Seamus Hughes is the terrorism scholar and two-time Pulitzer-winning New York Times contributor behind Court Watch, an independent newsletter that mines the federal court system's 94 districts for stories no one else is covering. Francis talks with him about building a fiercely loyal 10,000-subscriber audience without ads or partisanship, the tactics he uses to find stories inside a deliberately broken records system, and why he trains 1,000+ of his own competitors every year.

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Seamus Hughes

Timestamps

00:00 Introducing Seamus Hughes

00:52 Intentionally making less money

06:55 The creator ecosystem falls apart without him

11:00 Growth to 10k subscribers

13:57 Over 500 paying subscribers

16:20 Why this costs $100k to run

31:06 Finding stories within the outdated legal system

38:49 The value of a collective or community

43:02 Why he only sleeps 4 hours a night

45:47 Why he doesn't sell ads