What You Can Expect from Stay Tuned on Substack

A community of reasoned voices in unreasonable times

Hey folks, I’m Preet. I was the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, appointed by President Obama in 2009 – a position I held until 2017, when I was abruptly fired by President Trump. Out of a job but more eager than ever to follow the news, I started a podcast called Stay Tuned with Preet, which I’ve been hosting for over 7 years. Now, we’re coming to Substack, and whether you’ve been with us for a long time or you’re new, I hope you’ll join us. Here’s why.

Today, more people than ever can share their thoughts about everything taking place around them. That’s mostly a good thing. But people can voice not just their opinions, but also their biases and whims with fewer barriers to entry than ever before. And it’s getting harder to separate the wheat from the chaff. When everyone is speaking, no matter how much we think democratization is a net social good, it can sound like a Tower of Babel.

One of the reasons we started the Stay Tuned and Insider podcasts was to create a platform for people who were not just spectators, but actual players in their fields. We had in mind then, and now, a vision for the proper tone of our discourse. That is, above all, for our content to be thoughtful. Amidst all the decrying of bias and ignorance and tribalism, I put the rise of thoughtlessness at the top of my list of vices in the delivery of news and the provision of opinions. Personally, I can value the merit in anyone’s opinion – and I can gain insight even through disagreement. But a prerequisite is believing in the essential thoughtfulness of the speaker.

By thoughtfulness I mean, among other things, demonstrating that you have done precisely that: thought about the issue on which you’re blithely opining, that you’ve taken into account contrary positions, and in doing so, hopefully refined your own. That you’ve conceded points when warranted, and given legitimate bases for your opinions, not just the conclusory statements too often provided for shock value and viral traction.

This Substack will not traffic in rage, because rage-baiting is neither persuasive, nor unifying, nor effective. Our writers will be passionate about their ideas but will not let that passion overwhelm the clarity of their thinking and writing. The tone will generally be calm and measured because if you believe in the free marketplace of ideas, overconfidence in the supremacy of your own view is a tell that you have not been thoughtful. Even the most widely accepted theories of justice, economics, religion, and politics can benefit from refinement, modernization, and debate. A thoughtful idea is one that not only withstands scrutiny but is also open to change through honest testing.

As a trained attorney and longtime prosecutor, I have been taught the essential importance of skepticism and the danger of blind faith in particular persons, rather than in well-reasoned arguments. This space will of course not be a courtroom, but some of the principles of courtroom discourse and decorum will apply – because that is how truth is most likely to be revealed, and how accountability is most likely to be achieved. Just as in a courtroom, the advocates here will refrain from ad hominem attacks, falsehoods, and appeals to fear and bias. We will engage with, rather than ignore or mischaracterize, all valid arguments on the other side.

Another key feature of thoughtfulness is good faith. It’s easy to win an audience by playing to their biases and preconceived notions. Now, obviously, this Substack is not intended to present every point of view. It will be, if we do it right, a thoughtful stream of generally progressive thinking. But thinking that respects the intelligence of our readers and, equally as importantly, the intelligence and good faith of people who disagree.

Our contributors, though many are professors of great distinction, will not lecture or condescend. No good teacher does. To the contrary, they will by turns educate, provoke, stimulate, and perhaps alarm our readers. One of my great hopes for this new project is that the pieces here will prompt good faith dialogue among all of you on this platform. We welcome, indeed we crave, feedback – both positive and negative – so long as it’s thoughtful. Thoughtfulness will be the coin of the realm.

Expect to hear more from me soon, and from our contributors, too – Rachel Barkow, Erwin Chemerinsky, Elie Honig, Nita Farahany, Barb McQuade, Trevor Morrison, Asha Rangappa, Mimi Rocah, and Joyce Vance.

Why Stay Tuned?

I have heard a lot lately, including from longtime listeners of the podcast, that they no longer have the stamina or the stomach to follow every twist and turn of the news because of what’s happening in our politics. I get that. I feel that way myself more often than I want to admit. But my hunch is that one of the reasons people turn away is the tone in which news enters people’s homes and people’s screens. It alternates between hyperbolic, brazenly partisan, or just plain fake. And when politics is treated like a blood sport in a Roman coliseum, that understandably turns off a lot of people. But I hope you’ll agree, if you’ve read this far, that turning away is not an option—especially in a moment as critical as this one. Turning away has never made matters better. That’s what your political adversaries want. When you turn away, you cede the ground. You forfeit the game.

So don’t quit. Stay tuned.