Favorite Lifehacker Employee Newsletters of 2019
Email newsletters continue to grow, which is why we’re following the 2017 Lifehacker staff recommendations with a new batch of our favorite newsletters. This is what kept us informed and entertained in 2019.
Michaela Heck, podcast producer
Broadsheet – this newsletter the Fortune magazine, dedicated to the women engaged in business and politics, and often covers articles that are not as widely reported in the mainstream.
What’s the difference? this is a fun weekly breakdown of what people often get confused about. From the difference between corn flour. croup and polenta in the jungle against the rainforest. Easy and fun.
The Reply All newsletter is a lot of fun. These are just staff recommendations for movies, podcasts, music, books, etc., but they are always really good. (Scroll down to subscribe.)
Josh Ocampo, staff writer
I don’t subscribe to many newsletters, but I make one exception. For readers who don’t know, I’m a ramen freak. Several months ago, some of the Lifehacker team visited Tokyo as part of our Hack the World series. There I had the opportunity to take an extensive tour of the ramen shops with Frank at 5 AM Ramen .
Every month, and to many of his former guests, he sends out a newsletter about the latest ramen shops he has visited in Japan. (He told me that he has eaten at least several thousand bowls of ramen in his life.) If you may come to Japan in the near future, register. If you want to find the best places to eat in Tokyo, sign up. Or if you just enjoy looking at pictures of ramen (and maybe salivating), well, this is perfect for that.
Alice Bradley, Associate Editor
I love the newsletter of Austin Cleon , a writer and artist whose books include Steal Like an Artist , Show Your Work, and Carry On . Every Friday Austin shares his recommendations for what he reads, listens to, and thinks about. If you like sites like Kottke.org or Boing Boing , Austin is your cup of tea.
Lisa Rowan, money writer
NextDraft appears sometime in the afternoon and contains 10 links personally curated by Dave Pell, a self-proclaimed “curator”. The news he summarizes includes must-reads to know what’s going on around the world, but also includes some more quirky or light-hearted compilations so you don’t feel like you’re plunging into a news cycle full of despair every day. Plus, it’s obvious that Pell doesn’t just love to write news. I don’t know this guy, but he is rarely wrong when he says you need to read something. If you want to know what’s going on but hate a heavy morning mailbox, getting NextDraft in the afternoon is more of your speed.
Beth Skorecki, Health Editor
Sometimes I read Cat Ashner’s book on animals, Creature Feature . She had a good essay in Sincerity Poisoning.
David Murphy, technical editor
I would only subscribe to WTF Just Happened Today because it sounds interesting, but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
Joel Kahn, Senior Video Producer
Are you a millennial who finds financial topics too dry and boring and written for people like your parents ? Luckily, former Lifehacker writer, current CNBC writer and young man Alicia Adamchik offers Money Moves , a regular newsletter of featured articles on personal finance. She covers topics from privacy to savings and investment, all in her friendly, warm and approachable tone.
Abu Zafar, video producer
If you own a podcast or work in the radio industry, a Hot Pod subscription is mostly a must. Nick Kua and Caroline Crampton talk about the burgeoning podcast industry and provide invaluable insight and insight into everything from major acquisitions to business deals and show presentations. If it sounds very dry and very similar to baseball on the inside, it’s because it is. But as a professional in this industry, it is important to know how and why certain trends are changing and what successful players in this area are good at. The Hot Pod is a window into an ever-changing landscape of an industry that is rapidly growing independent creators into their garages, and is a must-read for anyone hoping to be successful in podcasting in the coming years.
Virginia K. Smith, Managing Editor
The only newsletter I regularly open every morning is Brass Ring Daily from Kara Kutruzzul (Full Disclosure, Former Colleague). It covers a fairly wide range of topics in the areas of productivity, creative work, interesting job listings, and what you might call “mind hacks.” This is a positive, quick, non-news read every morning, usually also filled with good links.
Nick Douglas, staff writer
Recomendo is popular with Lifehacker and you will notice them from time to time in our posts. A group of old-school bloggers share tools, tricks, and recommendations in just one or two paragraphs per element.
Study Hall is a media newsletter and community, more accessible and practical than media newsletters like the CJR. That’s $ 2 a month.
“Welcome to Hellish World” regularly shows that the world is trash because the wrong people are behind it, which is still nice and somewhat reassuring. Luke O’Neill assumes that you, the reader, empathize and want people to be happy. He is neither intrusive nor unpleasant, an easy trap for those who cover up injustice from the left point of view.
Melissa Kirsch, Editor-in-Chief
Luke Leafield’s Ten Things . Ten things weekly that this interesting person found interesting. I like him! I love what he chooses! A cultural overview of what you’ve heard and what you haven’t heard of yet. Ok if you like checklists, which is what I do.