Coming Soon

A work in progress

This is Tracing Woodgrains, a newsletter about a former Mormon's chaotic pursuit of order in a world gone mad.

My writing has been scattered around various corners of the internet for some time now. In the hope of increasing legibility and maintaining a consistent repository, I will be making an effort to consolidate my notable essays on Substack over a period of time. The backlog is sparse for now, but you should ultimately expect it to swell to several hundred essays.

If you’ve heard of me, it’s most likely for one of these reasons:

• I am the editorial assistant over at Blocked & Reported, or, as I like to call myself, a Podcaster’s Apprentice.

• I am a long-time participant in, and occasional moderator of, reddit communities /r/theschism, /r/TheMotte, and /r/mormon.

• I have occasionally written popular articles on internet nonsense, notably on the bizarre rise and fall of reddit’s /r/antiwork and the Texas Abortion Bounty Hunter and transparenttranskid hoax communities.

• I co-wrote an adversarial collaboration on whether the education system education adequately serves advanced students for Slate Star Codex.

In my essays, I wander towards whatever happens to catch my interest. Usually, that means a focus on learning and the strength of narratives and deliberate restrictions, reflections on culture war and internet nonsense, and attempts to present both the beauty and harm of Mormonism to a secular audience.

Once I have ported more of my writing over to this space and am ready to properly launch it, I will provide a more substantive introduction. Until then, feel free to subscribe and poke around as I unpack and settle in.