What is RSS, you ask? A method to subscribe to what your favorite websites publish and have their updates all in a single place. Think of it as DVR for the Internet, food delivery instead of pickup except for the web. Podcasts work on the same technology and concept: Subscribe once, receive forever without asking again.
RSS has been around for most of the 21st century but took a pretty big hit first when people began using Facebook and Twitter to receive regular news updates and then when when Google discontinued its free RSS product called Google Reader in in 2013. At that point, anyone who still used an RSS reader and carefully pruned their feed library was probably over 30 and stubborn.
Lately though, RSS been making a bit of a comeback , the idea being that self-selecting your daily information diet probably means less unwilling toxicity and restless nights of non-sleep.
I’m into this. RSS made the Internet seem both rich and manageable in my early days with it and I’m still grateful. And while not every one of your favorite web publications still have rss feeds (many newer ones which came along in the last fallow few years just didn’t bother) many still do.
The more feeds we share, the more our friends and loved ones can conveniently use this tool to assemble their own rich and varied information diets free from the poison of racism, intolerance and fight-picking.
In that spirit, my entire RSS feed library, alphabetized is below. Take, subscribe, read, enjoy. I encourage you to do the same with yours.
* items with a star are feeds custom-created by me.
Feeds:
- [RSS] A Whole Lotta Nothing (aka Matt Haughey’s blog).
- [RSS] All About George (personal blog of Oakland-based journalist George Kelly).
- [RSS] Arts Journal (portal of great writing about music, film, dance, museums and ideas).
- [RSS] Buzzfeed News Radar (Buzzfeed’s cultural coverage).
- [RSS] Eater- Longform (investigative, reported work on food/dining portal Eater.com).
- [RSS] The Feature (Stripped-down curated list of articles, a punk-rock Longform.org).
- [RSS] The Guardian’s “Best Culture of the 21st Century So Far” Series.
- [RSS] Kottke.org (legendary personal blog of Jason Kottke. Pound for pound the most useful link source on the web).
- [RSS] Lifehacker’s “How I Work” Series (Interviews with and tips from very productive people)
- [RSS] Longform (curated selection of great long(er) magazine/newspaper pieces. Hecka podcast too).
- [RSS] Longreads (what Longform does but no podcast but commissions more original work).
- [RSS] Neiman Lab (From Harvard’s Neiman Journalism Lab, about journalism and its future).
- [RSS] Okayplayer (black music & culture site founded by Questlove of the Roots and author Angela Nissel).
- [RSS] Open SF (Historical Photos of San Francisco). *
- [RSS] REDEF Live Media Feed (Content Curation site with channels devoted to sports, fashion, music and here, media) *
- [RSS} Volume 1 Brooklyn (Daily links from online magazine all about books and literature). *
- [RSS] Vulture (Pop culture portal of New York Magazine).
(My old friend Matt Haughey inspired this idea when he publicly posted his RSS Feed Library in 2018)
