Ladcore, journalists vs. content creators, and the future of dating apps
Kareem Rahma shares his top Substack posts
This week’s edition of Substack Reads was curated by Kareem Rahma, who writes on Substack. Kareem is the creator and host of the web series Keep the Meter Running and SubwayTakes. He is also a musician and filmmaker, and his book of poetry, We Were Promised Flying Cars, was published in 2020. His most popular posts include “I always forget that I’m old,” “I hate the long hello,” and “Normalize spending a long weekend in Africa.” If you enjoy Kareem’s edition today, be sure to subscribe to his Substack.
I have led several fairly interesting lives, mostly contradictory ones. I was born in Cairo, Egypt, but grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. I majored in journalism but worked in advertising. I live in New York City but reside in the small-town-feeling neighborhood of Windsor Terrace. I am a walking contradiction. And this is why my Substack Reads is going to feel like a splatter painting of interests.
Social media wants us to be one-dimensional beings. But we aren’t! At least, I most certainly am not. If you look at a media personality’s social channels, you’ll likely see a cohesive approach to posting. The same thing, over and over and over again, ad nauseam. This is rarely by preference. The algorithm rewards more of the same.
That’s why I ultimately started different pages for different projects (such as SubwayTakes and Keep the Meter Running). It’s the only way the algorithm gods will reward me with their blessed likes and views. But I don’t want to always be thinking about maintaining a cohesive look and feel. I am, after all, just a guy. Sometimes I just want to post what I want to post.
And that’s why I started my Substack,
. For me, Substack is a place to explore the contradictions in my life and the disparate pieces that come together to make me, me.Similarly, I subscribe to a little bit of everything on Substack. “I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a…” you get the idea. Here are my recommendations.
BRANDING
Alex Hartman, aka Nolita Dirtbag, is the unofficial poet laureate of New York City. He’s the Bob Dylan of our time. He’s both the most important person in the room and the least important, and that’s what makes him so dangerous. His Substack is so niche and so specific—that’s what makes it perfect. In this post he gives tips on launching a clothing brand in a way that is both entertainingly sardonic and also sincerely valuable. It’s like that “I don’t think about you at all” meme, but with actually useful tips and strategy thrown in.
How to launch a clothing brand in NYC
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First, you need an esoteric photo that somehow ties into your brand and isn’t too on the nose. Something that intrigues and tickles but doesn’t tell you everything. This is paramount in having “tastemakers and trendsetters” feel like they are getting in on something early and extraordinarily chill.
Something like this should work fine, with the caption being the day you’re launching (I just googled “film photos fleeting iceland black sand beach”).
MEDIA
I am guilty of being a content creator. I’m also guilty of interviewing Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz before “the mainstream media” could. That puts me at the center of the ongoing debate about content creators versus journalists. I think it’s a timely discussion, and Taylor Lorenz knows more about content creators than any other journalist, so I consider her the authority on this topic.
My take on the journalists vs content creators debate
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Many in legacy media institutions perceive the rising influence of content creators as a direct threat to their long-standing dominance, and their concerns are justified. The influence of content creators is part of a broader transformation in the media landscape that is dismantling the old guard, empowering millions who previously had no voice or influence in our political system, and creating vast new sectors of the economy—all while rendering many traditional institutions, whose business models were already crumbling, increasingly obsolete.
CULTURE
The lad revival is here, and it’s worth exploring why we’re obsessed with it. Jason Diamond’s post deep-dives into all things lad: soccer (“footie” in lad language), Oasis, Guy Ritchie films, and our cultural obsession with “working-class heroes.” It’s freakin’ crazy that Jason single-handedly predicted the Oasis reunion!
It’s time for America to embrace the lad
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In an extremely American and very unscientific way, I’ve been moving towards a more unified idea of what I like to call Ladcore. Part of my fascination with all of this stems from the way Americans both fetishize and dismiss people from whatever we consider the working class these days. People who spend all day behind computers love to dress as if they have jobs cutting down trees or building houses with their hands, and politicians love to talk about how much they want to help working people like it’s their single mission.
