Paul McClure
@pdm1972.bsky.social
Melbourne, Australia | Journalist & storyteller | Dog lover | Book reader | Coffee enthusiast | Neurodivergent | LGBTQIA+ | He/They
Reposted by Paul McClure
The idea of ‘saving’ daylight time goes against indigenous wisdom about nature – and reflects how capitalism separates humans from nature
buff.ly/4ju2Gxg #FallBack
buff.ly/4ju2Gxg #FallBack
An Indigenous approach shows how changing the clocks for daylight saving time runs counter to human nature – and nature itself
While the rest of nature rises and slumbers to lunar and solar cycles, humans work and sleep to the resetting of their artificial clocks.
theconversation.com
November 2, 2025 at 7:00 AM
The idea of ‘saving’ daylight time goes against indigenous wisdom about nature – and reflects how capitalism separates humans from nature
buff.ly/4ju2Gxg #FallBack
buff.ly/4ju2Gxg #FallBack
Shout-out to my fellow queer Australian writers:
Queer Writers Queensland is hosting its Queer Writers Festival as part of this year's Sunshine Coast Pride Network Pride Festival (22-23 November) and Fair Day (15 November).
Get your tickets here: www.queerwritersqld.com
Queer Writers Queensland is hosting its Queer Writers Festival as part of this year's Sunshine Coast Pride Network Pride Festival (22-23 November) and Fair Day (15 November).
Get your tickets here: www.queerwritersqld.com
Home | Queer Writers Queensland
www.queerwritersqld.com
October 21, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Shout-out to my fellow queer Australian writers:
Queer Writers Queensland is hosting its Queer Writers Festival as part of this year's Sunshine Coast Pride Network Pride Festival (22-23 November) and Fair Day (15 November).
Get your tickets here: www.queerwritersqld.com
Queer Writers Queensland is hosting its Queer Writers Festival as part of this year's Sunshine Coast Pride Network Pride Festival (22-23 November) and Fair Day (15 November).
Get your tickets here: www.queerwritersqld.com
CW: suicide, childhood abuse.
Almost half of first-year uni students report suicidal thoughts. Childhood trauma, mental illness, and LGBTQIA+ identity are driving a global crisis. It's clear that prevention must start long before students reach campus.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Almost half of first-year uni students report suicidal thoughts. Childhood trauma, mental illness, and LGBTQIA+ identity are driving a global crisis. It's clear that prevention must start long before students reach campus.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Nearly half of uni students have considered suicide, global study finds
Childhood trauma and LGBTQIA+ identity among the strongest risk factors
open.substack.com
September 14, 2025 at 12:11 AM
CW: suicide, childhood abuse.
Almost half of first-year uni students report suicidal thoughts. Childhood trauma, mental illness, and LGBTQIA+ identity are driving a global crisis. It's clear that prevention must start long before students reach campus.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Almost half of first-year uni students report suicidal thoughts. Childhood trauma, mental illness, and LGBTQIA+ identity are driving a global crisis. It's clear that prevention must start long before students reach campus.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
How do we write about public figures who die violently? As a journalist, I believe in transparency. This Mother Jones article does a good job of refusing to erase the harm Charlie Kirk caused while still reporting his death accurately.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
No, Charlie Kirk was not practicing politics the right way
His assassination deserves full condemnation; his full impact should not be sidestepped.
www.motherjones.com
September 11, 2025 at 11:15 PM
How do we write about public figures who die violently? As a journalist, I believe in transparency. This Mother Jones article does a good job of refusing to erase the harm Charlie Kirk caused while still reporting his death accurately.
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic carries a hidden risk that isn’t being talked about enough: unplanned pregnancies.
This piece is free to read because I believe journalism like this should be available to everyone.
Would love to know what you think.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
This piece is free to read because I believe journalism like this should be available to everyone.
Would love to know what you think.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Weight-loss drugs, pregnancy risks
The quiet gap in women’s health care
open.substack.com
September 11, 2025 at 6:09 AM
The rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic carries a hidden risk that isn’t being talked about enough: unplanned pregnancies.
This piece is free to read because I believe journalism like this should be available to everyone.
Would love to know what you think.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
This piece is free to read because I believe journalism like this should be available to everyone.
Would love to know what you think.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Ever stumble across an old story and go, “Wait… this is ridiculous. I love it”? Meet Sharon. She files her nails while talking aspiring bank robbers out of poor life choices.
Enjoy. And maybe avoid Tuesdays.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Enjoy. And maybe avoid Tuesdays.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Tuesday is the worst day.
An absurdist microfiction about bad timing, worse decisions, and a deeply unbothered call centre worker named Sharon.
open.substack.com
July 19, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Ever stumble across an old story and go, “Wait… this is ridiculous. I love it”? Meet Sharon. She files her nails while talking aspiring bank robbers out of poor life choices.
