HeyJaredJournal of the Plague Years
Literary, journalistic, irreverent yet oddly serious, Journal of the Plague Years gets the story behind the story.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 14
- Latest publication
- Sep 26, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 5, 2026
Latest issues
Robot Girl (opens the original)
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In a media ecosystem drowning in clickbait and cowardice, Journal of the Plague Years offers something rare: insurgent intelligence with literary bite. Edited by Susan Zakin—an award-winning journalist whose bylines include GQ, Vogue, Salon, and The New York Times—this Substack publication feels like dispatches from the resistance, written with the clarity of hindsight and the urgency of now.Zakin has built a collective of writers who don’t flinch. Their tone is unapologetically sharp, often dar
The American Disease (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="1107" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!p6Q-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdbdfe600-86b3-4f03-aa8e-f43d3a446126_960x1107.jp
The Gangster Wedding (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="689" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!KS7K!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F840dada4-c23b-4676-be12-75cda0f1e1fe_960x689.jpeg"
America Didn’t Get It on 9/11 and Blindness Haunts Us To This Day (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="1456" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ACEX!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F94641319-d6de-4e14-aeb6-044dd0af31ac_1800x1800.p
The United States of Betrayal (opens the original)
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Journal of the Plague Years is real journalism by real journalists, and the occasional cri de coeur. (See below.) We are independent and rely on your support. <div class="captioned-image-co
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