Ahead of the Times
Podcast Alert! We’re on the mic with New York Times Magazine EIC Jake Silverstein
We’re here to reclaim the “women’s magazine.” Every week, two veteran editors read it ALL to bring you everything we believe women’s media should be: juicy yarns, big ideas, deeply personal essays, hot goss, the odd shopping tip—aka, the full Spread. Plus: original interviews, podcasts, and more. Come hungry!
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Spreadsations,
Why, you may be asking yourself, would Jake Silverstein—editor in chief of the New York Times Magazine—be the latest mag-world star to jump on the Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) mic with your humble Spreaditors? Well, like Jake, we edit an august and awards-sweeping legacy publication, so there’s that. But aren’t we dedicated to the vindication and validation of the women’s magazine? Yes! And as you may have heard in this space before (because once we come up with a theory, you’re gonna read it till your eyes bleed): We think the New York Times Magazine just may be the best women’s magazine out there. Indeed, this was one of the inspirations for founding the Spread lo those many years ago (three and a half but who’s counting). At the time, we couldn’t get over how many “women’s mag” stories we were seeing in smarty-pants publications that historically skewed male or, at best, austerely gender-neutral. Whether you relished the magazine’s recent piece by Caity Weaver about kicking her sugar-munching habit at an Austrian spa or felt it left you with cavities—readers of our Wednesday post remain divided—8,000 words on a first-person spa “adventure” is a prime example of the form. As was Susan Dominus’s ASME-winning, game-changing story about menopause and hormone replacement therapy. And Linda Villarosa’s feature shining a light on the Black maternal mortality crisis. And Katie Engelhart’s gut-wrenching consideration of the ethics of anorexia treatment. And Danyel Smith’s soul-shaking account of life as a woman in Sean Combs’s music business. And the dozens of profiles about genius, controversial, and/or swashbuckling female creatives, innovators, and scientists they’ve run. Happily this is now a norm, but as little as five years ago, it would have been harder to find such in-depth, lengthy stories about the health, relationships, and inner lives of women in the high-minded real estate of the Times Mag (or the Atlantic or the New Yorker).
You only have to glance at the Times Mag masthead to see what’s going on over there. It starts at the top, where Gail Bichler, Jessica Lustig, Jeannie Choi, Sasha Weiss, Ilena Silverman, and Adrienne Green reign supreme—and seriously outnumber their male counterparts. Keep scanning and you’ll find story editors like Claire Gutierrez, Sheila Glaser, Raha Naddaf, Niela Orr, and Rachel Poser, whose job it is to keep cranking out these beloved and important hits. And then there’s the writer-roster—be still our hearts—Dominus and Villarosa and Engelhart and Smith, but also Emily Bazelon, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Irina Aleksander, Jordan Kisner, Marcela Valdes, Azmat Khan, Pamela Colloff, and Nikole Hannah-Jones. Plus of course, Spread faves J Wortham and Wesley Morris. We could keep on name-checking favorite Times Mag scribes all the livelong day—they are legion—but you get the idea!
So we wanted to run this theory by the man in charge. We also wanted to talk to Jake because he is arguably the winner of his generation of writer-editors, with perhaps the sweetest perch in the biz. His shelves heave with Pulitzers and ASMEs. Editors we know who work with him, like, never leave—not least because he is one of an increasingly small group of editors who still have the deep resources it takes to, say, report on a story not for days, or weeks, but for years. What is that like? Listen here or here (or wherever) to find out.
Happy weekend!
Rachel & Maggie
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Can't wait to listen to this!