Enjoy. And maybe avoid Tuesdays.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Enjoy. And maybe avoid Tuesdays.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Spoiler alert: The school bully grew up, got divorced, and lost the curls. I grew up, too, and finally told him what fifteen-year-old me couldn’t.
A short story about power, queerness, and closure. 🎈
Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoy my work.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
A short story about power, queerness, and closure. 🎈
Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoy my work.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
No Surprises. You're Still An Arsehole.
A story of queer reckoning.
open.substack.com
June 9, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Spoiler alert: The school bully grew up, got divorced, and lost the curls. I grew up, too, and finally told him what fifteen-year-old me couldn’t.
A short story about power, queerness, and closure. 🎈
Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoy my work.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
A short story about power, queerness, and closure. 🎈
Don't forget to subscribe if you enjoy my work.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
I just published a sestina I wrote back in uni and reworked recently. It’s called Night, My Love, and it’s about finding shelter in darkness, and how the night sometimes feels safer than the day. It’s a love letter to sleep, solitude, and the sweet sigh of escape.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Night, My Love
A sestina
open.substack.com
June 6, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I just published a sestina I wrote back in uni and reworked recently. It’s called Night, My Love, and it’s about finding shelter in darkness, and how the night sometimes feels safer than the day. It’s a love letter to sleep, solitude, and the sweet sigh of escape.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Reposted by Paul McClure
Happy Fragile Straight Man Month!
June 4, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Happy Fragile Straight Man Month!
Reposted by Paul McClure
Bravo, young man! www.comicsands.com/autistic-boy...
Autistic 4th Grader Goes Viral For Powerful Rebuke To RFK Jr.: 'I'm Not Broken'
Beautifully stated, young man!
www.comicsands.com
May 5, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Bravo, young man! www.comicsands.com/autistic-boy...
A dream, a memory, a reckoning.
This piece began as a writing prompt and became a surreal conversation with my father.
It’s fiction, but it isn’t.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
This piece began as a writing prompt and became a surreal conversation with my father.
It’s fiction, but it isn’t.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
When did you die? Just yesterday.
A dream, a memory, a reckoning.
open.substack.com
May 4, 2025 at 8:28 AM
A dream, a memory, a reckoning.
This piece began as a writing prompt and became a surreal conversation with my father.
It’s fiction, but it isn’t.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
This piece began as a writing prompt and became a surreal conversation with my father.
It’s fiction, but it isn’t.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Sometimes anger has nothing to do with jam jars.
Here’s a flash fiction piece about impatience, ageing, and the quiet violence that lives in everyday moments.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Here’s a flash fiction piece about impatience, ageing, and the quiet violence that lives in everyday moments.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Loosened it for you
Sometimes anger has nothing to do with jam jars.
open.substack.com
May 4, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Sometimes anger has nothing to do with jam jars.
Here’s a flash fiction piece about impatience, ageing, and the quiet violence that lives in everyday moments.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Here’s a flash fiction piece about impatience, ageing, and the quiet violence that lives in everyday moments.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Reposted by Paul McClure
i keep thinking about this
April 10, 2025 at 2:23 PM
i keep thinking about this
Reposted by Paul McClure
Autism didn’t make them do it. Mental illness didn’t, either. This personal piece from The Big Picture cuts through the excuses and names the real issue: some people are just hateful, and we need to stop giving them cover.
Neither Neurodivergence Nor Mental Illness Made Them Bigots—They're Just Awful People
It's hard to admit your heroes are jerks, but the mentally ill and neurodivergent shouldn't be collateral damage.
thinkbigpicture.substack.com
April 10, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Autism didn’t make them do it. Mental illness didn’t, either. This personal piece from The Big Picture cuts through the excuses and names the real issue: some people are just hateful, and we need to stop giving them cover.
Reposted by Paul McClure
A Supreme Court decision on deportations gave both the Trump administration and the #ACLU reason to claim victory. But legal scholars say it marked a setback for the rights of noncitizens in the United States: buff.ly/6JMVnG4 @rhamlin.bsky.social and Paul M. Collins Jr. @umassamherst.bsky.social
Supreme Court’s decision on deportations gave both the Trump administration and ACLU reasons to claim a victory − but noncitizens clearly lost
Can both sides legitimately say they won a Supreme Court victory?
buff.ly
April 10, 2025 at 10:27 PM
A Supreme Court decision on deportations gave both the Trump administration and the #ACLU reason to claim victory. But legal scholars say it marked a setback for the rights of noncitizens in the United States: buff.ly/6JMVnG4 @rhamlin.bsky.social and Paul M. Collins Jr. @umassamherst.bsky.social
The only drilling I want to see.
