Welcome to The Active Voice, a new podcast with Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie about how great writers reckon with the only thing in the last 17,000 years to challenge the technological supremacy of writing: the internet. Through these conversations, we’ll explore how the world’s most important stories are told in a time when social media has come to dominate our minds and attention. 

Today, we start with George Saunders, one of America’s greatest living writers (and author of the wonderful Substack Story Club).

This podcast is called The Active Voice because we enjoy the double entendre, and because it is about the writer in the arena: the writer who, despite the pressures of the social media moment, has the courage to say what they believe needs to be said; the writer who finds a way to speak truth to power; the writer who seeks understanding over takedowns. This podcast is for those who know that what you read matters and that great writing is valuable. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit read.substack.com