Cancellation, not cancel culture.
In one week in the summer of 2023 I talked to two men: one who was very influential in an early stage of my career in sports, and one whom I had cold-emailed looking for information about a policy change at his organization in 2017.
The two told me nearly identical stories of depression, PTSD, suicidality, drug and alcohol abuse; betrayal and banishment; 5- or 6-figure legal, medical, and PR fees; psychiatric and psychological treatments; and social exile. They had both been cancelled, with their stories and pictures featured in their respective national newspapers of record along with dozens of smaller and industry-specific / niche publications.
As I listened to them, I kept thinking “Why have I not heard anything like this on Rogan or Triggernometry? Read about it in The Free Press or even The Atlantic? How am I just hearing this with barely any prelude on two phone calls more or less out of the blue?”
Those conversations started me on a journey that has no end.
What I’ve learned, hopefully you’ll learn
I’ve since talked to dozens of cancelled people, mostly in the sports industry, along with clinicians, researchers, lawyers, family members, and others who work with cancelled people in some way. Those conversations have led into avenues of constitutional law (due process and defamation are two big ones), neuroscience, psychiatry, psychedelics, media ethics, institutional ethics, social psychology, literature… this phenomenon hits so many aspects of the human experience.
And, with only a few exceptions, I seem to have this niche carved out all to myself.
Why a Substack, if this is so fascinating and pervasive?
Three reasons:
Persistent encouragement and a bit of pressure from a few cancellees, in particular, to create a true platform and community for this topic.
As a freelancer in all areas of life, I can handle rejection. But there was a rug-pull on an article that really left a mark. I’ll still pitch and hope to publish elsewhere, but to paraphrase the meme, I am the editor now.
These stories are time-sensitive. Not timely, in the sense of a news hook that editors are always looking for. They’re time-sensitive, because people who have been cancelled are looking for any hope, any glimmer of understanding, any possibility of counter-narrative, any thought that they might not be alone. I’ve had enough people tell me how close they got to ending it all to conclude that there are cancelled people in my profession that aren’t around anymore for me to talk to. Some of told me that a single podcast or article brought them back from the edge. I have to try.
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