It feels like either way there’s something of interest for me--like, maybe I don’t have time or energy for a thread discussion on a particular Friday, but on that day I will enjoy a quick look (or even a deep dive) into some links. Or maybe the links don’t grab me, but the discussion does. And if for some reason neither does, that’s OK too, every post can’t speak to everyone.
That said, if you need to split them up, I’m here for it any which way that works for you.
I'm also the same. Often it's a link that I'll comment on. Plus, I think the amount of emails is good now. I wouldn't want to see the links on Sunday, for example, adding another email to the week. (and possibly more work for you and Corrine?)
My only issue with links, (and I've made this comment in other newsletters) is if you could name the publication before the link, so I know if I am using up one of my 'free' links or if it's to a publication I already subscribe to. Some newsletters just say 'oh you've got to read this', with not much explanation, and it turns out to be my last free link and sometimes it wasn't worth it, if that makes sense. I subscribe to a lot of media, but can't afford everything, so rationing is a choice I need to make!
agreed, or (if possible) many publications offer "gift links" to allow non-subscribers to be able to read. I know NYT does this, and its really nice when someone thinks to share that type instead of just a straight paywalled link!
The NYT gift links are *technically* not for this purpose (it says something about how you’re only supposed to give them to one person), but I do see folks using them this way.
I agree with this. I believe in supporting content, but I can't subscribe to everything either. I love the links and recs, will follow them down multitudes of rabbit holes if necessary!
I would add that it would also be helpful to know when you're linking to a Substack piece that's behind a paywall ahead of time. I pay for a bunch of Substacks, including BT, and as a writer, I totally support writers being paid. But I can't pay for all of them, and it's irritating to follow a link (from here or elsewhere) only to learn I have to pay to continue reading. (This is also why I don't want to get "preview" emails from the Substacks I'm not paying for. I know you're writing stuff I'm not paying to read--you sending me half an email is not going to make me pay. (You, of course, is not you, Virginia, but the general Substack writer you!)) It would be helpful if Substack had the gift link option as well, but that's probably complicated.
Alas, I think preview emails are a fixture of the Substack ecosystem -- they are far and away the best tool for converting someone from free to paid and when subscriptions are the only revenue stream, that matters.
Agreed with this, would love a note about paywalls! I am unemployed and have comp subscriptions/pay for as much as I can, but I was bummed to realize that I couldn’t read today’s Roxane Gay piece. Obviously she deserves to get paid! But I will usually skip clicking on paywalled posts to save myself some heartache over not being able to give worthy authors my (financial) support.
Wardrobe Oxygen does a really good job of this - she will note something like gift link because she is subscribed and is using the gift link option from her subscription
Jun 9, 2023·edited Jun 9, 2023Liked by Virginia Sole-Smith
As a non-binary parent, I've noticed that the newsletters about parenting often assume the reader is a mother who is handling the majority of childcare. This isn't a criticism, because I know that I'm in a minority! However, I think newsletters that address queer parenting or different divisions of labor would be interesting to a general audience. (For example, how do parents deal with stigma that surrounds their relationship, especially in concert with the experience of being a fat parent and/or the parent of a fat child? How do co-parents who divide labor equally handle parenting at the same time, including things like intuitive eating and resisting diet culture? How do families with more than two parents/guardians manage the division of labor, food, and mental load?)
I've also been startled a few times by the newsletter's assumptions about school/camp/budget/living situation size and type. It might be cool to have more guests on who have experience with living within a tight budget or in a smaller space. I love when you speak to a guest who has a radically different experience, because I feel like it gives a much fuller picture of diet culture/parenting/etc.
I really love the newsletter and am really grateful that I subscribed. Thank you for all the help you've given me!
