a lot of stuff, sometimes to the detriment of my napping, though longtime readers will be happy to know that TAENR is still alive and well. If you remember me, and even if you don’t, you may be wondering why I’m writing on Substack, given the reasons why I left back in late 2023.
Well, a year or so after I left, I got to wondering how things had evolved in terms of some of the content Substack allowed and monetized on the platform. So I Googled and found an article — actually, a Substack post! — that came out not long after my last post. (I guess I moved past the issue and didn’t think much about it for a while.) Without getting into detail, this writer called out sloppy methodology by Platformer, whose reporting directly contributed to decisions by many creators — including me — to stop using the platform in the first place. You can read piece that here, if you like — I found it extremely interesting.
With that, I’m not taking a position on the matter one way or another — if anything, it illustrates certain quandaries about the nature of existence that lots of folks smarter than yours truly have debated for centuries. More on that below — but that’s also not why I’m here:
So if I’m not here to tell you that I’ve changed my mind about Substack, nor am I here to engage in any sort of epistemological debate — then why am I here?
I’m here to tell you about the launch of my new platform, Bub & Pop. (I host it over at ghost.io.) The first major project I’m launching is a podcast where I have conversations with musicians and music-adjacent folks about music, careers in music, life, the universe, and everything. I’m working with my friend and producer, Tedd Kanakaris, and we’re extremely excited to start sharing the conversations we’ve had with you. The plan is to release them weekly going forward.
I’ll release a newsletter each time I have a new episode and also may post from time to time with other kinds of content. It could just be a notification of some new pieces I’ve written. (Oh yeah, since we last spoke, I’ve gone on to write over 100 freelance pieces!) It could be a notification re a piece of honest-to-goodness journalism that I’ve done, like this recent piece debunking a story about the Epstein Files and an alleged Grateful Dead/Fare Thee Well ticket resale scam in 2015. It could include more essays, works of fiction…who knows what? There’s a good chance I’ll wind up writing more about napping in some form or fashion. (Fun fact: the first piece I wrote for Mental Floss was about napping, as was my first published music-related piece (kinda)!)
The bottom line is that I’ve LOVED my experience as a freelance journalist and feel like launching my own podcast and platform is the best next way I can continue doing my part to document, commemorate, and raise awareness of the music, artists, and stories that catch my attention.
At the risk of being presumptuous, I’ve added your email address to my new distro going forward. Soon, you’ll receive another email from me with a link to the first episode of the show. Please feel free to unsubscribe or let me know you don’t want to be on the list any longer — no hard feelings at all! (Though if it helps, I don’t envision posting more than once a week.)
Beyond that, you can find us on YouTube or wherever you get your audio podcasts, as well as on the various social platforms. Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Threads | X | LinkedIn
Looking forward to seeing where the journey takes us!
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