Maybe Baby launched in early 2020 and is one of the top culture newsletters on Substack. It was written up in The New Yorker here, and my work has also appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Guardian.
I’m Haley Nahman, a culture writer and editor who some people know as the former features director of cult media site Man Repeller, some as @halemur (on Instagram/ on Twitter),others as a person who loves assigned seating.
Maybe Baby is my attempt to chip away at the inscrutability of modern life.
I publish essays every Sunday with the aim to understand myself or the world differently than I did before. I’m especially interested in self-delusion, cognitive bias, mass media, and how our lives are shaped by all three. Technically I have no rules for what I write about here (OK, I have some: see my glossary/FAQ), but I find myself returning to many of the same topics over and over, like the poetic tension between life online and off, the failures of modern progressive thought, and the importance of sitting with uncertainty (and making decisions anyway). I also love looking at popular culture with a magnifying glass (like when I tried to identify cringe or explain the limits of “normalizing” beauty labor). I write a lot about my life, too.
Read: A Maybe Baby sample platter: Some of my most popular newsletters
In addition to the weekly essay, paying subscribers get access to my Wednesday podcast, my Friday recommendations email (“15 things I consumed this week”), and my monthly advice column, Dear Baby, in which I answer reader questions in long-form. I also ask readers for a different recommendation every Friday afternoon and look forward to the answers every single time. My comment section is, shockingly, a consistent source of nourishment for me (rare online!)—I’m lucky to hear from some of the smartest, sweetest, and funniest people every week.
My most popular podcast series, Dear Danny, is a complement to my advice column, in which my widely beloved, acerbic cohost Danny and I answer reader questions (it’s a write-in show and call-in show, so if you’d like to ask us something, submit a question here or leave us a message at 802-404-BABY!). Other series include interviews with interesting people, pop culture round tables with my funny friends, solo eps that are kind of like audio journal entries, and more.
You will never see an ad, sponsor, or affiliate link on here—that was one of my founding principles. To learn more about what it’s like to a paid subscriber, see my five-year anniversary email.
Thank you to anyone who finds their way here!
Haley
