Welcome to Big Salad
Hi! I’m excited to welcome you to Big Salad, a weekly newsletter packed with great finds, life advice, and dating gossip. I’m Joanna Goddard, founder and editor of Cup of Jo, the women’s lifestyle site based in Brooklyn. If you enjoy Cup of Jo, you’ll love Big Salad.
What is Big Salad?
Big Salad is a weekly newsletter with great finds, life advice, and dating gossip from Joanna Goddard and the Cup of Jo team. The newsletter features 100% original content, while bringing our same warm, welcoming approach and curiosity about the world.
Every Friday, paid subscribers get a fun new issue (while free subscribers receive one monthly email). Each weekly issue features a fun person — think: comedians, actors, designers, chefs, writers — sharing their favorite things, plus brilliant life advice and a buzzy link round-up. We kicked things off with pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz, pop-culture obsessive Hunter Harris, and fashion writer Becky Malinsky. Their quotes are funny and their recommendations are so, so, so, so good. (We made their issues free for everyone, if you’d like to read.)
The fourth email each month — reserved for paid subscribers — will get more personal. While I’ve always shared my life openly on Cup of Jo (like my everyday makeup, postpartum depression, my marriage ending, and and our house tour), the Internet at large feels a little too public and google-able to write vulnerably about my dating journey as I begin this new chapter. But I want to talk about it! And revel in the awkwardness! And hear your sweet/funny/surprising stories! So, Substack — with a space just for subscribers — seemed like a great way to foster a more intimate community for chatting about personal things, similar to a group text. Like, what are people wearing on first dates these days? And the other night I spotted a guy kissing his girlfriend with his hands on his hips, and it made me laugh — is this a new move we should all be trying?
To recap, if you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll get a new issue every Friday, featuring fun people talking about their favorite finds, as well as my juicy/heartfelt dating recaps. If you’re a free subscriber, you’ll get one monthly email with lots of bits and bobs. Feel free to choose whichever one feels right to you.
Overall, Big Salad is for thoughtful, warmhearted people who love discovering the surprises and delights, big and small, that make life meaningful. As Olive Kitteridge said, “There’s no such thing as a simple life.” We’re happy you’re here.
Love, Joannaxo