Brian Merchant
@bloodinthemachine · Blood in the Machine · Substack profile · Technology
Brian Merchant has 63,476 followers on Substack as of Nov 1, 2026. On the latest board read, Nov 6, 2026, they were #61 on Substack's Technology Bestsellers board. 62 publications recommend them, 8 of them new in the last 30 days, and they recommend 50.
Last read Nov 1, 2026 (UTC). Followers are not email subscribers. Substack lists only the newest 50 recommendations for each publication, so a recommender count of 50 or more is a floor. History starts Oct 31, 2026; Substack publishes nothing earlier.
- Followers
- 63,476
- read Nov 1
- Last 7 days
- first number on Nov 7
- Last 30 days
- first number on Nov 30
- Subscribers
- 45K+
- rounded by Substack
- Paid subscribers
- Thousands
- bestseller badge 1,000+
- Recommended by
- 62
- +8 in 30 days
- Recommends
- 50
- Bestsellers rank
- #61
- Technology
Followers by day
Tracking since Oct 31, 2026. 2 days of readings. Substack doesn't publish past follower counts, so history starts the day I first read a writer and grows by one reading every 3 days (daily if it's on your watchlist). The 7-day change appears on Nov 7, the 30-day change on Nov 30. Recommendation dates below go further back: they're Substack's own.
Show as a table
| Date | Followers | Change | Subscribers | Paid band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 1, 2026 | 63,476 | +28 | 45K+ | Thousands |
| Oct 31, 2026 | 63,448 | 45K+ | Thousands |
Leaderboard positions
| Board | Rank now | Best on record | Reads on it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technology Bestsellers | #61 | #61 | 4 of 4 |
| Technology Rising | #27 | #27 | 1 of 4 |
Rank on each read
| Writer | Oct 3107:00 | Oct 3113:00 | Oct 3119:47 | Nov 621:50 | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technology Bestsellers | 62 | 62 | 62 | 61 | ▲1 |
| Technology Rising | 27 | new |
I read every board once a day.
Recommendations
62 publications recommend Brian Merchant; 8 started in the last 30 days. Brian Merchant recommends 50, and 5 of those recommend back. Lists read Oct 31.
When the recommendations started
Show as a table
| Month | Started |
|---|---|
| 2024-02 | 1 |
| 2024-11 | 1 |
| 2025-02 | 1 |
| 2025-03 | 1 |
| 2025-05 | 1 |
| 2025-09 | 1 |
| 2025-10 | 2 |
| 2026-04 | 1 |
| 2026-05 | 7 |
| 2026-06 | 11 |
| 2026-07 | 8 |
| 2026-08 | 8 |
| 2026-09 | 10 |
| 2026-10 | 9 |
Recommended by
Parker Molloy223k followers · started Mar 2025
Taylor Lorenz218k followers · started May 2025
Paul Kingsnorth127k followers · started Sep 2025 · mutual
The Drey Dossier120k followers · started Oct 2025
Grace Blakeley68k followers · started Oct 30, 2026 · mutualnew
Lincoln Michel41k followers · started Feb 2025 · mutual
Andrea Bartz15k followers · started Sep 17, 2026
Ray Harmony13k followers · started May 30, 2026
Dan Ozzi11k followers · started Oct 2025 · mutual
Lloyd Alter11k followers · started Feb 2024 · mutual
Leave It Better5.6k followers · started Nov 2024
The Bitcoin Mint Press103 followers · started Sep 12, 2026- Rick's Substackstarted Oct 31, 2026new
- Dasia Duvonnestarted Oct 30, 2026new
- Karol's Substackstarted Oct 25, 2026new
- The Gracious Slopestarted Oct 22, 2026new
- rumput bergoyangstarted Oct 21, 2026new
- Usyetuo's Substackstarted Oct 10, 2026new
- Philipp Hummstarted Oct 9, 2026new
- Norimitsu Kaihostarted Oct 2, 2026
- Kassous's Substackstarted Sep 30, 2026
- Max's Substackstarted Sep 26, 2026
- Conny's Substackstarted Sep 25, 2026
- Substack de C.A.Afonsostarted Sep 20, 2026
All 62
- James Galletastarted Sep 17, 2026
- Gail's Substackstarted Sep 14, 2026
- CJ's Substackstarted Sep 9, 2026
- The Juliet Archivesstarted Sep 7, 2026
- The Theory of Everythingstarted Aug 26, 2026
- Documentation Requiredstarted Aug 25, 2026
- The BlackVeil Filesstarted Aug 24, 2026
- dhiraj's Substackstarted Aug 18, 2026
- Eagle Eye Translationsstarted Aug 14, 2026
- Busted Coverage with Bart Denaro Jrstarted Aug 13, 2026
- Forward Edgestarted Aug 11, 2026
- Ellie's Substackstarted Aug 4, 2026
- Edwin's Substackstarted Jul 20, 2026
- Diary of a Replicantstarted Jul 19, 2026
- The New Manual of the Dwellingstarted Jul 18, 2026
- Steve's Substackstarted Jul 17, 2026
- The Inner Workingsstarted Jul 12, 2026
- Filip's Filosophystarted Jul 8, 2026
- Le Substack de Mullerstarted Jul 4, 2026
- Substack Bartłomiejstarted Jul 1, 2026
- Il Substack di ggstarted Jun 28, 2026
- My Stories of Mexicostarted Jun 26, 2026
- Rono64 Art & Designstarted Jun 26, 2026
- aj's Substackstarted Jun 25, 2026
- Bruce Kingstarted Jun 23, 2026
- Terminal Epochstarted Jun 22, 2026
- James's Substackstarted Jun 19, 2026
- <swirling><sy_stems>'s Substackstarted Jun 18, 2026
- Hussain Mohamed Ismailstarted Jun 11, 2026
- small dreamsstarted Jun 6, 2026
- Dave Mauriellostarted Jun 5, 2026
- NorthStar Ascentstarted May 30, 2026
- Diego Torresstarted May 26, 2026
- El Substack de Juanstarted May 25, 2026
- Substack-en til Arnestarted May 18, 2026
- mclwjvcwienrlvinerlkv's Substackstarted May 16, 2026
- Serena's Substackstarted May 5, 2026
- mpatt's Substackstarted Apr 24, 2026
Recommends
Drop Site News911k followers · started Apr 2025
Naomi Klein229k followers · started Jul 9, 2026
Carole Cadwalladr197k followers · started Aug 2025
David Roberts141k followers · started May 15, 2026- Paul Kingsnorth127k followers · started Oct 2025 · mutual
- Grace Blakeley68k followers · started Mar 2025 · mutual
P.E. Moskowitz51k followers · started Oct 2023- Lincoln Michel41k followers · started Feb 2025 · mutual
The Real Sarah Miller26k followers · started Jul 2024
Vincent Bevins23k followers · started May 15, 2026
Molly Crabapple22k followers · started Nov 2024- Dan Ozzi11k followers · started Jul 2025 · mutual
- Lloyd Alter11k followers · started Feb 2024 · mutual
- tomorrow's messstarted Oct 16, 2026new
- The Rip Current with Jacob Wardstarted Aug 25, 2026
- The Stories We Tellstarted Aug 21, 2026
- Persistent Bloomstarted Aug 10, 2026
- Rickipediastarted Apr 7, 2026
- Artificial Bureaucracystarted Mar 27, 2026
- Daniel Howard Jamesstarted Jan 23, 2026
- personal canonstarted Dec 19, 2025
- Realtime Techpocalypse Newsletterstarted Oct 2025
- The Alex Pressstarted Sep 2025
- Mikestarted Aug 2025
All 50
- Hard Resetstarted Aug 2025
- Heavy Machinerystarted Jul 2025
- The Driftstarted Apr 2025
- The Golden Hour: climate, children, mental healthstarted Apr 2025
- Dialectics of Declinestarted Apr 2025
- Discourse Blogstarted Mar 2025
- 𝓯𝓪𝓼𝓽 𝔀𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰started Feb 2025
- New Meansstarted Feb 2025
- Last Stop Corbenicstarted Feb 2025
- EU AI Industrial Policy Monitorstarted Dec 2024
- Critical Inklingstarted Dec 2024
- Angry Planetstarted Dec 2024
- Organizing My Thoughtsstarted Oct 2024
- The Tech Bubblestarted Oct 2024
- Labor Politicsstarted Sep 2024
- Internal exilestarted May 2024
- How Things Workstarted May 2024
- AI: A Guide for Thinking Humansstarted May 2024
- Untangled with Charley Johnsonstarted May 2024
- Matt Pearcestarted Mar 2024
- Wild Informationstarted Feb 2024
- FrameLab started Feb 2024
- Billy’s Newsletterstarted Feb 2024
- Jacob Silvermanstarted Feb 2024
- The Future, Now and Thenstarted Dec 2023
- MomLeftstarted Dec 2023
Substack lists the 50 newest recommenders of each publication. I add every recommendation found in the full lists of the 6,392 publications I read, so writers with many recommenders may still be missing a few small ones. "Started" is Substack's date.
Recommended by the same publications
Writers who share the most recommenders with Brian Merchant. Useful for finding peers, and for sponsors looking for similar audiences.
- 6 shared
Ray Harmony@rayharmony
13k followers - 5 shared
Paul KingsnorthThe Abbey of Misrule
127k followers - 3 shared
Peter GeogheganDemocracy for Sale
76k followers - 2 shared
Matt StollerBIG by Matt Stoller
341k followers - 2 shared
kyla scanlonKyla’s Newsletter
224k followers - 2 shared
Carole CadwalladrHow to Survive the Broligarchy
197k followers - 2 shared
Derek Thompson@derekthompson
182k followers - 2 shared
John GanzUnpopular Front
74k followers
Who recommends writers like this one
Publications that recommend at least two other Technology writers with 50,000 or more followers (70 writers in that group), but not Brian Merchant.
- recommends 17 of themMohamed elsage
- recommends 14 of them
ChatGPT for All@chatgptforall - recommends 11 of them
Alex Xu@bytebytego - recommends 11 of themTokyo AI Brief
- recommends 10 of them
Aakash Gupta@aakashgupta - recommends 9 of them
Alberto Romero@thealgorithmicbridge - recommends 8 of them
Gregor Ojstersek@gregorojstersek - recommends 8 of them
Gennaro Cuofano@thebusinessengineer - recommends 8 of them
Sharon Goldman@sharongoldman - recommends 8 of themThe Upstream
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