Welcome to Culture Soup

A new name and home for In Other Words

To all existing subscribers, new subscribers and future subscribers, welcome to Culture Soup!

I’m Ruth Taylor, narrative and culture change strategist, who started the roundup newsletter In Other Words back in 2020. Originally intended as a way for me to get my open browser tabs under control, In Other Words grew to become a wonderful community of people working in, or curious about, narrative and culture change. 

After 2 and a bit years, 47 editions, hundreds of links and amassing over 1,300 subscribers, I, quite simply, ran out of steam. In Other Words was always a labour of love - I never received funding to compile it -  and so, as my life become busier something had to give and unfortunately, the newsletter was that thing.

But, now feels like the right time to emerge from the chrysalis and introduce the new and (hopefully!) improved name, home and focus of In Other Words. I’m so happy you’re here! 

First and foremost, if you’re receiving this post, great news: you are already subscribed! You will continue to receive an In Other Words-esque round up from me, just like before, but this time with some other things thrown in too - read on for more information. Please add this email address to your contacts or mark it as ‘not spam’ to make sure it reaches you. You might also want to consider downloading the substack app to make your reading experience even easier.

Why Culture Soup?

To mark this next era, In Other Words has become Culture Soup. This change of name is for two reasons.

• Firstly, the ‘words’ in ‘In Other Words’ reinforced the assumption that narrative and culture change work is simply a game of language and communications, which I don’t believe is the case. Of course, our language - what we say and how we say it - is of huge importance when we’re thinking about social and environmental change, but values, norms, beliefs and narratives are instantiated in so much more than just our messages. With a change in name comes the opportunity to reflect on other forms of cultural conditioning and how these affect the way we, as humanity, come to think and feel about transition.

• Secondly, I wanted a name that brought to life the idea that the cultures we are each immersed in are made up of countless ‘ingredients’ all mixed together into one big melting pot. We are influenced by this blend of ideas, values, assumptions etc everyday and they play a huge part in determining both whether and how we, as societies, respond to the interconnected crises of our time. What happens if we stop to reflect on the taste of the culture soup we’re stewing in? What flavours do we find to be most prominent? What seasoning might we wish to add? What ingredients would we take out altogether?

Why Substack?

I have decided to move my work from Mailchimp to Substack for a few reasons. 

• Firstly, I have outgrown the number of subscribers you’re allowed to have on a free account with Mailchimp, and simply don’t use the data analytics enough to warrant signing up for a payment plan. 

• Secondly, I have a Twitter-shaped hole in my life and have been looking for a platform where you can have public conversations with people who are interested in the same things as you. I find my cringe-o-meter too sensitive for LinkedIn (I really don’t want to hear about what your dog’s bowel issues taught you about productivity!), I don’t have the right sort of content for Instagram and frankly, I’m scared of TikTok! Through Mailchimp, people were able to reply directly to me with thoughts on the newsletter, which was great, but I want a platform where these conversations and opportunities for connection can be open to more people.

• Thirdly, I want one platform for all my work. Previously, I was sending In Other Words roundups via Mailchimp and then sharing my own writing via Medium, but through Substack I can have everything in one place, which makes things feel much more manageable.

I have spent some time migrating across all old In Other Words roundups, which can be found on The Narrative Roundup tab on the homepage and all my writing from Medium, which (inventively!) can be found on the tab called Writing. One downside of this migration from Medium to Substack is you lose all your ‘likes’ and comments on previous blogs. If you ever read anything of mine which you enjoyed, I would be hugely appreciative if you could go and give the post some love again, just to help my stats. Thank you so much!

And a note on paid subscriptions. At the moment everything on Culture Soup is free. In the future I might introduce paid-subscriber-only content, but for now I’m happy the way things are. You can pledge to become a paid subscriber if and when I turn on paid subscriptions, and to signal to me that this is content you find valuable.

What can you expect?

Here is normally where I would make a list of promises about what content you can expect from Culture Soup and how often. I’m going to ignore all best practice when it comes to newsletter-writing and say that I’ve decided to keep things open and not commit to a particular publishing schedule. I’m feeling my way back in to running a newsletter and on a new (to me) platform, so I want to give myself the time and space for trial and error. What I will say is that I’ll aim for regular roundups and written pieces, but sometimes life gets in the way and that’s ok too.

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Thank you for joining Culture Soup! I am looking forward to all the discussions, friendly disagreements, reciprocity, and imagining together. I am so grateful you’re here.