Articles

“An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite and complicated and exceptional, somehow managing to be both heroic and plain.”

Why is it great? This line is beautifully constructed, yes, but what stands out for me is the sentiment conveyed. It could be my journalism mantra. The sentence comes from…
February 21, 2018
Kari Howard
How to break into The California Sunday Magazine

How to break into The California Sunday Magazine

In just over three years of existence, The California Sunday Magazine has emerged as one of the best magazines in the country. The San Francisco-based publication has been a finalist for…
February 20, 2018
Katia Savchuk
On bullets and planes that fall from the sky -- and, somewhere in the middle, love

On bullets and planes that fall from the sky — and, somewhere in the middle, love

This could have been a week of love — at least of the commercialized Hallmark variety. But hearts and flowers didn’t prevail for even one day before yet another person…
February 16, 2018
Kari Howard
Finding the story in the parentheses and other adventures with Jeffrey Stern

Finding the story in the parentheses and other adventures with Jeffrey Stern

It wasn’t the sensational headline — “The Real-Life Mad Max Who Battled ISIS in a Bulletproof BMW” — that grabbed my attention. It was the next bit.[pq]”Here is a person…
February 15, 2018
Julia Shipley

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”

Why is it so great? For Valentine’s Day, we had to go with One Great Sentence on love (even if the holiday makes you go harrumph). This one is a…
February 14, 2018
Kari Howard
William Langewiesche and "Inside the Sky: A Meditation on Flight"

William Langewiesche and “Inside the Sky: A Meditation on Flight”

William Langewiesche is known to readers of The Atlantic and Vanity Fair‎ as a kind of Jack London figure, a writer of sturdy, authoritative tales of modern life at the…
February 13, 2018
Jonathan Clarke
A tribute to audio storytelling, and to the memory of bedtime stories

A tribute to audio storytelling, and to the memory of bedtime stories

This is a very “audio” week on Storyboard, and I’d like to have more of them. Storytelling has so many forms, and sometimes we hear stories better than we read…
February 9, 2018
Kari Howard
5(ish) Questions: Radio storytelling pioneer Jay Allison and the bite-size "Sonic IDs"

5(ish) Questions: Radio storytelling pioneer Jay Allison and the bite-size “Sonic IDs”

Jay Allison is a pioneer in the world of radio storytelling. Nearly 25 years ago, he founded Atlantic Public Media, which in turn birthed WCAI, the public radio station for…
February 8, 2018
Lee Romney

“No single gesture would do more to demonstrate continuity and stability … “

“No single gesture would do more to demonstrate continuity and stability — to show that the government of the United States would continue to function without interruption despite the assassination…
February 7, 2018
Roy Peter Clark
"The Watchdog" on the importance of storytelling in consumer reporting

“The Watchdog” on the importance of storytelling in consumer reporting

You might not think of consumer columnists as narrative storytellers, or investigative reporters. But journalist Dave Lieber, “The Watchdog” for the Dallas Morning News, is a big fan of the…
February 6, 2018
Julissa Treviño