Three Years of Writing Emails!

154 essays, 146 podcast episodes, 131 Friday Threads, and counting.

Photo by Marisa Langley

Three years ago this week, I launched Burnt Toast.

I’ve told this story many times, but in case you’re new here: I spent the first 18 years of my career writing for mainstream media outlets. This included years of diet culture creation at women’s magazines and years of trying to publish investigations and critiques of the diet industry for other media outlets—only to realize anti-fatness is so baked into many of those institutions, that it was an entirely uphill battle.

When I lost two anchor clients in the same month in early 2021, I decided I was done softening stories lest we piss off advertisers. I was done casting “real women” stories according to a magazine’s specific demographics. I was done fighting my way to get a reported feature on weight stigma in healthcare published only to have a “Try This Trick to Lose Belly Fat!” banner ad run right across it. I was done and ready to build something new. 

I had no idea what might be possible here. I didn’t know how fast we would grow to 10,000, then 20,000. When I wrote last year’s anniversary essay, we were just over 30,000. 12 months later, we’re closing in on 55,000 readers and the Burnt Toast Podcast has over 1 million downloads.

I had no idea what would be possible because I hadn’t met the Burnt Toast community yet.

I didn’t have my Substack co-workers yet. (That’s what I call my dear writer friends here, who are forever up to trade newsletter strategies, read a draft, or text-brainstorm how to sharpen a headline.) I didn’t have the incredibly hard-working and talented Tommy Harron making our audio sound so damn good. I didn’t know that this would eventually become not just the Burnt Toast newsletter but also Indulgence Gospel, then also

Cult of Perfect

, and now, also

Big Undies

. And of course, I didn’t have our beloved

Corinne Fay

as my brilliant producer, co-conspirator, and fellow breakfast burrito enthusiast. All of these people have made me a better writer and thinker—plus they are just so much fun to make a newsletter with!

I also didn’t know that I would get to have moving, challenging, world-expanding conversations here every week with all of you about weight and language, or Huberman husbands, or how we feel about body hair, or how we feel about Stanley cups. I didn’t know that you would have the best book recs, and be able to tell me what to grill for dinner. I didn’t know that when I announced my divorce, hundreds of you would send notes that would make me cry. I didn’t know that sometimes we would just chat Bridgerton or plants and sometimes we’d try to change the world.

Oh, and I didn’t know that a bunch of you would start figuring out how to meet up in person, or that some of you would make t-shirts(!!!).

Well now I know! And yet I also feel like we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what this community is capable of doing and being together. I feel supremely lucky, every day, that I get to go to work and make this thing with you. Burnt Toast is the most fun, and the most meaningful job, I’ve ever had—and that’s because of all of you.

If you’re a paid subscriber, you are making sure that everyone who works on Burnt Toast to be appropriately compensated for our labor. You provide honorariums to podcast guests, which is key to centering marginalized voices in this space. (And when a guest declines the honorarium, we donate it to the cause of their choice.) You guarantee I can offer comp subscriptions to anyone who asks. Burnt Toast has also supported an independent film on eating disorders, raises funds for state legislatures, is a regular donor to ASDAH and NAAFA, and a sponsor of PhillyFatCon. You’ve made all of that possible.  

Depending on when you first subscribed, you may be getting a notification this month that it’s time to renew. Of course I hope you still consider this a community still worth investing in! If that’s not feasible for you for any reason, just let me know and I’ll happily move you to the comp list.

Thank you so much for letting us pop into your inbox every week!

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Not a Paid Subscriber Yet? Now Is The Time!

Burnt Toast is an ad and sponsor-free space.

We do this because you can’t do good anti-diet journalism any other way. You can read more about our advertising policy here. But the TL/DR is that we are an entirely reader-supported community. And after 3 years of producing an increasingly robust newsletter and podcast in an increasingly competitive subscription newsletter market, we’ve decided it’s time:

On June 15, the price of Burnt Toast will increase to $7 per month or $70 for the year.

But current paid subscribers, don’t worry! As a thank you for supporting Burnt Toast over the past 3 years, you will continue to pay just $5 per month or $50 per year—forever. And that includes anyone who subscribes for the first time this week!

So if you’ve been thinking about becoming a paid subscriber, do it now—and lock in that lower rate forever.

A paid subscription gets you behind every essay paywall, every Indulgence Gospel episode, commenting privileges, plus 20 percent off Big Undies.

And if you’ve been thinking about upgrading or joining at the Extra Butter level — that’s on sale this week too, for just $75. (Regular price $99.)

You get all of the standard paid subscriber perks above, PLUS: A monthly bonus podcast episode, Extra Butter-only chats on the Substack app, and, coming soon, a dedicated Friday Thread just for you.