Recommended Follows
Back in my day, we had Links pages and Webrings where we all shared each others Geocities and LiveJournal pages. Interested in who and what I follow and recommend others do too?
Reading
Cory Doctorow
Doctorow is the consummate technology lover and skeptic who coined the term enshittification. He speaks the languages of consumer advocacy, deep technology understanding, and science fiction, which all resonates with me.
Dr. Devon Price
Life-changing author of books and articles about autism and transness who delves deeply beyond the shallow things straight and neurotypical people ask us about. If you want a deep and uncompromising understanding of these worlds, I can’t recommend his books or articles enough.
I recommend both of his books:
Ed Zitron
Zitron is very similar to Doctorow, except he talks about technology from the business mindset. He’s one of the writers I tend to find most on-the-ball about which tech trends are interesting and which ones are hype-based garbage.
Sluggish (Jesse Meadows)
Writes about autism, neurodivergence, and disability from our own perspective and in a scholarly yet sarcastic manner that I really enjoy. She also started a YouTube channel not long ago, for those who don’t want to read as much.
Talia Bhatt
(Substack, taliabhatt.com, Bluesky)
A transfemme writer who really embodies the strength I’m trying to find in myself. She speaks powerfully about the trans experience in a way that somehow helps me visualize a world where we’re safe and equally empowered while talking about the real world issues of today.
News
ProPublica
Probably the most consistently trustworthy news outlet in the U.S.
Truthout
Solid journalism with an opinionated edge that often moves with my own leanings. (anti-war, anti-authoritarian, “a better world is possible” type stuff)
Mission Local
Local San Francisco (and sometimes Bay Area) news that gets into the details with a welcome skepticism of the corporate/government narratives.
Ground News
It took me a few months to warm up to Ground News after having it suggested by so many people. Once I got the hang of the UI, I found myself using it more. It’s serving as a more nuanced Snopes where I can glean the quality and agendas of the different sources of a story before choosing which one to gift my reading time.
It’s missing some features I’d really prefer, like only showing me High and Very High Factuality rated articles by default and filtering out all the garbage. I suppose if you’re a social media axe-grinder you may want to find all the latest propaganda and marketing masquerading as news, but I’ve had my fill of it.
Like all news feeds, it has massive potential to turn to shit, but for now it’s useful.
Podcasts
I use Apple’s built-in podcasts app, but these can be found anywhere.
Savage Love
(Podcast, savage.love, Bluesky)
Real world love, sex, and relationships advice with a quirky sex positive host. Includes heavy topics, politics, kink, queer experiences, and more.
Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel
(Podcast)
Ever wanted to listen to someone else’s therapy session? How about doing it with one of the most renowned therapists on the planet? This podcast is fascinating and so insightful.
Reveal
(Podcast, revealnews.org, Bluesky)
Trustworthy investigative reporting with details and storytelling that truly get to the heart of the story. They regularly work with our most respected investigative reporting outlets to produce heartbreaking, true stories behind the headlines.
On The Media
Great NPR show that investigates and discusses the new media itself. Showcases their agendas, does some fact checking, and sends out the occasional warning sign when something’s being covered up.
Science Vs
(Podcast)
Fun scientific investigations of various topics, the likes of Mythbusters.
YouTube / Nebula / Twitch.tv
Alex Avila
Longform video essays using lots of subtle dry queer humor and $20 words. If you really want to feel smart about a topic, he can entertain you on the way there.
Angela Collier
(Nebula, YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky)
An incredibly smart and approachable theoretical physicist who relishes in clearing up misinformation and disinformation, and does so in entertaining ways.
ContraPoints
Natalie Wynn creates entrancing in-depth video essays about everything from fascism to Twilight.
Crash Course
Crash Course is one of my favorite Patreon subscriptions. For more than a decade they’ve produced extremely high quality educational videos that responsibly explain huge concepts in under 15 minutes per chapter. For free. For every teacher or parent in the world to show to their kids. They are incredible. See their playlists page for all the topics they’ve done over the years. (especially if you already like John and Hank Green)
Drawfee
(YouTube, Twitch, Patreon, Bluesky)
When we want to just chill and laugh without letting our brains wander into the dark and complicated realities of our time, nothing is better than bingeing some Drawfee episodes. They even have an absolutely hilarious improvisational mystery show called Drawtectives, that I can’t recommend enough.
F.D. Signifier
(Nebula, YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky)
FD Signifier is an old head rap fan, sports fan, and just a straight up insightful dude about politics and culture in general. He’s especially in his wheelhouse when he talks about men and the issues they experience in childhood and their ramifications.
Folding Ideas
Dan Olson makes well-produced documentaries about geeky shit.
Game Grumps
Mindlessly stupid let’s plays, animations, music, and nonsense videos made by likeable people. I’ve been watching it since it first began over a decade ago, and it’s still a favorite place for me to hear about all the bizarre things young people are doing these days.
