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Will still be writing weekly

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Dear Wesley: All the best on your new format. I'm happy to subscribe to a newsletter because I think you have interesting things to say, but I read probably 3 times faster than I listen and absorb the ideas better off the written page. So perhaps you could offer transcripts for the rest of us non-podcast folks. If not, all the best but like ProfMom below, it's not the medium for me and I can't continue to subscribe, alas.

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As a few others have said, I subscribed for the Year Zero essays and hope they will not be overshadowed or phased out by podcasts.

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“An invitation to spend countless hours with my voice reverberating in your earbuds, and a foretaste of what that will be like.“ Irony so dry I had to turn on my humidifier.

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"Books Do Furnish"--shades of Anthony Powell. Book 10 of Dance to the Music of Time.

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I am among those with no interest in audible material.

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Excellent podcast. I'm looking forward to more, especially if they are not longer than 20-30 minutes (with occasional exceptions as needed to do justice to the content).

The "woke" cancel culture stuff is complex (a lot of the blame should go to the PMC), but a lot of how it plays out in the commercial mass media, including social networks, and in the culture, can be boiled down to the same kind of moral panic that has happened over and over in the last 100+ years. Most of the rest of it can be lumped into the category of postmodern social conditions, relativistic values, and the "crisis of meaning" (Robert Kegan, John Vervaeke and many others).

Expecting the hard liners on the cultural-left, including in media, tech and academia, to correct course against postmodern social pathologies does not seem likely, but the good news is that there are a lot more prominent thinkers, such as at fairforall.org, that are providing good leadership against intolerance on the cultural-left.

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You have the makings of a speaking star. I too like to read materials but don't feel empowered to tell you how to communicate. You have insight into how we got to our present sorry state. I'm game to read or hear what you have to say. I'm game to tackle the reading assignments. I'm looking forward to a new experience.

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I experienced a screaming/name-calling episode comparable to the incident on the train in N.Y. The subject was Brexit (actually, the subject was Morissey's "Every Day is Like Sunday," which started to play in the cafe where I was (in Los Angeles, where I am from), and which I praised in indifference to Brexit and Morissey's opinions thereon). This happened in 2020, and the hysteric was a hard-working girl from an obvious working class, small-town/provincial ("townie") background (Chico, Ca). The "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" shriek was surprising, and alarming. I wondered that she didn't fear to lose her job over it...

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So, I’ve been paying monthly, knowing that my persistence would be rewarded. Alas, I am one of those who is on the deaf spectrum and podcasts are one of my least accessible mediums. It is with a heavy heart that I will no longer be able to subscribe to year zero in its new format. I wish you the best and hope the occasional piece of written work or a new book will find its way to me.

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Looking forward to this. Don’t shy away from these 15 minutes micro-episodes - much easier for some us to consume than multi-hour podcasts

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Boom!

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