I'm Back! Welcome to 'Blow the Stack'

I’m back!

Welcome to my Substack newsletter, Blow the Stack, where I’ll cover politics, culture, data, polling, aging gracefully, and the pursuit of happiness each week. In other words, I plan to be a fierce voice in terrifying times, reminding us of our humanity and helping to restore our bearings.

This is my first foray in independent journalism after spending my career in newsrooms, most recently as a columnist at The New York Times.

My last years at the paper weren’t my most pleasant. My job went from being one I would say, earnestly, I would do for free, to one I struggled to justify doing for pay.

The zombie thing that came to be published under my name had a dwindling trace of my breath in it. It was no longer fully my voice.

So, when I parted ways with The Times, it was without sorrow. On balance, my years at the paper were weighted towards the good.

I still wanted it to succeed — even if without me.

First, I grew up there, coming to the paper as a college intern three decades ago. I believed in it—and still believe in it—because The Times is in my blood. That may sound like corporate sycophancy to some, and I won’t vigorously contest that assessment.

I will only say that The Times took a chance on me when I was just a gawky country boy with little more than grit, ambition, and budding talent. It allowed me to do things I could never have imagined, inventing and reinventing myself. (For example, most of you don’t know that I was on the committee to create Thursday Styles, and I was the creative director of that section in its first months in 2005.)

But more importantly, in an era of terrifying contraction of traditional news media, we need The Times — and other news outlets — to not only survive but to prosper.

After 17 years of churning out columns, I knew that I wanted to graduate, so to speak, and author more books — I’m engrossed in the writing of a new book now! — but, I was ambivalent about producing more news essays. Frankly, my confidence was injured in that space, and confidence is essential for an essayist. The reader can sense hesitation, unease and lack of conviction just as they can recognize the muscularity of thought and the sure-footedness of a well-crafted phrase.