Hbomberguy
(Nebula, YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky)
Every video starts with a small concept and somehow unravels into a twisted 3+ hour deep dive into corruption, incompetence, plagiarism, grifting, and/or game design. Yea, it’s about as unhinged as it sounds and I’m here for it. And some of the best (most ridiculous) stuff is on his Patreon.
LegalEagle
(Nebula, YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky)
Explainer legal videos for both silly things and real world current events, told in succinct terms with fun visuals.
Lily Alexandre
(Nebula, YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky)
Informative and entertaining videos about gender issues and art and everything between.
Maggie Mae Fish
(Nebula, YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky)
Just excellent video essays about movies and other interesting stuff.
Matt Baume
Fun, informative videos about TV shows, movies, and all the queer behind-the-scenes drama that’s played out for the last hundred years.
Olurinatti
(YouTube, Patreon, olayemiolurin.com, Substack, Bluesky)
Olayemi Olurin is a civil rights lawyer with an attitude. She makes videos about current events, legal topics, abolition, and television shows on her various channels. I don’t always agree with her takes on TV, but those takes are always entertaining and we’re aligned on the heavy shit for sure.
Open Mike Eagle
OME does an awesome Morning Show 3-4 days per week with great music and chill conversations about current events, the music industry, and whatever else chat wants to bring up.
I recommend having Shazam ready to grab a track for your own playlists every now and then.
Philosophy Tube
(Nebula, YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky)
What do you get when you take a theater kid and give them a PhD in Philosophy? Incredible informative videos with set and costume designs to die for. (She’s also been in Star Wars and Game of Thrones since starting her YouTube channel)
Princess Weekes
(Nebula, YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky)
High quality media commentary through a queer, black, femme lens that digs into the parts of culture I don’t get into myself. She pulls experience from everything from scholarly books to fanfiction and it’s a really detailed point of view I don’t often find in media commentary.
Some More News
If you enjoy John Oliver telling you about depressing shit with laughs in between, you may also enjoy Some More News. They cite their sources, do deep explainer videos, and vent frustration about genocide… with puppets!
Spice8rack
(YouTube, Patreon, Bluesky, Twitch)
If you love Magic, philosophy, fantasy lore, political theory, and gay shit, you’ll love Spice.
Super Beard Bros
A solid let’s play channel that pulled away from a larger one that fell apart due to unethical handling of charity funds and now exists entirely independently. They ignore the YouTube algo in favor of an entirely Patreon-supported model, which means no sponsorships, no shitty in-content ads, and no playing games no one cares about to keep up with trends.
Super Eyepatch Wolf
(YouTube, Twitch, Patreon, Bluesky)
SEW is a passionate Irish dude who loves horror movies, video games, manga, pro wrestling, and all kinds of other stuff. He has a deep appreciation of all forms of creativity and art and creates awesome videos that help you love those things more deeply too.
Tolarian Community College
The best general Magic: The Gathering YouTube channel. Even when I’m taking breaks from the game, I still watch these videos because they’re entertaining. I’ve met The Professor in person multiple times and can say he’s a great guy, too.
VioletVik
(YouTube)
I often need relaxing white noise sounds to settle myself for sleep, pulling myself out of a panic attack, or de-stressing. I’m a lucky experiencer of the ASMR tingles, so I sometimes watch those strange ones, but this channel is sometimes even better. As a lover of city life and broke person who wishes they could travel far more, the hustle and bustle of international cities has become my white noise of choice.
Watts the Safeword
Fun, silly videos that talk about kink and sex education, hosted by local SF gay dudes.
Bluesky
It’s pretty easy to see who I follow on Bluesky, but these are my favorite strangers there I haven’t already mentioned above.
Artists
- Beautiful Bizarre Magazine
- Cells Dividing
- David Liu
- Deb JJ Lee
- Dominik Mayer
- Grace Liu
- Horimitsu
- Jiji Draws
- Kelogsloops
- KyoungHwan Kim
- Lauren YS
- Loish
- Oh Joy Sex Toy
- Peter Mohrbacher
- Ramin Nazer
- Rebecca Leveille Guay
- Simz
- Sou Ortiz
- Stef Azevedo
- WOLFSKULLJACK
Smart People
Not that others outside this section aren’t smart. 😅
- Alejandra Caraballo
- A.R. Moxon
- Cary Costello
- EFF
- Erin Reed
- Michael Burns
- Michael Harriot
- Scarina’s Vault
- Sherrilyn Ifill
- Timnit Gebru
Locals
- Alfred Twu
- The E’ville Eye
- League of Women Voters – Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville
- Mission Local
- Race Bannon
Humor
- The Daily Tism
- Existential Comics
- Internet Hippo
- Mr. Lovenstein
- The Onion
- The Other End
- Perry Bible Fellowship
- Safely Endangered
Chill
I also have a Starter Pack for Art & Chill Stuff.