Maybe Baby

I’m Haley Nahman, a culture writer and editor based in Brooklyn. Some know me as the former features director of cult media site Man Repeller, some as @halemur (on Instagram/on Twitter), others as just another internet person who started a newsletter.

Maybe Baby is one of the top culture newsletters on Substack and was written up in The New Yorker in January 2021. My work has also appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Guardian.

What is Maybe Baby?

Maybe Baby is my attempt to chip away at the inscrutability of modern life. The essays I publish here every Sunday range from personal stories to cultural critiques, usually 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 here (actually I have some: see my glossary/FAQ), but I find myself returning to these topics over and over.

Read: A Maybe Baby sample platter: 10 of my most popular newsletters

In addition to the weekly essay, paying subscribers get access to my Tuesday podcast, my Friday recommendations email (“15 things I consumed this week”), and my monthly advice column, Dear Baby, in which I answer three reader questions in long-form. I also ask readers for a different product rec every Friday afternoon and the responses make for some of the most useful comment sections on the internet, if I do say so myself. For example, here’s nearly 200 recommendations for literary page-turners.

My most popular podcast series is a complement to my advice column called Dear Danny, in which my beloved, acerbic cohost Danny and I answer reader questions (it’s a call-in show, so if you’d like to ask us something, 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. So if you’d like to support the newsletter financially, here are the options:

Thank you to anyone who finds their way here!
Haley

p.s. Every 100 paid sign-ups I receive, I comp 10 paid subscriptions for people who can’t afford it, so if you’re interested in being comped, sign up here.