More pieces we would like to commission

Write for us.

This April we published our first list of pieces we would like to commission. Some of these ideas have already turned into great articles, such as on the wonders of modern drywall and an 80,000 year history of the tomato. Others are planned for upcoming issues, including our new print magazine. A few turned out to be bad ideas for pieces after all.

Given the success of the last list, here is another one. If you find that a really good article already exists on one of the topics below, please send it to us. If it’s old or obscure, we might republish it.

If you are the right person to write one of these pieces, please email us at wip-pitches@stripe.com, introduce yourself, indicate which pitch you’d like to take, and summarize how you would like to approach the story as though it was one of our normal pitches (guide here – please do read this, our pitch guidelines are different to those of many other publications).

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Illustration by Cosmo Danchin-Hamard.

The mosquito we should just get rid of. One mosquito species is responsible for most cases of dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya: Aedes aegypti. It thrives in cities, breeding in bottle caps and flower pots, and has adapted perfectly to human life. But now scientists have tools, like gene drives and Wolbachia bacteria, to suppress or even eliminate it. What makes this one mosquito species so harmful to us? How might we eliminate it?

Successful pension reforms in recent history. Australia successfully moved its population to a retirement savings plan (‘Superannuation’) in the early 1990s. Silvio Berlusconi’s governments in Italy drove reforms that moved much of the population from ‘defined benefit’ pensions to savings-focused ‘defined contribution’ pensions. What can other states learn from these experiences to reduce their own future retirees’ dependence on working age populations?

How Japan fixed its pensions. We’d like pitches on all kinds of pension reforms. But we especially want to understand what happened in Japan in 2004. The country has the worst old age dependency ratio of any developed country. Its fiscal position, however, is much better than many other rich countries, in part due to the reforms to its pensions under the Koizumi government. What did this reform involve and why did it pass?

Why have American electricity prices risen so much? Some people blame renewables, others blame data centers, but neither of these explanations are wholly satisfying. We’d like a piece that could definitively explain why prices are rising so much that can explain state-by-state differences.

The rise of apartment cities. In 1700, purpose-built flats were rare in most Western cities, and row houses were dominant everywhere. In 1900, this was still true of British, American, Dutch and Belgian cities, but the major cities of France, Germany, Italy and Spain were overwhelmingly made up of apartment blocks. What drove this? Why did apartments become dominant in some places but not in others?

Surprising ethno-linguistic enclaves around the world. There are German-speaking Mennonites in Kyrgyzstan, a village in the Venezuelan jungle whose inhabitants speak an old fashioned German dialect, Greek-speakers in Southern Italy, and quite a lot of Thai people in Svalbard. We’re interested in pieces about groups like these – how they got there, what life is like for them, and so on – especially if you have photographs and have visited them yourself.

Let’s give every kid antibiotics. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, large randomized trials have shown that giving antibiotics like azithromycin to all children under five can reduce deaths dramatically. It’s a simple and cheap intervention, but also a controversial one, as it risks the growth of antibiotic resistance. What makes these antibiotics so lifesaving in poor countries, and how should people think about balancing the gains against the potential risks?

The land that lived with malaria for millennia. For thousands of years, malaria haunted the Italian peninsula, from the Pontine marshes near Rome to its southern coasts. Then, within a few decades in the mid-20th century, it was eliminated. How did a disease so deeply rooted in Italy’s history disappear so quickly, and what does the story tell us about public health and environmental change?

Why does Asia have higher density than Africa? Across MENA, South Asia, and South-East Asia, many cities are made up mostly of mid-rise apartment buildings, often clustered together at densities equal to or greater than those of nineteenth century Europe. In Sub-Saharan Africa, by contrast, urban densities tend to be low, with single-story buildings making up most of the urban area. This pattern holds even in cases of African countries with higher incomes than many Asian countries (e.g. Botswana, South Africa, Gabon, Rwanda). What is the cause of this? What does it teach us about the drivers of urban density?

How India built nuclear power. Nuclear power is often thought of as the most complicated source of energy, restricted to those few rich countries with sufficient engineering ability or the money to buy it elsewhere. But India started generating electricity with fission in 1972 when its average income was $125. How did it do this? And was this a good idea?

A history of better sleep. The pharma company Takeda recently succeeded in phase three trials of their new drug oveporexton, making the drug quite likely to be approved. We’d love to read a history of sleep medications, as well as a shorter piece on why this latest drug could be a breakthrough.

