6 Amazing Online Magazines That You Can Read for Free
Learn about a range of topics including philosophy, psychology, history, films and more with these valuable selections, not behind a paywall.
I’m a sucker for magazines. Even though I love the feel and scent of a print magazine, in the online era we’re living in, I’m also basking in the glow of many alternative magazines we can reach online, without having to pay higher amounts to them and stack them in our houses mainly because they are print.
Unfortunately, some well-known and household names like the New Yorker, Atlantic, or New York Times have paywalls for you to read their content. However, there are some amazing magazines out there, which run with the independent contributions of their readers, without applying a paywall.
Meaning, you don’t have to pay a cent to read their content if you don’t want to. Of course, if it turns out that you really enjoy the contents of this magazine, you can always donate an amount of your liking, but it’s not obligatory.
For this reason, I compiled a list of some of my favorite magazines I follow online, which don’t have a paywall. They all have a selection of topics that I believe will suit your reading taste. I hope you’ll find something for you in this list I curated. Enjoy!
1. Smithsonian Magazine
Published by the Smithsonian Institute, Smithsonian Magazine includes in its rich archive topics that are mainly studied, researched about, and exhibited by the Smithsonian Institution, but also beyond that.
In the magazine, you can read topics ranging from history to science, from arts & culture to innovation, travel, and many more. In Smart News, you learn about the cool finds in various research fields and new research.
In the “At the Smithsonian” section, you can read about the goings-on in the Smithsonian, catch up on the new research that has been done, learn about the exhibitions, artifacts, and the many things offered by the Smithsonian Institution.
You also get a fun part “Ask Smithsonian” which attempts to give answers to popular and interesting questions from the perspective of science.
Also, don’t forget to check out Smithsonian Institution’s page if you want to get access to the collections and many other things the Institution offers you. And to catch up, don’t forget to sign up for the magazine’s daily newsletter!
2. Jstor Daily
Jstor Daily is another free source that I enjoy browsing and reading. Jstor is essentially a digital library of academic research, journals, books, etc. Jstor Daily utilizes the material of Jstor and provides articles attempting to enlighten the current events in our world from various standpoints. Its slogan “where news meet its scholarly match” probably explains them better than I can.
On its homepage, you can find a curated list of interesting topics that will spark your curiosity and make you learn something new, and browse the menu to select your subject of interest to dive deeper into.
On the menu, you can find the categories of Arts & Culture, Business & Economics, Politics & History, Science & Technology, and Education & Society, under all which you can find further subcategories.
There are also further categories like “Long Reads” and “Audio Stories” in which you can listen to your favorite stories, “Reading lists”, and “Syllabus” categories which curate further articles related to one concept if you want to dive deeper into the subject, and the “Open Community Collections”, which serves collections of art, photography, from institutions that contribute to JSTOR’s library.
You can subscribe to its newsletter to get a pulse on what’s published on Jstor and also get access to suggested reading around the web curated by Jstor editors.
3. Aeon
Aeon is a digital magazine that is home to a collection of thought-provoking, creative essays, and videos that range in various topics of interest from philosophy, science, history, economics, art, travel, and so on. On the homepage, you can browse essays and videos from various subcategories.
If you’re looking for something more specific, the main categories you’ll find on the menu are Philosophy, Science, Psychology, Society, and Culture, which have their special pages that include further divided subtopics of these main topics.
The essays are informative or personal. The topics of inquiry are carefully selected, curated, and edited. Aeon hosts pieces from people who have a mastery of the topics they write about, which makes it a sophisticated publication.
What I also really like about Aeon is that it offers a great reading experience. While reading, you can highlight the words and sentences that struck a chord in you. Similarly, you can leave annotations in whenever of the piece you like if something came to your mind about that particular place.
You can also subscribe to its weekly newsletter and don't miss out on the amazing and original pieces Aeon offers!