This struck a chord for me. As a queer person who was kicked out of my family house at a young age, it’s taken a long time to recalibrate/establish my personal finances. I did not have access to the same privileges most teens and folks in their 20s had access to. As such, I have a very different relationship to money, to families, and know that what I had to do to survive to get to my age and what I’ve been able to achieve (a family, a masters degree, so many student loans, and a career) is not everyone’s path. This is something that isn’t really addressed in the parenting or diet culture world and I’d love to see/hear more of it. ❤️
Just a quick comment on the survey - can you make the race categories checkboxes next time? As a biracial person, I feel like I’m flattening/othering myself when I check the biracial bucket. I’m both of my races /and/ biracial! I know this makes the numbers a bit messier, but please consider the humble checkbox?
Same! I generally would check both queer and lesbian, which to me denotes “a lesbian but not the TERF kind”. This is the kind of ridiculous, tiny signaling I agonize over for no reason, so the checkboxes would have helped I think 😅
Jun 9, 2023·edited Jun 9, 2023Liked by Virginia Sole-Smith
Idk if this is the right place to put it, but my dream essay is one that I can forward to people who are completely immersed in diet culture and truly believe that weight is controllable and thinness is necessary for health (mostly my mom). I’ve been trying to find the right resource to send her that’s short enough that she’ll actually read it and sort of covers the basics. Ideally she’d read Fat Talk, but she won’t, and she hasn’t listened to the Maintenance Phase podcast ep I’ve sent either. My mom is thin and is the kind of person who might gain five pounds and then lose it by dieting, so she is SURE that diets do work. She just does not understand that a thin person who gains and then loses five pounds is completely and totally different than a fat person trying to be thin. And she very clearly believes that thinness is morally superior to fatness, even though she would tell you she doesn’t.
I agree with lots of the comments below but just also wanted to A. Send a hug because this is so hard and B. Let you know I too am ALWAYS trying to write this essay. Even if it won’t be the silver bullet for anyone -- I keep trying.
The dream. My mom is in her 70s and is always pointedly evangelizing to me about Noom. Every time she gains a few extra pounds, she just goes back to Noom to lose them again, easy peasy, it's really a shame I won't just give it a try! I don't engage her on the topic at all but I dream of someday stumbling upon the perfect essay or article that would be the necessary blend of non-confrontational, informative, and irrefutable. She absolutely does not accept a starting premise that treats body weight as a neutral - a moral neutral, a health neutral, whatever. So like, I don't actually think anyone could write this mythical perfect essay - but I still dream.
I feel you on this, Ella ❤️ I realized awhile back that every time I read/watch/hear any anti-diet, pro-fat liberation media, that I am engaging with it from the lens of “will this be the piece that convinces the people in my life who think being fat is a morally bankrupt choice that there is another way?” It kind of robs me from my enjoyment of them because I know there is never ever going to be a piece that does that — because those anti-fat people have every single piece of evidence they need if they would just be curious and observant of the world.
Anything the perfect essay would say is already right in front of them: how obvious it is that denying fat people access, healthcare, safety, kindness, and opportunities only reduces health. How clear that fat people exist across a spectrum of “health”, as do thin people, and that everything in nature also shouts at us that a diversity of body shapes and sizes is natural. The evidence is already there, and it makes me really sad that I have had family members, friends, coworkers who are willfully remaining ignorant because they see the rewards of being adjacent to thinness as too valuable.
It’s heartbreaking. I am so angry and disappointed at people who won’t bend. My partner’s best friend’s husband is body-shaming their daughter. His wife bought Fat Talk and tried to share it with him, along with signing them up for an anti-diet dietician that works with families — and he refused to consider any of it. I think Fat Talk is perfect in how it approaches this topic, and this guy refuses because he claims it’s just “excuses”. (We are doing everything we can to provide his daughter with counter messaging and access to food anytime for any reason, and divorce is on the table if he doesn’t start to work on his shit. But ugh, it just breaks my heart.)
Ella - I really want to give you a hug. I know having a parent with such a radically different perspective is difficult. But also, if I may, that essay while its the dream ... I’m not sure it’s doable? It’s a lot to distill into an easily digestible morsel of information.
