In this week's Scratch, @maggiemertens.bsky.social asks why writers remain on Substack—as a user of Substack herself—and interviews three writers who've left the platform for Beehiiv and Ghost. We know how hard Substack makes it to leave; we also think writers should still try do so.

as "is god is" opens in cinemas today, it marks a grand debut & moment: aleshea harris is on an unprecedented path in hollywood as a black woman directing/writing a film adaption of her own stage play. for @thecut.com the director and i discuss this moment:

A little worried that the end of Hacks + the beginning of Widow's Bay will be the best two months of television I experience for the rest of the decade.

"Emma: Tell me about Lenny and the accident. Miles: So, how Lenny broke his leg is he fell out a window one day, but we got really lucky that he didn’t fall into the street and get squished by a car... he’s fine now. I think he could go maybe 30 or 35 miles per hour? He’s doing well."

COYOTE's first open thread (!) is live for the day and open to all subscribers! It's been a long week. Come tell us all about your best buds and very good boys in the comments below. www.coyotemedia.org/pet-week-ope...

Another week, another set of nearly 50 events in the Bay Area that you can go to to get that "oh yeah I live in a cool place with cool people" feeling. www.coyotemedia.org/coyote-calen...

oh the latest entry in my column THE WORK is up, in which the movie MICHAEL made me think of stories told to resist cultural shifts towards equity, and how anyone can use these tools to whatever ends they wish aftermath.site/the-michael-...

This is a long piece that begins by acknowledging the awful economic conditions that writers and other creatives face today. It's why we spoke to three writers who don't have traditional day jobs about their experiences leaving Substack. The struggle is real. www.talkscratch.com/why-cant-wri...

Pet Week continues with @nuala.bsky.social's beautiful tribute to Kazu, a chihuahua who's gone on more hikes, treks, and adventures than most human beings. www.coyotemedia.org/any-dog-can-...

And @leahreich.com is walking the walk: " ... we have to be willing to step back from these big, buzzy spaces, be ok with smaller numbers, and get back to cultivating smaller and more human-scaled spaces. What would it have looked like if I wrote that but didn’t walk the walk?"

When @mindahoney.bsky.social left she felt the loss of the discoverability of Substack, but also had to think harder about what her newsletter was truly FOR: "I draw income from my newsletter subscribers but even unpaid subscribers buy workshops or pay for coaching."

@thefrankiedlc.news actually increased their income by leaving: "I was worried that leaving would lose me discoverability and that I would take a financial hit. But I realize now that is the narrative Substack wants you to believe so that you remain dependent on and stuck with their platform."

I am guilty of still having 2 newsletters on substack but the idea of moving them is overwhelming given the state of *everything* For @talkscratch.bsky.social I reached out to @thefrankiedlc.news @leahreich.com @mindahoney.bsky.social to ask how they made the move www.talkscratch.com/why-cant-wri...

In this week's Scratch, @maggiemertens.bsky.social asks why writers remain on Substack—as a user of Substack herself—and interviews three writers who've left the platform for Beehiiv and Ghost. We know how hard Substack makes it to leave; we also think writers should still try do so.

Gonna go ahead and wishlist this now gamesbeat.com/black-sailor...

"...grief makes people uncomfortable because you can't fix it. Sometimes you just have to sit with someone and say, yeah, this fucking sucks. I'm really sorry." www.coyotemedia.org/grief-is-pol...

Want a sneak peek at my upcoming book? Catch an excerpt on @coyotemedia.org!!

I loved this book and would like more people to read it.

Yet another reason to support local independent media.

I am SO EXCITED about this @coyotemedia.org project (obviously) and this is a delightful peek behind the scenes.

can I walk you through my favorite things about this site, which I made *with these hands*??? (thread lol) petobits.coyotemedia.org

Every time I hear someone ask what writers are supposed to do instead of starting a Substack, all I can think is, my god, literally anything else. Go create something! Start a blog with your friends! Make weird stuff! Let some of it fail/succeed unexpectedly! It's 2026—you've got dozens of options!

🥲 petobits.coyotemedia.org

ANNOUNCEMENT: Introducing COYOTE's Pet Obituary page for the Bay Area. The Rainbow Bay Bridge. 🐱🌈🐕🦎🐠

“…[at] the zine fest, I am perhaps looking for something that I think I may have recently lost track of, a couple decades into a peripatetic but also arguably successful career in publishing: the drive, freedom, and confidence to just make something. No promise of audience or sales… no regrets.”

Not linking to the Jacobin piece raising the corpse of rockism v. poptimism YET AGAIN but @robinjames.bsky.social CRUSHES in this response. "...much like so-called DEI and affirmative action, the real issue with poptimism seems to be that it makes white men feel bad about themselves." bit.ly/3PeaRZJ

"In my fantasy, if we lived in a city with money that didn't all go to the police department, the city would eminent domain that little lot and just turn it into a little bird sanctuary.” @nuala.bsky.social interviewed Meghan Long, the photographer behind the Night Herons of Oakland IG account.

You can see the setup from a mile away and no one seems to have the appetite to avoid it.

Especially with the solution being making urban districts more suburban/rural which will predictably lead to people insisting they can only be held by a moderate white guy.

I saw one of the best sound performances of my life on Saturday and wrote about it for @coyotemedia.org. “DISPATCHES from the CHARCOAL FOREST” is a 40-minute quadraphonic “song cycle for 6 voices and soundscape,” centering on the 2017 Tubbs Fire and its aftermath.

A fun Central Valley geology read for all the rockheads.

Not even going to lie to you I had no clue what to expect when @rahawahaile.bsky.social was like "hey do you wanna go to this experimental music performance" but boy howdy did I cryyyyyyy during it. www.coyotemedia.org/merlin-colem...

I saw one of the best sound performances of my life on Saturday and wrote about it for @coyotemedia.org. “DISPATCHES from the CHARCOAL FOREST” is a 40-minute quadraphonic “song cycle for 6 voices and soundscape,” centering on the 2017 Tubbs Fire and its aftermath.

This thread on how Barnes & Noble arranges nonfiction by ~vibes~ now is wild. Old news to some, I'm sure, but not to me!

All of the coolest people I knew made zines. I was never one of them, but somehow now I get to be friends w/@manjula.bsky.social and read and edit her thoughts on attending a Zine Fest and how it didn't give her nostalgia... it gave her, hope for the future??? www.talkscratch.com/i-dont-miss-...

This could be us, Oakland

Now is a good time to announce that I am planning to start an in person Zine Distro in 2028 right here in NYC. So... if you have space hook ups for me, please reach out. The Distro space will also be available to local organizers who need a space for their meetings.

This week’s Scratch newsletter by @manjula.bsky.social is all about zines, social media fatigue, and the freedom to create without worrying about metrics.

“…[at] the zine fest, I am perhaps looking for something that I think I may have recently lost track of, a couple decades into a peripatetic but also arguably successful career in publishing: the drive, freedom, and confidence to just make something. No promise of audience or sales… no regrets.”

“The report has little tidbits like the fact that OPD has never turned on the stolen vehicle/plate feature for Flock, despite much of the hype on Flock being about just that crime.“ oakland-observer.ghost.io/at-council-a... Great reporting from Omar about surveillance and policing in Oakland.

Huge, huge congrats to @brian-goldstone.bsky.social!

A thoughtful if infuriating read on what it’s like in the alleged progressive bastion of the East Bay. Reminds me why I get so annoyed when folks say we need a strong local conservative party to keep the local Democratic party in check — we have that, they just also consider themselves Democrats.

"It's not every day that a huge piece of art goes up on a wall accidentally. But according to the folks behind 'The Soul of the Bay in Vallejo,' that's basically what happened. 'It was never supposed to be blown up 25 feet tall. It was an 8.5x11 JPEG for Christ's sake,' Loufas said.”

Great story alert!

This essay is craft at its best and should be taught in nonfic writing courses 💙📚 Also really important topic!

REVEIL, the livestream of field sounds that follows dawn around the world for a full day, has kicked off from a wood in Reading, UK (5am on Sat May 2 to 6am on Sun, UK time). More about the project: soundtent.org/reveil.html Listen here: soundtent.org/reveil/#/

wrote about how platforms and the loss of diverse critical writing are a big part of why online music discovery and the discussion thereof are so fucked

Editing is a skill, being well-edited is a gift, having to choose between one's voice or palatability is a scam (ask me how I know). You deserve to grow as an artist with the support of genuine mentors, and your work deserves to exist beyond a closed newsletter ecosystem that leaves us all poorer.

This is so, so good. You might think you don’t care about nonfiction paperbacks, but you do. I promise you. We are losing something, which Rahawa articulates so tenderly and fiercely.