Substacks recommended by Dave Cowen | Shuffle Synchronicities 🔀✨

Recommended by Dave Cowen

On Repeat Records

By Kevin

Ditch the algorithm. Music discovery made easy—curated by someone who remembers when a mixtape could change your life.

Like any repeatable song, very easy to get into Kevin's groove!

- Dave Cowen

Greil Marcus / Letter in the Ether

Everyday culture and found objects

wait, greil is here?!

- Dave Cowen

Mixtape by Jackson Bliss | ジャクソンのミクステープ

By Jackson Bliss

Adventures of a mouthy, mixed-race, Gen X author living in LA who is always in love

"the kendrick lamar of his form" i didn't say that but it's true :)

- Dave Cowen

Untold Stories with Adam Philips

Comics • Marketing • Life

Sluggish

By Jesse Meadows

Re-politicizing mental illness and embracing the weird

essential mental health industry criticism and rest studies

- Dave Cowen

Robert Reich

Daily newsletter exposing where power lies — and how it's used and abused

clear, concise understanding of our 🌐

- Dave Cowen

Meditations in an Emergency

By Rosecrans Baldwin

A weekly meditation about something beautiful from author and GQ correspondent Rosecrans Baldwin. For supporters, a Sunday supplement with 3+ things to love.

musings about LA & tennis & culture & life

- Dave Cowen

HereNow

By Ethan Lipsitz

Living with love, expression, dis-ease & grief. Hosted by Social Practice Artist - Ethan Lipsitz and written for Rhodes.

Weirdo Poetry

By Jason McBride

Weird, beautiful essays and haiku comics for weird, beautiful people

User Mag

By Taylor Lorenz

A tech and online culture publication by Taylor Lorenz, featuring original reporting on how the internet is reshaping politics, business, media, and culture.

substack is twitter 3.0

- Dave Cowen

Black Music and Black Muses

By Harmony Holiday

Music writing that is not restricted by the demands, wishes, and timelines of the music industry. Writing, not advertising. Love, not a battle of the brands.

as deeply researched as it's deeply felt, essential

- Dave Cowen

The Thoughtful Dispatch

By Hanna McElroy

thinking about tarot, enneagram, books, philosophy, and what I don't yet know

gate(less)

By Con/Jur/d

gate(less) is a practice, a log, an indulgence, a spellwork, a meditation, an invitation to the ecstatic experience of this day, this life, this Mystery -- Your life A bit of poetry, and other experimental, experiential modes of communication

perhaps the most Tumblr thing on Substack; an avuncular atman

- Dave Cowen

Chaos Land with EJW

By Erin Jean Warde (she/her)

Welcome to Chaos Land: where we love you *for* your chaos, not despite it.

SerioComics

By Dave Cowen

Enthusiasms for the best in graphic literature + Q&As with their makers + a monthly gun debate update & now you can read SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? a graphic novel about a couple, their country, and the gun debate aimed to help heal our polarized divide.

The World According To von Roy

By Christopher von Roy

Life, science, music, politics, health, books, philosophy - learn to read minds, starting with mine. Researched and curated on a weekly basis. With a subscription you gain access to my weekly newsletter The World and my fortnightly podcast The Word.

somehow knows as much about culture as he does about science

- Dave Cowen

Fluxblog: Music Blog

By Matthew Perpetua

The longest-running music blog in the game! This newsletter is focused on music curation - reviews of new music, playlists for Spotify/Apple/YouTube covering a wide range of genres and moments in history, and links to other cool things.

Flagging Down the Double E's

By Ray Padgett

Bob Dylan concerts throughout history

Ray Padgett chronicles Bob Dylan's concerts to show no one has been better or worse at performing music live...

- Dave Cowen

Miranda July

Off the cuff MJ writing/videos/picts/audio for paid subscribers and an ongoing All Fours Group Chat for everyone (not a book club! A place to talk about your own life.)

Story Club with George Saunders

A place to explore the way the short story works.

the buddha of american letters

- Dave Cowen

Gary’s Journey Through Hell

By Gary Shteyngart

Nine Circles +

russian-american satire, never more necessary

- Dave Cowen

The Comics Syllabus by Paul Lai

By paul lai

graphic novels and comics in the classroom and the world beyond. a crossroads of comics cultures and culturally sustaining arts and literacy learning, critical civics, and climate concern.

B Stings

Captain B or Tio El Sileb or Nate B writes poetry and prose and dances too.

emma withers says new music!

