Hey, Substack. My name’s Dan. I’m a writer based in Oakland. My work has appeared in The Bold Italic, NPR, Human Parts, BrokeAssStuart, BusinessInsider, Fast Company, Crunchbase, and other cool places around the web. I also edit PS I Love You. I’m also the founder of New Voices, a writing agency I started last fall, after the agency I was previously working for shut down. At first I was nervous about being out on my own, but pretty quickly I became excited, feeling as Stevie Dedalus might have when he alerted Cranly in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man that he was embracing his intellectual autonomy: “I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself my home, my fatherland, or my church.” Only to that list I would excitedly append, “Or my employer.”
So you find me at an interesting time. I’m diving headfirst into my writing.
The first essay I have to share with you is about Outkast, the best band of all time. It's called Being Cool Is Just Being Honest.
I hope you enjoy it. Also, I hope you stick around so we can stay in touch. I promise to only grace your inbox with good things to read.
Best,
Dan
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3d9b8eeb-87ce-4f7b-a7b1-3934eae01423_4000x5000.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_88,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fda8debef-94e0-4d8d-a9bc-8e7896aaec11_943x1453.jpeg)