Substack Spotlight #1

Great writers shining on our multi-faceted world. Introducing Ioan Grillo (narco author), Darrin Bell (cartoonist), Yaw Asamoah (economist), and Karen Gordo (geopolitician).

We gain a multi-dimensional view of our fellow humans if we follow writers who are passionate about places we’re expected to ignore (or they stare into the superpowers in search of understanding rather than only momentary news). There are hard workers on Substack who deserve attention. I’m recommending four in the hope you subscribe.

IOAN GRILLO (1000+ subscribers)

An accomplished author and a journalist tracking narco crime in Mexico. “Just 30 miles from the Texas border in the Mexican state of Coahuila lies a ranch that was the site of one of the worst extermination camps in the history of the Americas… It was part of a massacre that claimed as many as 400 victims. Despite the insane scale of the bloodshed, the atrocity didn’t become widely known until three years later in 2014, and I visited that year. I found metal barrels still there, along with plastic cans that had contained the industrial acids used for the melting of flesh.”

• Mexico's Worst Narco Massacres

• How the CIA Promoted Magic Mushrooms

DARRIN BELL (900+ subscribers)

Bell has won a bunch of awards for his political and sociological cartoons. Recommending someone whose got a Pulitzer Prize isn’t weird because he’s not big on Substack yet.

• Trump calls millions of us "vermin," and Rosencrantz & Tyrone discuss the supernatural

• The helpful therapist, and the intentional spoiler

YAW ASAMOAH (100+ subscribers)

Yaw deserves a titan’s more readers. His in-depth dives into African countries provides an insight into a world that isn’t the USA or China, but part of it and important. However, he sometimes writes more casually, yet informatively, about Russia too.

• A quick read on Eritrea

• Why is Russia such an asshole? Is it the West’s fault?

KAREN GORDO (100+ subscribers)

I don’t know Karen’s background (or if that’s her real name), but I’m convicted of appreciating her angles into places deserving more attention, places I wish I had more time to write about.

• Sudan... the Forgotten Formation?

• Two Weeks in the Life of NGOs

And you could share or subscribe to me if you haven’t already (500+ subscribers) :)