What's the Point?

My guest on the show today is Jon Baskin, co-founder and editor of The Pointmagazine, which over the last 16 years has managed to carve out for itself a really distinctive and important space within the broader American literary intellectual scene.

Jon and I have traded emails over the years, but like a lot of people who I think of as loose comrades within the broader scene, we had never actually gazed on each other’s faces or heard each other’s voices before we got on Zoom to do this. So it was nice to connect.

We talk a lot about the birth and development of The Point, in particular its origins in the Committee on Social Thought program at the University of Chicago. We talk about its relationship to N+1 , which is in many ways the seminal magazine of the last few decades of political intellectual life on the left in America. We get into how Jon and his co-editors have managed to keep their bearings while so many other publications have been whipsawed and in some cases destroyed by the violent political energies of the past decade. And we talk about how The Point does and doesn’t intersect with the emerging media landscape.

This is a really fun conversation with Jon. Hope you enjoy.

AI Show notes courtesy of Descript:

00:00 Introduction to Eminent Americans

00:17 Meet John Baskin: Co-founder of The Point Magazine

01:28 The Birth and Evolution of The Point Magazine

02:21 Upcoming Conversations and Projects

04:38 John Baskin's Intellectual Journey

05:45 The Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago

11:49 Influences and Inspirations Behind The Point

23:28 The Role of Philosophy in The Point's Editorial Vision

36:30 Challenges and Conflicts in Editorial Direction

43:00 The Convergence of Magazines in the Late 2000s

44:43 The Role of DNA in Magazine Identity

45:28 Challenges in Finding Writers

47:06 Impact of Substack on Traditional Magazines

49:50 Balancing Established and New Writers

57:31 Exploring the Political Spectrum of The Point

01:03:32 The Relationship Between Political and Cultural Conservatism

01:08:22 The Point's Foray into Substack

01:17:39 The Mystique of The Point and Its Editors

01:19:48 Conclusion and Final Thoughts