Glenn Loury

MOVING TO SUBSTACK — JUNE 2, 2021 I made the decision to move our operation from Patreon to the <a href="https://glennloury.substack.com/">newsletter platform Substack</a>. The publishing schedule will remain the same: full episodes come out every Monday, every other week is a John McWhorter appearance, and we do a Q&amp;A once a month. But there'll be other stuff, too. All Patrons will get the first month of newsletter subscription for free, so you don't have to do anything now. In one month, you'll need to decide if you want to stay with us. I hope that you will. Here's why I'm making this move. I've been posting transcripts of clips for TGS episodes on Substack since January, for free. Gradually, and organically, new kinds of posts started to emerge. I've published <a href="https://glennloury.substack.com/p/badasses-and-alpha-males">letters from viewers</a>. Made public my own <a href="https://glennloury.substack.com/p/im-in-despair-and-a-little-angry">response</a> to an email from a friend. Wrote an <a href="https://glennloury.substack.com/p/a-bluff-and-a-bludgeon">original piece</a> at Bari Weiss' request. Just recently, I published <a href="https://glennloury.substack.com/p/race-community-silence">an essay</a> by an alum of Brearley School, an elite all-girls institution in Manhattan, reporting on the school's attempts to deal with &quot;whiteness.&quot; It is encouraging to see this community of readers and contributors developing. I rather like this growth of the kinds of content I can share with the world. After I go paid on Substack, I'll be experimenting with this more, making some posts available publicly and others accessible to paying subscribers only. It may be that regular rubrics will emerge. Maybe collaborations with other activists, writers, and public intellectuals will arise. The point is that when the content and the financial relationships are consolidated in one place it's easier to do this kind of experimentation. I also find Substack's comments module easier to use than that of Patreon. Since I want to foster more communication between the members of the community, I'm planning to experiment with discussion threads that wouldn't be tied to specific writing by me or episodes of TGS. Substack's interface should also make our monthly Q&amp;As more productive: if you upvote questions you like, John and I will be able to sort the queries by the number of upvotes, and see which questions we should pay additional attention to. There's also the issue of Patreon's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-harris-deletes-patreon-account-after-platform-boots-conservatives-2018-12">questionable reputation on free speech</a>. I'd be lying if I said this factored into my decision—I've only learned about this after I had already made up my mind—but I have gotten some messages from people saying they'd like to support me, but wouldn't do so on Patreon. So now they have that option. Finally, Substack makes it easy to export the financial relationships from their platform and take them with me wherever I go. This means that, if Substack were to evolve in a way I disagree with, I'll be able to move the operation somewhere else without asking you to make any extra steps. For this move right now though, a couple of extra steps will be needed. The paid subscriptions are now open on Substack. The cost of subscription is $7/month or $70/year. (This is higher than the lowest of the tiers here at Patreon, but you'll be getting the ability to ask questions for Q&amp;A, and you'll be getting extra newsletter content.) All current Patrons have been given complimentary subscriptions for the first month. So you don’t need to do anything now, but once this month has run out, you’ll be asked to pay for the next month or year. I hope that what you’ll see in the month ahead will convince you to stay with us. If you already know you want to continue subscribing, you can change your complimentary subscription to a paid one right away. To do this, follow <a href="https://glennloury.substack.com/subscribe">this link</a>. The more of you decide to do this, the easier it will be for me to plan ahead. There’s also an option to subscribe for a higher, custom amount. To make a greater contribution, become &quot;<a href="https://glennloury.substack.com/subscribe">a founding member</a>.&quot; You should feel free to cancel your subscription on Patreon now. I'm very excited for this new chapter, and I hope you'll find it exciting as well.

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