Between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday and all of the other insane rampant consumerism as we wrap up the year, let’s use the Sunday to support independent media.
Here are some of the projects that I subscribe to. I am definitely forgetting some that I do and there are many worthwhile outlets to that I don’t at this time.
*404 Media covers the intersection of technology, culture and the world, with sharp analysis and diligent investigation from journalists formerly at Motherboard. This is the sort of independent journalism that is able to speak truth to power.
*Accidental Tech Podcast are my kind of nerds. While I don’t always care enough about the arcane details of Mac nerdery that Marco, Casey, and John talk about each week, they do find interesting details and usually share their process of learning in thoughtful ways.
*Defector, like Deadspin before it, is a sports blog that’s about more than just sports, and not just because of the high quality of the writing. It covers sports and culture and politics.
*Escape Collective is about cycling, both as a sport, as an industry, and a lifestyle. Not only is EC a great website, but they do great podcasting (particularly their on-the-ground daily coverage from the Tour de France (both the TdF Hommes sans Zwift and the TdF Femmes avec Zwift) and host a lovely community.
*Extra Hot Great continues to be a great podcast about TV, from the creators of Television without Pity. Somehow, the heyday of TWoP was about 20 years ago???
*kottke.org is still the paradigmatic link blog and somehow continues to be fascinating and new consistently.
*Law Dork, Chris Geidner is a great writer and astute analyst of the courts and justice.
*Mountain Gazette is a singularly large magazine. Literally. Mike Rogge created this iteration of Mountain Gazette as a large format print publication, and it takes advantage of it with spectacular photography, as well as long-form snow and mountain culture writing.
*The Onion has been essential for years. If it did nothing else beyond reminding us that the American approach to gun violence is “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” dayenu. But, revitalized under new independent ownership, they’ve gone and bought the assets of Infowars. I’m happy to contribute to support this work and see what they do.
*Platformer covers the online social platforms and their relationships with the world. It’s essential for understanding how our culture, news, and politics are filtered through the choices and lenses of the various platforms and gatekeepers.
*Search Engine picks up some of the legacy of the Reply All podcast and is thoughtful and interesting without ever telegraphing where it is going.
*The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast from the newly independent Stuart Winchester is the most thorough coverage of the world of ski resorts. The in-depth interviews with ski resort managers give the same attention to detail and thoroughness to the largest resorts and the smallest indepedent mom-and-pop hills.
There are certainly more great independent news media worth your support (and I suspect even some that have earned my support that I’ve forgotten).
