Yes, the decluttering of our digital life that people talk about. I am really doing my best to follow the latest self-help trends. Even birding is apparently what you should be doing now!

I was subscribed to many newsletters, but when I separated the wheat the chaff, this is what remained. And maybe a few other newsletters that I haven’t unsubscribed to because they send out emails too infrequently, kind of like my own newsletter.

These six are untouchable. I subscribe to these for their content, but also because all of the authors are just good human beings.

Coco’s Variety – Coco’s Variety is a used bike shop in California. The owner, Peter, writes a newsletter. I don’t know how to describe his disparate and seemingly endless interests. He has a lot going on and he really gets into the weeds with things. In the last issue, he talks about redeeming 22 pounds of cans at a recycling center in order to purchase a bottle of wine and to do some pine nut arbitrage at a whole foods. Subject matter will swing from anecdotes like that to an analysis of the annual budget of the US forest service (he is currently rehabilitating a campground). Hopefully he will run for president one day. His writing is incisive and often very, very funny and please just trust me you need some Mister Jalopy in your life. The subscribe link is here.

Everything is Amazing – Mike Sowden says his newsletter is about science and curiosity and discovery, and it is, but the subject matter doesn’t really matter to me. Mike could write a newsletter about seagulls and I would pay to read it. And I do pay to read his newsletter, which says a lot as the current state of my finances doesn’t allow for much more than food, shelter and the kids’ school fees. Anyway, he has a free version that you can try on for size. You will learn a lot but you will also feel better about yourself and the world after reading it. Mike can write his socks off, that’s for sure, but it is the mix of charming English self-deprecation, Mike’s willingness to get lost in anything, anywhere, and his unfailing empathy that do it for me.

Semi-Rad – I discovered Brendan Leonard because of Mike Sowden. I originally subscribed to his Friday inspiration newsletter, but I have been a supporter of his patreon for over a year now and I feel like at $3 a month I am basically robbing Brendan blind. I suppose I should upgrade to the $5 plan. Brendan is a visual artist, a writer and an endurance athlete, “kind of.” The “kind of” is very much Brendan. He has a relentless sense of humor and an endearing, heavy-handed humility. Like Mike, but less long-winded and less English. Don’t get me wrong, Mike’s long windedness and Englishness is absolutely perfect. And so is Brendan’s ability to say something poignant and funny with 5 words and a hand drawn bar chart. Mike and Brendan are two guys that I wouldn’t mind being stranded with on a mountain top with grim prospects for survival. Both of them would be great company, and I would be eager to read their respective accounts of the ordeal afterwards (if we managed to survive).

Curious about Everything – I’ve linked to Jodi’s newsletter and Patreon previously. My original endorsement stands. I often find that when her newsletter arrives, I just delete everything else in my inbox and read what she has curated. She finds the best writing, the most fascinating stories, the things you didn’t even know you needed to see or read. Her Curious about Everything newsletter is free, but she also has a Patreon where she writes about life with a chronic cerebrospinal fluid leak. That condition may mean nothing to you, but I suggest checking out her Patreon regardless. A CSF leak may be a rare medical condition, but there are a lot of other formerly rare medical conditions that are now quietly pervasive while still being overlooked or outright ignored. Jodi’s Patreon is an invaluable resource for anyone navigating life on the wrong side of systems that have proven to be broken and inhumane in a post-pandemic world.

Web Curios – This is another newsletter of curated links, but half the time I don’t even click on the links. Matt’s cynical, and very occasionally hopeful, intelligent, hilarious and almost always manic commentary is the reason I subscribe. Don’t get me wrong, the links are great, too. From his “about page:”

Why do you do this?

That’s a good question. Mostly compulsion, if I’m honest (it’s a bit like a tic at this stage, and I worry if I didn’t have this outlet I would start scrawling urls on park benches or all over the walls of my house, like some sort of awful, never-to-be-discovered (even posthumously) outsider artist).

But, to be serious for a second, it’s because the web is obviously horrible and has ruined us as a species, but it is also amazing because of all the incredible, strange, mad, odd, obsessional, creative, interesting, sad, terrifying, stupid, evil, cruel, selfish, venal, poignant, funny, disturbing and utterly human content that people put on it. I think it’s A Good Thing that there are some places online that help spread the word about some of all of the amazing stuff that exists out there, outside of the walled gardens of many people’s online experience. You don’t get this shit on Insta, is what I’m saying.

Dense Discovery – I actually found out about this newsletter when I was soliciting my own Postcards from Timbuktu newsletter for possible venues to promote that project (side note: I am still very much and always looking for ways to get a shout-out of that project so if you have any ideas, let me know!). Someone suggested that I try to get it featured in Dense Discovery. It didn’t work out, but I’m grateful I was introduced to this newsletter just the same. All I can say is that when I’ve given up on humanity and all hopes for a viable future involving our species, Dense Discovery arrives in my inbox and reminds that maybe, just maybe, all is not lost. And there are no cheeseball, feel-good optimism stories here. It is deep, reflective, critical and practical.

I am really not looking to add anything to my inbox, but please do tell me if you have a favorite that’s not listed here anyway.