A Quick Thanks

For a Subscriber Milestone

Just the Facts reached 3,000 subscribers today. I am grateful to all of you. Some have been with me since the start and others subscribed only today. The growth has been slow and steady.

One of the first bits of advice another writer offered when I set up my Substack was to stick to a single topic.

“Carve out a niche on one subject and you will get a following fast,” he assured me.

Those of you who have stuck around for a while know I never did that.

On Just the Facts you get something about the gender wars one week, then opioids, maybe a condemnation of censorship before moving on next to the JFK assassination, or Nazi loot, possibly Big Pharma, maybe The Four Tops, or antisemitism, questions about Princess Di’s death, Afghan officials’ corruption, FBI mistakes in the Oklahoma City bombing or the Anthrax investigation, even how Sweden became a gangland paradise.

From the messages I get from readers, I know some of you subscribed hoping I’d always write about only one of those topics. I am thankful you stayed the course. And, sometimes, my favorite notes are those that say, “I never thought I’d be interested in that, but you hooked me.”

Just the Facts will remain an eclectic mix of news and reports from the frontlines of the culture wars.

And it will remain free. Paid Substack subscriptions is not how Trisha Posner and I pay our bills. We do that through books, articles for traditional media, and documentaries (I do not have an air date yet for the R. J. Cutler-produced 6-hour documentary made from my last book, Pharma, but when I do, I will blast it out).

I also want to thank some of the other great Substacks — among others, Public , Skeptic , Bill Rice Jr.'s NewsletterThe Vaccine Court From Symptoms to Causes, Margaret Anna Alice Reality’s Last Stand Christina Buttons BROADview by Lisa Selin Davis — that have generated subscribers by recommending me. Substack is a community of writers. Supporting one another seems an indispensable element toward growing readers for all of us.

Share Just the Facts with your friends. I’ll let you know when it reaches another subscriber milestone. And in the meantime, thanks again for sticking around and spreading the word about this writing habit of mine.