About

Asterisk is the little magazine of the San Francisco Bay Area — which is to say, we’re the little magazine of the world, a few years in advance. 

We put our scenes and subcultures in conversation with themselves, and with everyone else. We are the only magazine that has published both Aella and Lyman Stone. We’re the sort of place where you are as likely to read an in-depth debate about whether AI will lead to economic growth as a personal exploration of Bay Area cults, or an agenda for Africa’s YIMBY movement. 

Here’s what we’re not: a digest, a one-stop shop or – god forbid – snackable. Here’s what we are: long.*  We value obsessive curiosity, clear thinking, and knowing what we don’t know. Asterisk is by and for the kind of people who aren’t satisfied until they’ve tested their assumptions and chased every claim back to its source. Our team is pedantic, and proud of it. Reading this magazine will fix your attention span. (Probably. Our evidence is highly anecdotal.) 

The future is going to be very big and very strange. In the meantime, we're trying to see what it might look like. Join us — wherever you are. The Bay is a state of mind.

*Except for pieces published on our blog, Dagger.†
†Most of the time.