2025 has changed my life forever, and I have you to thank for that. Tomorrow, inboxes everywhere will be flooded with New Year’s roundups and year-in-review posts. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to thank you today.
At the beginning of 2025, my life looked very different. I had recently walked away from practicing law, a profession I worked hard to enter and one that defined much of my early adulthood. I did not have a safety net. I did not have a corporate backer or a wealthy benefactor waiting in the wings. I had a belief that truth still mattered, that people were hungry for facts over fear, and that independent journalism could still survive if it was built on trust.
I decided to take a leap and pursue content creation and journalism full time. It was a risk, and at times it felt reckless. But it turned out to be the most important decision I have ever made. You made it possible. This platform exists because of you.
Together, we built something rare. We built a media platform rooted in transparency, accountability, and a relentless pursuit of the truth. We did it without large corporate donors. We did it without executives dictating what we could or could not say. We did it without compromising our values. We did it because of reader support and subscriptions, because people like you believed this work was worth sustaining.
We launched this Substack in mid-January 2025, during a moment of national chaos. TikTok was on the brink of being banned. Within days, Donald Trump was inaugurated back into office, and the news cycle turned into a nonstop torrent designed to exhaust, overwhelm, and confuse. It became clear very quickly that the goal was not just to inform people, but to wear them down.
I saw that moment for what it was. I realized the most effective way to counter this White House was not to chase outrage or amplify panic, but to slow down, focus on verified facts, and share the truth with as many people as possible. That became our mission.
And it worked.
In less than a year, we built a platform that surpassed every major media company in reach except NBC, the Daily Mail, and Fox News. Had we launched just weeks earlier, we would have surpassed NBC News as well. In 2026, we are on track to surpass both the Daily Mail and Fox News, not through sensationalism, but through credibility and consistency.
Over the course of the year, we amplified voices that are too often ignored. We interviewed United States citizens who were detained by ICE. We spoke with artists and musicians who canceled their performances at the Kennedy Center in protest. We interviewed elected leaders across the political spectrum, from California Governor Gavin Newsom to Vice President Kamala Harris. We spoke with Senator Cory Booker moments after he stepped off the Senate floor, having just broken the record for the longest floor speech in Senate history.
We also gave a platform to candidates running for higher office, including most recently Brian Bengs, because democracy depends on voters having access to information that is not filtered or distorted.
This year was also defined by protest, and we were there. We reported live and on the ground from the No Kings Day protests in Washington, D.C., and from the Free D.C. protests that followed the deployment of the National Guard. Our reporting cut through partisan narratives and reached millions of people who simply wanted to know what was actually happening.
Some of the most important work we did this year involved the Epstein survivors.
Many people do not know this, but my first exposure to the legal field came when I was just fifteen years old. I was a college student working as a legal intern at the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office. I spent time with the sex crimes unit, witnessing firsthand how the system is supposed to protect victims.
Years later, when I saw what this administration was doing to Epstein survivors, denying them justice and dignity, I could not stay silent. I sprang into action. Together, we amplified survivor voices that powerful institutions wanted buried. I speak with survivors every single day, and I will continue to fight for their justice in the year ahead.
This platform also became a place where exclusive reporting could still thrive. We broke more than a dozen original stories this year. We reported on a live-fire drill over Interstate 5 in California that damaged a vehicle in Vice President JD Vance’s motorcade. We exposed cases where Epstein survivors had their names unredacted in violation of the law. We spoke with members of Congress like Ro Khanna, who announced on this platform his intent to pursue inherent contempt proceedings against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
These stories did not just make headlines. They shaped the national conversation.
But this platform was never only about hard news. Every Sunday became Good News Sunday, a space where our community shared moments of joy, progress, and resilience. In a world that profits from despair, we made room for hope.
That brings me to my final point.
I was asked today what I believe the most important story of 2025 was. For me, the answer is clear. It was the sustained attack on our institutions. From mainstream media outlets to law firms to universities, the institutions that once served as guardrails for democracy buckled under pressure from this White House.
That is why 2026 matters so much.
If existing institutions will not protect the truth, then we must build new ones. We must create something better, something independent, something accountable to the people and not to power. That is what this platform is becoming.
Join me. Help us build it. Let’s make next year our strongest yet.
See you tomorrow.