I'm Isaac Saul, and this is Tangle: an independent, nonpartisan, subscriber-supported politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from across the political spectrum on the news of the day.
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Dear readers,
A few months ago, I made a decision that changed my life and the trajectory of Tangle for good.
I was approached by a producer for a new podcast called Question Everything, hosted by Brian Reed (who you might know from the hit podcast S-Town). The producer, Zach St. Louis, told me they were doing a series about the current state and future of journalism. They wanted to do an episode about Tangle, which I agreed to enthusiastically, and then Zach came down to the Tangle office and interviewed me for a few hours.
During our interview, I mentioned to Zach that we’ve heard from many readers who said Tangle has helped them with their relationships with people in their family or friend groups with whom they share political disagreements. I even hear from married couples, I said, who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Zach was intrigued by this and ended up tracking down a few of those Tangle readers, including one couple who ended up being at the heart of the episode.
A few months after Question Everything published the episode, it was picked up by This American Life on NPR, which nearly doubled our readership and helped us grow the Tangle team. It all happened right around the election, and it was an incredibly exciting and overwhelming time.
Now that the dust has settled a bit, we’ve decided to republish the original Question Everything episode on our own podcast feed so you all can listen to it (in the event you haven’t). And, when you're done, I highly recommend going to listen to all of the Question Everything series — which is a genuinely fascinating exploration of journalism.
You can find the episode, along with all our podcasts, by going here.
Reminder: If you are not yet a podcast member, and you want to upgrade your newsletter subscription plan to include a podcast membership (which gets you ad-free podcasts, Friday editions, The Sunday podcast, and bonus content), you can do that here. That page is a good resource for managing your Tangle subscription (just make sure you are logged in on the website!)
We'll be back in your inbox with our standard newsletter on Monday.
Best,
Isaac & the Tangle team
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