Ask HN: Best places for intellectual discussion?

HN has a pretty high level of discussion most of the time in the comment threads, but unfortunately it's IT-centric and not very well-trafficked. I'm looking for something similar to HN, but more general and with more contributors-- but not a place that just discusses any old daily news item. Places that are hideouts of industry-specific folks are okay, provided that there's enough constructive "off topic" that is allowed, like here at HN.

Does anyone know of anywhere that fits the bill? Reddit used to be a barely-acceptable alternative that had intelligence hiding in the crannies once in a while, but now it's completely overrun and commercialized. Voat suffers from the same problem, except it never really had a golden era before the shills and trolls and idiots were out in force.