I have lived, studied, traveled and written all over the U.S., Canada, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Singapore and Thailand, among others. After college, I helped build A Plus, a solutions journalism media outlet, alongside actor and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher. I worked as an editor and politics reporter for A Plus while I freelanced all over. You may have also seen my work in TIME Magazine, Vox, Independent Journal Review, The New York Daily News, HuffPost, or The Forward. My reporting has been cited by Fox News, Wikileaks, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
In 2016, Yahoo News named me one of the 16 people whose writing shaped the 2016 election. In 2020, Forbes Magazine called me one of the 1,000 "upstart entrepreneurs redefining the American dream." Tangle has been recognized by The New York Times, Forbes, The Hustle, Substack and many others as one of the most successful politics newsletters on the internet.
Tangle is also produced by a social media manager, three editors and a team of research assistants and interns with educational and professional experience across the spectrum who all work part-time on helping produce the newsletter. And, of course, the opinions and feedback from readers are included in almost every newsletter.
1. Are your personal politics liberal or conservative?
I say in the newsletter that I am "politically incongruent" and that is really how I feel. Early on in my media career, I wrote some opinion pieces that were "left-wing populism," usually taking shots at the Democratic establishment. I also wrote quite a bit defending conservatives. Over time, my politics have evolved to the point where they really don't fit neatly into any designation - it really depends on the issue. Which is part of the reason why I started Tangle. Too many people are being shoved into boxes that don't fit.
2. How long does it take to write the newsletter?
At least eight hours. Some newsletters can take three or four times that, depending on the topic. The bulk of the work is the research done in the days leading up to the newsletter's release, so sometimes the time can be a lot shorter if it is a topic I am really familiar with. Other times, it can take a while for me to put together something I feel comfortable sending to ~30,000 people.
3. What other news sources do you read, watch or listen to?
My only rule about news consumption is that I try not to watch my news. News shouldn't be made for TV. It should be about learning - reading and listening is usually a medium with less sensationalism and lies. The first thing I typically do in the morning is open The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and Foxnews.com, then see how they are covering the main stories of the day differently. After that, I'll read everything I can get a hold of.
4. Why did you start Tangle?
I recognized that the news industry was broken. My work was getting published in a lot of different places, and I realized people trusted it not based on what I was saying - but based on where I was saying it. Readers on the left would trust nothing I wrote if it showed up in a conservative-leaning news outlet, and vice versa. This is how I realized just how strong the information bubble was. So I had a concept I wanted to execute: A newsletter where no matter who you were you would encounter political opinions that you did not agree with. That seemed healthy to me. Then I launched Tangle as a side project, and as it grew I decided to quit my job and go "all-in" on building it out.