Tangle - Two years ago, I quit my job. Today, I need your help.

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

Please, help us out by watching this trailer for the new Tangle YouTube channel!Support us with a subscription here or give a gift subscription here. Sign up for a subscription at our "Thank you" tier here.You can read today's "Have a Nice Day" story here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited by Zosha Warpeha. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and today is a special edition of our podcast. This is the two-year anniversary since I quit my job to go in at Tangle full-time. And we also have a very big announcement and a small favor to ask. At the end of the podcast, we'll do some quick hits and have a nice day story.

But with that, I'm just going to jump right in. Two years ago, I made one of the most important bets of my life. I wouldn't call it a roll of the dice or a coin toss or any other euphemism that implies pure chance. More than anything, it was a bet on you, my readers and listeners. It was a bet that what I was seeing, what I wanted to see, was real. That you were genuinely interested in being challenged, in embracing debate, and in getting out of your bubbles, and that you would stick around for the long term, even when you were asked to read things you didn't agree with. When Tangle started, it was nothing more than a concept for a political newsletter

that got people to drop their news filters. I thought my background put me in a unique position to pull it off. I'd grown up in a politically divided place with friends and family from across the political spectrum, and I felt open-minded and politically incongruent myself. I found myself siding with different political factions based on specific issues rather than strict party lines, and I figured there were a lot more people like me out there. I was also exhausted by people dunking on each other on Twitter, taking each other's words out of context, or elevating the other side's worst arguments. I was infuriated

by the partisan hackery and struggled to understand how anyone could think either side had a monopoly on good ideas or the truth. Cable news and media punditry were worldview reinforcement machines, and the online echo chamber was only making it worse. So I drew up a concept for a newsletter in my notebook. The basic premise was political news for everyone, a big main story, the liberal argument, the conservative argument, and then my take. It was almost exactly what Tangle is still to this day. When I sent my first email, it went out to 13 people. I had a full-time job as an editor,

a reporter, and a columnist, and for the first two years, Tangle grew slowly as I struggled to find the time to write in the early mornings or on my lunch break and late at night. As the months went on, though, I felt myself burning out. It wasn't possible to work two jobs or keep pulling 14-hour days, so I had to make a choice. Fortunately, by year two, the newsletter's mailing list had grown to about 22,000 people, and I was basking in my first spurt of real press for this project. Forbes had just named me one of their next 1,000 upstart entrepreneurs, which I think is like the poor man's 30 under 30. The New York Times had referenced their work, and Substack was counting me as one of their biggest success stories. With that fledgling mailing list, a few hundred paying subscribers, and some encouraging

validation that I was headed in the right direction, I made the decision to quit my job. It's been two years, and I couldn't be happier with that decision. We've almost tripled our mailing list since then, as we're about to eclipse 60,000 readers. We have more than 9,000 paying subscribers, generating close to $500,000 in recurring revenue every year. We now have a team of 10. Isaac, Magdalena, Ari, Bailey, Sean, Zosia, John, Daniel, Noah, and Will, who I will have an important note about in one moment. We recently said farewell to Audrey, who after a year working as a research intern, is returning all her focus to studying at Harvard. So a hearty thank you to her for all her tremendous contributions to Tangle.

Along the way, we've stood up a website, an advertising business, and this podcast, which now has close to 1 million downloads. And today, on the two-year anniversary of jumping into this full-time, I'm announcing the launch of a new venture, our very own Tangle YouTube channel. Before I beg you to go watch our trailer, like our video, and subscribe, let me explain a few things. First, nothing about this newsletter or podcast is going to change. This is a new project, not something that is going to replace what we are doing now.

Second, the reason we are starting a YouTube channel is to find a larger audience. Scaling as a podcast or newsletter is difficult and slow going. Getting exposure on YouTube should be faster. It's the second largest search engine in the world, the biggest podcast platform on the planet, and much like the mainstream media, it is populated with a lot of hyper-partisan pundits. As we did when we launched this podcast, we plan to bring something different. Balance, fairness, clarity, and independent commentary. Our channel will have a nearly identical format as the Tangle podcast with the same exact ethos, but it will probably be a little shorter with some images and videos to go along with me. Long-term, I hope to steal the audiences

of other video-first news suppliers you find on YouTube and even cable television. Now, here comes the small favor I need to ask of you. Our success over the long haul is greatly influenced by how strong the engagement to our very first video is. Whether you spend any time on YouTube or not, please consider watching our trailer, subscribing to the channel, it's free to subscribe, commenting, and liking the video. That way, anyone who finds us randomly on YouTube will see what an awesome community we have.

