Substacks recommended by James O'Malley | Odds and Ends of History

Recommended by James O'Malley

Dividing Lines

By Tom Hamilton

A Substack about political attack, what it means and why it matters

Striking 13

By Ian Dunt

A newsletter about British politics. Written from the bad place.

What's Happening Now

By Sam Hampson

What's the matter with what matters. Sam Hampson and James O'Malley are joined by comedians, guests and experts to take a look at the world around us.

Silver Bulletin

By Nate Silver

Essays and analysis about elections, media, sports, poker, and all the other things I care about.

Political Calculus

By Ben Ansell

A Substack on the connections between politics and the economy from the author of Why Politics Fails.

The Swingometer

By Rob Ford

Thoughts on elections, public opinion and politics. The Swingometer is named in honour of the late Sir David Butler, inventor of both "swing" and the device to illustrate it on television.

Logging the World

By Oliver Johnson

I try to make sense of the world using numbers, and this free newsletter explains how mathematics and statistics ideas can help a general audience. My book "Numbercrunch" was published in March 2023.

Everything is Light

By Zion Lights

Pro-human, pro-progress commentary on scientific, technological and cultural matters. Enter your email address below to receive free articles.

Joxley Writes

Politics, history and culture from a right of centre perspective.

Robstack

By Rob Francis

Writing about whatever takes my interest, typically politics and culture, from a broadly social democratic perspective.

Rob is always interesting whatever the topic - even football, and I don't even like football.

- James O'Malley

Comment is Freed

By Sam Freedman

Politics, policy analysis, and foreign affairs from Sam and Lawrence Freedman

Sam is an incredibly smart writer who is always interesting read on a range of topics. And his dad, who shares his Substack, is essential reading on Ukraine.

- James O'Malley

James Bloodworth

Essays, reviews and early access to my books and documentaries.

I always feel smarter after having read James’s writing.

- James O'Malley

Blocked and Reported

By Jesse Singal

A Podcast About Internet Nonsense

There is no better podcast for making sense of that mad thing you saw on the internet.

- James O'Malley

Tox Report

By Sarah Ditum

Writing about culture and politics by someone who's thought way too much about "... Baby One More Time"

Local Authority

By Medwayish

Independent Medway news covering local news, politics, culture, and the weirder side of our towns.

This Week, Those Books

By Rashmee Roshan Lall

A quick weekly post and five-minute podcast that join the dots on the week's big news story and the world of books. Makes you smarter, faster. Thousands, in more than 100 countries, agree.

Hard Thinking on the Soft Left

By Emma Burnell

The Labour Party and the Soft Left

I always enjoy reading Emma's takes on the Labour Party as they're mostly correct.

- James O'Malley

The Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything

By Jonn Elledge

assorted nerdery from a man who should probably be doing something else

Jonn is an excellent nerdy man who writes about trains and maps, and demographically speaking, if you like my work, you are 100% likely to be interested in these things.

- James O'Malley

Slow Boring

By Matthew Yglesias

Start your day with pragmatic takes on politics and public policy.

I am an unashamed Yglesias fanboy and my Substack is a pound-shop attempt to imitate the sort of smart takes that he does.

- James O'Malley

My Apophenic Haze

By Gia

a·po·phen·i·a æpoʊˈfiːniə noun --'the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena; the tendency to find personal information in noise.' ...but basically just a newsletter on whatever I'm thinking about now.

Gia is both super smart and has a really unique way of looking at the world, so it is impossible not to find her writing interesting.

- James O'Malley

Social Warming by Charles Arthur

By Social Warming: the Substack

Looking at the way social networks affect our societies, and in particular how they generate "social warming". It's why everyone seems so angry all the time.

Decisions, Decisions by Martin Robbins

By Martin J. Robbins

Regular thoughts and advice on decisions, the people and organisations who make them, and the ways they shape our world.

The Bluestocking

By Helen Lewis

I read the internet, so you don’t have to.

Helen always has interesting links and good takes in her weekly newsletter.

- James O'Malley

Singal-Minded

By Jesse Singal

A newsletter about science, social-justice-activism, why they sometimes fight, and how to help them get along better -- plus a good deal of other, more random stuff.

I like Jesse's writing as it is thoughtful and carefully parses through complex and often controversial topics.

- James O'Malley