Hi, friends. This one’s going to be a little different. I gave a talk at Colby College this week about how to stop doomscrolling, and stay informed.

One thing I notice when listening to anyone talk about the news is that they’re generally dissatisfied with it. We all hate the news (more on this later). And there’s a vague sense that there are better sources for news out there, but we don’t know where to find them.

So, this is a quick cheat-sheet on how to find your new favorite info source, and not want to cry under the bed at night.

If you want to skip to the recommendations, just scroll down to the bottom.

If you’re a Colby student, hi! If not, hopefully some of these are useful anyway. Let’s get into it.

…the news sucks.

Let’s just get that out of the way. Tell this to a journalist, and they probably won’t be offended. They’ll probably agree with you. It’s getting demonstrably worse.

There are a lot of reasons for this, and most are fairly complicated. But one of them is kinda simple: the glowing rectangle you’re probably reading this on. More specifically, it’s social media.

Let’s break this down into a few premises:

1. The medium in which we get information sucks. It’s not possible to understand complicated world affairs in 90-second video.

2. We are accustomed to this medium, on both ends: consumer and provider. Viewers are starting to expect that info be given to them in bite-sized, simplified chunks. And reporters are starting to provide what we expect. They are catering to the demands of this new market. If they don’t provide our bite-sized chunks, we won’t eat them.

3. This is a continual spiral. Nobody knows what is at the bottom, but it is probably not good.

4. The spiral is speeding up.

There are other issues with journalism, which I’d argue are bigger. Lack of funding is a big one. And the fixes are complicated. Some would involve possible government intervention, and regulation. And yes, some people are trying to make that happen! I interviewed one of them last week, about how Google just pledged $250 million for journalism (and why he thinks that’s a bad thing. I think he has a point).

But basically, you’re not going to fix democracy by asking everyone to ‘be a better digital citizen’, because — what does that even mean? Posting heart emojis in the comments?

This is a societal issue that is going to require deep, structural changes; potentially in government. It will affect businesses, elections, and public health. That is not easy. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that in the meantime, you can do something individually, for yourself.

It is possible to be less anxious, while staying informed.

first recommendation: delete (some) social media

Two stats: 4.8 hours: Average number of hours a day that U.S. teens spend using social media. 41%: percentage of teens with highest social media use who rate their overall mental health as poor. [source]

Take another look at those stats up there. If you’re not a teenager, your numbers might be slightly less; but I bet it’s still high.

Look, we’re all addicted to our phones. That’s okay! It’s actually not your fault.

And the phones aren’t all bad. Social media can expose us to new information, but also make us feel awful.

The idea isn’t to deprive yourself, or make yourself feel bad. Instead, one approach to consider is to do a ‘hard reset’.

The key here is for you to make the decision. Don’t let the shiny red notification bubble decide for you. Here are some options:

Hard Mode: scorched earth

Take out your phone now. Delete all your social media apps. Don’t re-install them until you really need to. Jump to ‘how do I stay informed?’ below.

Medium Mode: weekly day of rest

Set a schedule for yourself: delete your social media apps Saturday night, just before you go to sleep. Then when you wake up on Sunday, see how long it is until you need each one. If you make it until lunchtime, great. If you make it until Monday, cool! Try this each week. Maybe this means you just have a quieter day on Sundays — if so, that’s an extra few hours to do something you actually enjoy. (Touch grass???) Experiment with what works for you. Jump to ‘how do I stay informed?’ below.

Diet Mode: subtract nothing; add just one thing

if you truly think you can’t avoid social media, that’s fine! Keep up your scrolling as usual. But add one extra unusual piece of media to your diet. Try picking just one source from all the lists below. Try something you know nothing about, but that sounds at least a little bit interesting: like a country music blog, or an African newspaper. Read it once per week, for 15 minutes on Monday. Try this for a month. No joke, I think you’ll start surprising your friends at all the random (important) stuff you know.

wait, how do I stay informed without social media?

so, you’ve deleted one or more of your social media apps. This is a big step, and kinda scary!

