MATTHEW H. NEWELL

Matthew H. Newell

“I am a writer working at the intersection of culture, politics, history, and interior reflection. I was the founder of modpol.com, one of the first digital publications to seriously braid politics and pop culture, helping shape a style of writing that treated cultural artifacts as civic evidence. My work favors long arcs and human-scale insight, moving deliberately through ideas rather than racing to conclusions.

Over the past decade, I have published more than a dozen digital books through Amazon KDP, ranging from cultural criticism to hybrid nonfiction that resists tidy genre labels. My essays and longer works draw on music, technology, global history, and Midwestern daily life, often circling questions of power, memory, and meaning. I also write on Substack at matthewhnewell, where my ongoing essays extend this same exploratory, reflective approach in serialized form.

I am currently completing a forthcoming hardback book, Enter the 37th Chamber, an ambitious project that weaves personal memory with geopolitical and cultural history. I live in Bloomington, Illinois, where I write and raise my daughter, grounded in the Midwest while keeping one eye trained on the wider world.”

WRITTEN WORKS

  • "Freedom" by Marilyn Binder Silverman, all rights reserved.

    “OPIUM” HIP-HOP IS THIRD WAVE PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC (PART 1)

    PUBLISHED Feb 20, 2026

    Artwork: “Freedom” by Marilyn Binder Silverman, all rights reserved.

    This accompanying artwork is the original, protected, and sole property of artist Marilyn Binder Silverman and held under copyright. Marilyn Binder Silverman’s images, artwork, and content on this website and her website may not be copied, collected, or used for personal or professional gain without written authorization from her.


    I didn’t understand kinetic energy until I stood in a stadium with 70,000 Playboi Carti fans and felt the floor shake when ‘Evil Jordan’ detonated. The spectacle wasn’t just entertainment; it was a controlled dissociation ritual built for an anxious generation raised on screens and, for many, SSRIs. Across the past 60 years, you can see three eras where drugs, music, and youth culture fused into one nervous system…

  • STAX IN LOVING MEMORY STEVE CROPPER

    SIX STRINGS AND AN HONEST HAND: STEVE CROPPER

    PUBLISHED Jan 9, 2026

    Steve Cropper’s passing feels like someone dimming a light that has been on so long we forgot how much it guided us.