The Community for Independent Scholars
Read deeply, write honestly, and publish your life's work.
700+ members · 100+ cities · 25+ countries · six continents
What members say
The room people wish they'd found years ago.
For six years, serious readers and writers have used Indie Scholars to find their people, do their best work, and stop waiting for permission.
What is Indie Scholars
The premier community for independent scholars, anywhere in the world.
A private online community — with courses, seminars, and events — for people building serious intellectual lives outside the academy.
Indie Scholars exists for everyone who reads, thinks, and writes as if their life depended on it. Some of us do it for the sheer love of the work; some of us do it for a living. Wherever you are on that path, you'll find people here at your level — and a little beyond it.
Stage 1
Passionate readers
Reading widely and seriously, for its own sake.
Stage 2
Aspiring writers
Ready to publish their first real work.
Stage 3
Working writers
Professionals and published authors building a body of work.
Stage 4
Career academics
Scholars seeking life and rigor beyond the department.
Stage 5
Future independents
Professionals planning a more independent life.
A worldwide community
Independent scholars, on six continents.
700+
Members
100+
Cities
25+
Countries
6
Continents
Seminars & study
We read the greats — and we make the work pay.
Two threads run side by side: deep seminars in the humanities and social sciences, and practical workshops on building an independent intellectual life. A few from the archive:
The humanities & social sciences
Full courses and reading groups on the thinkers worth a lifetime:
Recent reading groups:
- Adorno & Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment
- Sloterdijk, Critique of Cynical Reason
- Tiqqun, The Cybernetic Hypothesis
- Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty
Making the work sustainable
Practical seminars and guest Q&As on doing the work and earning a living from it:
- → How to Launch an Independent Academic Course
- → Getting Paid to Post: a freelance writing workshop
- → Indie Book Strategy for Serious Non-Fiction
- → Growing a theory YouTube channel to 100k subscribers
- → Q&A with Mike Solana on Substack, startups, and dissent
- → Q&A on venture capital for outsiders, with Michael Gibson
- → Content creation as insurance for professionals
- → Bootstrapping weird work, with Pamela Hobart
Every weekday morning
Show up and write, with people who get it.
The hardest part of the intellectual life is doing the work, consistently, when no one is making you. So every weekday morning we sit down together and write.
The format is simple: focused sprints with mics off and a promise to work only on your own original writing, then a short break to stretch, talk, and trade notes. Most members say it's the single most useful thing the community gives them.
A community in your pocket
Our own private app, built just for members.
Not another feed to doom-scroll — a calm, custom-built home for the community on iOS. Read and write posts, join seminars and events, follow courses, and message other scholars, wherever you are.
Free for community members. Sign in with the email you joined with.
Post
No. 14 · Monthly
The Indie Scholars Letter
— Justin
Printed & posted
A real letter in your mailbox, every month.
In an age of infinite screens, members receive a physical, printed newsletter mailed to their home each month — something to hold, mark up, and keep on the shelf.
It's a small, deliberate ritual: a monthly reminder that you belong to a real community of people doing this work, off the feed and on paper.
Included with membership.
Membership
Everything the community has to offer.
Join free to meet the community. Become a member to unlock the work.
Indie Scholars Membership
$24 /month
For serious readers and writers building a life of the mind.
Membership includes
- ✓ Writing sessions every weekday morning
- ✓ A printed newsletter mailed monthly
- ✓ Monthly seminars & reading groups
- ✓ The full content library of past seminars
- ✓ Courses on major thinkers
- ✓ The custom Indie Scholars mobile app
- ✓ A worldwide community of working scholars
- ✓ Member directory & private discussion
Advanced independent study
A one-year program to write the best work of your life.
1-on-1 project supervision in the style of an MA or PhD — over twelve months, with a professional in your corner the whole way.
01
Guidance
A self-paced video curriculum, weekly group Q&A, and three private 1-on-1 calls — orientation, mid-year review, and final review.
02
Community
A private space inside the larger community for sharing work, trading feedback, and organizing your own events.
03
Your work
A private audience of thoughtful readers from day one. Posts in “Share Your Work” routinely draw dozens of careful replies.
What you'll build
See the full 12-point curriculum on the program page.
Write and publish the best work of your life.
Build a platform, design a research agenda, connect with peers, and produce an original body of work — with feedback and support from someone who has done it.
$3,588
one-time, or 12 × $299/month
Rolling admissions · next cohort begins July 2, 2026 · full details on the program page.
Is Indie Scholars right for you?
Three questions from the Blueprint.
This isn't for everyone — and it isn't trying to be. It's for a certain kind of person. See if you recognize yourself.
1
Are you called to build a body of work?
There's a kind of person for whom reading, thinking, and writing feel no less mandatory than breathing. The calling is rare — if you have it, you know it. Credentials, age, even intelligence have nothing to do with it.
2
Do you want to live at ease, free of institutions?
The Greek scholastes means “one who lives at ease.” True scholarship is a form of leisure. If you'd rather be left alone to study and build knowledge freely — without chasing institutional legitimation — you'll be at home here.
3
Do you put truth and beauty before fame and money?
You can earn an audience and a living writing online, and we'll show you how. But our methods are for building the most interesting body of work possible over a lifetime — where audience and income are welcome, secondarily.
In the words of members
“I don't think I'd have been willing to stake out my own turf and create my own content online if it wasn't for Justin Murphy and Indie Scholars.”
Emmet Penney — Independent scholar, Senior Fellow at the FAI, and host of Nuclear Barbarians
“Immensely beneficial to me intellectually and personally. The library resources were essential for building my blog and podcast, and the work sessions have helped me stay focused and productive.”
Geoff Shullenberger, PhD — Independent scholar and Managing Editor at Compact Magazine
“Indie Scholars is the future: everything here is driven by genuine enthusiasm. Unlike contemporary academia, learning and communicating with others at Indie Scholars encourages flourishing for all concerned.”
Nina Power, PhD — Independent scholar, author, and teacher
Justin Murphy, PhD
Founder, host, and primary instructor since 2019
Justin Murphy was a professor for five years before going independent on the internet in 2019. He received his PhD in 2014.
His research has appeared in popular and peer-reviewed journals from Foreign Affairs and First Things to International Studies Quarterly and IEEE Intelligent Systems.
He now writes and teaches on the internet full-time, and runs Other Life — a newsletter and podcast across the humanities and social sciences. He started the first version of Indie Scholars in 2019 because people kept asking him for advice.
- · Full-time independent scholar
- · Former professor; supervised PhD and MA students to completion
- · Author of The Independent Scholar (2026)
The daily newsletter
The Indie Scholars Review
A daily review of the most interesting ideas, writings, and developments in the new arts and letters. Free, with your morning coffee.
Read deeply, write honestly, and publish your life's work.
Start with the free guide, or join 700+ scholars in the community today.