4. Psyche
Psyche is the sister website of Aeon, and it can be my favorite one on this list. Not only does it harbor many amazing articles, guides, and essays about thought-provoking and exciting topics, written by experts in their areas, it also has a very visually satisfying website that makes your reading experience only the more enjoyable.
The aim of this digital magazine is to bring you insights that are mainly inspired by psychology, philosophy, and arts. Hence, the contents of the website are essentially separated into three categories: Therapeia, Eudaimonia, and Poiesis. “Therapeia” is the Psychology part of the website, “Eudaimonia” is Philosophy, and “Poiesis” deals with Arts.
There are many subtopics that are related to these three main topics, that are indicated on the top of each article, alongside its picture, which makes your decision of what to read much easier. There are also other types of categories, which indicate the form of the article you’re going to be reading. These are called “Ideas”, “Guides”, and “Films”.
In ideas, you’re introduced to an idea about a certain topic, which goes in the format of a research-backed essay that explores and circles around the idea. In guides, you get a comprehensive and detailed guide about the topic at hand and get expert knowledge & tips on how to improve yourself regarding these issues. In films, you get a fun video with artistic animations that depict the subject from creative angles.
All in all, Psyche is a very useful resource that can spark your curiosity further, make you learn in detail about the topics you’re interested in, and engage in some productive thinking. Don’t forget to sign for its weekly newsletter too!
5. Lapham’s Quarterly
Lapham’s Quarterly is a magazine that believes that history can shed a light on, explain the many other fields such as politics, economics, education, science, and other cultural topics. It looks at these issues through the lens of the past and tackles current days news with the light of history and old texts.
In doing so, it offers the text of big names from literature, philosophy, such as Aristotle, Thoreau, Woolf, Twain, Shakespeare, Dickens, Confucius, and Balzac. It not only includes those valuable texts but also the relevant artwork from that era, like full-colored versions of old sculpture and paintings photographs. The texts include letters, speeches, diary entries, plays, and songs.
Every issue has a special subject like Music, Youth, Memory, Epidemic… which is tackled through the lens of the past and historical texts. You can reach the contents of these issues without bumping into a paywall, and enjoy an elegant reading experience.
In the blogs part of the website, in the “Roundtable” section, you can find the opinions and analyses of historical texts made by the magazine’s writers and editors. In the “Deja Vu” section, you can read the day’s news as explained from a historical perspective. In this section, a current event and similar or almost an identical event to the current event from the past is selected and they are both explained.
Lapham’s Quarterly also has an amazing podcast and a daily newsletter. Don’t miss out on the contents of this amazing magazine!
6. The Guardian
The last on this list is a household name. I’m sure all of you know about The Guardian. Nevertheless, it gets on the list because it’s a freely reachable news and opinion publication that you can find almost anything that you look for. Throughout the years, I’ve read many Guardian articles on a diverse range of topics; from music, psychology, travel, literature, and more.
Guardian delivers the latest news and opinion pieces on culture, politics, art, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle topics, ranging to various subtopics from health, tech, science, business, environment, money, film, design, and many more. It gives you an Around the World scoop of the news that are the headlines in different countries, as well as more local news.
On Guardian’s website, you can also check out the Guardian’s archive which goes back to the old issues of the Guardian, type in keywords and year periods of your liking, and find old articles about the topic you are interested in. After all, it’s an established newsletter that goes back 200 years.
Guardian also has a series of documentaries and videos which you can find on their website or reach from their Youtube Channel, and a wide range of newsletters you can subscribe to your preference delivered daily or weekly into your inbox. Guardian also hosts multiple podcasts on different topics you can listen to your liking.
In short, if you want to get a pulse on the world’s happenings and get informed about a variety of topics that interest you, Guardian is one of the main sources you can reach and read freely.
I hope this list was beneficial for you that you find new free spaces to enjoy, learn more from. The internet is an ocean, and when you use it cleverly, you can reach an abundance of sources that can feed you intellectually and make worth of your time.
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