I am excited to be beginning a new job as a senior writer and media producer for This is 42 PTY (Thinkable) in mid-June 2026. I will be responsible for producing original written and audio content for the company’s Substack newsletter, as well as collaborating with Thinkable’s team and with contributing writers to create content that supports the company’s core mission: to enrich public discussion and to both educate and entertain by spreading the ideas of prominent authors, scientists, academics, scholars and other thinkers in Australia and New Zealand through live tours and complementary articles and interviews.

From June 2023 to May 2026, I worked as first managing editor and later senior writer and podcast producer at Quillette, an independent Australian magazine founded and owned by editor-in-chief Claire Lehmann. The publication analyses and comments on international politics, science and technology, art and culture, history, education, and other topics in thoughtful, long-form articles. My duties there included writing a weekly op-ed column and producing articles, book reviews, and newsletters as well as conducting fortnightly interviews with writers, academics, researchers, and public figures for our podcast.

From May 2020 to October 2023, I was also the editor-in-chief of the independent liberal publication, Areo Magazine, and the host of its podcast, Two for Tea.

I have a PhD in English Literature from Cambridge University and a background in academe and in professional freelance writing, interviewing, and translation. I have written two books: Anxious Employment (Routledge 2005), a study of eighteenth-century periodical editors, and Our Tango World (Milonga Press, 2018), a philosophical and sociological study of the tango milieu.

My political essays have also appeared The Times, The Indian Quarterly and The Washington Examiner, among other outlets. I also write personal essays, many of which have been published in my Substack newsletter, The Second Swim.

I’m based in Sydney, Australia. The best way to contact me is by email: iona.italia@gmail.com