Hi, I’m Spencer. I read and write essays to help understand the world. And I want to do that with you.

Here are three truths (and no lies): A European monarch awarded me a medal for extraordinary service, an oil baron gave me millions of dollars to do some focus groups, and a Pulitzer Prize winner convinced me to buy a trailer park.

The thread that ties these random random facts of my life together is a weird junior high school I went to that mashed 6th, 7th, and 8th graders together, didn’t have formal subjects, and emphasized writing as a tool to understand the world.

I didn’t realize how much I missed that experience until I started sifting the sands of Substack, unearthing writing that dissolved the boundaries that I thought existed between me and the world.

My goal with my Substack is to help you feel more peaceful, more understood, and more human, by recommending my favorite Substack articles. I also hope that, perhaps once a year, something that I write will bring you bliss.

What to expect when you subscribe.

Every Monday, I send an email with three Substack articles published that week that made me feel a little more human. Once a month a publish a Substack MixTape, curating my favorite reads of the month into a thematic reading journey, complete with music. Think of me as a human recommendation algorithm, optimized for awe.

I also publish my own essays where I refract myself through a piece of art or culture, extract a small portion of my mind, dilute it in a bath of words, and drop it into your mind. Or at least, that’s what I try to do.

Here are a few essays to give you a flavor of my writing:

• Unlocking the Mystery (Show) was featured by Substack in their Substack Reads recommendations. That’s where I got the fancy badge at the top of this page. This essay revisits my favorite podcast, Mystery Show, to explore my first memory and how our brain’s turn us all into liars.

• How long can you live in isolation from yourself? I saw a play, called English, that made me cry, so I wrote this essay—which made me cry more.

• Social media is the middle school cafeteria. I was a beta-tester for Substack Notes. This essay grew from a Note where I explained how I experience the social media landscape.

• The Friendship Lottery. A stranger asked me for a hug, so I did what any person would do, wrote a 2,400 word essay about prosocial and antisocial behavior that ends with an offer to buy two strangers a meal.

I can’t promise that everything I write will move you, but I promise that every essay will try.

Welcome aboard!