Weekend reads: Celebrating year three

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As December’s whirlwind of activity winds down for the holiday break, Lean Out is wrapping up its third year in business. And what a year it has been.

When I left the CBC and joined Substack three years ago, I had no idea what awaited me in the wilderness of independent media. I could not know, in advance, just how marvellous it would be to have the freedom to follow my instincts, to cover the issues that I feel are most pressing, to interview the people that I think contribute the most original thinking to the public conversation, and to speak freely without fear of losing my livelihood. I could not have anticipated, either, that thousands of you would come along for the ride. Or that I would experience the joy of getting to know many of you personally, reading your thoughts and reflections and stories. Heartfelt thanks to all of you for all of your support, in all the forms it takes.

Lean Out has had a productive 2024, publishing 151 times so far (with still a few more posts to go). That total includes 51 podcast episodes, plus annotated show transcripts, opinion essays, guest essays, and Q&A columns. Earlier this year, we celebrated a big milestone for the podcast: 500,000 downloads. We are thrilled to be ranked in the top 2% of podcasts globally. For a niche current affairs show from Canada, operating on a shoestring budget, this is huge.

So far, every podcast episode (and opinion essay and guest essay and Q&A) has been free for all to consume. Only the podcast transcripts and the comments section are behind a paywall. We have not yet solicited ads. Lean Out also does not accept government funding — we believe it compromises public trust — and this year, I joined with other independent-minded journalists and outlets to publicly reject the subsidy regime, signing the Ottawa Declaration on Canadian Journalism.

Lean Out makes exactly one pitch to our subscribers every year, combined with our annual report, and you’re reading it. Help us stay busy and stay independent!

Lean Out is reader-supported. You, the reader, make our work possible. Thank you for funding this newsletter and podcast. And thank you for your vote of confidence. If you are not yet a paid subscriber, consider becoming one. A little cash goes a long way in the Substack world — as you’ll see below.

In 2024, with your support, I focused on bringing you an eclectic mix of stories, working to deliver thought-provoking content across multiple areas of coverage, from the fallout from Canadian Covid policy and the federal court’s rebuke on the invocation of the Emergencies Act, to absenteeism in the wake of school closures, the pitfalls of DEI statements, the glamorization of divorce, the rewards of volunteer work, and why having a family got so hard.

We undertook a podcast series on declining trust in the media, including an interview with the award-winning reporter and podcast producer Andy Mills, and, in recent weeks, introduced a new series on the challenges facing modern men.

Our community of subscribers is drawn from more than 150 countries around the world, but our audience is largely concentrated in the U.S. and Canada. As such, Lean Out focused its coverage on both sides of the border.

In Canadian coverage, one of the most popular essays was “What Happened to Canada?” We also saw much interest in our coverage of the collapse of the Canadian immigration consensus, the pitfalls of the temporary foreign worker program, and the betrayal of the Canadian Dream (with former Justin Trudeau advisor Omer Aziz). As well as in guest essays exploring the end of affordable home ownership and the perils of the Canadian justice system. We covered two buzzworthy books on Justin Trudeau — one from Stephen Maher and one from Paul Wells — and also a book on the rise of monopoly power in our country, from Vass Bednar and Denise Hearn. We did a segment on why the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan still matters, a Q&A on CanLit’s sacred cows, and one on identitarianism and internecine politics in the scene.

I wrote columns about Chrystia Freeland here, and Jagmeet Singh here, and MP Taleeb Noormohamed here. And the CBC here.

Our American coverage included interviews on the shattering of the Democratic coalition with Ruy Teixeira, the rise of economic populism on the right with Oren Cass, and what the left gets wrong about JD Vance with Zaid Jilani. We covered political extremism with The Washington Post’s Ruby Cramer, reasons for hope with John Wood Jr. of Braver Angels, and the miseducation of elites with William Deresiewicz.

I opined on Kamala Harris (here and here), and JD Vance (here), and why Donald Trump won (here), and explored what it’s like spending a week in small-town America (here). Also: I dug into the aftermath of the election with upstate New York writer Larissa Phillips here, and Texas writer Carrie McKean here.

Lean Out covered childbearing ambivalence with philosopher Anastasia Berg, and the benefits of getting married with sociologist Brad Wilcox. And, in one of the most moving interviews of the year, we unpacked the benefits of staying married — with the American humourist and author Harrison Scott Key.

We delved into why we get fat with science journalist Gary Taubes, and the impacts of “wokeness” on Gen Z with filmmaker Ted Balaker. We explored near-death experiences with former war correspondent Sebastian Junger. We covered local news with The Sprawl in Calgary and a podcast episode with authors Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy on their book highlighting American outlets.

We also hosted exceptional guest writing from the likes of Musa al-Gharbi (on the symbolic professions), Ross Barkan (on Donald Trump’s outsider complex), Greg Lukianoff (on Tim Walz and free speech), Randall L. Kennedy (on mandatory DEI statements), Amanda Ripley (on staying sane during the election season), Lenore Skenazy (on how phones are making parents anxious), Alex Perez (on how the media needs a wake-up call on the issue of class), Daniel Cox (on the divorce divide in politics), and Richard Reeves and Allan Downey (on why young men are not actually rejecting gender equality). Closer to home, we hosted essays from veteran Canadian writers Paul Wells (on working class conservatism) and Stephen Marche (on the crisis in Canadian cultural institutions).

We love books at Lean Out, and we covered many again this year, ranging from Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger and David Brooks’ How To Know A Person to Michael Lista’s poetry collection Barfly and Cory Leadbeater’s memoir The Uptown Local and Glynnis MacNicol’s travelogue I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself. We were happy, too, to be joined on the podcast by blockbuster authors Nellie Bowles, Coleman Hughes, Rob Henderson, Musa al-Gharbi, and Batya Ungar-Sargon.

We offered all of this for the price of a Starbucks latte a month.

Thanks to you, Lean Out made a big impact on the public conversation this year. Our podcast series on the state of the media led to an opportunity to write the 2024 Massey Essay, “The Trust Spiral,” a partnership between Massey College at the University of Toronto and The Literary Review of Canada. This in turn led to a number of public conversations about the failings of our press — including one at Massey College with Rudyard Griffiths of the Munk Debates, which we broadcast on the podcast — and more to come in 2025.

Lean Out’s work has been referenced in the Senate. I was also invited, twice, to appear as a witness before the House of Commons Heritage Committee. (You can read my testimony at the session I was able to attend here.)

I was pleased to be a guest on Senator Pamela Wallin’s podcast, on The Hub’s Roundtable podcast, on Meghan Daum’s show, The Unspeakable, and to present at Daum’s women’s retreat in Woodstock, New York. I also appeared on the podcast of Collateral Global, the UK charity founded by Jay Bhattacharya, to discuss Canada’s Covid policy disaster with the organization’s director of research, Kevin Bardosh.

This year, Lean Out also continued to advance our commitment to supporting the next generation of talent. We invited podcaster and First Nations councillor Aaron Pete on the show, and had him back for his second guest-hosting stint, sitting down with Blacklock’s Reporter publisher Holly Doan. I also penned the second installment in our series Letters to a Young Journalist, and travelled to Ottawa to Carleton’s University journalism school to speak on a panel at the Reimagining Political Journalism conference. In addition, I publicly made the case for lifting degree requirements for journalism jobs, in order to forge a more economically diverse, trusted, and inclusive press corps.

Independent media is, hands down, the best game in town. It’s exciting times for the independent press, and the work is invigorating. Lean Out is largely a one-woman operation, but I am beyond lucky to have part-time help from two fantastic journalists: Lauren Toffan, who books the podcast, and Luke Ettinger, who edits and fact-checks the transcripts. Big thanks to you both for your stellar work!

Going independent is not without its challenges. I constantly wish that there were more hours in the day, and that we had more resources to invest in our journalism. There are so many more stories that I’d like for us to cover.

Lean Out’s immediate goal is to sustain the current pace, but eventually I’d like to expand our coverage and build up a current affairs micro-newsroom dedicated to the values of independence, curiosity, objectvity, and respect for viewpoint diversity. I hope to demonstrate to my peers, and to the industry as a whole, that these values have merit — and that people will pay for work that serves the public interest and respects the public’s views.

To do all of this, I need your help. The ratio of unpaid to paid subscribers is currently 14:1. If you are regularly reading and enjoying the work here, and want it to continue, take out an annual subscription. Or, better yet, a founding membership.

Subscribing today allows us to plan for the new year. Help Lean Out thrive in 2025!