Niki Seth-Smith
Editor of @newhumanist.bsky.social, journalist and fiction writer 🍐
- Just realised we’re spreading a thought experiment that panicked so many people it was banned… go on, read and doom yourselves! newhumanist.org.uk/articles/649...
- The beginning of Jan has been brutal, but here’s your reminder, from @naomialderman.bsky.social, not to burn anyone at the stake today. I interviewed her on how we can draw on the lessons of history to get some perspective. It’s an unexpectedly heartening read! newhumanist.org.uk/articles/649...
- “Atheists, bohemians and the children of stray Russian intellectuals.” Yes, this was my school (as a day child with a small music scholarship). Now I need to start a band named Children of the Louche
- My most loyal of friends nearly died this year.. Pericles the dog heroically survived cancer and was zooming along the beaches with me today to see off 2025! 🐾🙏
- This is a wonderful gift, beautifully designed and full of thought-provoking articles, and a steal at £21. Give a gift that lasts all year!
- I endorse performative reading. Please feel free to read New Humanist as shamelessly and publicly as you like, particularly this latest issue: newhumanist.org.uk/articles/647...
- Finally, the two child benefit cap is scrapped. A good time to revisit James Ball’s reflections on why the policy has proved so central to the fight over the soul of the Labour Party newhumanist.org.uk/articles/639...
- I often pass Lindisfarne island, on my way from London to my mum’s in Scotland. This charming piece is a guide to walking there (you can!) and an exploration of what it means to be an “atheist pilgrim”. Read more and buy the issue at newhumanist.org.uk
- Give me your ideas, which people make you feel inspired - or at least keep you sane?
- Give us your nominations: We want to interview the *freethinkers of today*, people cutting through the swamp of propaganda and standing for truth and integrity. We've recently spoken to @naomialderman.bsky.social and @petertatchellfdn.bsky.social and @stephenfry.bsky.social ... who next?
- We have to now make a choice to “work the muscle” of our brains, just like we hit the gym where once we laboured in the fields. Beat the brainrot! Start by buying this issue on our website or at the shops 🧠
- The word of the year is “Parasocial”. Perhaps not unrelated to last year’s “Brainrot”? 🧐 Look out for the *How to Stay Smart* issue of @newhumanist.bsky.social, OUT TOMORROW
- It’s your last chance to buy our “Battle over Space” issue, in your local shop or on our website. Here’s one of my faves, on NASA’s sexist history and how to talk to aliens
- Buy the issue here, or a digital subscription for only £10 a year (for now). That’s insanely affordable
- It’s flu and Covid season again, and many of us are guiltily avoiding each other. Read this about how normal it is to have health anxiety, it will make you feel (paradoxically?) better 🤧 newhumanist.org.uk/articles/647...
- @siobhan.bsky.social Hi Siobhan, I’d like to contact you re a potential opportunity with New Humanist, could you email editor@newhumanist.org.uk if interested, thanks
- I interviewed an expert on space warfare. We need more public awareness he says, “it’s a democratic issue”
- A fascinating piece of reportage from Japan on the nuclear choices all countries must make
- ✨ New online: @dominicmhinde.bsky.social travels to Japan to uncover what its experience of two very different nuclear disasters can teach us in an age of conflict and climate change
- A last late summer trek along the river Ouse… farewell cerulean skies
- A lot of people telling me they’re bored of contemporary fiction. Check out the small indie Fly On The Wall Press. These novels are brave and tender, and definitely bucked the tendency towards flat, anhedonic prose
- Also enjoying Saskia Vogel’s luminescent prose
- Any science feature writers? We pay £350-450, send your pitches today or tomorrow!
- This is out! A much-needed shot in the arm and antidote to space pessimism. With contributions on the African Space Agency, indigenous “Sky grief” and my interview with Mark Hilborne on the need for regulation in our age of space warfare
- Also just a bunch of other amazing pieces, including @jamesrball.com on Luigi Mangione and the “rationalist” murders, and @tedilta.bsky.social on health anxiety, and why we should all be less obsessed with monitoring our bodies
- "Existential psychotherapy rises to the challenge of finding something to live for." Author and clinical psychologist Frank Tallis writes clearly and powerfully on why therapists should take the quest for meaning more seriously:
- How concerned should we be about our inability to consistently replicate studies? It’s an issue that cuts to the heart of our ideas about truth and science, as I discovered hosting this eye-opening debate:
- Fantastic energy at #Humanists2025 in Sheffield, on a weekend otherwise marked by dark news. A reminder of the many inspiring freethinkers who might just help get us out of this mess
- And congratulations to @andrewcopson.bsky.social for the much deserved recognition of his services to the non-religious humanists.uk/2025/06/13/a...
- I spoke to @nickfish.me, president of @atheists.org, about the ordinary Americans coming together to fight white Christian nationalism
- Very pleased to welcome @iandunt.bsky.social to our new editorial board. As Editor of New Humanist, I’m looking forward to some stimulating input from Ian and the board
- The young, we are told, are returning to religion. But are they? This issue of New Humanist takes on the idea of a “crisis of meaning”. What’s really happening, and how do we navigate existential questions without embracing dogma? Buy it here:
- Very excited about this coming out next week, and proud to be editor as the magazine hits an epic 140 years and enters a new era. Subscribe now at newhumanist.org.uk or buy it in shops
- Are you guilty of armchair diagnosing? @newhumanist.bsky.social untangles the pop psychology from the science in a must-read on Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Buy the issue on our website or in WHSmith ✨✨
- In the wake of the federal government infiltration, we need to understand that much of the tech elite is operating on a completely different timeframe and set of assumptions and beliefs. So what are these beliefs, and where did they come from?
- It’s out! Some brilliant features looking behind the headlines. We meet the wild-eyed evangelicals behind the myth of Trump the messiah … Talk to the experts on narcissism, untangling science from pop psychology… And channel Max Weber to ask: What is politics actually for? Buy it now! 💥
- It’s your last chance to buy @newhumanist.bsky.social’s current issue from the shops, on the weird beliefs of the tech elites. We could not have predicted how important this would be when we went to press, particularly @peterwardjourno.bsky.social’s deep dive into TESCREAL
- Enjoyed hosting a timely debate on the “crisis in psychology” last night with Nick Brown @steamtraen.eu, John Ioannidis and David Yeager (Carol couldn’t make it unfortunately.) A lot of great ideas on how to overcome the challenges of replicability, skewed incentives, and accounting for diversity
- It should be on the IAI site soon: shorturl.at/uC90c In the meantime, the debate I hosted on Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and nihilism is trending. I think you can get a free trial and watch that @iai.tv
- Seeking pitches of foreign reportage (especially interested in Bangladesh and Lebanon) for magazine features @newhumanist.bsky.social. #journorequest Editor@newhumanist.org.uk
- “Love is for the ones who love the work.” Thought this poem by Joseph Fasano was a suitable first Bluesky post, in honour of refusing enshittification and making a beautiful effort 🌱✨✨✨
