Why move Stage Write to Ghost?
Moving is a pain in the butt. No one wants to do it.
I have had a free newsletter since 2020. I chose Substack way back then because it was intuitive. The posts looked great. The email function and statistics were amazing. And as a writer who was not seeking to monetize my work, it truly seemed to me to be something for nothing.
There have been rumblings of content issues with Substack as a platform for at least two years now. A growing club with some unsavory and unsettling members.
But the marketplace of ideas is about what you sell, right? And not making (or taking) any money from Substack meant that I could dwell in that belief for awhile.
Not any more. It turns out that "something" does have significant costs.
I have been planning this move for a few months. My posting on Substack has been minimal. My active engagement even less. Substack's Free Press debacle nudged me harder. I was already moving old posts to my personal web site when Substack actually pushed Nazi content to users.
Ultimately, we have to feel at home where we post. And as the author of a play such as Hotel Mayflower, being on Substack became a comprehensively alienating experience.
Hotel Mayflower is set in a landscape of political refugees and exiles, growing fascism, and relentless attempts to erase and rewrite history. It is about fighting totalitarianism. Fleeing a government that is outlawing citizens on the basis of their human qualities.
It struck me as deeply demeaning and ludicrous to be posting about Hotel Mayflower on Substack in 2025. Steering my little antifascist tugboat against a growing current of intolerance and stupidity and evil. Posting about Dachau or the Vichy regime or saying "no" to the politics of our moment felt equally wrong. Substack was a bad fit.
So I have shut down Stage Write on Substack and started anew here. It is part of an overall reset that includes finally letting go of Meta products as well. (A number of substantive older posts have been transferred to my personal website.)
In a moment of crisis, we have to walk it like we talk it. Even when it is a pain in the butt.
Stage Write will always be a free newsletter. I hope you will consider subscribing: https://stage-write.ghost.io/
