🔥 WE BROKE THE INTERNET... WELL, SUBSTACK AT LEAST! 🔥

How a 12-Hour Marathon Livestream Smashed Records, Engaged Substack And Reminded Me: Always AMPLIFY GOOD

🎉 We Came. We Streamed. We Shattered Records.

Friends,

I’m still trying to process what we did on Tuesday, and I’m still recovering from the caffeine crash—but WOW. I wanted to write this yesterday, but lacked lucidity. I was so wired I couldn’t even get the sleep I so obviously needed Tuesday night. Though, taking a day to think about it wasn’t the worst idea either.

Before diving into the details, I want to address something important. We know inboxes can get crowded, and the last thing we want is to spam you. But we couldn’t wait to share this update with you. Please bear with us as we figure out the best way to keep you informed without overwhelming your inbox.

Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled program. And what just hit me: We didn’t just break a Substack record. We smashed it into tiny little pieces. Like Trump likely did to his old desk after Elon’s 17th son wiped his snot on it. Seriously, I try to be humble, so I apologize. I promise I won’t say we’re the “biggest” or “most beautiful.” But I’m damn proud of what Team Blue Amp did.

82,000 viewers for our 12-hr livestream—that’s more than double Substack’s previous record. That’s crazy! Bananas. I don’t even know how we did it. We’re talking about moving the needle for a whole platform in a single day. It’s... honestly, kind of surreal.

🌟 An All-Star Lineup You’d Have to See to Believe

This wasn’t just a livestream—it was a 12-hour festival of democracy, truth and damn good conversation. We told stories. We’ll always tell stories, because they’re what make people so damn interesting. And that’s certainly true of the insanely talented guests who joined the livestream. We’re working as fast as we can to edit the stream and provide the video for everyone to take a look. So, I don’t know how we pulled it off, but there’s no doubt without that ‘27 Yankees lineup, we don’t get 82,000 viewers!

We had:

• A bona fide rock star—yep, the kind who fills arenas. My pal Phil Collen. Who grabbed his axe and played Foolin,’ Hysteria & Pour Some Sugar On Me.

• The biggest Substack star on the planet: Heather Cox Richardson, who we got to do her first-ever Substack livestream. Heather! On live video! On Substack! That’s like getting Springsteen to do karaoke night.

• Emmy-award-winning former MSNBC & CNN Anchor, David Shuster, a new contributor here at Blue Amp and my Youtube channel, Cliff’s Edge.

They all deserve to be named, because they’re flat-out stars! THANK YOU: Matt Robison, Malcolm Nance, Tim Fullerton, Mehdi Hasan, Aaron Rupar, Jonathan Larsen, Fred Wellman, Brian Karem, Hal Sparks, Bill Corbett, Tony Michaels, Stephanie Miller, Cheri Jacobus, Matt McNeil, Philip Ittner & Greg Olear.

A group that includes:

• Top comedians who kept us laughing when the coffee stopped working.

• Brilliant actors and writers dropping truth bombs with style.

• Outstanding journalists/novelists, who’ve chronicled crazy that few of us could

• Incredible consultants of the political and/or digital variety

• Pundits/streamers/talkers: Because who would talk if it were only me?

• National security experts/veterans who reminded us what’s at stake.

• A war correspondent reporting live from Ukraine—because, yes, we were literally bringing the world to your screen.

Seriously, how do we top this? Skydiving into the next stream? I’m not ruling it out…

🚀 Changing the Game—Together

This wasn’t just a victory for our team—it was a victory for all of you. Every single person who tuned in, shared the link, who was still there the 11th hour when I put a Yankees hat on sideways b/c I approached delirium. All with us while we debated democracy and dunked on billionaires from Trumpistan—You made this possible.

We didn’t do this to break records (I would’ve been pleased with 10% of the turnout we got). We did it because we believe independent voices, inspiring stories, real conversations and truth-driven reporting matter. Once again, Amplify Good!

And the fact that 82,000 of you showed up proves there’s a hunger for it.

💬 Where Do We Go From Here?

We’ve set the bar high. Like, Olympic-pole-vault high. But here’s the thing—we’re not stopping. Not now. We’ve shown what’s possible when a community like ours comes together. So:

• More livestreams with fantastic guests (but..I’m catching up on sleep first).

• A multi-media news platform—Blue Amp—that’s authentic, truth-telling and inspiring.

• Features, including columns and videos by new contributors (like David Shuster, our first guest on Tuesday, an Emmy-Award winning news anchor!), columns and videos by…me. And others who shall be named…oh, yes, there shall be more (you say you like comedy? Photography? Sports? Music?).

• More breaking the mold of what media can be—we’ve only scratched the surface.

Because, together? We’re not just watching history. We’re making it.

Thank you for being part of this incredible ride. Let’s keep breaking records, shaking things up and fighting for the future we believe in—and deserve. We’re putting this together on the fly, but we’ll get up to speed quickly. For now…I think I’ll take a nap.

Onward. Upward. And always loud.

— Cliff

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VIDEO ON DEMAND! A Bonus video from our new contributor, David Shuster. Enjoy!