HeyJaredEarnestness Is Underrated
Writing mostly about music & politics as a way to clarify and improve my own thinking.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 8
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- Sep 27, 2026
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- Jul 10, 2026
Latest issues
Political Change (opens the original)
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I write about music more than politics. One reason is that I have a similar impulse in both cases — I am primarily motivated to write when I believe that I can share something which will be new to (most of) my audience. That’s an easier thing to estimate when it comes to sharing music. When it comes to politics that means that I am often trying to figure out how to tie together a handful of different threads without writing something too unwieldy, which is the case today. There are a few pieces
Corb Lund “Ride On” (opens the original)
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I’m a fan of Corb Lund, I’ve written about him before, and eventually plan on another longer post about his songwriting, but lately I’m fascinated by a cover song he did. I remember this being released, and I didn’t pay much attention at the time. I remember Lund joking that his friends were confused by his decision to make an album of covers, because he was always better known for his songwriting than his singing ability. When I saw that one of the songs was an AC/DC cover it sounded like a gim
Suzy Bogguss’s American Songbook Made Me Double-Take (opens the original)
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Long-time readers have probably noticed that I tend to highlight music which is less-well note. That is, in part, chasing a particular good feeling; there’s nothing better than sharing something and have someone say, “I didn’t know that, I probably wouldn’t have heard it otherwise, and I love it.” It also reflects knowing my limitations; there are other writers who are better at capturing the feeling of excitement for a shared reference. Finally, I admit, there’s an element of willful perversity
Arguing with a philosopher (opens the original)
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One of the pleasures of Substack is the way in which creates a space to read an interact with people from a variety of disciplines. I enjoyed this recent post by and wanted to offer a response which is, hopefully taken in good spirit.Rebecca writes about her goal to move as best she can in the direction of her moral goals. In this case, acting on her qualms about eating meat driven by two independent concerns; the moral harms of factory farming of animals, and the ethics of eating another consci
Music Roundup: Instrumentals (opens the original)
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I’m quite surprised to be writing this post. I generally describe myself as being very lyrics-focused when listening to music. The words are generally my scaffolding for understanding a song. When I was young I would say even more strongly that focusing on lyrics gave me a sense of safety — I didn’t have any confidence in my taste for music composition, but words were more secure.I’ve come to develop an appreciation for instrumentals. I still don’t feel like I have a good vocabulary for explaini
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