FASHION
Larry and James are the funniest non-comedians ever to host a podcast. Their podcast is ostensibly about men’s fashion, but it’s also about what’s happening in the zeitgeist and pop culture and whatever else pops into their heads. This banger of an episode features the creators and stars of How to Make It in America, one of the most underrated shows of all time.
The Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk interview with Throwing Fits
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HUMOR
For some reason, this post reminds me of “the good old days.” Back when Tumblr was an independent company not owned by a media conglomerate and the only goal I had in life was to Move To New York City. Things were simple back then. Or at least that’s how they seemed. I always look forward to Mackenzie’s letters because they’re so fun to read. I’m also obsessed with the fact that her newsletter is called “I Will Do Whatever I Want” ... because, #SAME!
I'm the biggest victim in the world
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Never eaten a date before, because date enjoyers are always so insistent that they taste just like candy, and usually I find if someone has to be insistent about the taste of something, it isn’t the truth. I will die never ingesting something that looks so much like a crushed bug but yet, allegedly, tastes just like candy.
TRENDS
One of the main ways I utilize Substack is to stay up to date on trends and news. I have a few select sources that I read daily, much like I would a newspaper—if they hadn’t gone extinct. One of those sources is Casey Lewis’s After School. Her new podcast is great. In this episode she discusses the AI future of dating apps, people inventing meet-cutes, and basically what it’s like to be young and single today.
Gen Z Singles Are Hot for Hobbies
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MUSIC
Every week, Tyler McCauley pulls together five tracks worth listening to—a mix of new and old songs—and tells you why you should check them out. His Substack is called The Unskippables, and it truly is unskippable! It’s a great way to discover what music’s out there, and I find it particularly helpful for discovering old music I may have missed or new music I might have otherwise ignored. In this week’s roundup, he recommends music from Mount Eerie, Slic, Black Moth Super Rainbow, and a surreal and excellent music video from A$AP Rocky. Full disclosure: Tyler and I are in a band together called Tiny Gun.
No deja vu here?
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Slic feat. Silas — Red: Slic’s Unbearable Heat dropped Monday, and Slic’s talent marrying nonstop singsong pop hooks with unexpected minimalism remains at peak power across the album’s 11 tracks. The record utilizes vaporwave’s digital grain on its instrumentals, but Slic’s vocals are clean, ethereal, and crisp, never shying away from the tension at the center of each song’s strange heartbeat.
CELEBRITY
When I first moved to NYC, Gawker was still alive, and it was one of my favorite places on the internet. I’d visit every morning to see what the snarkiest minds in New York media had to say about niche internet beefs, micro-gossip, and the comings and goings of minor “smart internet” celebrities. Gawker is gone now, and it’s hard to find that voice online. I think Emily comes as close as it gets, and she is my favorite thing to read each morning. I especially love the section of her newsletter called “If we had a water cooler, I’d talk to you about,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
Melania Trump is having a good week
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This morning, Melania announced that she’s releasing a memoir titled Melania. In the announcement video she says, “As a private person who has often been the subject of public scrutiny … I feel a responsibility to clarify the facts.” The book (which kind of looks like Sofia Coppola’s) also includes stories and images never before shared with the public. If you were looking to read this for your fall book club, I’m sorry, it takes 12-16 weeks to ship, which puts us well after Election Day for arrival date (a friend suggested, “They have to print a trillion copies for the right-wing dark money to keep in a warehouse first so it debuts #1”).
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Notes from our guest editor
Noteworthy
Inspired by the writers featured in Substack Reads? Writing your own Substack is just a few clicks away:
Substack Reads is a weekly roundup of writing, ideas, art, video and audio from the world of Substack. Posts are recommended by staff and readers, and curated and edited by Substack’s editors. This week’s edition was guest-edited by Kareem Rahma, who writes .
Got a Substack post to recommend? Tell us about it in the comments.
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A selection of the most inane and useless postings I have ever seen or read. Please get a life and come into reality.
Why did I even get up? ;-) One thing in favour of algorithms; they don't careen to Kareems very often. I'm sure you have your place, fella, but not my cuppa at all, sorry.