I fear that if someone that is so close to you cannot listen to a podcast episode that is important to you, I’m not positive that getting them to consider another perspective on the diet culture that is so enmeshed in out society is possible. Which is a sad thing. I say this as someone who has spent years in therapy to come to terms with the fact that I cannot change my own parent’s view point, and that that energy is better spent elsewhere. Sending you hugs.
Currently on a break from my mom, cause I just can’t deal with her diet centric gospel, or the need for everything to be ‘natural’ or the misconstrued notions about health and wellness she holds on to like a shield. I’m trying to unlearn so much if this behaviour, that was thrust on me my whole life. In addition to wanting to live my life more authentically, and finding my own queer voice and identity later in life after reading straight for so long. (More to say about this, but not now) Oh, and struggling to raise a lovely non-neuro typical kid. I’m tired!
So, I’ve chosen to just cut off contact until I have the energy to enunciate the boundaries I need for myself and my family around all of this. A long winded way to say: something to forward to at least place the conversation in an informed, empathetic, and well written way would be the ultimate tool to have.
Hello. I'm taking the opportunity to say: my favourite was actually when you answered my question. :) I was the one who wrote the panicked-sounding question about my kid using the word 'treat' and went into a spiral from there. You were so caring in your response and I felt like you had become part of my 'village' - which feels weird but also true. You said to keep you updated: it was so helpful.
And, I also benefited from your discussion on eating in front of the TV. When we spend so much time with our kids, meals in front of the TV to actually get a break and to feed ourselves with some slowness and care just feels right, even though it goes in the face of my own upbringing and also what I would 'want' for our family. Thank you for that compassion and vision as well!
Cue Billy Joel song: I love you just the way you are.
I subscribe to A LOT of Substacks (because I believe in paying writers). I consider you and Lyz Lenz to be the most consistent because you've basically created mini-magazines with regular features that arrive according to schedule. Oh, also Culture Study. Burnt Toast hits the sweet spot IMHO. And I especially like links round-ups. I always find something I missed.
Agree! As a Substack author trying to gauge the "sweet spot" for content, tone and stucture/form BT has been inspirational as to how to stay on mission and build, grow and retain a loyal audience/community. One suggestion I'd make is to add the Friday threads and links to your "about" page - it's a valuable piece of what you get as a subscriber! Thanks, Virginia, Corinne and the BT crew.
at the time I took the poll, nearly a quarter of folks wanted Friday threads and Sunday links & recs, and while I'm having lots of anxiety about how it makes me sound, I feel the need to somehow say that I don't want more emails. I'm not sure I can say this strongly enough. I don't want more than 3 emails per week from anyone (that isn't work related, and those only because I have to lol). and I know I could opt out and just not read them, but I actually can't because what if I miss something amazing and life changing?
I know, too, that this is a "me" problem (cue t swift), and I won't withdraw my subscription in a huff if you move to more emails per week or anything. but I hope that in a world that clamors for more, more, all the time more, that my lil voice saying "this is just right!" will be helpful too.
whether you leave the Friday emails the same or alternate them or just do whatever you feel like, I'm here for it. you've earned trust and none of these choices will ruin burnt toast :)
I am surprised to see that “keep it the way it is” is winning by something of a landslide, so while I can’t promise to NEVER add another email (there are so many variables that go into newsletter/content strategy and something could change!), I can say, I’m inclined to go with the majority vote on this right now.
absolutely something could change! and special occasions happen! I don't want you to feel like you can't do more if you actually want to do more. just seems like so many folks are feeling pressure to do more, and I wanted to be a voice for not that :)
Agreed. Cannot do any more than 3 a week. I used to subscribe to way more newsletters and I couldn’t keep up with the sheer volume. And everyone thought more and more would get me to pay but it was not an incentive because I didn’t want to give more time when I was barely keeping up. I only subscribe to 4 newsletters now.
I mostly feel burdened by the links. A number of people send out links in this way now, and it ends up feeling like I’ve been sent a to-do list. I mostly don’t read those emails anymore, so I would appreciate them being separated from the threads.
I really like the Friday emails as is. My only gripe is I don't always get to them on or close to Friday so then I feel like I miss out on contributing but that's really a me problem 😅
I like it all. I’m currently trying to stay off of social media to the extent it’s possible (love my Everything Free group on FB, though!) so I appreciate a post telling me what I might want to read on social media. You save me the scrolling.
One of the people who preferred the Friday email as a simple thread here 🙋 I think I would prefer a separate email with links (that one could opt out of) although I totally understand the need to share interesting things you've read during the week ! Links & Rec feel a bit overwhelming to me, one because I get recs elsewhere but also because visually it's a lot. I used to be able to read the Friday email quickly and dive into the discussion, now the links are in "quote" format for substack so it looks like I'm scrolling through big images of text, it's visually confusing. Maybe if you kept the recs as embedded links into short phrases / words it would work better ? It wouldn't feel like so much is happening (it's a bit like the PS at the end of the newsletter with 2 big block images of the Fat Talk Book, it's a lot to read on a small phone)
I don’t always have time on Fridays or something I feel adds to this conversation, but I guess I still like that it happens every Friday because that means there are more times when I can contribute. As for the links, they certainly don’t harm me in any way. Normally I just skim through. On a rare occasion I’ll click on something.
Now that I’ve written this I don’t think it adds to the conversation… I guess I’m saying leave it?
I actually like the threads and links together.
It feels like either way there’s something of interest for me--like, maybe I don’t have time or energy for a thread discussion on a particular Friday, but on that day I will enjoy a quick look (or even a deep dive) into some links. Or maybe the links don’t grab me, but the discussion does. And if for some reason neither does, that’s OK too, every post can’t speak to everyone.
That said, if you need to split them up, I’m here for it any which way that works for you.
I'm also the same. Often it's a link that I'll comment on. Plus, I think the amount of emails is good now. I wouldn't want to see the links on Sunday, for example, adding another email to the week. (and possibly more work for you and Corrine?)
I feel this way too.
me three!
Me too!
I also feel this way
I, too, enjoy having the threads and links together!
I like it too!
My only issue with links, (and I've made this comment in other newsletters) is if you could name the publication before the link, so I know if I am using up one of my 'free' links or if it's to a publication I already subscribe to. Some newsletters just say 'oh you've got to read this', with not much explanation, and it turns out to be my last free link and sometimes it wasn't worth it, if that makes sense. I subscribe to a lot of media, but can't afford everything, so rationing is a choice I need to make!
Totally makes sense and I can def be more mindful of this.
agreed, or (if possible) many publications offer "gift links" to allow non-subscribers to be able to read. I know NYT does this, and its really nice when someone thinks to share that type instead of just a straight paywalled link!
The NYT gift links are *technically* not for this purpose (it says something about how you’re only supposed to give them to one person), but I do see folks using them this way.
I agree with this. I believe in supporting content, but I can't subscribe to everything either. I love the links and recs, will follow them down multitudes of rabbit holes if necessary!
I would add that it would also be helpful to know when you're linking to a Substack piece that's behind a paywall ahead of time. I pay for a bunch of Substacks, including BT, and as a writer, I totally support writers being paid. But I can't pay for all of them, and it's irritating to follow a link (from here or elsewhere) only to learn I have to pay to continue reading. (This is also why I don't want to get "preview" emails from the Substacks I'm not paying for. I know you're writing stuff I'm not paying to read--you sending me half an email is not going to make me pay. (You, of course, is not you, Virginia, but the general Substack writer you!)) It would be helpful if Substack had the gift link option as well, but that's probably complicated.
Alas, I think preview emails are a fixture of the Substack ecosystem -- they are far and away the best tool for converting someone from free to paid and when subscriptions are the only revenue stream, that matters.
Just noting that today's Roxane Gay piece is a case in point!
Ah! I pay for Roxane so didn’t even realize. But can check for this!
