IMPORTANT UPDATE: Pelican+ Partners with Substack in Multi-Outlet Model

Tradition & Sanity will now be available for subscribers in both places

Dear Readers of Tradition & Sanity,

I wish one and all a very blessed Easter!

Almost exactly 3 years ago—on April 13, 2023, to be precise—I started up this Substack with a post called “Why Here, and Why Now?” The enterprise grew slowly but surely until it reached its maximum readership this past fall, ranking in the top 25 in the Faith & Spirituality category of Substack.

When I joined Pelican+ as a co-founder and helped launch it in October 7, a good number of readers migrated over there with me, as I had invited them to do: it had become my new base of operations, and, as of December 1, my articles were appearing in full only there.

However, as time passed, it became clear that some Substack readers were not planning to come over to Pelican+, or perhaps had not yet found the right time or incentive to do so. On the other hand, some of our most supportive Pelican+ subscribers still wanted to be able to read certain things at Substack or to share them with other Substack readers — and they also asked us for a way to watch the Pelican+ exclusive podcasts on their TVs. (More on that in a minute.)

Big news

We have listened to these desiderata and have come up with a brilliant solution. Let me lead with the most important aspect for devoted readers of Tradition & Sanity:

Starting today, Thursday, April 9, all of my articles, in addition to being published over at Pelican+, will also be published HERE on Substack, in full, behind a paywall. So, as long as you have taken out a subscription at one or the other place, you can read them at either.

But that’s not all. This is just a slice of a larger multi-pronged initiative we have just launched, called Pelican Passport.

I’ll let my colleague Dan Sevigny explain it (copying from his post over here on Easter Monday):

Your Passport Is Stamped — And So Is the Mission

Today, Pious Pelican Media launches something that has never existed before in Catholic media — and you, our Pelican+ community, are hearing about it first.

This morning we are introducing the Pelican Passport: a unified cross-publication access system that connects five Catholic Substack publications under a single credential, powered by infrastructure our team built from the ground up. No one in Catholic media has done this. No one in Catholic media can do this — because no one else united together and built what we built.

And here is what matters most to you, right now: your Passport has already been issued. Every Pelican+ Premium Member and every Founders Club member receives the Pelican Passport automatically, as part of your membership — giving you another way to consume the content you love and another way to share it with the Catholics in your life.

What the Passport Does — And Why We Built It

The Pelican Passport is simple from the outside: subscribe to any one of five PPM-owned Substack publications, and your subscription automatically unlocks all five. One decision. Five publications. No separate logins, no duplicate payment, no manual setup. The infrastructure handles everything within 24 hours.

What makes this possible is anything but simple. Our development team built proprietary infrastructure specifically for this purpose — connecting five independently operating publications into a single unified network, with automated daily access management that keeps every subscriber current without any manual intervention. When a new publication joins the network, every existing Passport holder benefits automatically.

This is proprietary infrastructure. It does not exist anywhere else. No other Catholic media organization has built it. Pious Pelican Media has — and what launched today is the result.

Now — About That TV App

We have heard you. Loudly, and often. “Can I watch the shows on my television?” The answer is yes. And as of today, that answer extends to everyone in the Pelican ecosystem.

Through the native Substack TV App, every Pelican+ member and every Passport subscriber can now watch all 14+ weekly Pious Pelican shows directly on their home television. Not on a laptop propped up on the kitchen counter. Not on a phone. On the television — where you actually want to watch.

No additional setup. No extra cost. No new platform to manage. It is already built into the Substack ecosystem you are now part of. Open the app, find your shows, press play.

This is a significant moment. We evaluated building our own television delivery infrastructure — the cost was tremendous. The Substack TV App delivers the same result, and what we saved goes directly back into the content you love.

Your shows. Your television. Starting today. (Subscribers will need a smart TV or adapter — Fire Stick, etc. — to access the Substack TV app.)

A Word on Big Tech — And Why It Will Never Own Us

We are using the Substack ecosystem strategically, and we want to be transparent about what that means.

Big Tech platforms have demonstrated, repeatedly, that they are willing to restrict, suppress, and remove voices they disagree with. This is not a hypothetical risk for Catholic, traditional media. It is a documented reality. We know this. We have planned for it.

The Passport ecosystem lives inside Substack. That means we benefit from Substack’s reach, its recommendation engine, its built-in tools for discovery and conversion — and we are grateful for every one of those advantages in service of the mission. But our content, our subscriber relationships, and our library are not owned by Substack. They are not owned by any third-party platform.

Pelican+ is our own. It is a proprietary platform — built, owned, and operated by Pious Pelican Media. Our full content library lives there. If anything changes on Substack, our content remains. If we are suppressed anywhere on social media, our members still receive everything through the app they paid for directly. No algorithm. No policy change. No platform decision can take that away.

We use Big Tech’s infrastructure where it serves the mission. We will never be held hostage by it.

Five Publications. One Passport. Already Yours.

Pious Pelican Media owns and operates five Substack publications. Three — Tradition & Sanity, Mere Tradition, and The Meaning of Catholic — are founding collaborator accounts, part of the Pious Pelican vision from the very beginning. Two launch today [Easter Monday]: The Pelican Brief (PelicanBrief.news) and PelicanStack (PelicanStack.com).

As a Pelican+ Premium Member, Founders Club member, or a paid subscriber to a Pelican Passport Publication, you now have complimentary access to all five. Within 24 hours of subscribing the first time, you’ll have access to:

• The Pelican Brief — daily Catholic news, multiple articles every day, and The Pelican Brief Daily (Monday through Friday)

• PelicanStack — all 14+ weekly Pious Pelican shows within the Substack ecosystem, plus The Pelican Brief Weekly — and all of it streamable on your television through the Substack TV App

• Tradition & Sanity — the incredible writings of Dr. Peter Kwasniewski and his friends

• Mere Tradition — Kennedy Hall’s take on faith and culture

• The Meaning of Catholic — exploring what it means to live the faith with Timothy Flanders

• With more Passport Partners coming soon.

