Five years ago I left my full-time job in journalism to write this newsletter full time. Back in 2023, we did a thread on Pivot Points, and this was one of mine — and a decision that has redefined the work that I do and the way that I do it. Unlike my previous Big Pivot (leaving academia), this decision was not made under duress. Yes, digital journalism was beginning what has proven to be a long, depressing implosion, but back in 2020, there were still jobs, and they were still good jobs.
Still, I had grown weary with the limitations of writing for the big, public internet and the SEO and A/B headline testing that defined it. I was sick of crafting headlines that were small variations of “WHY [INSERT TOPIC] MATTERS.” I wanted to do just slightly less telling and slightly more showing; I wanted to be able to go into detail and follow tangents and not worry about metrics that told me when, exactly, a reader clicked away from the story.
Culture Study offered me that opportunity — and control over my own career destiny, which was something I hadn’t felt, well, ever.
Every year I retell a version of this story on the anniversary of leaving and launching this newsletter. I’m not a big anniversary person, but I am a person who likes to revisit ideas and motivations and arguments. Back then, I was leaving because I was so fatigued by precarity — and wanted to have more freedom when it came to what was “worthy” of a story (and how I could write about it. Now, I realize that shifts in the industry would’ve landed me here no matter what. The difference was leaving on my own terms, and for me, with my career history — that has made all the difference.
But it was only possible because so many of you were willing to figure out what a newsletter community would look like. Things that feel very standard now — the Tuesday and Friday threads, the various concierges, Advice Time, the near-weekly-lengthy-Q&As, the podcast, even the headline formats — either didn’t exist or were only very slowly coming into focus. And even though some features have been refined and routinized, I’m always trying to figure out what sparks the best conversations, what pushes you in ways that feel meaningful, and what makes you want to send a newsletter to your friend and talk about it forever. What Culture Study is, and what Culture Study does.
Take the Q&As. They’re part of a sustainability strategy: they allow me to keep my publishing schedule but not have to write an original essay twice a week, every week. But they also allow me to give the platform over to someone doing intricate, mind-shifting cultural work, and to talk about that work for upwards of 3000 words. There are vanishingly few places on the internet where you do that for a large public audience. And no, they never attract as much readership or subscriptions as an original essay or a carefully paywalled list of recommendations. But they allow us to go deep and wide in our cultural explorations — often in subjects you might not ever otherwise pursue.
And that includes me! When an email shows up in my inbox asking if I’d like to interview the author of a book about medieval drawings of THE WOUND MAN and the way they reflect shifts in the way people thought about themselves and disease and healing and vulnerability, I’m like…..yes, absolutely?? (That one’s coming your way this Wednesday, btw). And I can say yes, with great enthusiasm, because I know that you, as readers, are curious. Like, what a flex that is: to have curious readers! Every week, I get to tell someone not to be afraid to go long or to get nerdy, because “my readers love that.” A writer’s dream.
And then there’s the community. Many of you, like me, learned how to communicate with others in the comments sections of small publications in the early 2010s. And while I hoped for something approximating that, we had all been directly and indirectly warped by years of Twitter, conditioned to understand the primary purpose of online communication as fight club or political purity policing.
We had forgotten, in other words, how to have a good or even an interesting time in the comments. But slowly, and with a lot less surveillance on my part than one might expect, we figured it out. Sometimes, those conversations are about what romance you’re reading — and sometimes they’re about what you’re doing to protect yourself and your community, or what you lie about (just a little). Sometimes they’re ever-expanding little galaxies around individual requests for advice.
People ask me how I managed to “build” a community like this. I wish I had a long list of secrets I could paywall, but mostly I just apply some of the strategies I learned in the classroom: try and get people to talk to each other, instead of to the person in the front of the room. There are various frameworks I’ve used to encourage that sort of discussion — across generations, locations, citizenship, subject areas, class, and precise politics — but the real reason it’s worked is the same reason the Q&As work. As readers, and as commenters, you’re curious. Instead of immediately reacting with disgust to, say, Bama Rush — you’re willing to be curious about your reaction.
If something confuses you, you ask more questions. If you notice some component of a discussion missing, you ask why. Granted, sometimes I cap off a piece with “What’d I miss?” but sometimes you just know a lot about something, or want to know more about something, and realize that the comments are the way to insert that perspective or request into the larger conversation. Your curiosity allows me to write from a place that’s far from the defensive crouch I found myself slowly adopting at the peak of Twitter. My pieces are less declarative and exploratory. I get to say: here’s what I’m thinking. What else should I be thinking about? It’s allowed me to expand the way I think about this work: I’m a writer, but I’m also a facilitator.
Every day, I realize all over again: that is a really, really good job. And every one of you who subscribes, who comments, who shares this work, and who lurks but loves it here — you make it possible.
Depending on when you first subscribed, you might be receiving a notification that your annual subscription is up for renewal. I know there are all sorts of reasons why people who want to be part of this community might no longer be able to pay, and if that’s the case for you, just email me, no explanation necessary, and I’ll extend your subscription. Crucially, if you do have the means to pay, your help makes that scenario possible.
Maybe you’ve been a part of it from day one. Maybe you subscribed just this last week to read about RushTok and MAGA Femininity. However long you’ve been here, what I said on the one-year anniversary holds true: You all help me see the stars as constellations, to continue to seek meaning and narrative amidst that vast, swallowing unknown. I am so grateful to be doing this work with you.
If you haven’t already become a subscriber — maybe today’s the day. It’s $5 a month or $50 a year, and you get all the glorious subscriber threads, the ability to participate in the comments, and full access to the weekly and monthly Things I’ve Read and Loved/Recs/Just Trust Me.
And just for fun, here are some stats from this past year — the most read post, the most shared, the one that converted the most people (I always find that interesting!), and then a handful of my *favorite* posts. Please feel free to share your own!
Longest Thread: Culture Study Local Friend Matchmaker, Round One
Tied For Longest Thread: The Smallest Hill You’d Die On
One of My Additional Favorite Threads: What Do You Lie About (Just a Little)
Favorite Practical Thread: How’d You Get Your Job?
One of My Favorite Interviews: A Beautiful Conversation That Will Shift Your Thinking About Parenting
Most Read Essay: Are People Bad At Their Jobs…Or Are The Jobs Just Bad?
Similarly Most Read: This is How We Fall Out of Love With the World
Most Read Interview: American Bulk
Most Listened-To Crossposted Episode of The Culture Study Podcast: Is BookTok Actually About Reading?
Most New Free Subscriptions: Welcome to Bama Confidential
Most New Paid Subscriptions (lol): One Gift Guide to Rule Them All
Congratulations! Thank you for giving us new ideas to consider and discuss in a community. I think that your reminder "don't be butts" is what helps to make the comment section work!
It’s me - I’m a lover and lurker!
“Don’t be a butt” has actually leaked into my day to day life as one of the ways I remind my twin boys to be nice to each other ;) it had many applications!