Do you ever doomscroll through a crisis wondering what the f*ck you should do to help? Giving to Strangers is the newsletter for you.
What should I expect in my inbox?
You should expect a conversation with an expert (activist, academic, industry leader), and a non-BS way to address a big problem (usually through an outstanding charity recommendation). I both respond to what’s happening — 2020’s California fires, November elections, etc. — and dig into the big, evergreen issues like climate change or factory farming.
Why should I trust you?
Well, I’m not the expert. The people I talk to are the experts, and it’s my job to smoosh the most interesting parts of what they think into a cohesive whole.
But I’m also an academic at heart, so I take pride in getting things right. I work on the research side of humanitarian aid at UC Berkeley, so comes with the territory. Read more about me on my website, or follow me on Twitter.
Testimonials
“Informative and eye-opening as usual, you have a talent for drawing the right insights out of your interviewees.”
“There are a billion policy blogs and newsletters out there, but it’s rare to find one so well-researched, with interviews so direct and lucid, with such breadth of topics covered well, with a writer so humane.”
“I’ve given many interview in the last year […] with Ezra Klein and Vox, in a feature story with WIRED magazine, an a few with Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald. But I don’t know if I enjoyed any of them as much as this one with Anya Marchenko […] we geek out in a way that I’m rarely able to do so because of Anya’s sharp and analytically deep questions”
