The internet is conditioning our minds and influencing the global consciousness in ways that we are only beginning to understand – and writers are on the front lines. In The Active Voice, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie talks to great writers about how they are reckoning with the challenges of the social media moment, how they find the space for themselves to create great literature and journalism despite the noise, and how to make a living amid the economic volatility of the 2020s. <br/><br/><a href="https://post.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">post.substack.com</a>
The Active Voice
Claim This Podcastby Hamish McKenzie
4.7(55 reviews)
28 episodes
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Podcast Overview
The internet is conditioning our minds and influencing the global consciousness in ways that we are only beginning to understand – and writers are on the front lines. In The Active Voice, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie talks to great writers about how they are reckoning with the challenges of the social media moment, how they find the space for themselves to create great literature and journalism despite the noise, and how to make a living amid the economic volatility of the 2020s. <br/><br/><a href="https://post.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast">post.substack.com</a>
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Publishing Since
10/20/2022
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Recent Episodes
August 14, 2024
Michael Easter wants you to take the stairs
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://substack.com/profile/11600151-michael-easter">Michael Easter</a> is a bestselling author, journalist, and professor whose work explores how we can leverage modern science and evolutionary wisdom to perform better and live healthier. Through his Substack, <a target="_blank" href="https://open.substack.com/pub/michaeleaster">Two Percent with Michael Easter</a>, he offers readers insights to help them ignore the noise and focus on research-backed tips for a happier, healthier life. </p><p>Michael’s reach is vast: his ideas have been adopted by professional athletes, astronauts, musicians, and Fortune 500 companies, and his work has been featured by outlets including Good Morning America, the New York Times, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, and The Joe Rogan Experience. His books, The Comfort Crisis and Scarcity Brain, have both earned spots on the New York Times bestseller list. His work has had an impact in unexpected places, too—one of his books, as he was told by an inmate at Rikers Island, is “the most popular book in prison,” and that same book is also a favorite among some of the largest church groups in the U.S.</p><p>During our conversation, Michael shared the most important things you can do for your health, how he writes fitness tips that work for Tour de France cyclists and 80-year-olds alike, and how taking the stairs—both literally and metaphorically—can change your life.</p><p>Quotes from the conversation</p><p><em>On starting Two Percent</em></p><p>A book might run at 80,000 words, but I would write 160,000 words, and I’d have all this useful stuff that would just go nowhere. And it seemed like Substack might be a good way to cover topics in health and wellness in a way that brought people in, that felt a little more timely, and that allowed me to write in real time. I didn’t know what would happen when I launched this, but I decided to roll the dice—you know, I live in Vegas, so yeah, roll the dice! But it’s been awesome. It’s been one of the best career decisions I’ve ever made, if not the best career decision I’ve ever made. </p><p><em>On the benefits of discomfort</em></p><p>If you look at what most improves human health and well-being and mental health in the context of modern life, it’s uncomfortable, right? It’s exercise. Exercise is uncomfortable. It’s not eating the ninth slice of pizza in one sitting; it’s having some rails on your eating. It’s having hard conversations to unpeel deeper elements of mental health. And when I was working at Men’s Health [magazine], I could see that there were benefits to discomfort. And if you really look at how the world has changed, over the last 100, 200, 500, 2 million years, we’ve slowly added more and more comfort into our lives. And that’s been a good thing for progress, but it hasn’t always been good for health and wellness.</p><p><em>On the traditional Japanese ritual “misogi”</em></p><p>If you look at how humans learn and grow, we don’t learn when things are perfect, right? We learn by being pushed up to an edge, learning what it’s like there, and then seeing, “I figured this out. I’m actually a lot more capable than I realized.” Now, the issue is that today, even though things are great, we don’t really have these moments that are great teachers that show us what we’re capable of. So the idea of misogi is that you take on one big epic task a year in nature in order to expand those edges, to see what you’re capable of. </p><p>There are two rules to misogi: One is that your misogi task has to be really hard. And two is don’t die.