Magazine Fundraising

TLDR; The New Critic, a gen z longform magazine on substack, is raising money to fund ambitious writing projects.

Hi LessWrong! I am one of the Founding Editors of The New Critic, and am writing to call attention to our Manifund campaign.

What is The New Critic:

The New Critic is a non-political, non-ideological magazine dedicated to developing extraordinary gen z writers and addressing the pressing questions of young people in the U.S. Our essays are primarily literary reportage, where we send a writer out into the world to meet their subjects, and then write about it. Our essays are free and we use Substack to meet readers where they are—on the internet.

Essays and interviews that are Rationalist/EA adjacent

• Alex Bronzini-Vender’s “Manifest Man” essay on 2026’s Manifest Conference
• Rufus Knuppel’s “p(doom)” on prediction markets as ideology and worldview
• Bentham’s Bulldog on “Becoming Shrimp-pilled.”
• An interview with Noah Birnbaum, Bentham’s Bulldog, and Amos Wollen on “The Crazy Train”

Other exemplary essays are:

• Theodore Gary’s “Freak Show” on WorldofTShirts
• Josie Barboriak’s “Good Reading, Good Thinking, Good Writing” on charismatic criticism
• Zayd Vlach’s “End Times” on Matthew Gasda’s playwriting workshop
• Owen Yingling’s “The Great Zombification” on AI use in universities

Funding:

$5,000 fully funds the commission, travel, lodging, and editorial overhead required to produce one essay with intensive reporting. If you’re interested in supporting a specific project or batch of projects that need funding (e.g. a batch of essays on internet anthropology or a profile of Luigi Mangione), contact us to see our list of potential assignments.

We have started a Manifund campaign: https://manifund.org/projects/the-new-critic-longform-reporting-fund

If you are interested in funding an essay or tranche of essays, our email is editors@thenewcritic.com.