Radley Balko

@radleybalko · The Watch · Substack profile · News

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Radley Balko has 67,372 followers on Substack as of Nov 1, 2026. On the latest board read, Nov 6, 2026, they were #53 on Substack's News Bestsellers board. 57 publications recommend them, 1 of them new in the last 30 days, and they recommend 31.

Followers read · Boards read

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
67,372
read Nov 1
Last 7 days
first number on Nov 7
Last 30 days
first number on Nov 30
Subscribers
33K+
rounded by Substack
Paid subscribers
Thousands
bestseller badge 1,000+
Recommended by
57
+1 in 30 days
Recommends
31
Bestsellers rank
#53
News

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.

66k67k68k69k Oct 31Nov 2Nov 4Nov 6Nov 8Nov 10Nov 12 12 more days to fill this frame 67,372
66k67k68k69k Oct 31Nov 4Nov 8 8 more days to fill this frame 67,372
One reading a day, the last of the day. Marked: leaderboard steps (into the top 25, top 10, or #1). Followers are people who follow Radley Balko on Substack; they aren't email subscribers.
Show as a table
Daily readings
DateFollowersChangeSubscribersPaid band
Nov 1, 202667,372+633K+Thousands
Oct 31, 202667,36633K+Thousands

Leaderboard positions

BoardRank nowBest on recordReads on it
News Bestsellers#53#514 of 4

Rank on each read

Rank on each read of each board. Each cell is the leaderboard rank; empty means not in the top 100.
WriterOct 3107:00Oct 3113:00Oct 3119:47Nov 621:50Move
News Bestsellers51515153▼2

I read every board once a day.

Recommendations

57 publications recommend Radley Balko; 1 started in the last 30 days. Radley Balko recommends 31, and 3 of those recommend back. Lists read Oct 31.

The 9 largest publications on each side, by followers. Bigger dot, more followers. Orange: started in the last 30 days. Gray dots: publications I don't track, so no follower count.

When the recommendations started

Oct 22AprOctAprOctAprOctAprOct
Live recommendations by the month each began, using Substack's own start date. Removed ones aren't listed by Substack, so they don't appear. Substack shows only the 50 newest recommenders, so before May 2025 (outlined) I see only those from the 6,392 publications whose full lists I read.
Show as a table
Recommendations started per month
MonthStarted
2022-103
2023-011
2023-071
2024-031
2025-041
2025-052
2025-062
2025-084
2025-095
2025-102
2025-112
2025-122
2026-018
2026-024
2026-031
2026-041
2026-052
2026-063
2026-074
2026-081
2026-095
2026-102

Recommended by

  • Steve Vladeck173k followers · started Jan 2023
  • Freddie deBoer168k followers · started Oct 2022
  • Chris Geidner154k followers · started Oct 2022 · mutual
  • Rebecca Schoenkopf99k followers · started Jul 2023 · mutual
  • Ozy Brennan10k followers · started Oct 2022
  • Scott Bennett8.8k followers · started Mar 2024
  • Bonnie Kristian7.2k followers · started Jun 2025 · mutual
  • Clay's Substackstarted Oct 15, 2026new
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  • Lopaka's Substackstarted Jul 4, 2026
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  • Gregory D Melestarted Jun 25, 2026
  • David's Substackstarted Jun 22, 2026
  • The Publius Projectstarted Jun 15, 2026
  • wmtcstarted May 12, 2026
  • Westminster's Substackstarted May 7, 2026
All 57
  • Samantha's Substackstarted Apr 2, 2026
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  • Your Doctor Has Questionsstarted Jan 27, 2026
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  • The Harlow Files started Jan 7, 2026
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  • from our ashesstarted Dec 24, 2025
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  • Stephanie's Substackstarted Nov 27, 2025
  • Call the Lawstarted Nov 15, 2025
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  • A Monk Annoying Brahma’s Substackstarted Sep 2025
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  • Liberal Currentsstarted Aug 2025
  • LexyTheLawNerd’s Substackstarted Aug 2025
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  • World’s Substackstarted Jun 2025
  • Phoebe’s Substackstarted May 2025
  • Eyes’s Substackstarted May 2025
  • Bemused’s Substackstarted Apr 2025

Recommends

  • The Bulwark1.4M followers · started Nov 2024
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  • Mehdi Hasan894k followers · started Nov 2024
  • Chris Geidner154k followers · started Sep 2022 · mutual
  • Rebecca Schoenkopf99k followers · started Oct 9, 2026 · mutualnew
  • Bonnie Kristian7.2k followers · started Nov 2024 · mutual
  • clayjakstackstarted Oct 9, 2026new
  • How the Hell... with Alex Wagner started Oct 9, 2026new
  • Walter Olsonstarted Oct 2025
  • Stephen Downing: Exposing the Con: Defending Democracystarted Oct 2025
  • Can We Still Govern?started Nov 2024
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  • JT/DLstarted Aug 2023
  • The DP3 Substack (Death Penalty Policy Project)started Aug 2023
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  • The Blanks Slatestarted Jul 2023
  • Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniffstarted Jul 2023
  • Defending Peoplestarted Apr 2023
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  • Forensic Science*started Jan 2023
  • Jeff-alyticsstarted Dec 2022
All 31
  • Joel Mathisstarted Nov 2022
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  • The UnPopuliststarted Sep 2022
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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.

Who recommends writers like this one

Publications that recommend at least two other News writers with 50,000 or more followers (56 writers in that group), but not Radley Balko.

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