I left Substack last week after a four-year run.
Because I removed the site without notifying readers, it gave the impression of a hasty decision. In truth, it was something I had weighed and discussed with friends and family for months. I chose not to announce it beforehand, knowing I might be talked out of it.
Five reasons capture the catalysts:
- Certain functions were increasingly distracting and detrimental to my mindset, productivity, and relationships.
- I had growing and grave concerns about how information and narratives were being promoted and suppressed.
- Various features incorporated in 2025 seemed to be testing or establishing a “social media credit score” system.
- Messages from the owners of/investors in the platform suggest they do not grasp the First Amendment.
- It felt enslaving.
WordPress is straightforward and not as clunky as SquareSpace, so we’ll see how this goes.
Bear with me as I experiment with the best way to transfer and archive content from the Substack version of Wood House 76.
JH
UPDATE 5 December 2025: This publication began on Substack in July 2021 as Woodhouse, added and functioned under the domain WoodHouse76.com beginning in June 2023, and moved from Substack to WordPress in November 2025. Any use of WoodHouse or WoodHouse76 on the Substack platform is not me. I reactivated the @jessicahockett Substack username solely to ensure accurate attribution for articles I have co-authored on other Substacks.
See “About” page for other details. The biography is very similar to the one that was posted on the Wood House 76 Substack. (Wayback Machine version here.)