</p><p><em>On what the government gets right</em></p><p>I think the number one thing that you can do for your health is exercise. I think that the government’s exercise recommendations are actually rather reasonable. They’re low, but the reason they’re low is because the government also goes, well, we don’t want you guys exercising all the time; we also need an economy here, right? So as long as you can hit a couple hours of cardio total a week and lift some weights a couple of days, I think that that is one of the best things you can do for your health.</p><p><em>On mental health vs. physical health </em></p><p>The internet has made a lot of people crazy, long story short. So having practices that help your mental health is great. If you have a six-pack and can run a five-minute mile yet you’re a crazy person, we probably need to rebalance those books a little bit. So finding practices for mental health, things like extended time in nature. I think meditation can be very useful for some people—it doesn’t work for all people all the time, but that can help build strong relationships with others. Time and silence, really figuring out your own path with all these things, is important.</p><p><em>On chasing dopamine</em></p><p>I think it’s really about giving people context instead of just saying, “Hey, if you get in an ice bath, a study showed that dopamine rises.” It’s like, yeah, well, dopamine rises if I go down to the casino down the road and smoke a heater and hit the spin button 50 times. Just because dopamine rises doesn’t mean s**t, right? </p><p>Show notes</p><p>* Subscribe to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.twopct.com/">Two Percent</a></p><p>* [2:30] On joining Substack</p><p>* [3:06] <a target="_blank" href="https://twopct.shop/products/comfort-crisis-signed-copy">The Comfort Crisis</a></p><p>* [4:18] <a target="_blank" href="https://twopct.shop/products/scarcity-brain-signed-copy">Scarcity Brain</a></p><p>* [8:27] Pushing the envelope</p><p>* [12:42] Misogi</p><p>* [21:36] Writing for a range of athletic abilities</p><p>* [24:18] Trends in health writing</p><p>* [28:31] The most important things you can do for your health</p><p>* [32:13] Michael’s own training</p><p>* [35:07] Michael’s badass mom</p><p>* [39:44] Allowing kids to face challenges</p><p>* [41:00] Why it’s called Two Percent</p><p>* [45:20] <a target="_blank" href="https://www.twopct.com/p/lessons-from-war-with-tim-mak-0f8">Discussions with Tim Mak</a> of <a target="_blank" href="https://open.substack.com/pub/counteroffensive">The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak</a> </p><p> </p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://read.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">read.substack.com</a>
July 19, 2024
Nate Silver on the edge
<p><em>Chris here, Co-founder and CEO of Substack. I’m sharing a conversation with Nate Silver that I just published on my Substack.</em></p><p>is a man of many talents. He’s been a baseball analyst, a blogger, a legendary election forecaster, and founder of 538. He’s worked in media at the Times, ABC, and ESPN. He’s a professional poker player, and a bestselling author. I was introduced to his work through his book The Signal and the Noise, and he has a new book coming out in August called <a target="_blank" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/529280/on-the-edge-by-nate-silver/">On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything</a>. He has a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.natesilver.net/">wildly successful Substack</a>, which you should subscribe to now.</p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://read.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">read.substack.com</a>
July 27, 2023
The Active Voice: E. Jean Carroll, Mary Trump and Jen Taub are bringing serialization into the mainstream
<p>Today’s episode is guest-hosted by Sarah Fay, creative writing professor at Northwestern University, former interviewer at The Paris Review, devoted serializer, and lover of all things Substack. Her Substack Writers at Work helps creative writers use Substack to bolster their careers, including how to serialize their writing. She’s currently serializing her new memoir Cured on Substack through 2023.</p><p>—Sophia Efthimiatou, Head of Writer Relations</p><p>**</p><p>You may recognize the names of today’s guests: Mary Trump, E. Jean Carroll, and Jennifer Taub. Their new venture is a groundbreaking Substack: Backstory Serial. The content may surprise you—though it shouldn’t, and I’ll explain why during the podcast. Backstory Serial features their romance novel The Italian Lesson, which is bringing serial novels and Substack fiction into the mainstream.</p><p>The Italian Lesson is a serialization, meaning it appears in your inbox, chapter by chapter, installment by installment. The plot of The Italian Lesson is simple: An American woman moves to a small town in Tuscany and opens a café. Then, as Mary put it in an interview, “some stud walks in and turns out he’s a prince.”</p><p>Serialization has a long tradition on Substack—I guide writers on how to do it on my Substack, Writers at Work—but no one has had the success that these three have and there are very good reasons why, which we’ll go into. </p><p>The three women play different roles in the writing of the novel: Mary is the author, E. Jean fields comments from their vibrant community and plays the role of romance-novel fact-checker, and Jen acts as editor.