Frontier Magazine’s 2023 in Review
Looking back and looking ahead
Hi everyone,
We launched Frontier Magazine on January 11, and since then I’ve published fifty-nine newsletters and eight podcast episodes. I’m grateful for the opportunity to write to you every week, and even more grateful for the conversations with you these newsletters have sparked. Some of our most popular issues:
- The Neverending Story, a love letter to Wikipedia
- Whole Self Catalog, an interview with Andy Chung of Read.cv
- Open Roads, a discussion of parking and public space in Tokyo, Paris, and London
- Bad Moon Rising, on the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas
- Streams Count, on rivers, artistic imagination, and attention
I’m heartened that this list includes stories about tech, the built environment, and the arts. It can be difficult to describe a publication that freely explores a range of subjects. Looking back, though, it’s clear that we’re advocating for work in all disciplines that nourishes creativity, supports individual agency and social flourishing, and validates people’s own interests and motivations. In some sense, that’s because those qualities are what I look for in the artworks, creative tools, and designed spaces that fill my life.
It’s been stimulating, inspiring, and—let’s be honest!—sometimes challenging and tiring to find, make sense of, and write thousands of words about gentrification in St. Louis, or digital longevity, or changing London museums, or an artist’s book about trees. But while Frontier Magazine is part of my job at Frontier, it’s also a labor of love. I’ve written several books and hundreds of reviews and essays during my career, but in recent years I’ve been editing more than writing. It was a delight in 2023 to once again sit down and clarify my thoughts in draft after draft after draft.
So one thing’s for sure: I’ll bring you even more stories from the edges in 2024. Here’s one last invitation to complete our short reader survey and share your thoughts on the forms those stories can take.
I hope the next few weeks are a time of rest and reflection spent in the company of loved ones. I’ll be doing the same, and will be back in your inboxes the second week of January.
Love all ways,
Brian
