Why This Magazine Returns Now

My father, S. Spencer Grin, published this magazine. Norman Cousins edited it. I grew up in that world, not metaphorically but literally, surrounded by artists, diplomats, scientists, physicians, musicians, and writers who believed that ideas had consequences and that readers deserved more than headlines.

When the magazine closed in 1986, an extraordinary voice quietly disappeared. The world became faster, louder, and increasingly fragmented.
Mark Maslan and I followed different paths to the same conviction. We are both physicians. Mark carried a lifelong love of literature and language into his medical career, and it has remained central to how he thinks and leads. My own path led toward entrepreneurship, innovation, and the frontiers of medicine and technology, from longevity science to artificial intelligence. Different roads, same instinct: that medicine, at its best, has always been in conversation with the humanities.

Together, we came to believe that something essential had been lost. The conversation that Saturday Review once held together never truly found another home. Many publications became increasingly specialized. Others surrendered to speed and spectacle. The serious, curious generalist reader, the reader Norman Cousins understood so well, was left without a trusted forum. That gap has only widened as the pace of change has accelerated. Artificial intelligence will transform civilization. The deeper question is whether humanity can guide that transformation with wisdom, judgment, imagination, and compassion.

The question arriving now at the center of civilizational life is not whether artificial intelligence will transform the world. It will. The question is whether human beings will remember what they are for.

That is why Saturday Review returns, as a place where emerging technologies are examined for what they should do, not only for what they can do.
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Our Founding Editor, Jamie Metzl, is one of the world’s leading thinkers at the intersection of artificial intelligence, genetics, biotechnology, and global affairs. His vision, together with the remarkable voices joining this endeavor, reflects the kind of wide-ranging, intellectually curious conversation that has always defined Saturday Review.

We are honored to share the return of Saturday Review with readers who believe, as we do, that thoughtful ideas still matter, that respectful disagreement strengthens democracy, and that the most important questions deserve more than quick answers.

The standard established by Norman Cousins and the generations who built Saturday Review was simple. Respect the intelligence of the reader. Honor their time. Offer work worthy of both.That is the tradition we inherit. It is also the future we intend to build.

Milton Grin, M.D., Publisher and Chairman

Mark Maslan, M.D., Vice Chairman and Executive Editor