New Philosopher
New Philosopher is an ad-free newsstand philosophy magazine distributed throughout the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Europe, Asia, and New Zealand, and produced by the team behind the magazine Womankind.[1]
The cover of first issue of New Philosopher. | |
Editor | Zan Boag |
---|---|
Categories | Philosophy, Society, Culture, Art, Literature |
Frequency | Quarterly |
Publisher | Poet Press |
Year founded | 2013 |
Country | Australia |
Based in | Hobart, Tasmania |
Language | English |
Website | newphilosopher |
ISSN | 2201-7151 |
History and profile
New Philosopher launched in Australia in 2013 at the Byron Bay Writers Festival, where it was the bestselling item at the festival and number 6 at the festival the following year.[2] According to the University of Sydney, it launched with distribution "across 2,000 news agencies in Australia and New Zealand and circulation in book shops, airports, cafes, delis, art galleries, boutiques and museums."[3] According to posts on Facebook, as of 2015 New Philosopher was the most widely distributed philosophy magazine in the world, with more than 10,000 stockists globally.[4] Each edition is set around a philosophical theme and features an interview with a leading intellectual.
Contributors
The magazine includes writing from prominent intellectuals such as philosophers Peter Singer, Clive Hamilton, Angie Hobbs, Robert W. McChesney, Massimo Pigliucci, Nigel Warburton, and Howard Gardner; Booker Prize winners DBC Pierre and Peter Carey;[5] award-winning British novelist and essayist Will Self[6] and Pulitzer Prize finalist Nicholas G. Carr;[7] Australian cartoonist and Australian Living Treasure Michael Leunig; and five winners of the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Prize: philosophers Damon Young, Patrick Stokes, Matthew Beard, Russell Blackford, and Paul Biegler.[8] The magazine's literary editor Antonia Case, who is also the editor of Womankind, won the Australasian Association of Philosophy Media Professionals' Award in 2014;[9] New Philosopher's editor-in-chief Zan Boag won the same award in 2017.[10]
Joint edition with The New York Times
In February 2019, a special joint edition 'Being Human' was produced between New Philosopher and The New York Times,[11] which saw New York Times contributors such as Martha Nussbaum, Ai Weiwei, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Pico Iyer, Dan Ariely, Anne Wojcicki, Sherry Turkle, and Simon Critchley appear alongside regular contributors to New Philosopher.
Interviewees
Many prominent thinkers have been interviewed in the magazine, including Noam Chomsky,[12] Daniel Dennett,[13] Thomas Piketty,[14] Jane Goodall, Carlo Rovelli,[15] Ricky Gervais,[16] John Searle, Peter Singer,[17] Anita L. Allen,[18] Leo Braudy, Luciano Floridi, David Wood,[19] and David Chalmers.[20]
Awards and recognition
Described by the editor Zan Boag in an interview with MagCulture as being a magazine "as much about art and design as it is about philosophy",[21] the magazine has received recognition around the world for its design and editorial content. In December 2019 it was named overall 'Magazine of the Decade' by Stack Magazines[22] after being named earlier as News/Current Affairs Magazine of the Decade[23].
It was shortlisted for Best Use of Illustration in The Stack Awards 2016[24] and in 2017;[25] shortlisted for Editor of the Year[26] and Best Original Non-Fiction[27] in The Stack Awards in 2017; it was shortlisted in the World Illustration Awards 2016;[28] and the cover of the "happiness" edition was voted one of the coolest covers of February 2014 by Complex.[29] Design website Abuzeedo commented that "the design is super cool and out of the box" [30] and the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) featured the magazine, referring to it as a "very popular... ad-free publication that has become a favorite amongst readers in its home country...", a publication that takes "an approachable yet still thoughtful and intelligent tone".[31] The director of magazine website Magpile says "the design is calm, intelligent and very neat" and "if I needed to use just one word to sum up new Aussie magazine, New Philosopher, it would be 'smart'.”[32] It was named one of top magazines launched for 2014 (in the US) by the Library Journal[33] and New York Post listed it as one of six "magazines that will get you thinking", writing that it "feels like a coffee table book with beautiful pictures and large, double-spaced font".[34]
Foreign language editions
In 2017 a Korean edition was launched with the publisher printing "more than 5,000 copies"[35] - readers are predominately "Koreans in their 20s and 30s". The Korean Editor Jang Dong-seok said, “I thought that there might not be a clear-cut readership for our magazine, but surprisingly young people were interested in humanities and philosophy.” He added, “Until now, humanities and philosophy were for those boring people who always recited big words, but our readers are responding to the appeal of the ‘philosophy of daily life’.” A digital edition is available on Air France and KLM flights and lounges.[36]
In October 2019 it was announced via the Saudi Press Agency that leading Arabic philosophy website Mana.net would translate and publish articles[37] from New Philosopher online immediately[38] and published first printed Arabic edition in early 2020.