It seems like there’s two options here; you can be either smart or happy. Social media makes you anxious, but well-informed. Reducing that intake might make you calmer, but you’ll be ignorant!

Good news: you don’t have to choose.

Here’s a secret: most of the creators/accounts you follow are getting their info from more reliable sources. They’re just breaking it down into bite-sized, spicy pieces. You don’t need a middleman, you can go (closer to) the source.

And even better, you can choose your own sources. Think of it like cutting down on your Doordash habit, and having groceries delivered to you instead. (you could go to the grocery store, but you know. Baby steps.)

second recommendation: choose new media

So, what should you read? Don’t worry, we’re almost to the list.

I’d recommend grabbing at least one newsletter, since it’ll come to your inbox, rather than you having to seek it out.

And diversify your sources. Try to pick at least three: one global source, one more local source, and one niche.

For example, you might try a Semafor newsletter (global), a blog from your hometown, and 404 Media (tech niche). Or Al Jazeera (global), Washington Post for national, and Hellgate NYC (hyperlocal).

why do I recommend niche or cultural things?

This is counterintuitive, but one of the easiest ways to understand larger trends is not to look at politics or policy or ‘hard news’, but at culture. If you want to understand China’s interaction with the US, don’t just read The Economist, look at gamer reviews of Black Myth: Wukong. If you want to understand police corruption in Baltimore, you should probably pay attention to what rappers there have been telling us for years. Videogame websites can have interesting insights about Kamala Harris. Nothing happens in a vacuum.

A fun quote
I am not competing against CNN. I am not competing against New York Times… I'm competing against cat videos. –– Matt Pearce, in a depressing interview I just did

here’s the list!

These are compiled from recs from a bunch of friends. It’s not exhaustive, but there’s definitely something in here for you!

404 Media - I recommend this one to everyone. If you use technology, this is relevant to you. Hacking, sex work, niche online communities, and AI. This is where you read about whether Taylor Swift could sue Donald Trump for a fake AI Endorsement, and a guy who wants to teach you to pirate Hepatitis C medicine.

ground.news - their selling point is that you can 'Compare headlines across the political spectrum using media bias ratings driven by data.' Useful for scanning, but: be wary of the AI-powered 'Bias Comparison' feature. I've seen it get some things very wrong.

WIRED Magazine - 'the latest in science and technology to the big stories in business and culture'. I write for them sometimes, so I’m biased, but I do like them for taking tech and culture seriously. Here’s the only proper interview TikTok's CEO has done to date.

Semafor - articles are broken down into sections: the 'facts', then the reporter's view or analysis, then a section to at least one counterargument. And lastly, other articles you can read from other places. They have a global Flagship newsletter. The most recent one includes info about a strike in Israel, protests in Mexico, and a statue in Singapore. They also have a newsletter just for American politics.

Rest of World - 'We're a global nonprofit publication covering the impact of technology beyond the Western bubble.' Example: this piece about how Uber drivers in Kenya are ignoring the app and charging their own rates.

The Continent - An African newspaper designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Recent articles include Bill Gates' influence in Africa, and whether he is helping or 'playing god'; and 'your friendly neighbourhood Ethio-Spider-Man'.

The Trace - reporting on guns. Recently: a big report on why the biggest ghost gun manufacturer in the US just closed.

Court Watch - 'all the most interesting federal court filings’. That’s underselling how wild this stuff can be. Case in point, this piece: ‘FBI Uses January 6 Rioter’s Self-Published Amazon Book as Evidence Against Him'

Okay, here’s some obvious ones.

New York Times — if you’re a college student (hi, Colby!), you might have access to this for free via your library.

BBC and Guardian — free, very solid news from the UK. They cover US politics very well, and you’ll get a view of what they think of us over there!

The Daily; NYT’s podcast. 20 minutes per day, one a single topic, like the debate on banning phones in school. It’s free! And depending on who you ask, The Daily might have a better reputation than the NYT itself.

What A Day. If you actually like Politics (yuck), and consider yourself left-but-not-too-left, and you want to be ‘up to date’ on everything, this is an easy recommendation for your morning routine. ‘Fox and Friends would sound like if their parents read to them as children’. I know some of the people who work on this.

