In 2015, Max Tholl and I set up The Idea List: A digital magazine revolving around a new topic each month. We pick deliberately broad topics that range from “The Devil” to “Sleep” and tackle them through interviews, articles, or photo series.
It’s been a wild ride: We've talked to an exorcist and the head of the church of satan. Explored the Spanish countryside with a photographer and dove through Berlin’s trash with a garbologist. We talked to writers whose books we admire, or infamous movie director Uwe Boll, whose work is universally shunned for its bad taste.
As journalists, we often cover topics with broad appeal or commercial value. On The Idea List we deliberately do the opposite: Shine a light into the more obscure corners of society and culture in order to surprise our readers with information they wouldn’t find elsewhere.
These days, my tasks consist mainly of writing and editing, but also took care of the technical infrastructure, graphic identity, and set up a style guide for the magazine.
Here are some of my favorite pieces:
- "Poetry breaks through the bullshit.” Matthew Zapruder believes that poetry—often misunderstood to be obscure—is exactly what we need to find clarity this time and age.
- Dutch Light. For years, painters from Holland enjoyed an unfair advantage.
Until it suddenly disappeared. - Accuracy in Imperfection. Blurriness, grain, and double exposures used to be a no go in photo albums. Artist Maya Beano leverages them to reconstruct the hazy nature of memories.
Check out The Idea List on the web or on Twitter.