You can manage exactly which publications send to your inbox — turn any of them on or off, set your notification preferences, and curate your own experience. No inbox overwhelm. Full control.

But Here Is What You Need to Understand

The Pelican Passport is a doorway. Pelican+ is the cathedral behind it.

The Substack ecosystem gives new readers and viewers a taste — real, substantive, high-quality content. But it is a taste. What you have as a Pelican+ member is something categorically different, and we want to make sure you know exactly what that means.

Martyrs & Miracle Men — our acclaimed audio dramas, produced at a level that rivals anything in secular media. Stories of the saints, told with craft and reverence. These live in Pelican+, and nowhere else.

The Complete Prayer App — built for the rhythm of Catholic life. Daily prayer, formation, and the tools to anchor your faith in the actual texture of your day. One of the most beloved features among our most engaged members.

Hours of Sacred Chant — a library of chant that fills a home, a commute, a quiet moment after the kids are in bed. Formation through beauty, available only at Pelican+.

Special Series — exclusive themed content created only for Pelican+ members. Not redistributed. Not previewed. Yours.

E-Books and Audiobooks — written and recorded formation resources you can take anywhere.

Documentaries — long-form visual storytelling on faith and culture, told with the care the subject deserves.

Live Events — access to every Pious Pelican in-person and virtual event.

Children’s Programming and Television Programming — coming soon, and coming to you first.

And there is more coming — very soon. Pelican University and Pelican Coaching are both launching later this month. Formation programs, courses, and coaching built for Catholics who are serious about growth. More details are on their way. Watch for them.

Coming This Month on Pelican+: The Complete Audio New Testament

One more thing — and this one has been quietly in the works.

This month, Pious Pelican Media is releasing the complete Audio New Testament, narrated by Kennedy Hall.

Every book. Every chapter. Fully recorded. Kennedy’s voice, his faith, and his reverence for the sacred text make this something genuinely different from anything currently available. This is not a performance. It is a proclamation — the Word of God, narrated by a man who lives it.

It is coming to Pelican+ this month. Stay close.

What This Is Really About

Let me be direct about the larger purpose here. The Pelican Passport is not a pivot. It is not a cost-cutting measure. It is not an experiment. It is a deliberate, strategic expansion of the Pious Pelican footprint — designed to bring our content in front of Tradition-loving Catholics around the world who haven’t found us yet.

There are Catholics on every continent who would love what we produce. They follow Catholic voices on Substack. They share content with friends and family across time zones. They are exactly who Pious Pelican Media was built to serve — and until now, many of them have never encountered us.

The Passport changes that. By publishing in the Substack ecosystem — a platform where Catholic readers already live, already search, and already share — we put the Pelican name in front of those readers at the moment of their greatest openness. They encounter a compelling article or video. They want more. The quality of what they find does what quality always does: it builds trust. It creates loyalty. And eventually, it brings them home to Pelican+.

This is how we grow. Not by diluting what we offer. Not by reducing our standards. But by going to where our people already are — giving them something genuinely excellent at a price they can say yes to — and walking them, gradually and graciously, toward the full experience.

The Substack ecosystem is the on-ramp. Pelican+ is the destination. And now, as a Passport holder, you have five more publications to put in front of every Tradition-loving Catholic you know.

Share them. The mission grows one reader at a time.

So, the above explains why you’ll start to see the following familiar button go up again — albeit with a new message:

Why Pelican+?

All that being said, I would like to reiterate a point Dan made above. While you’ll be able to read all the Tradition & Sanity articles simply by subscribing to this Substack (and you’ll gain access to the four other Substacks as part of the same subscription — what a fantastic deal!), nevertheless, the full-length podcasts, movies, specials, audiobooks, ebooks, chant recordings, and so forth are found only at Pelican+.

In short:

• If you take out a membership there, you’ll be issued a free “Pelican Passport,” giving you access to all the stuff we’re doing here on Substack — none of which is unique to Substack, and all of which is “at home” at Pelican+.

• Whereas, if you subscribe only in Substack, you won’t have access to all the Pelican+ content.

The two scenarios are not interchangeable!

You’ll get more bang for the buck if you sign up at Pelican+, because by doing so, you’ll have access not only to what is there (which includes vastly more than Tradition & Sanity), but ALSO you’ll get full access to my paywalled Substack posts — if you prefer to read them here.

I believe that Pelican+ offers something unique — a singular combination of personalities, features, prayers, recordings, music, documentaries, family-friendly programs, and more — that are not to be found on Substack.

We have brought together an impressive group of contributors and we continue to grow, with very exciting announcements about Pelican University soon to come.

Just to take one example: Pelican+ makes living according to the liturgical seasons and entering deeply into the Church’s year that much easier, with Gregorian chant, classic devotions, readings from famous works of saints, and moving dramatizations:

For this reason, I would definitely encourage you to check out Pelican+ if you haven’t already (and here’s a discount code for a membership).

That’s plenty of news for today. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write them in the comments here, or to contact me via my website; or you may write to our support at team@piouspelican.com.

Thanks for reading and may God bless your Eastertide!

Yours in Christ,
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

P.S. Please be aware that you may initially receive more emails than you would prefer — e.g., you might get something from Substack and from Pelican, or from multiple Substacks. It is easy to change the settings (in either place!) so that you will receive ONLY the emails you wish.