The New Rebel Media
Alternatives to the mainstream that aren't batshit crazy 🦇💩🤪
I started Pro-Human as an antidote to the tech-bros (they’re almost always ‘bros’!) on Twitter and LinkedIn who are positively giddy about the possibility of tech replacing the shitting, pissing, meat sacks that constantly need wages and meal breaks and empathy i.e. humans. My wife was sick of my ranting to her about it so suggested I rant to Substack instead, where I quickly found I am far from the only one. There is a vast and rising tide of rebel media outlets challenging tech-bro and mainstream narratives without resorting to becoming rightwing rent-a-mouths or manfluencers. They are smart, talented journalists and opinion leaders and they deserve your attention so here are my top five, below.
1. 404 Media
Founders: Former Vice Media journalists
Launched: August 2023
Focus: Investigative journalism, technology, and culture
Why You Should Read It
First, as they state on their welcome page, “404 Media is written, reported and owned by human journalists whose intended audience is real people, not AI scrapers, bots, or a search algorithm”.
Second, they’re focused on investigative reports, longform features, blogs, and scoops about hacking, cybersecurity, sex, porn, artificial intelligence, consumer rights, cybercrime, surveillance, privacy, and the democratization of the internet. Scoops such as:
Leaked Documents Show Nvidia Scraping ‘A Human Lifetime’ of Videos Per Day to Train AI
Nvidia Sued for Scraping YouTube After 404 Media Investigation
Read and subscribe to 404 Media at https://www.404media.co/.
2. The Honest Broker by Ted Gioia
Founder: Ted Gioia
Background: Music historian and author
Focus: Music, culture, and intellectual history
Why You Should Read It:
Ted Gioia is a renowned music historian and author of books like ‘How To Listen to Jazz’, ‘The History of Jazz’ and ‘The Jazz Standards’ so… mostly jazz then. But he is also a razor sharp cultural critic and commentator whom I and, presumably, large swathes of the non-Jazz listening public only discovered when his article ‘The State of Culture 2024’ went viral earlier this year. Since then I have converted to a paid subscriber of his Substack to get his frequent incisive takes on the intersection of culture, technology and money. Here are three of his absolute must-reads:
3. Gary's Economics
Founder: Gary Stevenson
Background: Former trader turned economist and inequality campaigner
Focus: Economic inequality, accessible economic analysis
Why You Should Watch It:
I recently took an interest in the politico-economic models that govern the world we happen to live in and wrote about in my post ‘Reading To Escape The Matrix’. What I failed to mention was that this interest was at least in part sparked by the YouTube Channel of Gary Stevenson.
Back in 2011 Gary, a working class lad from Ilford in East London, won a card game whilst studying at the London School of Economics. This caught the attention of a Citibank trader who brought Gary into the bank as an intern. Three years later Gary became "Citibank's most profitable trader" by betting there would be a large increase in economic inequality in the wake of the GFC, and that growing poverty would cause interest rates to stay low.
Gary made so much money on his bets that he retired in 2014 to study for an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University. And in 2020 he started his YouTube channel to campaign AGAINST economic equality and educate laymen like me on why the system is so fucked!
Watch now at https://www.youtube.com/@garyseconomics.
4a&4b. Where’s Your Ed At and Better Offline by Ed Zitron
Founder: Ed Zitron
Background: PR expert and writer
Focus: Media criticism, internet culture, work-life balance
Why You Should Read & Listen To It:
Ed Zitron is pissed off. He needn’t be, between his PR agency, newsletter and podcast he’s doing very well for himself. He’s pissed off because he loves technology and innovation but believes Silicon Valley has been taken over by management consultants who have become so rich and cosseted that they no longer understand what the role of technology is and should be in the lives of ordinary working people. Having torn crypto, Web 3.0 and the Metaverse to shreds (all of which promised to change the world, none of which have), he has inevitably turned his attention to the many false promises of AI.
What makes Ed’s take so refreshing is that he really does love technology, he wants it to work, he wants it to amaze, but he is bored of the same five companies putting out poor iterations of the same underwhelming apps because they are a bloated oligopoly. Don’t buy the hype people, buy Ed’s newsletter instead!
Subscribe to ‘Where’s Your Ed At?’ at https://www.wheresyoured.at/ and give his podcast a try on Apple, Spotify and all the usual places:
5. New Money
Founder: Brandon van der Kolk
Background: Finance expert and educator with professional experience in investment management and analysis.
Focus: Investing, personal finance and economics.
Why You Should Watch It:
A significant part of my day job is advising creative people on how to build and run a sustainable business. Like me, most of them have a visceral hatred of spreadsheets and numbers, but if you don’t want to be working hand to mouth twelve hours a day for the rest of your life you need to know how to put your money to work. New Money offers the most accessible analysis of the stock market and advice on how anyone can take part in it that I’ve found.
More Stuff I Like That You Might Too
Finally, last week I was introduced to someone called Gabriel Rui. He told me he was in a band. That band is ‘CB Dogs’. On IG they describe themselves as “OFFICIALLY THE WORST BAND IN ASIA!!”. I listened to their album. I disagree. I think they’re great. Witty, riffy, Singaporean punk rock.
The man that introduce me to Gabriel of ‘CB Dogs’ was Little Ong, founder of creative agency fFurious, which was involved in the local music scene since the late ‘90s, designing covers for ‘The Big O’ music ‘zine back in the day, as well as album covers for the likes of ‘The Oddfellows’ and ‘Shelves’. He also curated an exhibition entitled ‘So Happy: 50 Years of Singaporean Rock’ in 2015, which you can now enjoy online at https://sohappy.ffurious.com/index.php. The community around the exhibition stays up to date with new local music and gig listings at https://www.facebook.com/groups/sohappysg so get involved.
That’ll do ya. See you next time, Nx