About Works in Progress
Works in Progress is a magazine of new and underrated ideas to improve the world.
Works in Progress is part of Stripe.
Go to our archive to see all our past issues. Alternatively you may want to go to one of our most popular articles, like The housing theory of everything, How mathematics built the modern world, The beauty of concrete, The maintenance race, or The future of weight loss.
We’re always open to new pitches.
Sam Bowman is a founding editor of Works in Progress. He is also a member of the Mercatus Center's board of directors.
He lives in London with his family, and likes cooking, pop music, grand strategy video games, and cats.
Saloni Dattani is a founding editor of Works in Progress. She is also a researcher on global health at Our World in Data, has PhD in psychiatric genetics, and writes a newsletter on scientific discovery.
She grew up in Hong Kong, lives in South London, and enjoys photography, birdwatching, long walks, and museums.
Ben Southwood is a founding editor of Works in Progress. He has been head of research at Create Streets, and head of housing at Policy Exchange, been part of three successful Emergent Ventures grants, and worked as a public sector consultant for KPMG.
He lives in South London and is a fan of natural wine, sour beer, ambient music, and cricket.
Nick Whitaker is a founding editor of Works in Progress. He studied philosophy with a specialization in logic and Language at Brown University where he was a member of the PPE Society, edited the philosophy journal, A Priori, and conducted interviews for Brown Political Review.
He lives in Manhattan and enjoys skiing, cycling, coffee, and the history of film.
Aria Babu is an editor at Works in Progress. She has been the head of policy at The Entrepreneurs Network, a senior research fellow at Policy Exchange and she used to run the programming for a secret society.
She lives in West London and likes books written for teenagers, cooking, and playing the piano. Sometimes she writes her blog on birth rates.
Pieter Garicano is the managing editor of Works in Progress. He previously worked at the Special Competitive Studies Project, and is the author of a blog on growth in Europe.
He lives in Washington DC, and likes mountains, biographies and new restaurants.
Rachel Edwards leads events and operations for Works in Progress. She has worked in supervision and policy at the Bank of England, and as an advisor to the Treasury Committee in the House of Commons.
She lives in East London and likes dancing, hosting dinner parties, and going to the theatre.
Alex Chalmers is an editor at Works In Progress, focused on AI and nuclear energy. Before this he worked in communications and venture capital. He’s also the author of Chalmermagne, a Substack covering technology, policy, and finance.
He lives in North London and his hobbies include running and ingesting as much ionising radiation as possible.
Virginia Postrel writes and commissions articles for Works in Progress. She is the author of four books: The Future and Its Enemies (1998), The Substance of Style (2003), The Power of Glamour (2013), and The Fabric of Civilization (2020), as well as a children's picture book, Veronica's Summer of Silk, to be published in 2027. She has been a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal and edited Reason magazine from 1989 to 2000.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their thousands of books and is the president of the Southern California Handweavers' Guild.
Samuel Hughes is an editor at Works in Progress. He studied philosophy and began his career as a researcher at the University of Oxford, since when he has worked as a civil servant, a think tanker, and an advisor to the British Government.
He lives in North London and enjoys architecture, politics, history and Baroque music.