There are many, many blogs on substack, but the best one to date is Wood From Eden. Written by a Scandinavian couple bearing the names Tove and Anders, the blog is a little bit of everything.
It traces its lineage back to Scott Alexander’s old blog at Slate Star Codex - broadly speaking, Wood From Eden could be described as rationalist, and there are some posts directly impacted by topics involving space exploration and the singularity. But very quickly this is a blog that distinguished itself with refreshing ideas of its own.
As you read, you’ll rapidly realize that Tove and Anders are extremely different writers; Tove gives the impression of being a breezy ideas-girl who says things to be provocative, while Anders is the kind of serious pipe-smoking-in-a-tweed-jacket type who trusts you’re subtle enough to realize when he’s making a joke.
The two best posts are Tove’s Why Do Women Have Breasts, and Anders’ Climatologist’s View of Climate Change. The former post is obviously fun, but explores a deep mystery of evolutionary biology - why are human females different? The latter post is a sanity check for those of us who aren’t lucky enough to be climatologists ourselves; I wish more climatologists weighed in to help people make informed decisions about this politically divisive issue. But partly I recommend these two just to give you a place to start; there are many, many sparkling posts there.
Since I have no idea how they look, I’ve had to be a bit creative, but hopefully this gives you something to anchor your imagination as you read Wood From Eden: