Dear all,
Thanks very much for supporting us this year. We are going on a short break until early January, so we will resume on Sunday 7th January. Our winter events series will run weekly from Monday 15th January until Monday 26th February.
Some of you may remember that 2022 was a year marked by considerable financial difficulties for The Philosopher. I am delighted to say that we did not lose any money in 2023. A massive thanks to those of you who are digital/print subscribers, who bought a copy or two of our print issue, who became members via Patreon, or who offered one-off, monthly, or annual donations. It feels good to have steadied the ship after a tumultuous 2022.
2023 has been our 100th anniversary year and we have enjoyed celebrating it with you. Big thanks to the people on our editorial team who put in so much effort to produce our two 100th anniversary-themed print issues, especially Peter West and Jonathon Hawkins who guest edited our recent published issue on the future of public philosophy. And to Nick Halliday who designed our 100th anniversary logo:
2024 is shaping up to be an exciting year for us. There will be some big changes. Alexis Papazoglou is taking a break from his brilliant podcast, “The Philosopher and the News”. On top of a full-time job and the birth of his son, the podcast was a bit too much to sustain. We are hugely grateful to Alexis for all the work he has put in since starting his podcast at the end of 2020, and we are hopeful that he will be back in 2025. I will also be stepping back as editor at the end of June. Although I don’t have the excuse of a new-born baby, I have been working a full-time job since the end of July and, as a result, I have not been able to sustain the necessary work to keep The Philosopher going. Or, perhaps, I have managed to sustain it but at a significant cost to my quality of life. There are lots of changes happening at the editorial level here and I am looking forward to announcing some of the new people who will be leading the way in 2024 and beyond. I will likely stay in the background doing something useful but boring, like updating the website. I am sure that the diversity of new voices shaping our output will give a new lease of life to what we do.
We may have missed “Giving Tuesday” last month as I forgot about it (that’s how professional we are at The Philosopher), but I figure I may as well remind all you lovely newsletter subscribers that The Philosopher is unfunded and relies on your support to keep doing the work we do. It is a constant struggle to break even and requires an immense amount of hard work - almost all of it unpaid. You can offer a donation, join us via Patreon, or become a print or digital subscriber. All support is greatly appreciated!
Recording of the Lysaker/Reynolds event
For those of who missed the wonderful finale to our autumn events series, with John T. Lysaker and Joel Michael Reynolds discussing “Hope, Trust, and Forgiveness”, you can watch the recording here.
Ending
I am going to be travelling around Arizona and New Mexico with my wife, Joanna, over the Christmas period. We will be flying into Las Vegas and spending a night in some unearthly monstrosity, visiting the Grand Canyon, and seeing a few cacti. After a long and often quite challenging year, I am looking forward to this trip very much. I hope that you all find plenty of opportunities to relax and enjoy yourself in the holiday period ahead, and that 2024 gets off to a great start for you.
Wishing you all a lovely Sunday, wherever you are.
Anthony Morgan
Editor