FAQ

FLAMING HYDRA started as a cooperative of 60 writers and artists who banded together to publish a newsletter, which launched on 30 January 2024.

Since then, we've added some new writers and said a fond farewell to others, but we're still a collaborative and many-headed beast.

FLAMING HYDRA is for the freedom of all kinds of people who like to read and write what we want, and who want to connect with others in an unmediated, private way, with no weirdo surveillance or profiteering, like the old internet used to be.

$3/month, or $36/year, for a brief, absorbing, ingenious daily newsletter each weekday. The price is low because we want everyone to read this thing.

The price is low, but not free, because we don’t want to have to answer to anyone but our readers. FLAMING HYDRA has no owners, advertisers, or investors. Just writers and artists trying to do good work.

Flaming Hydra subscribers can now read every post over RSS.

Just visit your account page at flaminghydra.com/account to find your own personalized full-text RSS feed, which works in RSS readers like Feedbro, inoreader, The Old Reader, etc.

If you haven't used an RSS feed reader before, we urge you to give it a try; it's a fun and convenient way to keep track of your favorite sites.

Thanks to the great folks at 404 Media and Outpost for the open-source code we used to build this popular feature.

Questions welcome!

Yes! The email version of your Flaming Hydra newsletter arrives in black text on a white background.

For most pages on the website, also yes! Use Reader Mode on your browser for a black-text-on-white-background experience. Instructions for Chrome are here; for Firefox, click the tiny page icon just to the right of the URL.

Subscribers may comment on newsletters, and we look forward to conversing with you there. There's just one rule, which is: Please be cool, or we will have to remove your comments.

Many of us do write for regular magazines and newspapers! You can look up your favorite contributors or click the links in their bios to see where else our members publish.

But you may have noticed that media keeps shrinking. Tons of places we used to write for and work at—alt-weeklies, local newspapers, beloved blogs—no longer exist. As more and more independent outlets fail or are brought down, our whole culture grows poorer and more vulnerable to exploitation; less smart, and less fun.

We think it’s time we started shaping the future of media ourselves, to protect our freedom, independence and integrity. Besides, we're having a lot of fun creating a high quality, artist-owned publication.

For the moment, Maria Bustillos, one of the founding members of the group, is the lead editor, but she does so with the help of many other members who pitch in on editing, illustrations, getting the word out, etc.

TREVOR ALIXOPULOS, The New Yorker, Lipstick Traces

YEMISI ARIBISALA, Longthroat Memoirs

EMILY BELL, Columbia University, Guardian

LEILA BRILLSON, NYLON, Refinery29

MATT BUCHANAN, Eater, The New Yorker, The Awl

MARIA BUSTILLOS, Popula, The Awl, The Nation

DESSANE LOPEZ CASSELL, Seen Journal

AMY CHU, Camoot Journal

JIM COOKE, Los Angeles Times, Gawker

ANA MARIE COX, The New Republic, MSNBC

TOMMY CRAGGS, HBO, Mother Jones, Deadspin

A.J. DAULERIO, The Small Bow

BEN EHRENREICH, Desert Notebooks, The Way to the Spring

B.K. EPLER

EMILY FLAKE, The New Yorker, Mama Tried

CARRIE FRYE, The Awl

HAFIZAH GETER, The Black Period

MYRIAM GURBA, Mean, Creep, Tasteful Rude

D.D. GUTTENPLAN, The Nation

SHUJA HAIDER, The Nation, Popula

JENNIE ROSE HALPERIN, New York University

K.E. HARLOE, Media x Capital

JOHN HERRMAN, The Awl, New York Times, New York Magazine

BRIAN HIOE, New Bloom, No Man Is an Island

MIRA JACOB, Good Talk

LAURA JUNE, New York Magazine, The Verge

JONATHAN M. KATZ, Gangsters of Capitalism, The Racket

KIM KELLY, Teen Vogue, Fight Like Hell

RAX KING, Tacky

MILES KLEE, Rolling Stone, MEL Magazine

AMY KURZWEIL, The New Yorker

SARAH LAMDAN, Data Cartels

TALIA LAVIN, Wild Faith

JOE MACLEOD, Indignity

ZITO MADU, GQ, SB Nation, The Minotaur at Calle Lanza

ARWA MAHDAWI, Guardian

COLIN MCGOWAN, RealGM, Sports Illustrated

ANNA MERLAN, Vice, Jezebel, Village Voice

PARKER MOLLOY, The Present Age

DAVID MOORE, Sludge

DIANA MOSKOVITZ, Defector

NATHAN MUNN, Motherboard, Popula, The Verge

HAMILTON NOLAN, Guardian, In These Times, The Hammer

OSITA NWANEVU, The New Republic, Guardian

LUKE O'NEIL, Welcome to Hell World, A Creature Wanting Form

JACK PENDARVIS, Adventure Time

YONI PORTUGALI, Poraz Books

JOSEPHINE RIESMAN, Ringmaster and True Believer

DAVID J. ROTH, Defector

OLAJIDE SALAWU, OlongoAfrica

JOHN SAWARD, Mic, The Believer, Vice

NATHAN SCHNEIDER, CU Boulder, Social.coop

TOM SCOCCA, Indignity

TOD SEELIE, BRIGHT NIGHTS

FAHAD SHAH, Guardian, The Nation

JULIANNE ESCOBEDO SHEPHERD, Pitchfork, Vogue

HARRY SIEGEL, FAQ NYC, Daily Beast, NY Daily News

JJ SKOLNIK, Bandcamp

GABRIEL SNYDER, The Fine Print, The New Republic, Gawker

MOH TELBANI, Popula

SAM THIELMAN, Slate, The New Yorker

CLIVE THOMPSON, New York Times, Wired

KỌ́LÁ TÚBỌ̀SÚN, OlongoAfrica

SHIRLEY WANG, Brick House, NPR, 99 Percent Invisible

LAURIE WOOLEVER, Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography, World Travel

MARK YARM, Everybody Loves Our Town, Blender

ZACH RABIROFF, Comics Journal, Polygon

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