Freedom to write, to research, to do something together: An interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Ruth Ben-Ghiat speaks about how her Substack provided financial and creative freedom to research and develop her writing

If the currency of education is ideas, then for readers on Substack, the coffers are overflowing. 

Academic writers, intellectuals, and teachers are sharing ideas via Substack to bigger audiences than they had imagined possible, and at lightning speed, direct to inboxes. 

Over the past two months, we’ve spoken with academics across the spectrum of subject matter—from social psychologist Jon Haidt to scientist Adam Mastroianni and professor Jacqueline Nesi—about how they are able to reach new and receptive audiences for their work like never before. Professor Brian Klaas finds new ideas through the Substack network, and many, many academics have told us they are able to reappropriate the additional income into further research and writing.

Earning a living from Substack is a common theme among academic evangelists of the platform: Rob Henderson shared how Substack became his primary income, Katelyn Jetelina told us how she was able to move closer to family and be more creative in her career, and Jillian Hess described how she became financially free to fund her own research.

These scholars are not the vocal few. The long history of academics on Substack including

Heather Cox Richardson

and

Emily Oster

, is only speeding up—with recent launches including

Richard Dawkins

. From July 2022 to July 2023, the number of academics writing on Substack has jumped 107%, representing thousands of new publications and a 42% increase in paid subscriptions. This uptick is a “tipping point,” says Clyde Rathbone, who heads up writer partnerships for Substack.

Among these academic trailblazers is

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

, a professor and an expert on democracy and authoritarianism, who writes

Lucid

, a newsletter that explores threats to democracy worldwide. Ruth’s journey with Substack has been transformative both professionally and personally, as she seamlessly merges her academic expertise with a mission of civic education. Substack has not only enabled her to finance a new research stream but also to cultivate dynamic interactions and discussions with her subscribers, enriching her research and ideas. In the following interview, we delve deeper into her experience to gain invaluable insights into the potential of Substack within academia.

Listen to Ruth’s voiceover and read her responses to our questions below. 

Are you motivated by Ruth and other academics to start a Substack? Getting going is just a few clicks away:

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

How does Substack fit into your professional academic life and your work? 

I started Lucid in the spring of 2021, and the timing for a newsletter about threats to democracy, and authoritarianism, was not accidental—just months after the January 6th coup attempt in the U.S.—and Lucid has been very transformative to my work and also to me personally.

It builds on my expertise that I developed over years studying fascism and more recently global authoritarianism, and that knowledge went into my book, Strongmen, which is actually now being reprinted because it unfortunately is still relevant to a history of right-wing authoritarians, from Mussolini up through Trump.

So I draw on this and extend this in my Lucid essays, and this Substack experience has very much enhanced my research and also built on that research and led it in new directions, and my writing as well. 

My Lucid essays and this Substack experience have very much enhanced my research and also built on that research and led it in new directions, and my writing as well. 

What are the material and non-material results of Substack as a source of income? 

In terms of Substack as an income stream, it’s been a real boon to me as an academic, because any research funds I receive from my employer, New York University, must be used for academic research. Whereas this Substack and my mission of civic education has a different research stream. Having Lucid do well as a publication has allowed me to fund research that goes into principally the essays I publish every week, usually one or two, as well as what I prepare for the weekly Q&As I have with paying subscribers.

I did not start Lucid for monetary reasons. I started it very much to continue this mission of civic education that I had developed since 2016 when I started writing about Donald Trump. It developed into giving hundreds of interviews every year about the crisis in our democracy. But having experienced its relative success means that I’ve been able to have the freedom to develop this kind of public-interfacing research in ways I couldn’t have dreamed.

Do you use your Substack to gain traction on, or test, new ideas?

So, the weekly Q&As that I hold for Lucid paying subscribers have truly been a marvelous experience for me personally and as an academic and a public intellectual. Unlike some presentations by people that are webinars where you submit questions in advance, these are live Q&As. I don’t know what people will ask me, and nobody else in attendance knows what the questions will be nor what my answers will be.

And this is very dynamic. They’re never recorded because I want people to feel comfortable, and I want to respect their privacy. And so some people say that these weekly Q&As—I think we’ve missed only for Christmas, and if I’m traveling occasionally; they’re regular for over two years now—some people refer to them as a form of therapy. They are a space that’s supportive and stimulating to think through together the most important issues of our time. In terms of how Substack has affected my way of doing my work, these Q&As, for example, we think through things together, we test out new ideas.

What role does reader feedback on Substack play in shaping your research and writing?

There’s a new book I’m now developing on resistance to authoritarianism, and to a certain extent it is crowdsourced, because the interventions from Substack subscribers, whether it’s in the comments of my essays or in the weekly Q&As, have gone into my thinking, have refined my thinking.

This is also something I did not expect when I started Lucid. So that’s how reader feedback has really improved my work, improved my way of communicating. I had already been writing for the public at CNN and doing a lot of television, which I continue to do, so I’m a pretty clear and concise communicator. But [I now have] the experience of having regular interlocutors, who have been following my work for years, and I now follow their comments and the way that they think about things.

Have you found that your Substack has led to any new professional opportunities or collaborations within academia or beyond?

It’s a very good symbiosis, I would say. Lucid has enriched my life. I think that from what my subscribers tell me, it has hugely helped them to feel less alone in a very, very scary time—you know, many subscribers live in red states and have challenges to their rights.

We are together every week. We are together also when I publish essays. And this is very important. Authoritarians want us to feel isolated, atomized, and discouraged, and Lucid has been a way for me, and I think for my subscribers, to feel that we’re doing something together, on behalf of democracy. And that’s the most important thing.

If you’re inspired by Ruth to start a Substack, writing your first post is just a few clicks away: