Magazeum

IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES — Psychedelia has an image problem. At least that’s what editor and journalist Hillary Brenhouse realized after she saw through the haze. Both in art and literature, psychedelia was way more than tie-dye t-shirts and magic mushrooms. Instead of letting that idea fade into the mist, she kept thinking about it. And the more she looked, the more she realized maybe she shoul...

WHEN EUSTACE MET FRANÇOISE —  I first met Françoise Mouly at The New Yorker ’s old Times Square offices. This was way back when artists used to deliver illustrations in person. I had stopped by to turn in a spot drawing and was introduced to Françoise, their newly-minted cover art editor. I should have been intimidated, but I was fresh off the boat from Canada and deeply ensconced in my own bubble...

EVERY DAY IS MOTHER’S DAY — A monochromator is an optical device that separates light, like sunlight or the light from a lamp, into a range of individual wavelengths and then allows … … Sorry. I failed physics the last time I took it and I would fail it again. I’m not telling you about my shortcomings for any reason, because a podcast about my shortcomings would be endless. But I thought I’d look...

A MAN AT HIS F*#KING BEST — While several interesting themes have surfaced in this podcast, one of the more unexpected threads is this: Nearly all magazine-inclined men dream of one day working at Esquire . Some women, too. Turns out that’s also true for today’s guest, which is a good thing because that’s exactly what David Granger did. “But all this time I’d been thinking about Esquire , longing...

EVERY DAY IS MOTHER’S DAY — If The Full Bleed ’s second season had a theme, it just might be “We Made A New Magazine During the Pandemic.”  Listen to past episodes and you’ll see that our collective and unprecedented existential crisis ended up producing a lot of magazines. Melissa Goldstein and Natalia Rachlin met as coworkers at the lifestyle brand Nowness in the UK. Later, with Melissa in LA an...

“THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE GRAPHIC DESIGN” — Simon Esterson is one of the most influential figures in British magazine design shaping the field for decades with his distinctive approach to editorial work. Unlike many designers who built their careers within major publishing houses, Esterson chose a different path, gravitating toward independent publishing where his influence could be great...

A WEED GROWS IN PORTLAND — Anja Charbonneau would be the first to admit she didn’t have a strategy in mind when she launched her dreamy celebration of all things marijuana, Broccoli magazine, back in 2016. Having worked as a freelance photographer and writer, and then as Creative Director of lifestyle favorite Kinfolk , she started Broccoli with the simple idea to explore Portland’s then burgeonin...

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON — Nearly 40 years after its launch, Spin magazine has returned to print—and at the helm, once again, is its founding editor and today’s guest, Bob Guccione Jr.  Launched in 1985 as a scrappy, rebellious alternative to Rolling Stone , Spin became a defining voice in music journalism, championing emerging artists and underground movements that mainstream media often ov...

THEY’RE FIXIN’ TO CHANGE YOUR MIND — The people behind The Bitter Southerner are many things but they are not, they will remind you, actually bitter. The tongue is planted quite firmly in the cheek here. But The Bitter Southerner is, for sure, like it says on the website, “a beacon for the American South and a bellwether for the nation.”  Sure, why not. But what started out as an ambitious e-newsl...

MAKE IT BIG. NO BIGGER — Paula Scher is not really a “magazine person.” But if you ever needed evidence of the value of what we like to call “magazine thinking,” look no further than Pentagram, the world’s most influential design firm. The studio boasts a roster of partners whose work is rooted in magazine design: Colin Forbes, David Hillman, Kit Hinrichs, Luke Hayman, DJ Stout, Abbott Miller, Mat...

WTF IS AFM ? — Feeld is a dating app “for the curious” and its users are an adventurous, thoughtful bunch. And Feeld is also a tech company that happens to be led by thoughtful long-term types who see the value in print as a cornerstone for their community of customers. Enter A Fucking Magazine . Led by editors Maria Dimitrova and Haley Mlotek, AFM is a cultural magazine about sex that is also not...

THE WINNER — Clang! Clink! Bang! Hear that? It’s the sound of all the hardware that Jake Silverstein’s New York Times Magazine has racked up in his almost eleven years at its helm: Pulitzers and ASMEs are heavy , people! When we were preparing to speak to Jake, we reached out to a handful of editors who have loyally worked with him for years to find out what makes him tick. They describe an incred...

THE HEART OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL — There’s a saying about the Velvet Underground’s first album: it didn’t sell a lot of copies but everyone who bought it went on to form a band. Not everyone who read Creem went on to form a band, but almost everyone who ever wrote about rock music in a significant way has a connection to Creem .  Founded in Detroit in 1969 by Barry Kramer, Creem was a finger in the eye...

FARM-TO-NEWSSTAND PUBLISHING — The pandemic screwed a lot of businesses over, but it did a real number on the restaurant industry. Beset by low margins at the best of times, Covid was to the business what a neglected pot of boiling milk is to your stove top. But Max Meighen, a restaurant owner in Toronto decided to fill in his down time by … creating a magazine. Because of course he did. And so he...

NOT THE SAFE CHOICE — Most magazines are not political. Unless, that is, you create a bilingual Arabic-English language magazine about design out of Beirut. Or another bilingual magazine about women and gender—also out of Beirut. Then, perhaps, your intentions are a bit less opaque. Maya Moumne is a Lebanese designer by training who now divides her time between Beirut and Montréal. She is the edit...

CHAMPION OF A BETTER FUTURE — Wired magazine feels like it’s been around forever. And perhaps these days any media that has been around for over 30 years qualifies as forever. It has, certainly, been around during the entirety of the digital age. It has been witness to the birth of the internet, of social media, of cellphones, and of AI. It feels like an institution as well as an authority for a c...

EVERYONE IS A SALESMAN — In 1995, New York magazine declared Martha Stewart the “Definitive American Woman of Our Time.” And, as the saying goes (sort of), behind every Definitive American Woman of Our Time is another Definitive American Woman of Our Time. And that’s today’s guest, designer Gael Towey. But let’s back up. It’s 1982, and Martha Stewart, then known as the “domestic goddess”—or some o...

THE BRAND CALLED US — In the summer of 1995, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse. It came from my guests today, Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, the founding editors of Fast Company , widely acknowledged as one of the magazine industry’s great success stories.  Their vision for the magazine was an exercise in thinking different. Nothing we did hewed to the conventional wisdom of magazine-making. Our foun...

SHE LOOKS FORWARD TO YOUR PROMPT REPLY — Jody Quon’s desk is immaculate. There’s a lot there, but she knows exactly where everything is. It’s like an image out of Things Organized Neatly . She rarely swears. Or loses her temper. In fact she’s one of the most temperate people in the office. Maybe the most. She’s often been referred to as a “rock.” She remembers every shoot and how much it cost to p...

CHIC, BUT MAKE IT NICE — It’s a cliché because it’s true: in the fashion world, you’ve got your show ponies and you’ve got your workhorses. We mean it as a compliment when we say that Samira Nasr truly earned her place at the helm of the 156-year-old institution, Harper’s Bazaar . Don’t get us wrong; Samira is seriously glamorous—she’s the kind of woman who phrases like “effortless chic” were inve...

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER — “I was a publication designer for 20 years, making book covers at Knopf with Sonny Mehta, Carol Carson, and Chip Kidd. Later, in the early aughts, I made stories and books—and other things—at Martha Stewart Living. Then I took a brief adventure to graduate school—to learn a new trade. And finally I moved to The New York Times , where I helped create several of its lege...

A PRETTY COMPLICATED ORGANISM — Like many of you, I was stunned by what happened on November 5th. It’s gonna take me some time to reckon with what this all says about the values of a large portion of this country. As part of that reckoning—and for some much-needed relief—I’ve opted to spend less time with media in general for a bit.  But on “the morning after,” I couldn’t ignore an email I got fro...

WHAT MAKES STEVE BRODNER HAPPY — When your boss tells you to track down an amusing Steve Brodner factoid to open the podcast with, and one of the first things you find is a, uh, a “dick army,” welp, that’s what you’re going to go with.  Lest you judge me, I can explain. Brodner’s drawing of this army was inspired by a guy who was actually named Dick Armey (A-R-M- E -Y)! He was Newt Gingrich’s wing...

SHE’S OUR TYPE — Everybody knows that in May 2023, a jury found Donald Trump liable for defaming and abusing E. Jean Carroll, and awarded her $5 million. And everybody also knows that in January 2024, another jury found Trump liable for defamation against her to the tune of $83.3 million. P.S., with interest, his payout will now total over $100 million.  But not everybody remembers—because we are...

SOUL SURVIVOR — Just about every magazine Richard Baker worked for has died. Even one called Life . Also dead: The Washington Post Magazine , Vibe , Premiere , and Parade . Another, Saveur , also died, but has recently been resurrected. And Us Magazine ? A mere shadow of its former self. Sadly, Baker’s career narrative is not that uncommon. (That’s why you’re listening to a podcast called Print Is...