By Emma Withers

always saying things, mostly about music.

New Bands for Old Heads

By Gabbie

New music recommendations for people who don't keep up with new music.

feral masochism

By melanie zoey

quaking pink lobster without a shell; wild & well-crafted

out of control controller of narratives ;)

- Dave Cowen

In The Telling

By Lee Knox Ostertag

comics + thoughts from molly knox ostertag

come for the graphic novel class, stay for the one unfolding before our eyes

- Dave Cowen

The Grudge Report

By Bess Kalb

Scribbling into the void!

God's Music Is My Life

By Tim Dillinger

Dedicated to exploring the histories of gospel and soul, contemporary Christian and Women’s music(s)—forms that contribute to the blurring of the lines between the sacred and the secular.

true for 'my' life too ;)

- Dave Cowen

Critical Conditions by Wayne Robins

Storytelling about rock pop music and culture through decades of interviews, reviews, and feature stories, shaken in a blender. Might be Steely Dan, Dylan, Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, boygenius. Might be Laura Nyro, Suzanne Vega, the Ramones.

a music critic elder who has lived through it all

- Dave Cowen

New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium

By Ben Katchor

A weekly lecture series about comics, picture-stories, animation and other text-image work.

Liminal News With Daniel Pinchbeck

I explore subjects ranging from the mystical and psychedelic to the political and mundane.

I'm Fine I'm Fine Just Understand

By ND Stevenson

Quiet comics about gender, mental health, and getting older.

beautiful respites

- Dave Cowen

VIRAPÁGINA

By Érico Assis

Newsletter de Érico Assis. Sobre leituras, quadrinhos, tradução e virar páginas.

Cadence Weapon

A music newsletter by Polaris Prize-winning rapper and former Edmonton poet laureate Rollie Pemberton a.k.a. Cadence Weapon

a musician and a critic, rap's godard?

- Dave Cowen

Made From What's Not Real

By David Perlmutter

The writings and musings of Canadian historian and speculative fiction writer David Perlmutter

Liana’s Newsletter

By Liana Finck

A weekly selection of drawings by New Yorker cartoonist and matador Liana Finck, sent out on Wednesdays. Paid subscribers will also get a Sunday email of autobiographical comics, process drawings, and other behind-the-scenes things. www.lianafinck.com

otherworldly, avant-garde gag cartoons

- Dave Cowen

WOODRUFF

By Frederick Woodruff

I use astrology as next-level psychoanalysis…of the culture, the arts, the individual. I'm the House astrologer for Corridor Menswear NYC.

astrological wisdom both practical and meta

- Dave Cowen

After School by Casey Lewis

an examination of youth culture

y2k isn't ending the world again!

- Dave Cowen

Evan Nathaniel Grim

Evan Nathaniel Grim delivers strategic advice on how each zodiac sign can navigate the upcoming planetary configurations and offers world predictions.

Both/And with Jay Michaelson

Both politics and spirituality; the news and how to survive it. By a journalist/lawyer/rabbi/meditation teacher/professor.

In My Life by Luigi Cappel

A journey through my life experiences with 500 songs

a musical memoir from another land

- Dave Cowen

Record Store

By amaya lim

mixtapes for the modern world

NOW IS GOOD

By James Francis

a girl, her world, the divine within

now is a good time to be on team james

- Dave Cowen

Earworms and Song Loops

By Steve Goldberg

The songs and bit-o'-songs that gets stuck in my head, worming to the digital surface, and inspiring a host of personal stories along the way.

The Whalespout

By Dave Hunter

Stakhanovite film analysis

this would have been a village voice film column in the 1970s...

- Dave Cowen

LOL (lots of links)

By annie rauwerda

internet rabbit holes

the queen of wikipedia enthusiastically explores even more of the world

- Dave Cowen

Thought Enthusiast

Thought Enthusiast is an AdHoc Project where we chat with fascinating thought leaders across various facets of music, tech, and culture whose work we admire, simply asking “what’s on your mind?” and “why do you care?” 💭

Berkana

By Swarnali Mukherjee

Built with a soft burning passion for obscure places, people, folklores, and the unseen threads that bind our personal and collective stories

a mystic and a reformer

- Dave Cowen

Every Tom Waits Song

By Ray Padgett

Going alphabetically through the entire Waits catalog, one song at a time

Ray Padgett is back to chronicle the catalogue of another canonical troubadour

- Dave Cowen