President Obama will guest-edit the November issue of Wired, the magazine announced Tuesday.
The news came less than two weeks after Wired made its first-ever presidential endorsement in support of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“This November we will add President Barack Obama to our guest editor ranks — the first time WIRED (or any other magazine) has been guest-edited by a sitting president,” wrote Robert Capps, head of editorial at Wired.
“The theme of the issue: Frontiers. Like WIRED, our 44th president is a relentless optimist. For this completely bespoke issue, he wants to focus on the future — on the next hurdles that humanity will need to overcome to move forward,” the statement continued. “These will include personal frontiers, from precision medicine to human performance; local frontiers, including using data in urban planning and making sure renewable energy works for everyone; national frontiers, from civil rights to medical data; international frontiers, like climate change and cybersecurity; and final frontiers, including space travel and Artificial Intelligence.”
The White House announced Tuesday that Mr. Obama is heading to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Oct. 13 to host the White House Frontiers Conference, inspired by topics covered in the November issue of Wired.
“The conference will focus on building U.S. capacity in science, technology, and innovation, and the new technologies, challenges and goals that will continue to shape the 21st century and beyond,” the White House said in a press release.
“When the Founders wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they were at the bleeding edge of Enlightenment philosophy and technology,” WIRED editor in chief Scott Dadich said. “Franklin was talking about crazy stuff like electricity and communications networks. Paine gave up the copyright to Common Sense so it could get wider publication. Jefferson was radically rethinking design and land use. We want to wrestle with the idea of how today’s technology can influence political leadership. And who better to help us explore these ideas than President Obama?”
The issue will hit newsstands nationwide Oct. 25.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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