About this map

This is a snapshot of the pro-democracy Substack ecosystem, based on data collected between January 2025 and March 2026. It maps sites and newsletters by who recommends whom, then clusters them by the gravitational pull of those connections — sites with multiple overlapping recommendations end up physically closer, revealing informal communities of practice within the broader network.

Audience size data reflects information that sites make public — some do not disclose it. The network is not exhaustive and some connections may be missing or outdated.

This map covers the Substack ecosystem only and does not include pro-democracy publications on other platforms or traditional media outlets.

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How to read this map
Circle size = subscriber/follower count
DoomAction
Node color = editorial tone: red=alarm/doom, green=organizing, blue=highly action-oriented
Gray lines = one newsletter recommends another on Substack
When selected: green = outgoing, red = incoming, gold = mutual recs
Position = sites that recommend each other cluster together
236newsletters
1,323rec. links