Since Claire Clark and I took over Points in April 2014, we’ve been committed to bringing you the most unique, thoughtful, and hopefully entertaining posts on alcohol and drug history available on the web. And, through the consistent quality of our writing, we’ve achieved some significant success: we now reach nearly 9,000 unique visitors each month, and record over 13,000 views. Our articles have been picked up by Hacker News, Reddit, and the Atlantic, and we’ve become a trustworthy destination for researchers looking for information on national and international drug and alcohol history, whether that concerns the use of alcohol and tobacco in World War I, race in the modern war on drugs, or the correlation between mugshots and the abuse of meth. We have our staff of a dozen contributing editors and numerous guest bloggers to thank for the quality and value of our posts, and I’m constantly in awe of the incredible work they regularly turn out.
But my time as managing editor is coming, if temporarily, to a close. This post will be published on September 1st, which is also the due date of the birth of my first child. Though there are no guarantees that my baby boy will actually show up on that day, I’m handing over the reins to assistant managing editor Kyle Bridge, a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Florida, so that I can focus on raising a tiny human and completing the manuscript for my first book: Grassroots, the history of marijuana activism from the 1960s to today, will be released by Basic Books in fall 2017.
Kyle has been involved with Points for years – you may recognize him from Pointscast, the podcast he produces with Alex Tepperman – and I have all the faith in the world that he’ll continue to oversee more incredible work from our writers. You can contact him at kbridge@ufl.edu if you’re interested in writing for Points, giving any comments, or just wishing him luck in his new role.
I hope to return to Points, either as an editor or a writer, as soon as I’ve gotten my feet back under me. Being a member of the Points family has been an incredible ride, and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Stay tuned every Tuesday and Thursday morning for more posts that make short and insightful commentary about the long and complicated history of intoxicants in the US and abroad, and feel free to contact me at emily.dufton@gmail.com with any questions, concerns, or words of advice for new parents.
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