Something New

Briefly- A Newsletter from Briahna Joy Gray

Hi All,

I decided to squat on this Substack a few years ago — unsure of what my post-Bernie campaign life would look like or how long I’d be hosting Bad Faith podcast. And I see that hundreds of you have, similarly, been squatting here— following this empty page with the hope, I presume, that I might someday fill it. If that’s you, I have some good news.

The last whirlwind of a year, which included my censorship and firing from The Hill’s web-show Rising, has been a blessing in disguise. I’ve always felt that the form of communication and analysis that brought me the most joy and fulfillment was not speaking on video, but writing. The best job I’ve had to date was working as a Senior Politics editor for The Intercept for about a year before being recruited to work as National Press Secretary for the Bernie 2020 campaign. And I miss it.

At Rising, despite internal editorial pressures to censor my opinnions, and increasing on-air tensions over the subject of Israel’s siege on Gaza, I found writing video essays called “Radars” to be enormously gratifying: They had enormous reach and, more importantly, were opportunities to synthesize news stories into a “theory of the case” which, I hope, added something unique to a crowded media field. Even though they existed as videos, they reflected writing and analysis, and as I’ve contemplated what to do next, it’s become clear that I want to get back to my roots as a writer.

My hope for Briefly is to have a place to synthesize the news in way that contributes to our collective understanding of why our world operates the way it does, and what will be required to make it more-perfect. My hope is that I’ll be able to take much of what’s written here and convert it into “Radar”-style videos that can have a broader reach and persuasive effect. To the extent you support that project, I appreciate your support here.

Moreover, for those of you who have been clamoring for me to bring back “Callin” style call in episodes where we can chat casually about recent episodes of Bad Faith and news/culture more broadly, I hear you. It’s a priority of mine to reestablish the community we had the Callin app. I just have to work out the technical particulars. (Any advice is welcome).

I hope you’ll let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see here: More personal commentary? Cultural commentary? (I certainly have thoughts on Megaloplous lolz). More or less newsy posts? AMAs? Interviews? I hope we can make this space something informative, gratifying, and fulfilling for us all.

Thanks for being here.

Not so Briefly,

Brie

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