What is The Signal?
We’re a new current-affairs brand exploring democratic life, the trend lines shaping it, and the challenges to it.
What do you do?
We look at the world in a way that respects its complexity—and our curiosity. We’re not “storytellers”: Everything we do starts with good questions—and leads us to more of them.
We publish an email update twice weekly—it’s free:
We also publish observations and thoughts from the field on our site regularly.
We’ve published our first print extra, The Long Game:
And we reserve a regular slate, and deep archive, of expansive articles for our members:
Who are your contributors?
They’re from all over, representing all different kinds of knowledge and know-how. They’re not all-purpose “news experts”; everyone brings specific experience, general humility, and distinctive insight to the questions we bring them.
Here are a few:
- Daron Acemoglu, a professor of economics at MIT and a co-author of Power and Progress: Our 1,000-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
- Alice Han, the China director at the New York–based consulting firm Greenmantle, where she leads research on the country’s economy, technology, and politics
- Martin Raymond, the cofounder of The Future Laboratory and the editor in chief of LS:N Global
- Sarah Myers West, the managing director of the AI Now Institute
- Marc Weitzmann, a French journalist and the author of Hate: The Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism in France
- Atika Rehman, the London correspondent and former managing editor for Dawn, the largest English-language newspaper in Pakistan
- Essam Daod, a psychiatrist and psychoanalytic therapist who co-founded Humanity Crew, an international-aid organization providing first-response mental-health support for refugees around the world
And your community?
They’re from all over, too—more than 100,000 people. In the U.S., they live in every state, not just in major media markets or urban centers; globally, they’re in hundreds of countries. What they all—we all—share in common: We’re independent-minded, committed to human flourishing, and busy.
What topics do you cover?
Democracy, autocracy, economy, technology, diplomacy, war, science, health, climate, law, crime, education, media, culture …
Why a new current-affairs brand?
In today’s media ecosystem, the dominant business model depends on addicting us to crisis, reshaping us into angry partisans, or both. It depends on keeping us in a digital environment designed to colonize our time and our lives.
Meanwhile, there’s a growing fear across news media that it’s losing its traditional authority and power. And the more it does, the more committed to this model it gets.
The Signal isn’t just an alternative; it’s a new kind of alternative—a brand designed to help us navigate democratic life; feel more grounded, resilient, and effective; and grow. It’s a companion, and a network of companions, for those who can’t afford to get caught up in media narratives or partisan propaganda but need to think for themselves.
You’re nonpartisan?
Yes.
So, you’re neutral?
No. We stand altogether for a sometimes-forgotten idea that connects people across deep differences in America, where we’re based, and everywhere on Earth: the free world.