</p><p>In case you don’t know Mary, E. Jean, and Jen, a bit of background: </p><p>Mary Trump describes herself as a mom, writer, liberal progressive, and pro-democracy American. She’s the author of <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/too-much-and-never-enough-how-my-family-created-the-world-s-most-dangerous-man-mary-l-trump/17843857?ean=9781982141479">Too Much is Never Enough</a> about her uncle (yes, that Donald Trump) and <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-reckoning-our-nation-s-trauma-and-finding-a-way-to-heal-mary-l-trump/15804620?ean=9781250864635">The Reckoning</a>. Her Substack The Good in Us features her commentary on culture, politics, and music (from Tina Turner to Aimee Mann)—plus pet pictures and a community of subscribers who share her vision to use kindness and empathy to ensure that America remains a democracy. </p><p>E. Jean Carroll’s esteemed Substack, Ask E. Jean, is the longest-running advice column in American publishing. It ran in Elle Magazine until E. Jean accused Donald Trump of assault and sued him for defamation, after which Elle fired her. She’s since made Substack her home. Her wit, smarts, sass, and empathy are unrivaled. She’s also the author of the book <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Do-We-Need-Men/dp/1250215439">What Do We Need Men For?</a>—part satirical treatise in the tradition of Jonathan Swift and part rollicking narrative.</p><p>Jennifer Traub is a one-woman force against corruption in the United States. In her book, <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/big-dirty-money-making-white-collar-criminals-pay-jennifer-taub/17308329?ean=9781984879998">Big Dirty Money</a>, she takes on white-collar criminals. She’s also the author of <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/other-people-s-houses-how-decades-of-bailouts-captive-regulators-and-toxic-bankers-made-home-mortgages-a-thrilling-business-jennifer-s-taub/9377296?ean=9780300212709">Other People’s Houses</a>. Jen is a law professor, an activist, and the host of the <a target="_blank" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/booked-up-with-jen-taub/id1651929984">Booked Up</a> podcast. In her firey—and also fun—Substack Money & Gossip, she clarifies what the rest of us miss or don’t make sense of in the financial and legal world.</p><p>In our conversation, we talk about everything from why the media has underestimated them as novelists, how they came up with The Italian Lesson’s unique form, why they chose to serialize on Substack, knitting patterns, cocktail recipes, the email novel, and what love really is.</p><p>—Sarah Fay </p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.backstoryserial.com/">https://www.backstoryserial.com/</a> </p><p><strong>Show notes</strong></p><p>* Subscribe to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.backstoryserial.com/">Backstory Serial</a> on Substack</p><p>* Find <a target="_blank" href="http://maryltrump">Mary Trump</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/jentaub">Jen Taub</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/ejeancarroll">E. Jean Carroll</a> on Twitter, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/mary.l.trump/">Mary</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/taubjen/">Jen</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/ejeancarroll1/">E. Jean</a> on Instagram, and listen to Jen’s podcast <a target="_blank" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/booked-up-with-jen-taub/id1651929984">Booked Up with Jen Taub</a></p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/big-dirty-money-making-white-collar-criminals-pay-jennifer-taub/17308329?ean=9781984879998">Big Dirty Money by Jennifer Taub</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/contributors/mary-l-trump-b5aa5f68-98d8-438f-94d1-1a4e96418933">books by Mary L Trump</a></p><p>* [03:31] Writing a romance novel</p><p>[05:19] Meeting on Zoom</p><p>[07:58] Choosing to serialize</p><p>[13:20] Mary’s introduction to writing</p><p>[16:32] Building a community</p><p>[22:00] Bringing the book to life</p><p>[27:27] Collaborating together</p><p>[32:30] Subverting traditional publishing</p><p>[38:49] Ideas for the next novel</p><p>**</p><p><em>The Active Voice is a podcast hosted by Hamish McKenzie, featuring weekly conversations with writers about how the internet is affecting the way they live and write. It is produced by Hamish McKenzie, with audio engineering by Seven Morris, and content production by Hannah Ray. All artwork is by Joro Chen, and music is by Phelps & Munro.</em></p> <br/><br/>This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://read.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1">read.substack.com</a>
28 total episodes available
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This podcast updates weekly.
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This podcast is available on 8 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
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