246. Launching a Substack: The stories behind & between the podcasts

Time to take a punt this year! I've just launched a Substack. Essentially, after 25 years in international and community development, and nearly a decade creating TheRegenNarration podcast, I began to feel something missing – the stories between the stories. The ones that don’t get on the podcast. And the ones that connect it all up - the themes, the people, the places.

I started to wonder if writing some of these stories would be fun and useful. All the more after hearing Rebecca Solnit affirm how vital they continue to be in shaping our sense of reality, agency and possibility (out of the LA fires). So here’s a little introduction to the what, why and how of it. Including how subscriptions will work through the Substack, alongside Patreon and Buzzsprout. 

You can also read about it on my launch post on Substack. Where you can also find my first article – a sort of foundation piece - out yesterday, from the ancient Mayan cities in northern Guatemala. All will be embedded with a little latent love of photography, and some tunes from time to time. Putting thesocial back in media. 

So if you fancy some of that alongside your podcast, you can subscribe on Substack here - free or paid. I hope you’ll join me there!

And standby for the new series of The RegenNarration podcast next week.

For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener or Substack subscriber via the links below.

Recorded 29 January 2025 in Antigua, Guatemala. 

Title slide: AJ recording this episode (pic: Olivia Cheng).

With thanks to you early Substack subscribers, and of course you enduring Patreon and Substack subscribers, and other donating supporters. None of this could happen without you. 

Music:

By Jeremiah Johnson.

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Episode Transcript

AJ (00:04):
G'day there, Anthony James, here for The RegenNarration,
speaking to you from back inAntigua, Guatemala, with some
lovely company.
I'm sitting on a rooftop hereand I'm surrounded by trees in
classic Antigua fashion.
These beautiful old Spanishcolonial buildings and the best

(00:25):
of the buildings have thesecourtyards in them, and that's
the humble hotel we're stayingin at the moment as well, and in
the quieter end of town too,there's a little breeze going by
, but not too much, so hopefullythis will come out okay.
As I look over one side, I seecathedrals, quite often, at
least partly in ruins from theearthquakes that destroyed this

(00:46):
place twice before they movedthe capital to Guatemala City
back in the 18th century, whichmakes this place really
fascinating, because again itwas.
It was ruined and left, butlived on and has become well, a
UNESCO site, today Heritage, andit is quite an incredible
cultural meeting place, albeitwith the dark shadow of the past

(01:09):
a little bit, and at times justthe starkest of inequalities,
but a visual extravaganza forsure.
Cobblestone streets, colouredbuildings, they make sure that
the advertising's not in thepublic space, all these basics
that we should probably haveeverywhere.
Anyway, maybe not thecobblestone streets, but

(01:30):
certainly that absence of thepropaganda in public space and
behind me, the other way, I'vegot the volcanoes, the three
huge volcanoes that are just afraction of the volcanoes that
line the west western side ofGuatemala and surround this town
, providing a hell of a backdrop.

(01:51):
Fuego is often erupting, but ithasn't this time.
It was erupting every day whenwe were here last, and the other
ones sort of sit idle thesedays.
So, anyway, I'm talking to youtoday because, well, a bit's
been happening Come and gonefrom my old hometown.
There was plenty of interest inthe podcast, so if anyone

(02:13):
happened to be trying to listenin English, then gracias, I'm
gonna have more material inSpanish soon, but I'll have
transcripts available, obviously, that they can be translated
into English pretty quicklythese days and vice versa
through the substack for Spanishspeakers.
And that's mainly what I'mgetting online to speak to you

(02:34):
about today.
On the podcast, the festiveseason series I just put out has
just finished the clean stateseries and you can backpedal to
have a listen to that if youhaven't managed already.
I do a little intro piece likethis.
Ahead of that, back at the startof January in my old hometown
here in Guatemala, and what'salso happened in that period of

(02:56):
time is that I launched a substack experiment.
For those who have no idea whatthat is, I scarcely did till
not long ago.
To tell you the truth, it's awow.
What do they call it?
A publishing space.
So I'm essentially a newspaperof sorts in old speak.
But, like the podcast, I'm goingto make it largely free, except

(03:18):
for some exclusive paidsubscriber stuff, trusting that
in gifting that there'll beenough folk gifting back paid
subscription to keep the thinggoing.
If it's any good, I won'tdouble dip.
So if you're a patreonsubscriber already from the
podcast, you will get all theexclusive stuff that happens to

(03:38):
get on substack as well.
It's just, if you want morestories and the stories behind
the stories and the storiesbetween the stories, then
subscribe for free to substacktoo and you can get all that.
I'll apply some of my latentlove of photography there too.
So if you're interested in that, that'll be there and maybe a

(03:59):
few other bits and pieces wouldbe social media posts.
In fact, in a sense thiscarries a bit of a subplot, an
attempt to put the social backin media.
It was really my hand wastipped to decide to do this in
substack because I did feel thisgrowing urge that there were
more of these stories behind it,between what came out on the

(04:19):
podcast to share, and whensubstack, just as I was stewing
on this and said this is socialmedia with property rights and
traditional media with community.
Well, that's good.
And if it really is great, andthe more I look the more it
seemed to be, and there's abunch of people I respect on it.
So here we go.

