Areo Magazine (2016–2025): An Almost Decade of Ideas, Debate, and Cultural Commentary
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): A Further Inquiry
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/08/22
Once upon a time, Alan Sokal wrote a spoof paper in Social Text as a critique of postmodern-infected scholarship. In 2015, the idea of the replication crisis became mainstream, as an Open Science Collaboration Science paper presented non-replication in psychology widely, thus beginning an intensified debate on methods and rigour. That same year, Heterodox Academy was founded.
Heterodox Academy was created by Jonathan Haidt, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, and Chris Martin due to concerns about campus orthodoxy and viewpoint diversity lacking. In August 2016, the University of Chicago Free Speech Letter (August 2016) was published as a pushback against perceived illiberal campus norms. In 2016, Peter Boghossian promoted the Atheos app for skeptical conversation in a civil tone with the Dawkins Foundation. This influenced the eventual liberal, humanist, and debate posture of Areo Magazine.
Areo was founded in November 2016 by Malhar Mali and named after Milton’s Areopagitica. In May 2017, Boghossian & Lindsay placed a satirical paper, “The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct,” (May 19, 2017) in Cogent Social Sciences as part of a larger project or academic paper hoax.
By October 2-5, 2018, James Lindsay, Pluckrose, and Boghossian, worked on a hoax collectively known as “Sokal Squared” or the “Grievance Studies,” revealed in an approximately 2-year research project involving the submission of bogus papers to critical theory or critical theory-associated journals. The Atlantic and Chronicle covered the “Sokal Squared” or the “Grievance Studies” hoax, while Areo provided an explanatory essay.
Dr. Iona Italia launched “Two for Tea” podcast. She would later become the Editor-in-Chief of Areo. “Two for Tea” ran through October/November 2023. On January 23, 2019, Areo Magazine Ltd. was registered in the UK (Company No. 11782240).
In 2020, Italia became the Editor-in-Chief. It was claimed somewhere between May 2020 and October 2023 that Areo garnered about 750,000 readers per year (not externally verified, but externally claimed). On August 25, 2020, Pluckrose and Lindsay published Cynical Theories as, in part, an extension of the thesis about activist scholarship.
Between April 6 and May 3, 2021, more formally, the leadership of Areo changed. Pluckrose stepped back from daily responsibilities. Companies House shows the person with significant control switched formally to Italia rather than merely informally. Aside from Areo happenings, Boghossian resigned from Portland State University between September 8 and 9, 2021, and published a resignation letter to coincide with this.
On January 19, 2022, Pluckrose is no longer a director, according to Companies House, while Italia was listed. In May 2023, Pluckrose’s Counterweight project closed. Supporters were directed to other organizations. Later in 2023, Areo‘s publications ceased, following Italia’s tenure ending in October and the announcement of business operations closure on November 5, 2023.
In late 2023, Quillette began running the ‘best of Areo’ while Quillette purchased the archives of Areo. On January 21, 2025, the company, Areo Magazine Ltd., was formally dissolved (UK Companies House).
Areo rose from 2016 to 2019, peaked, probably, between 2020 and 2022, and experienced its denouement and closure phases from 2023 to 2025. Now, the figureheads Puckrose, Lindsay, Boghossian, Italia, and Mali have moved on.
Pluckrose has a Substack entitled The Overflowings of a Liberal Brain and published The Counterweight Handbook (2024) under Swift Press. Lindsay founded New Discourses as a media-education site. Boghossian is a Faculty Advisor at the University of Austin and hosts a YouTube/podcast series. Italia co-hosts the Quillette podcast and writes independently. Mali appears far less publicly since leaving Areo.
Sokal’s original paper remains a point of academic and public discussion to this day.
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