The editors of Strange Matters Magazine want your reading experience to feel like meeting a grad student friend for coffee. Meaning: they explain the most exciting parts of their research, give you all the hot gossip in their field, skip the jargon and elitism, and still deliver the information in a rigorous manner. Strange Matters is thoughtful yet playful, broad in scope yet deep in its analysis. They publish articles in a variety of genres and from a variety of viewpoints, all committed to their mission of “a new culture of open-minded inquiry on the Left.”

I first came across Strange Matters back in 2022, when they launched their successful crowdfunding campaign for Issue 1. Their editorial, “Words for our Present Reality,” spoke to the disillusionment I felt as a leftist in the face of the pandemic, climate change, reactionary politics, economic crisis, etc. The piece also pointed the way forward in what I think is a really promising direction. Strange Matters is an exciting project, and a great example of a successful Left media project. In this episode I chat with two Strange Matters editors, Kyle and Frances, to discuss the magazine, the process of developing it, and what makes the project so exciting.

Links:

Strange Matters Magazine

Strange Matters on Twitter

Strange Matters on Instagram

Articles Mentioned in Episode:

• Words for our Present Reality
• Bloodless Board Games
• Do Interest Rate Hikes Worsen Inflation?
• Barry Jenkins’s Cinematic Technique
• Chastening the Past (critique of Dawn of Everything)
• Consider the Dinosaur

Support the show

Solarpunk Now! is hosted & produced by Luka Dowell. The solarpunk theme is by Red Keener, with additional music by Gabriel Rivas. You can follow the show on Instagram or Mastodon, and support my work at Buy Me a Coffee. Keep dreaming big, and keep up the good work!