(04:41):
I put out a launch post I don'tknow a week or so ago and my
first bona fide post, which,well, some of what's been
bursting in me of late just putthat out yesterday.
I'll let you have a read of itrather than talk to it here, but
suffice to say it felt likewhat had to come out first
before I did anything else.
So it's a bit of a longer read,but some of the foundational

(05:05):
thinking behind why I'm doingthis, through the lens of some
of the experience here inGuatemala and some of what I've
been listening to around the LAfires, some of the extraordinary
stories of community and well,as Rebecca Solnit put it, a
paradise built in hell.

(05:26):
Listening to her in aninterview was the trigger for
this piece.
So I'll leave you to have alook at that.
But yeah, mainly wanted toannounce that, that that's there
and also that this coming weekwell, next week will be the
resumption of the regenerationpodcast, in real time, if you

(05:46):
like.
I have a bunch of stuff stillfrom the states late last year,
a bunch of stuff here fromGuatemala.
I'll do what I can as my humblesingle-person team to get this
stuff out as soon as I can.
They are all in the basket of.
I wish you could hear themright now.
They were that meaningful.
Anyway, I will get them out assoon as I can and look forward

(06:11):
to bringing you in through bothmeans the podcast and the
writing.
You know.
Pick your medium, I supposeboth, if you like, to more of
what I've been experiencing.
That just can't make the podcast.
It's too much production timeas one person, as an indie
outlet, to get it up.

(06:32):
But also, not just because ofthat, because it really felt
like there was something else tobe said, to be shared, and sure
I could do that in a hundreddifferent conversations with
everyone who wants to know andbless you for getting in touch
through this journey and wantingto know.
Um, so yeah, I've been thinkinga lot about it over the last
year in particular, but it wascoming up before then too.

(06:53):
So this will be a way where Idon't have to produce a podcast
for every story.
I can just flip something outto you on occasion and then, on
other occasions, go into a bitof depth, drawing some threads
together.
I hope it adds somethingbecause, yeah, after a quarter
of a century in what I couldbroadly call international and

(07:16):
community development, stemmingback to the time of meeting my
old mentor that you've heard abit about on this podcast and
and being here in guatemala thefirst time and nearly 10 years
approaching a decade of theregeneration podcast, this is a
bit of the sum of what feelslike needs to come next for me

(07:37):
anyway.
And, yeah, I'm really lookingforward to sharing it with you
and, to those of you who want tocome on that journey, I look
forward to hanging out with youin that space too.
I did do some writing a whileback and, like the podcast, that
writing unexpectedly made itsway to audiences around the
world, so now it feels like agood time for the two flanks to
make their way in the worldtogether.

(07:58):
Oh, and just a little logistics.
Patreon subscriptions thelowest tier has risen from three
dollars to five dollars a month, partly because it probably
needed to anyway, but also tomatch the sub stack baseline
just five dollars a month.
Those of you who've subscribedon Buzzsprout.
That's just not set up to sharestuff.

(08:18):
So while I was trying to getaround that and get you what I
was putting on Patreon, as muchto diversify income streams, to
not have everything in oneonline basket basically won't be
able to keep posts going toBuzzsprout or to you guys
through other means.
So if you're just happy withgetting the podcast and even
perhaps subscribing for free onSubstack, then great and thank

(08:41):
you as ever.
If you would like to switch overto Substack or Patreon to get
the exclusive paid subscriberstuff, then you can do that too.
And for Patreon subscribers,the rise in the charge for the
lowest tier doesn't apply toexisting subscribers, only to
new ones and to those of you whojust donate or just donate, who

(09:04):
blessedly donate and as much toavoid fees, potentially send
direct transfers, even not evenon PayPal.
I mean, all these options areavailable and they all help.
So there's no one that's betterthan the other, necessarily.
It's just how you want toengage as well and what, um,
what means suits you.
But to donors, I can tell you,if you do want the paid

(09:24):
subscription exclusive stuff aswell on occasion, then some
donors have just gone in at thatbaseline five dollars a month
or fifty dollars a year inpatreon or substack to just get
those posts and donated the restof what they wanted to donate
directly.
So feel free to do that.

(09:45):
Or again, if you're just happynot receiving any more and just
enjoying the podcast, stay asyou are with my enormous
gratitude, my enormous gratitudefor you all.
Really, all right, I'll leaveyou there with a new series of
the regeneration to come and theSubstack experiment underway.
I look forward to sharing itall with you as the year goes on

(10:05):
and we'll have more from hereso on.
Hope you're all well, see ya y.