I Am Dropping Out of Daily Authorship of The Frontier Psychiatrists.
In solidarity, I make a difficult choice
My Fellow Americans,
Owen Scott Muir, M.D., DFAACAP.
July 21, 2024
Over the past two years, we have made great progress as readers of sometimes-satirical newsletters about health-related topics published on a daily cadence.
Today, The Frontier Psychiatrists has the strongest readership in the tiny market of daily health-themed sort-of-funny health-themed newsletters. We've made historic investments in rebuilding our ability to read things daily, in complaining about problems related to lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and, despite my best efforts, expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans is not what is happening. However, we—that is, the royal we—have complained about the above topics relentlessly and on a daily basis.
We've provided critically needed humor to 80,000 readers a month exposed to toxic anti-psychiatry and pro-Optum ideas. We looked on as the federal government passed the first gun safety law in 30 years; gun violence still became the leading cause of death in children. Our readers enjoyed humorous writing, even as we skewered the first African American man appointed to the Supreme Court. And wrote the most significant articles making fun of Optum in the history of the world. Readers have never been better positioned to laugh and, at the same time, cry than we are today.
I know none of this could have been done without you, the readers of the Frontier Psychiatrists Newsletter. Together, we overcame a once-in-a-century Change Healthcare Cyber Attack and the worst mental health crisis since the Great Depression. We've protected and preserved our daily readership. And we've revitalized and strengthened our podcasts and videos around the internet.
It has been the greatest honor of my life, to serve as your author. And while it has been my intention to seek daily-cadence publication, I believe it is in the best interest of my readers and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as Editor of this newsletter for the remainder of this article.
I will speak to my readers later this week in more detail about my decision and the cadence at which this newsletter will continue.
For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to read my writing daily. I want to thank
for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to my readers for the faith and trust you have placed in me.I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing we can’t read when we do it together. We just have to remember we are readers of comedic and serious health-themed newsletters, and our dedication to leaving Open Comments during periods as requested by regulators will remain robust.
Please don’t ever leave. The world needs you.!
I was delighted to see the new frequency pledge broken in 39 minutes -- as all pledges must be, but rarely so quickly. Yet I applaud it after working on daily newspapers off and on for 20 years. It grinds you down, Dr. Muir, it's a young man's game. And does not benefit loyal readers depending on you for another 20 years. Be well.