Crime fighting technology that we don’t use. A lot has been written about differences in punishment and their effects on crime. But what about different types of crime fighting technology? How useful is, say, facial recognition in Abu Dhabi for solving crime? Are there any ‘off the shelf’ solutions that could have a significant effect on crime that aren’t in use in developed countries? Alternatively, how effective are interventions we take for granted like street lighting? (Here, for example, are tracking satellite systems that may have reduced kidnapping in Mexico City).

Heathrow’s surprising efficiency. Europe’s busiest airport desperately needs more physical infrastructure, especially runways. But it is remarkable how well it has done with just the two runways that it has. What has it done to engineer around this constraint?

Everyday progress in cosmetic technology. Plastic surgery was once a byword for wealth but many interventions are now commonplace. The frontier seems to be pushing out as well: consider the latest Kardashian facelift or the improvement of hair systems. We want to read a piece on the lack of stagnation in appearance-enhancement, either a case study on a specific procedure or an article on the field overall.

Blockers to AI automation. We recently ran a piece on why AI hasn’t replaced radiologists. What are similar stories in other fields? The type of piece we will consider is a detailed case study of capability that already (plausibly) exists, but that has been less impactful than people hoped. We’re not that interested in speculation based on abilities that models may have in the future. Inversely, if there are areas which haven’t been covered well elsewhere where models have been surprisingly effective at displacing humans, feel free to pitch us as well.

Drugs that last for months. A new generation of long-acting drugs like lenacapavir points to a different approach to prevention: take one dose, stay protected for half a year (and possibly more). What are the different ways scientists are designing medicines that last so long in the body, and what trade-offs come with durability?

Crafting a universal flu vaccine. Each year, scientists study the strains circulating in the population, predict which will dominate, and reformulate the vaccine to match. When those predictions miss, protection drops, and updating the formulation takes time. Could we create a single vaccine that protects against all forms of influenza?

Do climate differences explain feminism? The world’s most gender egalitarian places share periodically frosty winters, mild summers, and ubiquitous freshwater. The ‘cool water hypothesis’ argues that this environment is responsible for an early rise of gender egalitarianism, by changing agriculture in a way that increased the benefits from women working the land and marrying late. We want a piece explaining this theory.

The charter cities of medieval Europe. Medieval cities were typically governed by private trusts, who were granted powers by the royal government to raise taxes and enforce the law within a defined geographical area. How well did this system work? Why did it spread, and why did it ultimately decline?

Recursive technological improvements in history. One possibility with AI is that it will eventually get good enough to improve itself, leading to something like an exponential improvement. Has any other technology in history involved this kind of recursive self-improvement? If so, we’d like to learn about it.

Disneyland as a special economic zone. The United States has dense, walkable, safe, mixed-used urbanism – in Disneyland. We’ve written about the merits of unified land ownership in the case of Britain. What can we learn from its most successful American incarnation?

Emerging RNA therapies. siRNA is a new type of gene therapy where an RNA molecule ‘silences’ a gene in your body. Drugs that use it seem surprisingly effective at lowering cholesterol and treating other diseases. How does siRNA therapy work, what could it be used for, and how might this new class of medicines change the way we treat and prevent diseases?

The amazing decline of genome sequencing costs. Genome sequencing now costs around $500, but twenty years ago it was one of the most expensive scientific projects in history. What technological and economic pushes made this possible, and who made them happen?

The end of parents having explicit favourites. In many different cultures at many different times, including until recently in the West, it was common for parents to talk about a favorite child, and to grant them privileges based on this. That practice has now fallen out of favor. Why?

The rise and fall and rise of private renting. During the Industrial Revolution, private renting was widespread across urban Europe, and in some cities over 90 percent of people were renters. In the twentieth century, this declined almost everywhere, and in some countries renting virtually died out. What drove these changes? When does the market favor renting, and when does it favor home ownership?

Europe’s surprising philanthropy dearth. Much has been said about how the American superrich fund malaria eradication and start universities. Even the regular rich endow professorships and political candidates. One previously might have said this exceptionalism, at least amongst Western societies, was a feature of development – Victorian Britain did, for example, have a strong philanthropic culture. The chasm, however, has persisted. What is the best explanation for why Europe’s rich don’t give as much?

Why did the fabs leave Silicon Valley? Silicon Valley is now commonly associated with the software industry. But the Valley was once a home to the majority of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity, before rapidly losing market share to Asian rivals in the 1980s and 1990s. And attempts to bring back fabs to the United States rarely land on the Valley – TSMC’s factory, for example, is in Arizona. Why did it lose its spot? And what can it tell us about spillovers, or lack thereof, in manufacturing?

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