New government - we're changing how we do things - join us
The Academy of Ideas Substack will always be 90% FREE. But now, we're adding paid content. Here is what you need to know...
What a week. We’ve got a new government, a new political landscape and England’s footballers have just gone through to the semi-finals in the Euros. Some are cheering, some… not so much.
But we certainly have something to celebrate at the Academy of Ideas Substack - it’s two years since we joined. Thanks to the help and support from you all, we’re going from strength to strength.
But it’s time to take it up a gear - a new political context means new political challenges for free speech and public debate. Our work on the Battle of Ideas festival is needed more than ever at a time when many feel disillusioned with contemporary politics. We need your help to do what we do best - hold conversations with the public, for the public, in public.
The first thing to say is THANK YOU for supporting this Substack in whatever capacity. Your support is what keeps us going. If you’re already a paid subscriber, thank you. Hopefully you can spread the word to your friends about supporting the Academy of Ideas.
Now, we’re asking all our free subscribers to add on a paid subscription, in order to help us in the years ahead.
What does becoming a paid subscriber mean?
We’ve got some exciting changes coming to the Substack. As a paid supporter, you will:
Be able to chat to the Academy of Ideas team - including me, Claire Fox, plus Ella Whelan and others - about hot political issues. We want your thoughts on which issues to cover at the Battle of Ideas festival, what focus we should have in our Letters on Liberty as well as simply have debates about what is going on in the world today.
You’ll also get exclusive access to our paywalled premium content - each month, we’ll release a special interview/essay/guest post with one of our top thinkers, speakers and writers. We’re delighted to be kicking off with an interview with intellectual heavyweight Lionel Shriver, who spoke to Ella Whelan, on the evening after that disastrous Biden vs Trump debate, about US politics and her new book, Mania. Here’s a taster of what you can expect from that exchange…
We’ve almost hit 20 years of the Battle of Ideas festival - can you believe it? - and to celebrate, we’re launching an unbelievable archive of hundreds of our debates dating right back to the early years of the millennium. We’ve held debates on every issue from climate change and the environment to the beginnings of the culture wars, education and religious freedom to corporate sponsorship of the arts. You name it, we’ve discussed it - and paid subscribers will get curated content from this archive sent to you to bring depth and understanding to the big debates of today.
Paid subscribers help us to continue our work on the Battle of Ideas festival, and get on with the day-to-day running of the Academy of Ideas.
We are a tiny team who punch well above our weight. We’re also not very good at asking for help - we hope this appeal goes some way to changing that.
But most importantly, all our supporters - whether you can give us pennies, pounds or perhaps nothing at all financially - are involved in what we like to call our free-speech community. Substack is a new and exciting tool to do what we’ve been doing for years - inspire and inject public debate with populist punch. Whatever happens in Westminster, we know that political life is richer and more fruitful out in the real world. So join us in our new venture - it’s an experiment, and one we hope you’ll enjoy.