The hottest Media History Substack posts right now

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What I Learned from Binge-Watching Cowboy Movies

The Honest Broker • 17587 implied HN points • 07 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Media History
  1. Classic westerns offered clear moral authority and simple hero-versus-villain stories that gave audiences a comforting sense of right and wrong.
  2. Social and cultural upheavals made the genre darker and more ambiguous, spawning antihero and nihilistic westerns that eroded that moral certainty.
  3. The western still matters today as a flexible mythic space to debate authority, virtue, and the trade-offs between freedom and order, and it can swing between deconstruction and revival.

Miyazaki's Sherlock

Animation Obsessive • 32560 implied HN points • 12 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Media History
  1. Miyazaki took the Sherlock Hound job during a career lull and treated it as serious creative work. He reshaped the premise into richly realized, three-dimensional worlds full of flying machines, emotional characters, and old-fashioned slapstick energy.
  2. Sherlock Hound was an Italian–Japanese co-production that ran into constant creative clashes and funding problems. Italians wanted a flatter, more commercial style while Miyazaki pushed for cinematic quality, and production stalled after a funding delay leading to his departure.
  3. Even though the series was partly shelved, the episodes Miyazaki and his team made are high-quality and influential. The project became a training ground for young talent who later worked at Studio Ghibli and helped Miyazaki grow as a filmmaker.

On the Internet, You Don't Discover Reality. You Create It.

Default Wisdom • 247 implied HN points • 22 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Media History
  1. Big jumps in communication technology reshape how people think, pushing consciousness into new imaginative and myth-making modes.
  2. Language and naming build the inner story of the self and the shared culture; to name something is to know it and gain power over it.
  3. The Internet breaks down old boundaries so identity and facts become fluid, creating a magical-like space where words and rituals can help create reality.

Animating Out of Spite

Animation Obsessive • 8700 implied HN points • 21 Oct 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Media History
  1. Fyodor Khitruk created a 50-second animated film called Othello-67 as a response to a contest requirement that frustrated him. It humorously condenses Shakespeare's play into a fast-paced experience.
  2. The film critiques the idea of simplifying complex art into quick bites, showing that lots of meaning can still fit into a short time frame.
  3. Despite being a small part of Khitruk's body of work, Othello-67 stands out for its creativity and humor, proving that even short animations can leave a lasting impact.

Do Eclipses Cause Rebellions?

Living Fossils • 16 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
💾 History Media History
  1. Total solar eclipses can spark or increase rebellions because they act as rare, highly visible public signals (Schelling points) that create common knowledge; studies find areas in totality zones are about 18% more likely to rebel in eclipse years.
  2. Common knowledge — everyone knowing that everyone else knows — is the key hurdle for mass coordination, and dramatic synchronized signals or platforms (like eclipses or social media) solve that problem and help protests spread.
  3. Authorities try to blunt these coordinating signals — historically with appeasing policies like tax cuts and today with internet censorship — and other disasters don’t work the same way because they aren’t simultaneously visible to everyone.
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Rates of pay for newsletter writers in the sixteenth century

The Common Reader • 1311 implied HN points • 13 Jul 25
💾 History Media History
  1. Between 1594 and 1640, writers of newsletters in Lucca earned between 15 and 50 scudi a year. The highest paid was Lucio Aresi from Venice, who earned 50 scudi because of his skills.
  2. In other parts of Europe, like Augsburg and Britain, news-writers made good money too. For example, John Pory received £20 a year in the 1620s for his weekly newsletter.
  3. This history of early news-writing shows that writers were valued and paid well, similar to today’s newsletter creators like those on Substack.

Why I'm starting a Substack

David’s Substack • 239 implied HN points • 08 Apr 24
🎭️ Culture Media History
  1. Writing a book can take a long time, sometimes years between ideas and publication. This writer wants a quicker way to share thoughts.
  2. The Substack will focus on the writer's interests in media history, the BBC, and wartime propaganda. Readers can expect a mix of topics.
  3. Posts will come out weekly, but the schedule may change depending on life. Feedback from readers is encouraged to improve the content.

Comics from 1984/04 Creative Computing Mag

Computer Ads from the Past • 384 implied HN points • 22 Jan 25
💥 Comics Media History
  1. There are comics from an April 1984 issue of Creative Computing magazine that are quite nostalgic. They remind us of how far technology and advertising have come since then.
  2. The creator is busy but promises to release an ad and an interview soon, showing their dedication to the content.
  3. Readers are encouraged to share their thoughts on what future computer ads they would like to see, making it interactive and engaging.

December 25, 2025

Letters from an American • 22 implied HN points • 26 Dec 25
💾 History Media History
  1. Thomas Nast’s Santa was created during the Civil War and used to boost Union morale and mock Confederate leaders, first appearing in 1863 as a patriotic figure visiting soldiers.
  2. German immigrants — including Nast himself — brought Bavarian Santa traditions into America, and German-born men made up a large share of Union troops, shaping the holiday image and army culture.
  3. By 1881 Nast’s Santa had become a symbol of postwar American prosperity and rising consumer family culture, showing a fat, well-dressed figure carrying toys and Union emblems as people began spending more on gifts and celebrations.

Cutting Out Copyright: The Legally Gray Versions of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’

Textual Variations • 298 implied HN points • 31 Dec 24
🎭️ Culture Media History
  1. It's a Wonderful Life is partly in the public domain, meaning anyone can make their own versions without asking for permission. But some parts of the story are still under copyright, which complicates things.
  2. Different versions of the movie have emerged, like the Abridged and RiffTrax editions. These versions take out certain scenes and music to avoid copyright issues, which can lead to very different viewing experiences.
  3. The film's copyright history has led to confusion and debate over what can be shown without permission. This situation highlights how public domain status can both help and hurt a movie's legacy.

The Best Book I Read All Year

Exasperated Infrastructures • 14 implied HN points • 30 Dec 25
💾 History Media History
  1. A largely forgotten inventor built a short pneumatic subway that proved tunneling under Broadway was feasible. He also ran a patent agency and used Scientific American to help launch and protect many other inventions.
  2. A small engineering project reveals how machine politics, media, and powerful figures shaped 1870s New York, with brazen corruption and political maneuvering deciding which projects succeeded or failed.
  3. The story offers modern lessons: new transit ideas need small demonstrators, media smarts, and political buy‑in, and large corruption or systemic failure can be toppled by small, unexpected discoveries or mistakes.

Autism and the critic in me

The Author Is Dumb • 1 implied HN point • 11 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Media History
  1. Discovering ADHD and autism can explain why someone might not emotionally connect with movie characters, so they legitimately experience films differently than most people.
  2. A critic often watches a film as a 'hyperobject'—seeing the filmmaker’s body of work, historical and social context, and technical choices all at once—which gives a broad, analytical perspective.
  3. That analytical distance is a strength, so the plan is to lean into long-form film criticism and focus the newsletter on reviews and essays, while still doing occasional fiction and other projects.

Truth is Very Dangerous to Come By: Amanda Vail on Fake News and the Spanish Civil War

The Octavian Report • 0 implied HN points • 23 Dec 25
💾 History Media History
  1. Fake news isn’t new — it took root in the 20th century when new media tech and open access to battlefields let misinformation spread quickly during wars.
  2. Reporters and propagandists sometimes staged or invented scenes to sway opinion or gain fame, and those fabrications could change policy and aid decisions.
  3. Finding the truth still depends on brave, persistent journalists who risk danger to verify facts, because technology alone won’t stop propaganda.