Welcome to Philosophy Publics
Philosophy Publics is feminist philosophy, phenomenology, existentialism, and the ideas we actually need right now.
Philosophy has almost no public infrastructure. Academic work lives behind paywalled journals. Popular philosophy gets flattened into productivity advice. This is the attempt to do something different.
Philosophy Publics is where I think in public — about feminist theory, phenomenology, the philosophy of care and work and technology, and what it means to have an intellectual life outside institutions. I’ve been doing this work for two decades: as a PhD philosopher, a former tech developer, and someone who has organized philosophy salons, feminist reading groups, and public conversations since 2006.
The readers here are people who never stopped wanting to think seriously. They have careers, they have lives, and they haven't given up on the idea that philosophy has something real to say about how we live now.
What this is:
Public essays on feminist philosophy, phenomenology, and the history of ideas — written to be read, not decoded.
A Philosophy & Theory Roundup every Friday — a curated guide to philosophy and theory across Substack.
A Feminist Theory Reading Group — a live salon series with guest scholars. Open to all free subscribers.
Work-in-Public sessions — live writing and reading sessions where you watch the thinking happen in real time. Paid subscribers only.
Currents — short, extemporaneous philosophical takes on what’s happening now. Personal, fast, framing today’s issues philosophically. Paid subscribers only.
A growing archive of 120+ posts on phenomenology, feminist philosophy, care ethics, existentialism, philosophy of technology, and more.
Free subscription: Weekly public essays, the Philosophy & Theory Roundup, and access to the Feminist Theory Reading Group salon series.
Paid subscription — $8/month or $60/year: Everything above, plus Currents, Work-in-Public sessions, the full archive, commenting privileges, and a link to download Mindscaping: A Philosophy Shadow Journal right away. A guide to reading and writing in philosophy is also available in the archive.
Founding Member — $150/year: Everything above, plus the ability to suggest topics, complimentary event registration, and a one-on-one conversation with me.
About Mona Mona:
I hold a PhD in Continental Philosophy from Stony Brook University, where I also taught. I’ve taught philosophy and gender studies at Grinnell College and UC Berkeley, published in Hypatia, Radical Philosophy, Philosophy Today, and Epoché, and spent nearly a decade working in tech as a full-stack developer.
In 2006 I founded thinkPhilosophy, organizing philosophy salons in San Francisco and one of the first philosophy podcasts, building some of the earliest public philosophy infrastructure online. Philosophy Publics continues that project — with better tools, a clearer sense of the audience, and considerably more urgency.
I use a pseudonym and write from a privacy-first stance. My site at philosophypublics.com has no trackers and no ads.
Questions? I read and respond to every message.
