the best reads on substack

writing that moves me

Jun 30, 2026

A live list of the pieces here that have changed my life for the better… updated as I find new ones. Leave your recommendations in the comments!

(all free at the time of adding them here)

shaking the bones for joy

I told a friend that I’m studying to be a qigong instructor. I paused, feeling the smooth curve of the teacup. How to explain…

2 months ago · 1141 likes · 96 comments · Alexandra @ Inner Pathing 💗

Escaping Flatland

Love is about being invested in someone’s continual expansion

This is the fifth part of a series on relationships begun with “Looking for Alice” (which is about how I met my wife Johanna), “Dostoevsky as lover” (about our early years together), “Relationships are coevolutionary loops,” and “When I accept myself as I am, I change…

a month ago · 3303 likes · 67 comments · Henrik Karlsson

You're probably addicted to thinking

If there’s been a throughline to my work over the last decade, it’s that addiction gets subtler the further you follow it. First I had to get sober from the obvious “bad” stuff, the narcotic chemicals that nearly killed me. Then I had to reckon with the legal drugs like Twitter, Instagram, PornHub, and yes…

4 months ago · 4229 likes · 204 comments · Alex Olshonsky

The cure for your thinking addiction

On Thursday evening, your boss texts you. “Can you come into the office tomorrow for a bit, 9:30am?” You do your best to respond casually…

13 days ago · 283 likes · 43 comments · Alex Olshonsky

you either become evil or get an auto-immune disorder

21 days ago · 1524 likes · 115 comments · Sumeyya

What the tide brought

nothing passes through you for free

Someone said something mean to me a while back, and I replied to it. That was a mistake. Standing up for yourself is not wrong, if anything it felt reasonable in the moment, even righteous. But my mistake was that by answering I agreed to keep that conversation going. I carried it home. I rehearsed better versions of my reply in the shower, on the walk …

18 days ago · 11 likes · 2 comments · Pearl

You are what you love

In 2023, I published a book on how to become who you want to become. As Carl Jung puts it, The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. This is also what today’s essay is about—if this post speaks to you, I recommend reading The Pluri Society …

4 months ago · 10118 likes · 152 comments · Sherry Ning

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