Agreed with this, would love a note about paywalls! I am unemployed and have comp subscriptions/pay for as much as I can, but I was bummed to realize that I couldn’t read today’s Roxane Gay piece. Obviously she deserves to get paid! But I will usually skip clicking on paywalled posts to save myself some heartache over not being able to give worthy authors my (financial) support.
big agree with this, fwiw
Wardrobe Oxygen does a really good job of this - she will note something like gift link because she is subscribed and is using the gift link option from her subscription
I agree!
As a non-binary parent, I've noticed that the newsletters about parenting often assume the reader is a mother who is handling the majority of childcare. This isn't a criticism, because I know that I'm in a minority! However, I think newsletters that address queer parenting or different divisions of labor would be interesting to a general audience. (For example, how do parents deal with stigma that surrounds their relationship, especially in concert with the experience of being a fat parent and/or the parent of a fat child? How do co-parents who divide labor equally handle parenting at the same time, including things like intuitive eating and resisting diet culture? How do families with more than two parents/guardians manage the division of labor, food, and mental load?)
I've also been startled a few times by the newsletter's assumptions about school/camp/budget/living situation size and type. It might be cool to have more guests on who have experience with living within a tight budget or in a smaller space. I love when you speak to a guest who has a radically different experience, because I feel like it gives a much fuller picture of diet culture/parenting/etc.
I really love the newsletter and am really grateful that I subscribed. Thank you for all the help you've given me!
Yes, yes, yes. Great feedback, thank you.
This struck a chord for me. As a queer person who was kicked out of my family house at a young age, it’s taken a long time to recalibrate/establish my personal finances. I did not have access to the same privileges most teens and folks in their 20s had access to. As such, I have a very different relationship to money, to families, and know that what I had to do to survive to get to my age and what I’ve been able to achieve (a family, a masters degree, so many student loans, and a career) is not everyone’s path. This is something that isn’t really addressed in the parenting or diet culture world and I’d love to see/hear more of it. ❤️
Just a quick comment on the survey - can you make the race categories checkboxes next time? As a biracial person, I feel like I’m flattening/othering myself when I check the biracial bucket. I’m both of my races /and/ biracial! I know this makes the numbers a bit messier, but please consider the humble checkbox?
Oh gosh, of course! I’m so sorry I didn’t think of that. Noting for next year!
Thanks so much -- I really appreciate it :) No need to be sorry!
Same for sexuality identity, though not as high of a priority. I usually check both queer and bisexual
Totally makes sense! Appreciate everyone here helping me learn and do better.
Same! I generally would check both queer and lesbian, which to me denotes “a lesbian but not the TERF kind”. This is the kind of ridiculous, tiny signaling I agonize over for no reason, so the checkboxes would have helped I think 😅
I’m so glad to know this!! It totally makes sense but is a nuance I hadn’t thought enough about.
Lesbian-but-not-a-terf 🤣 I love it!
Yes! I couldn't put it into words, but you summed up perfectly how I feel about those options!
Idk if this is the right place to put it, but my dream essay is one that I can forward to people who are completely immersed in diet culture and truly believe that weight is controllable and thinness is necessary for health (mostly my mom). I’ve been trying to find the right resource to send her that’s short enough that she’ll actually read it and sort of covers the basics. Ideally she’d read Fat Talk, but she won’t, and she hasn’t listened to the Maintenance Phase podcast ep I’ve sent either. My mom is thin and is the kind of person who might gain five pounds and then lose it by dieting, so she is SURE that diets do work. She just does not understand that a thin person who gains and then loses five pounds is completely and totally different than a fat person trying to be thin. And she very clearly believes that thinness is morally superior to fatness, even though she would tell you she doesn’t.
Well, this turned into a rant.
I agree with lots of the comments below but just also wanted to A. Send a hug because this is so hard and B. Let you know I too am ALWAYS trying to write this essay. Even if it won’t be the silver bullet for anyone -- I keep trying.
The dream. My mom is in her 70s and is always pointedly evangelizing to me about Noom. Every time she gains a few extra pounds, she just goes back to Noom to lose them again, easy peasy, it's really a shame I won't just give it a try! I don't engage her on the topic at all but I dream of someday stumbling upon the perfect essay or article that would be the necessary blend of non-confrontational, informative, and irrefutable. She absolutely does not accept a starting premise that treats body weight as a neutral - a moral neutral, a health neutral, whatever. So like, I don't actually think anyone could write this mythical perfect essay - but I still dream.
I feel you on this, Ella ❤️ I realized awhile back that every time I read/watch/hear any anti-diet, pro-fat liberation media, that I am engaging with it from the lens of “will this be the piece that convinces the people in my life who think being fat is a morally bankrupt choice that there is another way?” It kind of robs me from my enjoyment of them because I know there is never ever going to be a piece that does that — because those anti-fat people have every single piece of evidence they need if they would just be curious and observant of the world.
Anything the perfect essay would say is already right in front of them: how obvious it is that denying fat people access, healthcare, safety, kindness, and opportunities only reduces health. How clear that fat people exist across a spectrum of “health”, as do thin people, and that everything in nature also shouts at us that a diversity of body shapes and sizes is natural. The evidence is already there, and it makes me really sad that I have had family members, friends, coworkers who are willfully remaining ignorant because they see the rewards of being adjacent to thinness as too valuable.
It’s heartbreaking. I am so angry and disappointed at people who won’t bend. My partner’s best friend’s husband is body-shaming their daughter. His wife bought Fat Talk and tried to share it with him, along with signing them up for an anti-diet dietician that works with families — and he refused to consider any of it. I think Fat Talk is perfect in how it approaches this topic, and this guy refuses because he claims it’s just “excuses”. (We are doing everything we can to provide his daughter with counter messaging and access to food anytime for any reason, and divorce is on the table if he doesn’t start to work on his shit. But ugh, it just breaks my heart.)
Ella - I really want to give you a hug. I know having a parent with such a radically different perspective is difficult. But also, if I may, that essay while its the dream ... I’m not sure it’s doable? It’s a lot to distill into an easily digestible morsel of information.
I fear that if someone that is so close to you cannot listen to a podcast episode that is important to you, I’m not positive that getting them to consider another perspective on the diet culture that is so enmeshed in out society is possible. Which is a sad thing. I say this as someone who has spent years in therapy to come to terms with the fact that I cannot change my own parent’s view point, and that that energy is better spent elsewhere. Sending you hugs.
This ^ and all of the comments below.
Currently on a break from my mom, cause I just can’t deal with her diet centric gospel, or the need for everything to be ‘natural’ or the misconstrued notions about health and wellness she holds on to like a shield. I’m trying to unlearn so much if this behaviour, that was thrust on me my whole life. In addition to wanting to live my life more authentically, and finding my own queer voice and identity later in life after reading straight for so long. (More to say about this, but not now) Oh, and struggling to raise a lovely non-neuro typical kid. I’m tired!
So, I’ve chosen to just cut off contact until I have the energy to enunciate the boundaries I need for myself and my family around all of this. A long winded way to say: something to forward to at least place the conversation in an informed, empathetic, and well written way would be the ultimate tool to have.
Sending hugs to all of y’all.
Hello. I'm taking the opportunity to say: my favourite was actually when you answered my question. :) I was the one who wrote the panicked-sounding question about my kid using the word 'treat' and went into a spiral from there. You were so caring in your response and I felt like you had become part of my 'village' - which feels weird but also true. You said to keep you updated: it was so helpful.
And, I also benefited from your discussion on eating in front of the TV. When we spend so much time with our kids, meals in front of the TV to actually get a break and to feed ourselves with some slowness and care just feels right, even though it goes in the face of my own upbringing and also what I would 'want' for our family. Thank you for that compassion and vision as well!
So glad it was helpful!
Cue Billy Joel song: I love you just the way you are.
I subscribe to A LOT of Substacks (because I believe in paying writers). I consider you and Lyz Lenz to be the most consistent because you've basically created mini-magazines with regular features that arrive according to schedule. Oh, also Culture Study. Burnt Toast hits the sweet spot IMHO. And I especially like links round-ups. I always find something I missed.