In popular culture
With producers in the US increasingly taking an interest in including philosophical themes in their work, editions of New Philosopher have appeared in movies, sitcoms, and novels, including the 2017 rom-com The Big Sick[39] and the 2018 HBO mini-series Here and Now, starring Tim Robbins as a philosophy professor and Holly Hunter as his wife.[40]
Other activities
New Philosopher runs and curates the bookstore 'poet store' in Hobart, Australia[41], hosts the philosophy café 'New Philosopher'[42] and announced in 2019 that it will open a philosophical art gallery called GAAP (Gallery of Art And Philosopher) in Hobart in 2020[43], with New Philosopher's editor Zan Boag stating that the purpose of launching the gallery was because “art that reflects the philosophical tensions of our time can help us make better sense of our world, our place in it, and where we are heading. Art awakens the senses and forces us to reconsider how we perceive the world, much like philosophy does.”[44]
Partners
- The New York Times
- The Ethics Centre
- Womankind Magazine
- Sydney Writers Festival
- How The Light Gets In
- Hay Festival
- Salamanca Arts Centre
- Poet
References
- "New Philosopher's Australian operation to launch women's magazine Womankind". mumbrella. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
- "Breaking records". Byron Bay Writers Festival. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
- "Philosophy in demand: new magazine launches". University of Sydney. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
- http://www.facebook.com/newphilosopher/
- "Philosophy in demand: new magazine launches". University of Sydney. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
- "The future of journalism". The City Reader. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
- "The virtual postman never stops ringing". Nicholas Carr. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- "AAP Media Prize". AAP. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- "AAP Media Professionals' Award". AAP. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- "AAP Media Prize". AAP. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- Cave, Damien (31 January 2019). "Life Lessons From Jarrod and Briony Lyle". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
- "Talking philosophy". The Philosophers’ Magazine. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
- "The secret of consciousness". New Philosopher. Archived from the original on 10 October 2018. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
- "A property crisis". New Philosopher. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
- "The mystery of time". New Philosopher. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
- "13 questions with Ricky Gervais". Twitter. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
- "Travelling with purpose". The Bull. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- "Who's watching you?". New Philosopher. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
- "David C Wood CV". Vanderbilt Philosophy. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
- "Interview: David Chalmers and Andy Clark". NKU Philosophy. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
- "Australia's New Philosopher". MagCulture. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
- Magazines, Stack (20 December 2019). "We have a winner! Congratulations to @TheNewPhil, which wins our Magazine of the Decade with a massive 50% of the popular vote. Their latest issue explores the theme of change – a thoughtful companion to these tumultuous times https://www.newphilosopher.com/ pic.twitter.com/Wkuak7ShLW". @StackMagazines. Retrieved 24 December 2019. External link in
|title=
(help) - Magazines, Stack (17 December 2019). "We've asked #StackAwards judges and we've asked twitter and the nominations are in. Cast your vote for the best indie news/ affairs title of the decade". @StackMagazines. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
- "The Stack Awards 2016". Stack. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
- "The Stack Awards 2017 - Best Use of Illustration". Stack. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- "The Stack Awards 2017 - Editor of the Year". Stack. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- "The Stack Awards 2017 - Best Original Non-Fiction". Stack. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- "The World Illustration Awards 2016". WIA. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
- "The Coolest Magazine Covers of February 2014". Complex. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- "Editorial Design Inspiration". Abuzeedo. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- "Australia's Popular New Philosopher Magazine Blurs the Line Between Indie and Mainstream". AIGA. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
- "New Philosopher". Magpile. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
- "A thriving print scene". Library Journal. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
- "Magazines that will get you thinking". New York Post. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- "Magazines focused on alternatives". The Dissolve. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
- "New Philosopher on Pics & Ink". Pics&Ink. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
- "Newphilosopher Archives". منصة معنى الإلكترونية (in Arabic). Retrieved 24 December 2019.
- "ثقافي / منصة "معنى" الثقافية تدخل شراكة مع مجلة عالمية وكالة الأنباء السعودية". www.spa.gov.sa. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
- "The Big Sick on IMDb". IMDb.
- "Here and Now". Rotten Tomatoes.
- Coslovich, Gabriella (27 February 2018). "How Hobart became a mainlander's dream". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
- "New Philosopher (Hobart, Australia)". Meetup. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
- "Your Afternoon". ABC Radio. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
- "New Philosopher launches art gallery 'GAAP' | New Philosopher". Retrieved 24 December 2019.