The video link is in today's episode description of the podcast. It's also all throughout today's newsletter. And of course, you can find it on our website at readtangle.com. The video is a trailer and it is about two minutes long. You can go watch it and then come back to this podcast if you want, or you can watch it when the podcast is over. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been

reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca. I also wanted to make a few other announcements. First, we recently hired Will,

who will be helping us with both research for the newsletter and booking guests on the podcast and YouTube channel. He'll also be trying to get me more media appearances elsewhere. If you are a podcast or YouTube host, or you work for a news outlet or channel and want to set up an interview, please email him, will, W-I-L-L, at readtangle.com. Second, I want to remind our listeners that this is one of several 2023 projects we've been discussing, and we are far

from done this year. Next up on our agenda, we're close to announcing a date for our first ever live Tangle event this summer in Philadelphia. We're gearing up to release our new Tangle once a week roundup newsletter. We are still planning to release paywalled podcast versions of the Friday editions Which I know many of you have asked me for We're going to redesign our website And we are looking for ways to bring Tangle into classrooms across the US There are a lot of great things coming Third, and finally, and most importantly, thank you

I say it a few times a year and I will continue to because I truly believe in the power of gratitude and prayer. Tangle is my dream job. I feel incredibly blessed to do this work, to have my own company, and to be building a team I get to choose. As a journalist and writer, I never ever expected to have much financial or job security. and writer I never, ever expected to have much financial or job security. I was resigned to long hours, low pay, and volatility. I've still got the long hours, but I move beyond words, and I thank my lucky stars every day that Tangle's readers and listeners have helped create not just a stable job for me, but a successful media company with such strong support. To that end, if you want to help any of these projects become reality, the YouTube

channel, the podcast, the interviews, the live events, the weekly roundup, tangle in classrooms, whatever it is, or you just simply want this podcast to stay alive, please support us with a subscription. Subscribers make up over 90% of our revenue, which allows me to build out this team while keeping the vast majority of our content free for everyone. The standard annual subscription is less than $5 per month and gets you exclusive Friday editions in the newsletter and access to our entire archive. If you really want to support our work, you can subscribe at the Thank You tier, which is $199 a year and is a great way to support all of our new projects too. Of course, over 9,000 of you out there are already subscribers, so if that's you, thank you. And don't forget that just forwarding our newsletter

or sharing the podcast with someone and asking them to follow us is a huge help. Spreading the word is just as good as supporting us financially. You can also consider giving a gift subscription to a friend, family member, or political foe, Tangle is a great gift for someone whose politics you don't like. Thank you, as always, for your tremendous support. I can't say enough how excited I am for this next year. And since we robbed you of a normal podcast today to send out this little sappy edition and the way, we're going to finish off today with some quick hits. First up, Representative Justin Pearson, one of two Democrats expelled by the Republican-led House in Tennessee, became the second to get unanimously voted back into the

legislature. Number two, Senator Tim Scott, the Republican from South Carolina, launched a presidential campaign exploratory committee and declined to say whether he would endorse Trump if the former president won the GOP primary. Number three, Representative Ro Khanna, the Democrat from California, became the first Democratic lawmaker to call for Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Democrat from California, to resign from Congress. Number four, the Washington Post released an exclusive report purporting to identify a young gun enthusiast who worked on a military base and leaked the

trove of classified intelligence reports we covered earlier this week. Number five, an appeals court in Louisiana suspended the ruling from a Texas judge that would have removed the abortion pill Mifepristone from the market, though it declined to suspend part of the decision that banned its delivery by mail. All right, and last but not least, our have a nice day story. Inside San Quentin State Prison, incarcerated college students can now also teach at the first accredited prison college in the United States. The college, California's Mount Tomopolis College, is the only accredited independent liberal arts college that operates its main campus out of a prison. It has now had thousands

of attendees. Studies run by the Bureau of Justice Assistance show these programs reduce the rate of prisoners who reoffend. In January of 2022, it officially got its accreditation. San Quentin, once known for botched executions and harsh prison conditions, is now getting praise for its turn towards rehabilitation. Prism Reports has the story, and there's a link to that in our episode description today. All right, everybody, that is it for the podcast. Don't forget, please go to the episode description or our website or our newsletter and go watch our first YouTube video. Subscribe, like it, comment, do all that great stuff. It would be a huge, huge help. Thank you all. We'll be right back here same time

tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace. our podcast is written by me isaac saul and edited by zosia warpea our script is edited by sean brady ari weitzman and bailey saul shout out to our interns audrey moorhead and watkins kelly and our social media manager magdalena bakova who created our podcast logo music for the podcast was produced by diet 75 for from Tangle, check out our website at www.tangle.com. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, We'll see you next time. Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season?

Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages 6 months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca.