Let's get started.

Sure.

Hi, I'm Chris Bess.

I'm the co-founder and CEO of Substack.

And I'm here today with Jim Acosta, who is a veteran journalist and former CNN anchor, turned wildly successful substacker.

Jim, thank you for being here.

Hey, you're welcome.

And thanks for the compliment.

I wanted to ask you, you know, a few years ago, people knew Substack primarily as a place for writers

and print journalists.

And you're a journalist, but you're also a TV star.

And you didn't know what Substack was a few weeks ago.

And today, you're sort of running this thriving, independent media empire.

Just how did that happen?

Gosh, it's a good question.

I have no idea.

No, it's funny, the wonderful Catherine Valentine there at Substack, she reached out to me and said,

hey, Jim, do you want to try this thing that we're doing over here?

And I said, yeah, sure, why not?

And to your point, I had the same thought about Substack.

I thought it was a terrific app.

I thought it was primarily a place where people would share their writing, their journalism, had a lot of respect for it and so on,

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