A Note from Our Senior Editor
On 2024 and how you can help Persuasion.
Since I started at Persuasion almost three years ago, I’ve been privileged to work with dozens of brilliant writers who have shaped my thinking on more topics than I can count. As an editor, few feelings are better than reading a piece of work that makes you go: “I’ve never thought about it like that!”
Persuasion’s core mission is to defend liberal values wherever they are threatened. And they definitely feel threatened right now, with the authoritarianism of Donald Trump looming larger than ever, and war in the Middle East prompting fresh convulsions in elite institutions.
We will continue to publish short articles that provide challenging perspectives on politics and culture. But we also have bigger ambitions for 2024. We’ve recently launched a partnership with The UnPopulist, a kindred publication that is well worth your time. We also plan to expand our output of longer-form essays that get to the heart of what it means to be philosophically liberal in the 21st century.
That’s why we need your help going into the new year. We’re a nonprofit magazine with a small but dedicated editorial team. Our articles are free for everyone to read— the world doesn’t need more paywalls siphoning us into content bubbles. But we can only get by with the support of the small proportion of our nearly 50,000 subscribers who are paying members of our community. If you are currently a free subscriber, and you can afford it, we ask that you please consider upgrading your subscription and becoming a paid member. Alternatively, you could gift a paid subscription to a friend or family member.
There are perks of a paid Persuasion membership: you get access to events both online and in person (like this month’s panel discussion in London on whether the culture wars are an American export), and you get to leave comments on our articles! But above all, you’ll be ensuring Persuasion’s long-term sustainability and, even better, its expansion.
Regardless of your ability to give, the entire team here is grateful for your support, and we hope our output this year meets your expectations—and perhaps even makes you change your mind about something!
— Luke, Persuasion senior editor.
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