Substacks recommended by The Roots of Progress

Recommended by The Roots of Progress

Author of Derek Thompson newsletter. Also co-author (Abundance), podcaster (Plain English), and contributing writer (The Atlantic).

Changing Lanes

By Andrew Miller

Navigate the future of mobility, AI, and innovation, with insights for investors, decision-makers, and futurists.

Freethink Media

Tech’s cultural frontier. Covering the builders, ideas, and innovations shaping society.

The Breakthrough Journal

By Breakthrough Institute

Long-form essays, commentaries, and reviews that set out to unsettle the many unexamined assumptions upon which contemporary environmental thought is predicated.

The Breakthrough Institute is the home of ecomodernism and produces some of the best research on environmental concerns from a pro-human, pro-technology view.

- The Roots of Progress

Hyperdimensional

By Dean W. Ball

A newsletter about emerging technology and the future of governance.

Cosmos Institute

The Academy for Philosopher-Builders

Happy Future

By Rob L'Heureux

A Substack by Rob L'Heureux (literally, The Happy in French) focused on how industry makes material progress happen across the worlds of bits and atoms.

a/symmetric

Weekly news and analysis on the global industrial contest, where production is power and competition is (often) asymmetric. Brought to you by Force Distance Times.

Antheros

By Malcolm Cochran

Exploring a heroic environmentalism.

The Inversion

By Jennifer Morales

Notes on nature, energy, and economics

Dominik Hermle

European Progress, Politics & Technology Governance

Kinetic Reviews

By Madeline Zimmerman

Exploring the history and future of defense technology and its relationship to humanity's upwards trajectory.

City of Yes

By Ryan Puzycki

Exploring urbanism, housing, and how to make cities work for everyone

Stewart Brand

Writer. WHOLE EARTH CATALOG through MAINTENANCE: OF EVERYTHING (in progress).

Ben Landau-Taylor

Investigating power, society, and industry.

Charting Progress

By Jeremy Côté

Navigating towards a brighter future for all.

Statecraft

By Santi Ruiz

How policymakers get things done

Reaction Wheel

By Jerry Neumann

armchair epistemology as a service

Liveware

By Alex Telford

I write about the science and business of living things: the biotech industry, drug discovery, biology, medicine, consciousness, intelligence (artificial and natural), and natural philosophy. Mostly I write about the biotech industry.

HIGH MODERNISM

By Nick Whitaker

I'm Nick Whitaker. I'm writing here about grand schemes to improve the human condition.

Depth + Distance

By The CGO Team

Meeting the environmental challenges before us requires innovation.

Second Thoughts

By Steve Newman

Accessible analysis of the big issues in AI

Gordian Knot News

By Jack Devanney

Real and unreal solutions to the Gordian Knot.

Jack is one of the best writers I know on nuclear power, I learn a lot from his work

- The Roots of Progress

Stripe Press

Ideas for progress in economics, science, and technology. Subscribe for updates about Poor Charlie's Almanack and other forthcoming Stripe Press books and events.

The Good Science Project

By Stuart Buck

Improving the funding and practice of science

Erik Examines

By Erik Engheim

History, economics and politics with a Nordic perspective

Maximum Progress

By Maxwell Tabarrok

Maximum Progress is a blog by Max Tabarrok on economics, science, philosophy, and progress.

Experience Machines

By Robert Long

how we experience machines that have experiences

Words to the WHYs on Healthcare

By Tina Marsh Dalton

Illuminating the "WHYs?!" of health care and the economics behind it all- maybe even with some optimism and humor!

Foresight Institute

By Allison Duettmann

Someone has to keep alive a bold, ambitious vision of the technological future. The Foresight Institute has been doing this for over 30 years.

- The Roots of Progress

Regions

By Connor O'Brien

A blog on regional competition, renewal, and progress.

IFP

Accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial progress

The only policy institute I know of dedicated to progress studies and the abundance agenda.

- The Roots of Progress

Virginia's Newsletter

By Virginia Postrel

Commerce, culture, and curiosity

Don't Worry About the Vase

By Zvi Mowshowitz

A world made of gears. Doing both speed premium short term updates and long term world model building. Currently focused on weekly AI updates. Explorations include AI, policy, rationality, medicine and fertility, education and games.

The Grey Matter

By Julius

A blog exploring ideas

Adjacent Possible

By Steven Johnson

A newsletter from author Steven Johnson exploring where good ideas come from—and how to keep them from turning against us.

One of the top writers on the history of technology and innovation. I always learn interesting facts and stories from reading Steven's work.

- The Roots of Progress

Rough Diamonds

By Sarah Constantin

Underrated opportunities in science, technology, and society

Extremely well-researched and clearly written technical posts—that combination is hard to find!

- The Roots of Progress

New Science

By Alexey Guzey

We are building 21st century institutions of science.

Uncharted Territories

By Tomas Pueyo

Understand the world of today to prepare for the world of tomorrow: AI, tech; the future of democracy, energy, education, and more

Clear, incisive, and entertaining essays that explore a variety of big questions about how the world works.

- The Roots of Progress

In My Tribe

By Arnold Kling

improving social epistemology, rewarding reasoned discourse

DYNOMIGHT INTERNET NEWSLETTER

By dynomight

science and existential angst

The Elysian

By Elle Griffin

A media collective exploring future utopias. Join us for collaborative projects that debate governance, rethink capitalism, & imagine a better future for humanity.

Of All Trades

By Connor Tabarrok

A newsletter by Connor Tabarrok, centered around Science, Engineering, and Progress

FreakTakes

By Eric Gilliam

I want to help people start historically great labs. Operational histories on history's best R&D orgs.

Great historical research around the history of science and R&D. This is the most Roots-of-Progress-like blog other than The Roots of Progress.

- The Roots of Progress

Pessimists Archive Newsletter

Fears about old things when they were new

Lots of great historical material that always puts today's problems and concerns in perspective.

- The Roots of Progress

Faster, Please!

By James Pethokoukis: Faster

Discovering, creating, and inventing a better world through technological innovation, economic growth, and pro-progress culture.

Jim has consumed an enormous amount of material about progress and he filters for the best stuff. I have gotten a bunch of great pointers to books and other blogs from Faster, Please!

- The Roots of Progress

Seeking Tribe

By Grant Dever 🌄

High energy optimism in an era of nihilism—connecting with the ideas, people, and institutions that will create our beautiful future.

Laura London's Blog

investigating how the atomic bomb reshaped attitudes toward technological progress, nature, and civilization—through the lenses of history, philosophy, and art | fellow @ roots of progress

Slow Boring

By Matthew Yglesias

Start your day with pragmatic takes on politics and public policy.

Matt is one of the top proponents of the abundance agenda.

- The Roots of Progress

Construction Physics

By Brian Potter

Essays about buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology.

Best analysis of the construction industry and its progress/stagnation that I have seen anywhere.

- The Roots of Progress