Agree! As a Substack author trying to gauge the "sweet spot" for content, tone and stucture/form BT has been inspirational as to how to stay on mission and build, grow and retain a loyal audience/community. One suggestion I'd make is to add the Friday threads and links to your "about" page - it's a valuable piece of what you get as a subscriber! Thanks, Virginia, Corinne and the BT crew.
Oh gosh yes, that poor About page probably needs so many updates!
at the time I took the poll, nearly a quarter of folks wanted Friday threads and Sunday links & recs, and while I'm having lots of anxiety about how it makes me sound, I feel the need to somehow say that I don't want more emails. I'm not sure I can say this strongly enough. I don't want more than 3 emails per week from anyone (that isn't work related, and those only because I have to lol). and I know I could opt out and just not read them, but I actually can't because what if I miss something amazing and life changing?
I know, too, that this is a "me" problem (cue t swift), and I won't withdraw my subscription in a huff if you move to more emails per week or anything. but I hope that in a world that clamors for more, more, all the time more, that my lil voice saying "this is just right!" will be helpful too.
whether you leave the Friday emails the same or alternate them or just do whatever you feel like, I'm here for it. you've earned trust and none of these choices will ruin burnt toast :)
I am surprised to see that “keep it the way it is” is winning by something of a landslide, so while I can’t promise to NEVER add another email (there are so many variables that go into newsletter/content strategy and something could change!), I can say, I’m inclined to go with the majority vote on this right now.
absolutely something could change! and special occasions happen! I don't want you to feel like you can't do more if you actually want to do more. just seems like so many folks are feeling pressure to do more, and I wanted to be a voice for not that :)
Agreed. Cannot do any more than 3 a week. I used to subscribe to way more newsletters and I couldn’t keep up with the sheer volume. And everyone thought more and more would get me to pay but it was not an incentive because I didn’t want to give more time when I was barely keeping up. I only subscribe to 4 newsletters now.
Honored to be one of your four!!
I like the links a whole lot! So whichever works for you to keep sharing the links. Thank you!
I mostly feel burdened by the links. A number of people send out links in this way now, and it ends up feeling like I’ve been sent a to-do list. I mostly don’t read those emails anymore, so I would appreciate them being separated from the threads.
I hear this!
I put this in the survey but my dream podcast guest is Lizzo. I know it’s unlikely but I’m just putting it out in the world to manifest it!!
Let’s manifest it!!
Hahaha I said the same thing!
I really like the Friday emails as is. My only gripe is I don't always get to them on or close to Friday so then I feel like I miss out on contributing but that's really a me problem 😅
I like it all. I’m currently trying to stay off of social media to the extent it’s possible (love my Everything Free group on FB, though!) so I appreciate a post telling me what I might want to read on social media. You save me the scrolling.
One of the people who preferred the Friday email as a simple thread here 🙋 I think I would prefer a separate email with links (that one could opt out of) although I totally understand the need to share interesting things you've read during the week ! Links & Rec feel a bit overwhelming to me, one because I get recs elsewhere but also because visually it's a lot. I used to be able to read the Friday email quickly and dive into the discussion, now the links are in "quote" format for substack so it looks like I'm scrolling through big images of text, it's visually confusing. Maybe if you kept the recs as embedded links into short phrases / words it would work better ? It wouldn't feel like so much is happening (it's a bit like the PS at the end of the newsletter with 2 big block images of the Fat Talk Book, it's a lot to read on a small phone)
Just adding that I still love Burnt Toast and the work you and Corinne are doing !
Don’t worry, I’m not offended! This is a family discussion. 💜 Your feedback is super helpful.
I love links and threads and all the things, in whatever format you want to share them in!
I don’t always have time on Fridays or something I feel adds to this conversation, but I guess I still like that it happens every Friday because that means there are more times when I can contribute. As for the links, they certainly don’t harm me in any way. Normally I just skim through. On a rare occasion I’ll click on something.
Now that I’ve written this I don’t think it adds to the conversation… I guess I’m saying leave it?