Eminent Americans is a newsletter and occasional podcast about the writers and public intellectuals who either are key players in the American intellectual scene or who typify an important aspect of it. So people like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Wesley Yang, Elizabeth Bruenig, Ross Douthat, Nikole Hannah Jones, Jia Tolentino, Freddie Deboer, Rod Dreher, Ibram Kendi, Ezra Klein, Bari Weiss, the Red Scare podcast hosts, Andrew Sullivan, etc.
Although the newsletter will touch on the political and intellectual issues that concern these folks, the focus is less the topics than the people — their backstories, what drives them, how they’ve evolved, who cares the most about them, what role they play in the larger ecosystem, and what trends do they embody or influence.
In one sense, then, it’s a rather meta concept. It’s an intellectual (me) talking about other intellectuals in their roles as intellectuals, and occasionally doing so in conversation with yet more intellectuals. From another angle, it’s simply an attempt to investigate and describe the contemporary American scene through and with the people who constitute it.
Eminent Americans is free and will remain so for the foreseeable future. There is an option to subscribe, however, because I’d like to see if I can fund a freelance audio producer to work with me on an initial season of 10 episodes of the podcast. This will cost a few thousand dollars. If I can’t raise the funds, I’ll post the occasional podcast episode that I have time to edit myself, which is a perfectly acceptable outcome. So subscriptions are super appreciated, but not expected.
In the meantime, tell your friends!