Request

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.

         William Wordsworth, 1802

And that was before the internet, streaming video services, TV, radio, podcasts, social media, and free telephone, text, and chat.

And yet I am open to more. This blog post is a request for useful sources.

I regularly look at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Oregonlive.com (the flagship Oregon newspaper) and a thinned-out shell of the Mail Tribune, my local Medford newspaper. I also look at the websites of CNN, and the Huffington Post. I look at Fox's website daily. I consider those my daily meat-and-potatoes curated journalism.

Depending on what I see I look at Newsmax and sometimes other conservative sites like redstate.com and nationalreview.com.

I read newsletters. They are independent journalists, increasingly using substack.com as their vehicle. Typically they send an email one to three times a week. It is free. They hope people will subscribe and pay them voluntarily, like public radio, perhaps $5/month. Substack takes about 10% for handling the distribution and collections. If enough people pay, that changes it from a hobby to a job. I pay for the ones below and several others. I want them to thrive. I have no interest in asking for donations/fees for this blog, now or ever.

I read and especially recommend these six: All contain useful insights about life, politics, culture.

Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American (an American Historian writes a near-daily email about current events. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

James Fallows's Breaking the News. (political and media observations from a former speechwriter and veteran journalist.)  https://fallows.substack.com/

Matthew Yglesias's Slow Boring. (political and social observations)  https://www.slowboring.com   

Andrew Sullivan: The Dish (A gay male conservative Catholic)

https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/

Charlie Sykes: The Bulwark (A politically conservative but anti-Trump point of view.) https://plus.thebulwark.com/

Ruy Teixeria and others: The Liberal Patriot (tells Democrats to get real) https://theliberalpatriot.substack.com/

I also listen to podcasts. These, too, are free but there is sometimes a mechanism for paying if someone wants "extras," including special additional shows. People find podcasts by going to a podcast application and then using the search function. I listen to and recommend:

The Bulwark, interviews conducted by Charlie Sykes

Pivot, lively and amusing money and technology talk between Kara Swisher and Scot Galloway

Honestly, often-irritating interviews and commentary by Bari Weiss

The Focus Group, Sarah Longwell's analysis of opinions expressed by voters in small political focus groups.

Advisory Opinions, Strict Scrutiny, and Amicus. All three are hosted by articulate attorneys who examine court decisions.

This American Life. A highly-produced NPR show examining a topic of the week.

As readers can see, I have too much, and this is just a small part of the inflow. Yet amid the cornucopia of free or affordable content I am curious what else is out there. I invite suggestions. Send the URL to make it easy for me and others to find.

[Note: To get this blog daily by email go to https://petersage.substack.com Subscribe. The blog is free and always will be.]