(If you don't know what the image is referring to, watch the movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest')
(If you don't know what the image is referring to, watch the movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest')
April 9, 2025 at 1:27 AM
The only drilling I want to see.
(If you don't know what the image is referring to, watch the movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest')
(If you don't know what the image is referring to, watch the movie 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest')
✨ New Substack post: Rounded With Sleep
✏️ Dreams, deadlines, and the Brownies in my brain
Read now and let me know: do your best ideas show up when you're unconscious, shampooing, or slightly unhinged?
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
✏️ Dreams, deadlines, and the Brownies in my brain
Read now and let me know: do your best ideas show up when you're unconscious, shampooing, or slightly unhinged?
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Rounded with sleep
Dreams, deadlines, and the Brownies in my brain
open.substack.com
April 5, 2025 at 1:42 AM
✨ New Substack post: Rounded With Sleep
✏️ Dreams, deadlines, and the Brownies in my brain
Read now and let me know: do your best ideas show up when you're unconscious, shampooing, or slightly unhinged?
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
✏️ Dreams, deadlines, and the Brownies in my brain
Read now and let me know: do your best ideas show up when you're unconscious, shampooing, or slightly unhinged?
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
We were just starting to understand each other—then he was gone. The final poem in the series is now live: '25 / September'.
This one’s for my dad.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
This one’s for my dad.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
25 / September
The sixth and final instalment in my poetry sequence tracing the moments that shaped my queer identity.
open.substack.com
March 26, 2025 at 10:16 PM
We were just starting to understand each other—then he was gone. The final poem in the series is now live: '25 / September'.
This one’s for my dad.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
This one’s for my dad.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Just published the second-last poem in my queer coming-of-age series. It’s about leaving the small town, finding my people, and discovering joy for the first time in a pulsing, sweaty, euphoric club.
It’s called '22 / Home'.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
It’s called '22 / Home'.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
22 / Home
The fourth instalment in a six-part poetry sequence tracing the moments that shaped my queer identity.
open.substack.com
March 24, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Just published the second-last poem in my queer coming-of-age series. It’s about leaving the small town, finding my people, and discovering joy for the first time in a pulsing, sweaty, euphoric club.
It’s called '22 / Home'.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
It’s called '22 / Home'.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
Sharing poems, stories, and reflections on Story & Truth. If you like what I do, consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack—it helps keep the words flowing.
💙 storyandtruth.substack.com
…because indie writing deserves better than billionaire tantrum platforms and algorithmic thirst traps. 😏
💙 storyandtruth.substack.com
…because indie writing deserves better than billionaire tantrum platforms and algorithmic thirst traps. 😏
Paul McClure | Story & Truth | Substack
Melbourne-based journalist and storyteller. Lover of short stories and creative non-fiction. Poetry dabbler. Queer, neurodivergent, and navigating life one word at a time. Proudly sober. Dachshund dad...
storyandtruth.substack.com
March 22, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Sharing poems, stories, and reflections on Story & Truth. If you like what I do, consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack—it helps keep the words flowing.
💙 storyandtruth.substack.com
…because indie writing deserves better than billionaire tantrum platforms and algorithmic thirst traps. 😏
💙 storyandtruth.substack.com
…because indie writing deserves better than billionaire tantrum platforms and algorithmic thirst traps. 😏
At 18, I stumbled into truth twice—once in the back seat of a car and once in my mother’s quiet, cutting question.
My latest poem is about instinct, fear, and the moment everything changed.
Read it now.
And if you like what you read, don't forget to subscribe!
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
My latest poem is about instinct, fear, and the moment everything changed.
Read it now.
And if you like what you read, don't forget to subscribe!
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
18 / Truth
The fourth poem in a six-part sequence tracing the moments that shaped my queer identity.
open.substack.com
March 21, 2025 at 1:06 AM
At 18, I stumbled into truth twice—once in the back seat of a car and once in my mother’s quiet, cutting question.
My latest poem is about instinct, fear, and the moment everything changed.
Read it now.
And if you like what you read, don't forget to subscribe!
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
My latest poem is about instinct, fear, and the moment everything changed.
Read it now.
And if you like what you read, don't forget to subscribe!
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
17 was the year I learned how to blend in. Or at least, I tried. But no matter how much I performed, how much I masked, they still saw me for what I was. And eventually, so did I.
New poem up now.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
New poem up now.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
17 / Performance
The third in a six-part poetry sequence tracing the moments that shaped my queer identity.
open.substack.com
March 18, 2025 at 12:28 AM
17 was the year I learned how to blend in. Or at least, I tried. But no matter how much I performed, how much I masked, they still saw me for what I was. And eventually, so did I.
New poem up now.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...
New poem up now.
open.substack.com/pub/storyand...