Announcing Arena Issue 007
At 128 pages, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY is our biggest yet. Also, we've launched a free Substack to share more of Arena!
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Dear Reader,
Today I am so thrilled to announce Arena Magazine Issue 007: For Your Eyes Only — and to let you know that we’re putting our email newsletters here on Substack. Arena will always be a print-first publication. These days, we think it’s more important than ever; on Substack, we’ll be sharing a variety of fun content — newsletters and some new articles — but the full Arena experience will always be in print (and the full archive will be on the Arena site).
The subject of our seventh magazine was predestined from the time we decided to call the first one “Issue 001.” For Issue 007, we couldn’t not write about spies, intelligence, and espionage. (and yes, James Bond, but don’t tell our lawyers) We went big — galaxy-sized, even. Here’s the launch video on X:
The future of intelligence is not just suits in cubicles but in the sky above us. Arena Issue 007 implores you to take a closer look, both on Earth and in the skies above us. Satellites. Lasers. Radars. Missiles. In the pages of Arena Issue 007, you’ll find it all. It’s shipping to print subscribers this week. If you aren’t yet a print subscriber, sign up here!
Here’s a little taste of what’s coming in the Issue…
Martin Gurri’s reflections on his time at Langley as a CIA analyst
An interview with Felix Rodriguez, a Cuban-American former CIA paramilitary operative who had a front row seat to the Bay of Pigs and the capture of Che Guevara
A plan from Pablo Peniche about how we can weaponize space debris to clean up space and keep our enemies at bay
A tour inside the Santa Barbara-based Umbra, a satellite startup giving private and public actors the ability to see the unseen with radar, courtesy of Maxwell Meyer,
Julia Steinberg’s profile of the young hackers behind Jmail, a project to make the life of Jeffrey Epstein — and the secrets of the three-letter agencies — hyper-legibile
A history of industrial espionage from 16th century compasses to EUV lithography from Brian Balkus




And that’s just six out of nineteen articles in Arena Issue 007. We’ll be publishing them online over the course of the next few months. At 128 pages, it’s our longest issue yet. We’re pleased to welcome new advertisers like WorkOS. We love great print advertisements — don’t you? — and it makes it possible to publish bigger issues of Arena at the absolute highest quality.
Over the last year and half, we’ve heard from so many Arena subscribers who send us pictures of the magazines in their homes and offices. (please, continue to email me those pictures!) It wasn’t obvious at the beginning of this crazy project that a print magazine about American business could make it in this digital age. You have made it possible.
So, to our print subscribers, a word of gratitude: it means the world to us, and we’re going to chop down a lot more trees over the coming years. Issue 007 will be in mailboxes soon (sign up here to get it in your mailbox if you aren’t yet on the print list). We hope you love it.
Sincerely yours,
Maxwell Meyer
Founder and Editor






Your mag is a terrific read and gorgeous to look at!