Over the past months, Popular by Design (PbD) has published several guest essays, and they convinced me that this should be a larger part of the project. The newsletter is also turning into the public face of a research lab I'm starting at Notre Dame, with new postdoctoral and research associates joining soon. I want PbD to become a venue for serious policy writing by researchers and practitioners, so I'm making it official: if you have something that fits, I'd like to consider it. This post doubles as our standing guide for contributors; if you're reading it months from now, it still applies.
Earlier this month, I turned on paid memberships and promised that every essay and all other substantive content would stay free. The point of this project is to influence the public conversation, and a paywall would work against that. Supporters ($120/year) keep the writing open for everyone and get invitations to our reader meetups, online and in person. Founding Members ($1,000/year) join a smaller circle that gets private conversations with me each year and helps shape what I write and convene. The money funds the editing and buys the time it takes to keep doing this well while I have a full-time teaching job.
We want your piece that falls between the academic article and the op-ed: too evidence-heavy for an op-ed, too timely or policy-relevant to wait on peer review. Immigration and public opinion remain the center of gravity, but the newsletter is also opening up to population change, housing, AI, and the politics of policy design. The goal is the same across all of them: policies that actually work, made popular by design. If you study land use, demographic decline, or how AI is changing institutions, and you can write about it for a general reader, I want to hear from you. Co-authored pieces are welcome, especially when they pair a researcher with a practitioner. Most guest essays run between 2,000 and 4,000 words. The main test: would a thoughtful reader of any persuasion be glad they spent ten minutes on it?
Three main formats we look for:
A case study or practitioner essay. One policy, program, election, event, or live debate, here or abroad: what is actually going on and what we should learn from it. These pieces are especially valuable when written by people close to the subject, whether they run a program or analyze the field. Examples: Aubrey Westfall on how Canada lets its provinces select their own immigrants, built on her own field interviews; and Gil Guerra on why another Mariel is less likely than Washington assumes, an immigration analyst weighing the evidence on a live policy question.
An evidence review. What the literature actually shows on a contested question, explained for non-specialists, with a clear position taken no matter where it lands politically. Example: Hanno Hilbig on whether mainstream parties gain by moving right on immigration.
An original empirical finding. A novel result from your own administrative data, survey, or sharpened re-analysis, not published anywhere else. The data should be open or shareable so the result is replicable; we can provide a template, and we will redo any charts in our house style.
House style, briefly:
Plain, pragmatic, and cross-ideological. Take the other side’s best case seriously before you answer it.
Dense hyperlinks (20 or more), always to the primary source.
Specific numbers with named sources. No “studies show.”
Every factual claim has to survive a fact-check before publishing.
AI tools are fine for research, editing, and writing (!) as long as the argument is yours, you verified it, and you’re willing to sign onto it.
What we don’t run: Vibes-only hot takes that add no new evidence or argument, jargon-heavy theory, or anything already published or under review elsewhere. If a smart non-academic policy person cannot follow the argument, this is the wrong outlet for it.
How it works: If you have an essay that fits Popular by Design, send a pitch to submissions@popularbydesign.org (a paragraph on what you’d write, plus a line on why you’re the person to write it). The readership here includes some of the best policy folks in the United States and beyond, and a guest essay is a direct way to put your argument in front of them.
Accepted pieces get one light developmental edit and one copyedit, with every change yours to approve. We commission a custom cover image and write a short note introducing you and your work. You keep the copyright and can republish anywhere with a credit line; we only ask that the piece run here first.