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Nellie Bowles Here . . . Introducing The Free Press Forum
(Illustration by The Free Press)
I want to tell you about a members-only digital space where Free Press subscribers can connect, trade recommendations, debate the news, and occasionally become obsessed with the same podcast episode.
By Nellie Bowles
05.26.26 — The Free Press Community and Events
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There are a lot of places on the internet to talk or, more likely, yell incoherently. Yet there are very few places left for us to think together.

One trend we kept noticing at The Free Press was that our readers didn’t just want to engage with our stories. They wanted to engage with each other. Honestly, some of you seem more interested in the comments section than the articles themselves. Which, okay. Fair enough.

So we built The Free Press Forum: a members-only digital space built right into The Free Press website and app, where subscribers can go from reading a story to talking about it with other Free Pressers.

In other words: the comments section, but better.

Inside the Forum, you’ll find spaces for:

  • News of the Day

  • Introductions

  • Networking

  • Parenting

  • Dating

  • Recommendations

  • Letters to the Editor

  • Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) and conversations with Free Press staff

  • And more to come!

Want to debate whether the David Mamet cartoon in this week’s TGIF was actually funny? Go wild! He can handle a bad review.

Want to share your own parenting advice that differs from Abigail Shrier’s? (We dare you.)

Need to hire a hardworking, critical-thinking Gen Zer for your startup? At the risk of exaggerating, this might be the only place on the internet to find such a person.

Want to recommend the podcast episode that had you fired up at dinner with your family? Then bring it to your other family. And, by that, I mean your fellow Free Pressers.

Did you read a book so good you immediately texted three people about it? This is where you can get the word out. Maybe it even makes the bestseller list because of you. Who knows?! Give it a shot.

Go ahead and post about it. You can make it weird. Just keep it kind. There are Guidelines. We’re trusting you people. I’ve been ranting about a comments-section expansion for years now. I finally won. Don’t make Bar regret it!

The internet can feel strangely lonely. We hope this feels different.

A place to think for yourself, but not by yourself. Come and reason together, my friends. It’s practically a civic duty as we make it to America’s 250th birthday.

The Forum is now open to Free Press paid subscribers.

Not a paid subscriber yet? Become a paid subscriber.

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Get access to our comments section, special columns like TGIF and Things Worth Remembering, tickets in advance to our live events, and more.
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Nellie Bowles
Nellie Bowles is a co-founder for The Free Press and its head of strategy. She was previously a reporter at The New York Times, where she won the Gerald Loeb Award for investigative journalism and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. She started her career at her hometown paper, the San Francisco Chronicle.
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