Ask Us Anything: Should You Boycott Airbnb? How Do You Stop "Autorenew" on a Substack Paid Subscription? Can You Travel With IBS?
Plus, how Does the Schengen Zone Work? Do you worry about foreign ambulances?
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One of the co-founders of Airbnb is working with Elon Musk's DOGE team. Do you agree Airbnb should be boycotted? — H
A lot of people have sent us messages like this. As a result, I did what I always do on issues like this: I researched it.
Based on my research, I don’t think we should boycott Airbnb — at least not for this particular issue.
Yes, one of Airbnb's three co-founders, Joseph Gebbia, joined DOGE and is now apparently a Trump supporter. In 2016 and 2020, he supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, respectively, before somehow getting sucked into RFK Jr.’s orbit, which later led him to Trump.
Let me be clear: I think Gebbia is wrong and doing real harm to the world.
But there's also more to the story, both about Gebbia and about Airbnb.
First, Gebbia has been generous with his fortune, often donating to liberal causes: $25 million to the Ocean Clean-Up, which is working to clean up the world's oceans, especially the Pacific Garbage Patch, and another $25 million to the Malala Fund, which promotes education for African girls in refugee camps.
As for Airbnb itself, the current CEO (and another cofounder) is Brian Chesky, an open liberal. In terms of contributions, he’s number 20 on the list of America’s 50 most prolific philanthropists. He’s also pledged to give away most of his fortune.
Then there is the matter of Airbnb's hosts. Airbnb currently has five million of them — three million outside the United States.
These “hosts” do include large corporations (which we always try to avoid), but they also include many local individuals, especially in other countries. And — fun fact — 55% of these hosts are women, often earning extra money for their families.
A lot of these hosts are also now our friends.
A widespread boycott of Airbnb might hurt Gebbia a little, but it would hurt a lot of folks I don’t want to hurt even more.
There may be other good reasons to boycott Airbnb, but so far, I haven’t seen any that are compelling enough for us to do so.
— Michael
How do you turn off “autorenew” on paid subscriptions to your newsletter (and all Substack newsletters)? — Various Readers
First, we want to express our gratitude for the financial support of our “paid” and “founding” subscribers. You are literally the reason we’re able to do what we do, and we’re humbled and flattered that you’ve put your faith in us.
We also want to say that we generally like Substack as a platform. We think last year’s “Nazi” controversy was wildly overblown, bordering on a moral panic. Harassment and personal attacks are one thing, and extremism is a serious online problem. But so are groupthink and ideological conformity. And what of biting satire?
The fact is, moderating the expression of specific ideas online is always going to be a challenge. Who decides what to censor?
I guess this is the week we lean into controversy, huh?
Anyway, there is one thing we don’t like about Substack — but weirdly, we never hear it talked about:
They don’t make it easy enough to cancel the autorenew on a paid subscription.
In private, they’re even fairly upfront about why they do this: they want as many people as possible to keep paying, even if it’s sometimes by accident.
And in fairness to Substack, this is how virtually all online media subscriptions work in 2025.
But we just finished saying how much we love and appreciate our paid subscribers, and we don’t think Substack’s current policy is right. We want people to continue paying for a subscription because they want to — not because they were tricked into it.
By the way, here’s another way we’re different from most media outlets — including many other Substack newsletters: if you have an annual subscription with us, your rate will never rise.
Other media outlets often try to sneak in a jacked-up rate on their longtime subscribers, hoping they won’t notice. But with us, you will always pay the initial amount you paid for as long as you continue to subscribe.
We also want to make it crystal clear to paid subscribers how to turn off that autorenew if they want — even if it costs us money.
When you sign up for a “paid” or “founding” subscription to any Substack newsletter, the default setting is that the subscription will “autorenew” at the end of your subscription period — either another month or another year.
This is fair, I guess. It’s well-disclosed.
Then, six days before a Substack paid subscription autorenews, you receive an email saying it’s about to renew automatically, and you then have the option to cancel and not pay for another month or year.
This is good too. Transparency is important.
Unfortunately, there is no simple way to turn the autorenew off — no box to uncheck. We’re unhappy that Substack does not offer this option, and we’ve told them so — pointedly — many times; we’re trying hard to get this feature added.
One way to do it is just to contact us, asking us to turn off auto-renew for you: email me at brenthartinger@gmail.com or text at: +1 (253) 459-3581 (but be sure to include your email address).
The other way to turn off autorenew is to cancel your subscription. But you’re not canceling your current subscription; you’re just “turning off” the autorenew. You’ll have access to all paid content for the remainder of your subscription period, even if you cancel immediately after subscribing.
And whenever you do cancel a paid subscription, at the end of your subscription period, you will automatically convert to a “free” subscriber. At that point, you will have the option of paying again — and we certainly hope you will.
Needless to say, this is too confusing, which is why we’re frustrated with Substack’s status quo.
Anyway, this link has full instructions on how to cancel your subscription.
Also, if you’re unhappy with your paid subscription at any point and want to cancel and receive a refund for the rest of your subscription period, please contact us, and we’ll make that happen, too.
(A couple of folks have “disputed” charges with their credit card, which frustrates us, because this costs us a lot of money in bank fees, and as I said, we’re happy to make the refund, for any reason at all, and we can make it happen a lot faster than a credit card dispute; we want our paid subscribers to be the happiest of all our readers!)
For this or any other questions, again, contact us at:
Brent at brenthartinger@gmail.com or (253) 459-3581
Michael at michaeljensenwriter@gmail.com
— Brent
My husband and I RV around the U.S. in the summer and enjoy it very much. But I have IBS — irritable bowel syndrome. I have gluten, dairy, and garlic sensitivities. I can ferret out fairly safe meals in most US restaurants, but I’m not confident about doing that in countries where I don’t know the language. I know Brent has IBS too. Any advice? — Kathy
Yes, Kathy, as a person with IBS, I definitely feel your pain.
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