Blog Directory

A great way to learn about other people's perspectives.

Sharing Expertise

We often hear of the importance of “expertise.” Sometimes we forget that there are many ways to be an expert. The people listed below share their expertise about nicotine via their blogs. I did not tuck them into boxes of types of experts, because all kinds are essential. Instead, I’ll list them in reverse alphabetical order. This list is not about “pro” or “con,” it is about the many voices who are sharing their knowledge, perspectives, and input into the conversation about the use of nicotine.

These are blogs belonging to individuals, not institutions, organizations, commercial entities, regulators, or political parties (except for a few featuring guest authors). Some of the authors write primarily about nicotine, and some write occasionally on the topic.

I’m sure there are several blogs I have missed. If you’d like to suggest a blog, please see the “Help Wanted” section below.

“A blank page is also a door — it contains infinity, like a night sky with a supermoon really close to the Earth, with all the stars and the galaxies, where you can see very, very clearly…” ~ David Mitchell

Writes mostly about nicotine:

• Yach, Derek - Derek's Substack.

• Tyndall, Mark - Dr. Mark Tyndall.

• Teixeira, Claudio - Disobedient Margins.

• Sussman, Roberto - Roberto's Substack.

• Snowdon, Christopher - Velvet Glove, Iron Fist.

• Siegel, Michael - The Rest of the Story: Tobacco and Alcohol News Analysis and Commentary.

• Shapiro, Harry - Harry's Blog.

• Selya, Arielle - Selya Behavioral Science Substack.

• Rodu, Brad - Tobacco Truth.

• Redei, Kristof - More Good Less Harm.

• Pruen, Richard - Richard.

• Phillips, Carl V - Carl V Phillips's epistemic musings.

  • Phillips, Carl V - Tobacco harm reduction, anti-THR lies, and related topics. (Last Post: October 2020)

• Oyston, John - Dr. John's Blog.

• Norcia, Alex - No Smoking Section. (Last post was in 2021)

• Murray, Skip - Skip’s Corner, a Safe Place to Talk About Hard Things.

• Murillo, Joe - Policy & Progress in Tobacco Harm Reduction.

• Muchow, John - Mooch (Battery Mooch). (Recent testing posts are on Facebook.)

• Mitchell, Heneage - Heneage Mitchell.

• Mendelsohn, Colin - Tobacco Treatment.

• Lucian, Alexandro - Vapor Aqui.

• Jackie - Jackie's Substack. (Coming soon!)

• Gunther, Marc - The Great Vape Debate.

• Gor, Alan - Alan Gor

• Glantz, Stan - Stanton Glantz Blog.

• Gitchell, Joe - Joe Gitchell

• Gibson, Rick - Tell the truth! Who's been fooling who?

• Garay, Ivan - Ivan Garay THR

• Farsalinos, Konstantinos - E-Cigarette Research.

• Etter, Jean-François - Nicotine, tobacco and smoking cessation.

• Cullip, Martin - Dick Puddlecote. (Last post in 2023)

• Crowley, Kevin - Vaping Links and More

• Chapman, Simon - Simon Chapman AO ~ Public health, memoirs, music.

• Bates, Clive - The Counterfactual and Clive Bates on Substack.

• Anselm, Edward - Edward Anselm, MD - Public Health Advocate.

"Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers." ~ Isaac Asimov

Writes on a variety of topics, sometimes on nicotine:

• Zaruk, David - David’s Substack (Firebreak Editor)

• Grier, Jacob - Liquidity Preference.

• Gage, Suzi - Sifting the Evidence - the relaunch!

• Deighan, James - Thought Smoke.

• Clark, Simon - Taking Liberties.

  • Clark, Simon - Taking Liberties. (Old blog location, moved to new location June 26, 2025.)

“You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Blogs that featured nicotine as a special topic:

• Those Nerdy Girls

  • Reilly, Megan - Is vaping better for me than smoking cigarettes? and What are the nicotine vaping trends among young people?

• Sensible Medicine

  • Satel, Sally: Canceled by Medscape, Vaping: The Great Innovation Public Health Failed to Embrace - Part one: Health Facts and Falsehoods: The Counter Narrative and Part two: Why Public Health Has Been Opposed.

  • Rodu, Brad - Six Urban Myths About Smoke-Free Nicotine and Defining the Risk of Oral Tobacco Products.

• Bowman, Sam - We get it, you did a blog about vaping. (2017)

“To name something truly is to lay bare what may be brutal or corrupt (or important or possible) and key to the work of changing the world is changing the story” ~ Rebecca Solnit

Help Wanted:

• Please send suggestions to add to the blogger list to mnsmokefree(at)gmail(dot)com. Subject: Blog Directory.

“I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.” ~ Joan Didion

List of updates to this post:

• Aug 9, 2025 - Edward Anselm

• Aug 10, 2025 - Alexandro Lucian

• Aug 13, 2025 - James Deighan

• Aug 16, 2025 - Kristof Redei

• Aug 22, 2025 - Heneage Mitchell

• Sep 20, 2025 - Derek Yach

• Oct 13, 2025 - David Zaruk

• Dec 25, 2025 - Alan Gor, Kevin Crowley, and Joe Gitchell

• Jan 6, 2026 - Ivan Garay

• Jan 9, 2026 - Dr. Mark Tyndall

• Jan 11, 2026 - Clive Bates Substack

• Jan 16, 2026 - Rick Gibson

“Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.” ~ Andrew Sullivan

Notes:

• I create these newsletters as a personal project. They are not affiliated with any current or past employers or groups with which I volunteer. I receive no financial compensation for my efforts to create these newsletters. Thank you to those who have offered to fund this project and compensate me for my time. Skip’s Corner is my gift to people who are interested in nicotine. Community service is important to me. Volunteering is something I have done since I was a child.

• My blog, Skip's Corner, has an X/Twitter account.

• My personal accounts are on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter).

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you” ~ Maya Angelou

Until next time…