Random additional advice from journalist/researcher friends

I sent a text message to a bunch of friends asking how they figure out what’s going on in the world, without using social media. I got a ton of replies. Some are direct quotes, some are paraphrased:

‘I try to follow outlets I disagree with, like Breitbart, Steve Bannon’s podcast, etc.’’

‘South Asian (in America) culture: The Juggernaut. And Dawn for news from Pakistan’

‘Erin in the Morning is good for news on trans rights policy.’

‘If I’m going to be traveling to a particular place to report, I’ll do a search and try to explore lesser-listened to podcasts made by people who live in the region. Especially if I know the local language. Or if I’m reading things, even if I don’t know the language, I’ll try using Google Translate to try to get an idea of what the news agenda is in Ukraine, and how that’s different from the US. It’s always different, and even seeing how it is different can be helpful.’

‘For nuclear weapons policy: The Arms Control Wonk podcast. Warning: it is dorky.’

‘Protests. Even if you aren’t all that passionate about the protest, or even if you disagree. Just go listen. Talk to people, but try to listen (don’t argue). By the end, you’ll have learned something valuable.’

‘TRT for news from the Middle East. I also watch Al Jazeera. But both can be weird about certain topics or countries.’

‘Don’t sleep on the Christian Science Monitor!’

‘The Rest is History is great, and sometimes have themed episodes around current events (for the Paris Olympics they had a series on the French Revolution)’

‘Text messages with friends. My friends are really diverse and so they send me things I wouldn’t know about otherwise. We all send each other stuff, and that keeps me smart.’

‘I’ve gone to conferences that I thought would be banal, but I walked away with a bunch of interesting leads on future stories’.

‘History Matters on YouTube for really good 3-minute explainers on historical context’

‘I read the NY Times Chinese edition sometimes. It’s interesting to see what they think is important enough to translate into other languages, and sometimes it’s slightly different.’

‘For what it's worth, I tried to get my news from TikTok/IG for a week and it was all misinformation, which made it annoying because I had to fact check errrrrything. Least efficient way to get news, imo’

‘This isn’t a source, but it’s a useful tool: an app called Pocket. When you come across an interesting article online that you don’t have time to read, or have had open in a tab for ages you can save it to pocket and it saves it offline on the app. It’s great bc whenever I find myself with nothing to do or read on the subway or waiting somewhere I can pull up pocket and just read some random article I saved ages ago.’

‘Most news apps are bad: the BBC app is actually good. Their push notifications are informative!’

‘⁠A history of rock music in 500 songs - the most exhaustively researched and detailed music podcast I’ve ever heard. Some episodes are several hours long, and explain the history of a band / song and how their music intersected with whatever was going on at the time. Very fascinating music nerd stuff - just pick an episode at random about a band or song you love. Cocaine and Rhinestones does the same, but for country music.’

‘Tbh it's really hard for me to recommend getting into this biz. But I'd tell anyone who wants to be a journalist that the jobs that exist are for things that make money. If you can get specialized in something that moves markets, you'll always be employed. Not sexy advice, but it's true.’

‘The Right Time w/ Bomani Jones, and Stadio. Both are sports podcasts, but Stadio is two former lower league footballers one of which is poet and author, Musa Okwonga. and Bomani Jones is a brilliant -and obnoxious- commentator on sport and race.’

‘Something you always want to ask yourself when you read: what’s the source? How did they get this information? Did they see something on TikTok and report it out as a trend? Was it a spokesman? A government source? A person on the street? An expert, or experts? An ‘anonymous’ source? This exercise will both teach how to find a story (by emulating the best) and critique whether the journalist or producer handles the multiple agendas behind a piece. Even if you don’t want to be a journalist yourself, you want to understand how this stuff works!’

That’s it.

If you try any of these, let me know how you like it! I’d also love to do another version of this in the future, with more recommendations. So if you have any favorite outlets, let me know!

And with that, I’ll leave you with a final quote from Steve Bannon in 2018:

“The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”