Five voices worth reading in 2026
As I did last year, I thought I'd highlight five writers I enjoy reading, along with a recent post from each that grabbed my attention.
This time last year I kicked off 2025 with a newsletter highlighting five writers on Substack worth reading.
Given how well received this was, I thought I’d do the same this year — but this time I thought I would extend the list beyond Substack and, importantly, celebrate writers who value substance and nuance over celebrity at a time when far too many people are simply out to grab a slice of your attention at any cost.
As a result, I’ve included three authors of old-school blogs who I’ve known for years, and who are still well worth paying attention to. And I must confess that, in revisiting them, I’ve found it refreshing to find refuge from the algorithmically-optimized hustle of so much of today’s online content.
I hope you enjoy the five “voices” I’ve chosen and the accompanying pieces from each. And if you do, please support them by subscribing or following them on their respective platforms.
And here’s hoping that 2026 is a good year for you!
Athena Aktipis: Not For Peer Review
Athena is a long-time colleague at Arizona State University, and a scientist, thinker and communicator who refuses to be constrained by the straitjacket of disciplinary conventions.
She’s a psychologist by training, and a leading expert in cooperation science, theory, and practice. As well as being Director of the Cooperative Futures Institute and The Cooperation Lab at ASU, she’s also the founder of Zombified Media and the host of the podcast, Zombified — both of which cleverly intertwine her research and scholarship in ways that make them interesting, meaningful and accessible to a very wide audience!
Earlier this year Athena launched the Substack newsletter Not for Peer Review as “a place to share unfiltered ideas about cooperation, evolution, and the future.” As she describes it, “It is a space for me to share with you ideas that don’t fit neatly in journals, and where I can bring my imagination, playful spirit, and speculative mind to the table.”
Back in November Athena wrote about why she started writing on Substack — it’s a great introduction to her writing here, and what to expect as a subscriber:
Christina Agapakis: Oscillator
I first came across Christina Agapakis’ work through my colleague Emma Frow. Emma’s a leading researcher and expert on the dynamics between emerging technologies and society, and is well known for her work in the field of synthetic biology. As part of this, she spent time working with Ginkgo Bioworks where Christina was the former Creative Director, and worked closely with her.
Christina launched the Substack newsletter Oscillator back in 2024. Through it she brings an intriguing blend of creative and scientific insight to her thinking and writing (as well as a good seal of nuance) that I really appreciate. And while Christina isn’t as prolific as some of the authors here, I’ve been enjoying going back through her articles from the past couple of years.
A good place to start on Oscillator is a piece from September on “Vibe coding a genome,” where she explores how AI models are becoming increasingly powerful at constructing whole genomes — effectively vibe coding in the language of DNA:
Richard Jones: Soft Machines
Soft Machines is the first of three more traditional blogs I’ve chosen to highlight this year. I’ve known its author Richard Jones since my nanotechnology days from years ago, and have long respected his work and thinking.
Richard started the Soft Machines blog in 2004, around the time he published the book Soft Machines: Nanotechnology and Life. Since then it’s evolved along with his academic research and leadership.
Richard recently retired from the University of Manchester where he was Vice-President for Regional Innovation and Civic Engagement. And as, in his words, he has had a “bit more time” on his hands since then, he has been writing more for the blog.
I would recommend reading Richard for his highly-informed insights into technology and innovation. And a great place to start is his recent post on The Year in Soft Machines.
Athene Donald: Athene Donald’s Blog on Occam’s Typewriter
Another writer whom I’ve known for years, and someone who’s a traditional blogger in the best possible sense, is Athene Donald. Athene is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and former Master of Churchill College in Cambridge. She’s been a member of the Occam’s Typewriter blog collective since 2010, and still writes regularly for it.
Athene brings a lifetime of experience and insights to her writing, and is well worth reading for nuanced, candid and informed insights into academic and scientific culture, and their intersection with society more broadly.
A lovely introduction to Athene’s writing can be found in her recent post on Practice and Experience, where she adroitly connects Jane Austen, taking up the piano again, and science/math education.
Brigitte Nerlich: Making Science Public
Finally, another long-time acquaintance and traditional blogger who’s well worth reading: Brigitte Nerlich.
I first got to know Brigitte through her work and writing (we’ve never met in person) during my nanotechnology days. She started blogging while a professor at the University of Nottingham in the UK, as part of a Leverhulme Trust funded research program on science and politics. That was back around 2014. Since then she has continued to write regularly (now as Professor Emeritus) for the blog Making Science Public.
I must confess that I hadn’t read her blog for some time until recently, when she got in touch about a recent piece of mine. Since then though I’ve been enjoying rediscovering her work.
Brigitte’s expertise spans science, language and society, and as a result she brings a unique perspective to the interplay between science, technology, and society. As she writes on the blog’s About Page, she mainly focused on the “role of metaphors and other framing devices in science, policy and media” in her work, “focusing on climate change, infectious disease, genetics, genomics, epigenetics, synthetic biology, nanotechnology and now AI.”
Capturing her growing focus on AI, this is a great place to start exploring her work: Observing shifts in metaphors for AI: What changed and why it matters.
I feel honoured!
Thank you for including me in this!