Not-Ship is a data-focused, visually ambitious newsletter helping you navigate the shifts and currents of our messy world. Each week, you will find today's issues explored in unexpected (and often delightful) ways. Think: engaging diagrams, bespoke datasets, and creative charts. From the shockingly poor quantification of AI harms to the befuddling numbers behind your poor-fitting jeans, from visual evidence of Google's enshittification to the curious stockpiling patterns of MAGA preppers — Not-Ship decodes the absurdities of life in our age of uncertainty.
Some assumptions, and some promises
Not-Ship aims to ground the issues of today in data, while bringing curiosity, clarity and care to the reporting. Here's what you can expect:
- Transparency: All sources will be linked in text, or at the end of a piece. And I'll be open about any conflicts of interest, should they occur.
- Accuracy: I'll get things wrong. Let me know when you see something that doesn't look right. Errors will be fixed and acknowledged.
- No AI-generated content: I won't use generative AI to create visuals or writing for Not-Ship. That's a hard line. I will, however, use it occasionally (and cautiously) for simple editing or analysis tasks.
- No pretending: Climate change, runaway capitalism and rising authoritarianism are our biggest problems.
What's a Not-Ship?
After his success with Lord of the Flies, William Golding kept writing. In 1956, he published Pincher Martin, in which a shipwrecked man struggles to survive nature and his existential crisis. In the first pages, he's alone in the vast sea, drowning, until he spots an island refuge —
"And darkly in the sun-mist loomed the shape of a not-ship where nothing but a ship could be."
Amanda Shendruk
I'm a journalist that uses data and design to understand the world. Basically, I'm just trying to find a foothold in the chaos. For me, that means calling out H&M for their incorrect sustainability data, exploring the challenges of climate migration by inventing a city, finding fault in anti-racist brand promises by analyzing thousands of Instagram posts, and declining interview requests from Fox News to talk about my 'war on roses'. Before launching Not-Ship, I spent 15 years reporting in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. at places such as the Guardian, Maclean's Magazine, Quartz and the Washington Post. Now, I'm doing the work directly for you.
Let's talk!
Whether you have an idea, a brilliant dataset, a criticism or a correction, I would love to hear from you: hello [at] not-ship [dot] com. I'll be open and transparent when I mess up, and you can help me by letting me know if you see an error. Tell me when things are working, and when they aren't. Let's find our way through the uncertainty together.